Piety can come in many forms: intense prayer, acts of merit and various forms of charity. At the Asian Civilisations Museum, Rachel points out a piece of Islamic calligraphy from the Turkish Ottoman empire that shows the act of piety through writing.

Islamic calligraphy comes in a bewildering, beautiful array of scripts. Copying the Qur’an is a sacred act, and — so I suppose — extreme calligraphic exertions are one way of demonstrating extreme piety. One of the most demanding scripts is the ghubar script — literally, “dust script” — and it requires that the scribe produce words that are as fine as hairs while still legible (on pain of eternal damnation, for distorting the Holy Book is a Mighty Sin).

Read about this interesting piece of Islamic Calligraphy on display at the Asian Civilisations Museum here.

Tags: Asian Civilisations Museum, Islamic Calligraphy