Style combination · Contrasts

Islamic Geometric × Square Kufic

The parent tradition mixes cursive Thuluth and Naskh, girih stars and arabesque, while square Kufic keeps only the orthogonal grid; choose square Kufic when a design needs one rigid two-tone module, and the wider tradition when it needs curves, interlace and polychrome hierarchy.

From the research on Square Kufic (Bannāʾī)

Mix them and make something Islamic Geometric Square Kufic

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 Square Kufic (Bannāʾī)

Type from Square Kufic: Bitmap & pixel
Rotated & vertical setting
Colour from Square Kufic: Limited spot colours
Flat fields
Form from Islamic Geometric: Non-representational
Geometric tessellation
Composition from Islamic Geometric: All-over field
Central symmetry
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 · Square Kufic

Halo

Reem Kufi, standing in for Bannāʾī (maʿqilī): square Kufic laid in glazed and unglazed bricks or tiles, one brick or tile per grid unit, with stroke and gap of equal width

Text · Square Kufic

Square Kufic builds Arabic script on a square grid: straight lines and right angles only, with every stroke as wide as the gap beside it. A word can then fill a square, a band or a whole wall without gaps. It grew from twelfth- and thirteenth-century brick and tile inscriptions, probably first in Iran and Afghanistan, where one brick or glazed tile made one unit, and spread to Central Asia, Anatolia and the Maghreb. The names of God, Muhammad and ʿAli repeat across minarets and façades. In modern times it was revived for logos, the flag of Iran and calligraphy.

Reem Kufi; Square Kufic used Bannāʾī (maʿqilī) and Square Kufic drawn in ink on a squared (chequered) grid, as in the pattern drawings of the Topkapı Scroll and in modern calligraphy, usually without dots

The colours

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

Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition Square Kufic (Bannāʾī)

#f3eee3 ground · 36%
#161616 ink · 14%
#2a9ea6 accent · 18%
#c8a046 accent · 14%
#1e3d8f accent · 10%
#a63d2f accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f3eee3;
  --ink: #161616;
  --accent-1: #2a9ea6;
  --accent-2: #c8a046;
  --accent-3: #1e3d8f;
  --accent-4: #a63d2f;
  --font-display: "Reem Kufi", cursive;
  --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.

Square Kufic (Bannāʾī): Square-Kufic panels almost always spell sacred words: the names of God, Muhammad and ʿAli, the shahada, the takbir or Qur'anic phrases. Never crop, mirror or scramble them, never fill a surface with invented pseudo-Kufic as a pixel texture, and keep such text off floors, footwear, packaging and other throwaway surfaces. Some formulas belong to one community, such as the Shiʿi addition 'ʿAli is the friend of God', so have every composition read and approved by a fluent reader or a square-Kufic calligrapher, and commission or credit living calligraphers rather than tracing panels from buildings. The square-Kufic takbir band belongs to the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran (since July 1980), and many Iranian opposition groups and diaspora communities fly the Lion and Sun flag or a plain tricolour instead, so do not quote the band as decorative Persian shorthand. Do not treat the names Muhammad and ʿAli together as neutral filler either: they interlock on the minarets of the Shah Mosque in Isfahan, and they also appear in the blue brickwork of the Timurid shrine of the Sunni Sufi Khoja Ahmed Yasavi, so check how the community commissioning the work reads them.

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. 1100–present · Middle East & North Africa, South Asia Square Kufic (Bannāʾī) Square Kufic builds Arabic script on a square grid: straight lines and right angles only, with every stroke as wide as the gap beside it. A word can then fill a square, a band or a whole wall without gaps. It grew from twelfth- and thirteenth-century brick and tile inscriptions, probably first in Iran and Afghanistan, where one brick or glazed tile made one unit, and spread to Central Asia, Anatolia and the Maghreb. The names of God, Muhammad and ʿAli repeat across minarets and façades. In modern times it was revived for logos, the flag of Iran and calligraphy.