Style combination · Contrasts

Islamic Geometric × Ottoman Tughra

The parent tradition repeats girih and arabesque edge to edge across a whole surface; the tughra concentrates the same calligraphy and illumination into one owned mark on an empty sheet. Choose the tughra when a design needs a single emblem, and the parent when it needs a field.

From the research on Ottoman Tughra & Dîvânî Chancery Calligraphy

Mix them and make something Islamic Geometric Ottoman Tughra

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Islamic Geometric, their arrangement from Islamic Geometric, the finish from Islamic Geometric. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition Ottoman Tughra & Dîvânî Chancery Calligraphy

Type from Ottoman Tughra: Brush & pen calligraphy
Type as image
Colour from Ottoman Tughra: Jewel & metallic
Limited spot colours
Form from Islamic Geometric: Non-representational
Geometric tessellation

Ottoman Tughra avoids geometric tessellation: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Composition from Islamic Geometric: All-over field
Central symmetry

Ottoman Tughra avoids all-over field: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Surface from Islamic Geometric: Flat

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Ottoman Tughra

Public

Cinzel, standing in for Celî dîvânî, the monumental form for panels and inscriptions, mastered by the leading dîvânî calligraphers such as Sâmi Efendi and Kâmil Akdik; after the 1928 alphabet reform it lived on in a few celî dîvânî panels by famous calligraphers of the last generation, and dîvânî is still taught in Cairo

Text · Islamic Geometric

A visual system shared across the Islamic world in which proportioned calligraphy, compass-and-straightedge geometry and the vegetal arabesque carry meaning and beauty in place of figurative imagery. Star-and-polygon tilings repeat across whole surfaces as if continuing beyond the frame, while Kufic, Thuluth and Naskh inscriptions give hierarchy to buildings, manuscripts and objects.

Reem Kufi; Islamic Geometric used Kufic and Thuluth

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Ottoman Tughra, with a counter-accent from Islamic Geometric. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition Ottoman Tughra & Dîvânî Chancery Calligraphy

#f1e6cf ground · 36%
#1b1916 ink · 14%
#2e4ea6 accent · 18%
#c8a046 accent · 14%
#a63d2f accent · 10%
#2f9a92 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f1e6cf;
  --ink: #1b1916;
  --accent-1: #2e4ea6;
  --accent-2: #c8a046;
  --accent-3: #a63d2f;
  --accent-4: #2f9a92;
  --font-display: "Cinzel", serif;
  --font-text: "Reem Kufi", cursive;
}

Use it with care

Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition: Qur'anic verses, the names of God and the Prophet and other sacred phrases must not be cropped, distorted, mirrored, used as texture or printed on floors, footwear or throwaway packaging; have any Arabic-script text read and approved by a fluent reader or calligrapher. Abstract geometric pattern is far less sensitive than script, but credit the traditions and makers it comes from.

Ottoman Tughra & Dîvânî Chancery Calligraphy: A tughra is the personal mark of one sovereign and spells his name with a prayer for victory: do not redraw a historical sultan's tughra as a brand logo, product stamp or decorative texture, do not present a new design as a historical one, and never fill the form with invented pseudo-Arabic. The calligraphy behind the tughra and Dîvânî, hüsn-i hat, is a living craft passed on through apprenticeship (UNESCO Representative List, 2021), so commission a hattat for a new tughra and have every word read by a fluent reader of Ottoman Turkish. The tughra is also a sign of Ottoman rule: where that rule is remembered as conquest, as in parts of the Balkans, Greece, Armenia and the Arab world, or is invoked by nationalist politics, it can read as a claim to that rule, so check how the audience will read it. The tughra form is also used for sacred texts, such as Qur'anic verses, hadith and the names of the founders of Sufi orders, and Popov showed a 'tughra of Allah' in Kazan; such compositions follow the parent tradition's rules: never crop, distort or mirror them, and keep them off floors, footwear and throwaway surfaces.

The two styles

An all-over geometric pattern combines blue star-shaped rosettes, turquoise leafy flourishes, and small rust-red diamonds on a near-black ground. Cream and gold interlacing bands connect and outline the repeating motifs.

c. 690–present · Middle East & North Africa, South Asia, Southern Europe Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition A visual system shared across the Islamic world in which proportioned calligraphy, compass-and-straightedge geometry and the vegetal arabesque carry meaning and beauty in place of figurative imagery. Star-and-polygon tilings repeat across whole surfaces as if continuing beyond the frame, while Kufic, Thuluth and Naskh inscriptions give hierarchy to buildings, manuscripts and objects. c. 1324–present · Middle East & North Africa, Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, South Asia Ottoman Tughra & Dîvânî Chancery Calligraphy The Ottoman sultan's calligraphic monogram and the chancery hand written beneath it. From Orhan in 1324 each sultan had his own tughra, composed at his accession and redrawn by hand on every decree: his name and titles stacked at the base, three tall shafts, two nested loops sweeping left and arms reaching right. Struck on coins and carved over gates, it was at its grandest lettered in blue outlined in gold, its loops filled with scrolls and blossoms. Below it ran Dîvânî, a slanting, tightly packed hand. A counterpart of the European royal cypher: one owned mark carried across every medium.