SYED BARAKAT AHMAD M.A., Ph.D., D. Lit. CURZON PRESS ‘THE ENTIRE TEXT OF THE BOOK IS BASED ON THE SACRED VERSES OF THE QUR’AN AND THE READER IS EXPECTED ‘TO ENSURE THEIR SANCTITY IN HANDLING THE BOOK ‘The Basmalah on the dedication page is from the Qutb Minar, Delhi, (c. 1225) and the Basmalah on the title page is from a 9th century Egyptian migyas (Nilometer). Both the drawings were made by Prof. Annemarie Schimmel for her book Islamic Calligraphy ( 1970). Practice Text 15 calligraphed by Hafiz Saghir Ahmad Malmali THIS IS A PROGRAMMED BOOK IN WHICH THE QURANIC SCRIPT IS INTRODUCED IN A SERIES OF STEPS, DO NOT SKIP A STEP. YOU WILL FALL. RETRACE YOUR STEPS AFTER LESSON 17 AND READ THESE LESSONS ONCE MORE BEFORE YOU BEGIN LESSON 18. In Memory of My MotherQURAISHA SULTANA. (Begum Shafi) Day after day, as my Quranic lessons began after the morning prayers, she gradually lost her temper and I my wits. At the end my eyes were filled with tears and her hands with sweets. That angelic face is still so distinct and the voice so clear, explaining the difference in the various shapes of Arabic letters. Our Lord ! forgive me and my parents, and the believers, on the day when the reckoning will take place, (The Qur'an, 14.41) PREFACE Introduction to Quranic Script has been written in the belief that Allah has made the Qur'an easy to read and easy to learn (Qur'an, 54.17 and 73.20). It is primarily written for the readers who feel the need to read the Qur'an and other Arabic texts in their original language. The reader is exposed to the Arabic language from the very first lesson; he is taught not only to recognize letters and words but also to understand what they are intended to convey. By the time he has completed the alphabet, he has learnt more than 500 words of Arabic in their Qur'anic context and also some basic grammatical marke ‘The Quran is the fountainhead of Arabic literature and, I hope, non-Muslim students of Arabic will find this book easier, far more useful and far less time- consuming than any other manual teaching Arabic as a secular exercise. My gratitude is to Prof. A. H. Johns, Chairman, West Asia Studies Committee of the Australian National University, who kindly read the book in typescript and made valuable suggestions. I greatly value the help of my friend and teacher, Prof. Arthur Delbridge, Head of the Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, who read the typescript and removed ambiguities of language. I have also to thank Prof. Muhammad Abdul Rauf (United Arab Emirate University, Al-Ain) and Hafiz Qari Said-ul-Islam (Aligarh MuslimUniversity, Aligarh) who cleared for me several points of Quranic sounds. 1 wish to thank Mr. Mohammed Ismail Khan who corrected the proofs of the English text and Maulavi Muhammad Abdullah Tariq who corrected the proofs of the Arabic text. I also wish to thank Mr. S. Shamim Shah, the Administrator of IHMMR Press, for his unstinting efforts to ensure prompt typesetting of the book. I also extend sincere appreciation to Mr. S. A. Ali, Director, Indian Institute of Islamic Studies, for his detailed critique of the text and suggestions for improvement of both content and style at many points. In the initial stages of preparing this book I was greatly encouraged by Dr. M. A. Aziz of Port-of- Spain to whom I now wish to acknowledge my thanks. I am especially grateful to Hakeem Abdul Hameed, President, Indian Institute of Islamic Studies, who provided me with an opportunity of completing the final draft of this book in the peaceful environment of the Hamdard Nagar Campus Lowe a profound debt of thanks to Dr. Lois A. Giffen, Professor of Arabic, University of Utah, for her constant help and criticism. In spite of a heavy academic schedule she revised the manuscript of the book meticulously word for word. My wife, Sabiha, advised me on calligraphy, my elder daughter, Sarah, prepared the typescript for press, my younger daughter, Birjees, collected the specimens of Qur'anic calligraphy from various museums and my son, Nauman, always a thoughtful critic, helped me to rewrite the passages which he considered to be difficult for a beginner. Although I have made every effort to avoid error, I may have slipped up ina few spots. I hope readers’ scrutiny will improve the second edition. It is Allah "Who taught by the pen, taught man that which he knew not’, so if the student of this book one day becomes a fluent reader of the Qur'an and its language. Arabic, that would be through the grace of God and his own efforts. But I hope the reader will remember in his prayers my mother, for she taught me the skill, which I have tried to transmit through this book. Shafi Manzil Gulmohar, Indore. Ramadan al-Mubarak, 1403 hijri INTRODUCTION ‘The splendor of the Quranic script and its graphic economy are the two remarkable features, which distinguish it from any other script in the world. These very features daunt an admirerand discourage a non-Arab from learning it. An antiquated system of teaching has made the task much more formidable. The art of Qur’anic calligraphy, which occupies the central place in Muslim visual culture, has declined with the spread of printing and universal education. The invention of movable type effectively killed this art, and all too often the printed text of the Qur’an lacked both splendor and legibility. In recent years, however, the art of writing and printing the Qur'an has undergone a revolutionary change. The style of writing, known as Naskh, has been especially developed with emphasis on easy and correct reading rather than beauty. This Qur’anic Naskh is now a basically functional style of writing that presents a minimum of difficulty to the reader. ‘The method of teaching the Arabic script has neither kept pace with the development of the Qur’anic Naskh, nor with progress in linguistics. A new script cannot be learnt in a vacuum; it is best studied within the framework of its language. An educated adult learner requires something more than motivation to sustain interest in the study of an exotic script. The ‘emphasis in this book is therefore on the Qur’anic word in its original context and not on the isolated form of the letters of the alphabet. The learner is not required to master the whole alphabet and its vowel system before he proceeds to read isolated words. The first lesson in Introduction to Quranic Script introduces only four letters of the alphabet and one vowel ssign, but in doing so it also teaches four Arabic words. Since Arabic is based on a triliteral verb, the learner is also led to this central feature of the language in the first lesson. This lesson is short and simple, yet comprehensive. While it teaches the script, and establishes the relationship between a consonant and its vowel in contact, it also gives some idea of the phonology and morphology of the language in non-technical terms. The second lesson introduces four more letters and a second vowel, but the learner's vocabulary of Qur’anic words is extended from four to twenty-three. This repertory of Qur‘anic words is built up gradually so that by the end of Lesson 17 when the learner has completed his study of the alphabet he has learnt more than 500 words in their Quranic context. Within the space of these seventeen lessons the student is familiarized with the basic structure of the verb, the definite article, prepositions, particles, nominative and objective cases and some other simple but essential markers. Though the lessons in this book do not require any supplementary material, the learner is strongly advised to obtain a copy of the Qur'an at an early stage. Any Qur’an, which has been printed or copied in a well-spaced Naskh style similar to the one used in this book, will be a great help. This book is not a course in the art of writing Arabic. Firstly, ability to write Arabic is not essential for reading the Qur’an. Secondly, the Naskh style in which the Qur'an is reproduced is not the style for everyday writing. Throughout the Arab world the cursive Rugah style is used for ordinary writing. But a few notes on the writing of Arabic have been given to assist the beginner in understanding and appreciating the character of the script. For some students these notes may be enough to produce an acceptable handwriting though for some they may not be adequate. Similarly, Introduction to Quranic Script is not a book on Arabic pronunciation, though every effort has been made to explain Arabic sounds, both in technical and non-technical language. ‘This information should be sufficient for recognition of letters and silent reading of the Qur’an and other vocalized texts. Lesson 30 deals with the subject of correct Quranic pronunciation, but it is worth repeating that the learner should regularly listen to the Qur'an on tapes or records and try to get the help of a qari (a trained reciter of the Qur'an) to provide him with at least some initial training in Qur’anic pronunciation NON-MUSLIM STUDENTS Most of the manuals teaching Arabic deal perfunctorily with the script, and the one or two books, which are exclusively devoted to the script, lay greater emphasis on the art of writing than on reading, Thus a non-Muslim student will find this book not only refreshingly different from such conventional books but also, because of its use of material fram the Qur'an, can learn something more than any one book on script can teach. This book will add a new dimension to the study of classical or modern Arabic,