Pseudo-Kufi: Reflection of the Islamic Art in the Byzantine Art

Calligraphy was very important from the beginning in Islamic civilization because of the Rasm of the Holy Quran. The presence and application of the Kufic script, as one of the most common forms of calligraphy in the early Islamic age, with its own visual and conceptual features in the Greek churches and monasteries of the tenth and eleventh centuries (fourth and fifth centuries (AH)) raises many questions about the reason for using this foreign element in the Byzantine religious art. The present study attempts to analyze the historical reasons for the Byzantines familiarity with this line in order to study the reasons for using this alien element in the Byzantine religious art. The purpose of this study is to analyze the Kufic script from visual and conceptual perspectives in some Byzantine artworks. The results show that in the studied samples the quality of line spellings and the semantic relation of the Quranic words with the concepts of the Byzantine iconography led to the use of this style of calligraphy in the Byzantine art and architecture.