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Mashq FONT Download
Designer: Saad D. Abulhab
Publisher: Arabetics
The
Mashq script is the oldest documented Arabic Jazm calligraphy style. It was invented by the early Muslims in the Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina, exclusively for writing the Quran and other Islamic religious texts. The
Mashq style employed complex ligature and multi-level baseline rules, and therefore it went through a continuous simplification process. Around the time period
Mashq was developed, the early Arab Muslims experimented with another short-lived
Mashq-like style with heavily slanted vertical stems, which closely resembled the common Ḥijazi style. This style is commonly referred to as the Ma'il (slanted) style. Eventually, the early complex
Mashq style was replaced as the main Islamic Arabic script, by a more simplified
Mashq-derived calligraphy style that was developed in the city of Kufa, modern day Iraq, which was commonly referred to as Kufi. The Kufic style became the official Arabic script style for centuries before it was replaced by the more developed Naskh, the modern Arabic script style used today.
The
Mashq font family by Arabetics includes three styles of
Mashq. The first is
Mashq regular, which closely follows the script style of Musḥaf ‘Uthman (currently displayed in the Topkapi Museum in Turkey) with only the initial and final Haa' baselines shifting. The second is
Mashq Maail, which emphasizes the features of the Ma'il style shared with
Mashq. The third is
Mashq Kufi, which closely follows the script style in an adequate sample from the Quran manuscripts of the Bergstraesser Archive. All three fonts include two styles, with and without Tashkeel (dots). The
Mashq and
Mashq Kufi fonts include two more styles, with and without Harakat (soft vowels), and Hamza. Only three soft vowels are implemented along with their Tanween (double) forms. The Sukoon vowel is the default shape before inserting a soft vowel. Hamza was treated as a vowel in the
Mashq and early Kufi manuscripts. Kashida is a zero width character. In the
Mashq fonts, inserting one Kashida before the final ‘Ayn glyph group will trigger alternative shapes. In the
Mashq Kufi fonts, inserting one Kashida (or two) before the final Yaa', ‘Ayn, and Ḥaa' glyph groups will trigger alternative shapes. The
Mashq font family by Arabetics was designed to be as compatible as possible with the Arabic keyboard and Unicode alphabet used in computers today. Calligraphic variations were implemented only when they marked significant and permanent script features.