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). The curves of letters such as rāʾ, zāyy, and lām have been flattened.

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.