Description

A column headstone with the following text sculpted in floriated Kufic: “In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful. All glory and eternity for Allah, and to him belongs all what comes and goes. All his subjects are destined to perishment, and in Muhammad peace be upon him consolation and solace. ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Maki ibn Jaffar Al-Trabulsi’ has died on the 2nd of the month of Jummada, 533 AH, believing that there is no God but Allah the one, who has no partner.”

The Kufic Script

This script was called Kufi because it was thought to have been developed at Kufah in Iraq—an early Islamic centre of culture. The Kufic Script is considered to be the oldest, more beautiful and better known Arabic script. It has been extensively used in memorials. It provides an interesting epigraphic insight into the conservation or transmission of the writing tradition across the ages.

The Kufic script varied and developed into a large number of scripts, each with its own characteristics, such as the primary Kufic script. There is an example of this script on a headstone, dating back to 31 Hejira (the time of the Caliphs), currently at the Islamic Art Museum. 

The Kufic script was dominant in the first five centuries Hejira for writing the Koran and on monuments, given its ease of use and decorative appeal. It therefore became the official script to be used on architectural monuments and headstones.

The script was in use until the sixth century Hejira/ twelfth century A.D. and it varied between simple Kufic and the foliated Kufic scripts.

• Etienne Combe, “Inscriptions Arabes du Musée d’Alexandrie”, Bulletin de la Société Archéologique d’Alexandrie 30 (1936): 72, no. 18.
• Mona Serry, ed., Bibliotheca Alexandrina: Antiquities Museum, introduction by Ismail Serageldin (Alexandria: Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Antiquities Museum, 2015): 228, 330.
• مصطفى عبد الله شيحة، دراسة تاريخية وأثرية لشواهد القبور الاسلامية المحفوظة بمتحف قسم الآثار بكلية الآداب - جامعة صنعاء (القاهرة: مكتبة الجامعة، 1984).
• خالد عزب، وشيماء السايح، معدون، شواهد قبور من الإسكندرية، تقديم إسماعيل سراج الدين، وزاهي حواس، حوليات المشروعات البحثية 2 (الإسكندرية: مكتبة الإسكندرية، 2007).