This document features a chancery script. The script is highly cursive. Letters are highly compressed and often written with a notable diagonal slant which contradicts the baseline, which is perfectly flat and straight.

Words are crowded across the line, occasionally alleviated using madd (letter lengthening).
e.g. ʿUmar line 2


The curves of letters such as rāʾ, nūn, and lām have been flattened.
e.g. Rizm wa Madr line 3

 

Some of these features, particularly flattened curves and diagonal strokes, are also found in contemporary Pahlavi documents. It is possible that bilingual Arabic-Pahlavi administrators imported elements of the ductus of Pahlavi script into their Arabic writing.

Glossary

Baseline — the line on which letters sit

Cursive — in Arabic palaeography, a technical term describing scripts characterized by obtuse angles, open curves, and diagonal strokes

Descender — the portion of a letter that extends below the baseline, as in rāʾ, zāyy, and lām

Ductus — the movement and sequence of strokes made by the scribe in forming letters

Madd — horizontal extension of letter strokes, used to fill space or as a decorative and calligraphic feature; also referred to as mashq in some traditions

Further Reading

Rustow, Marina. 2020. The Lost Archive: Traces of a Caliphate in a Cairo Synagogue. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 161-166.