Arabic Typography: A Comprehensive Sourcebook

Rating:
Summary: An excellent first on the subject
Review: Not only does this book provide an excellent overview of the history of Arabic script and printing, but it also lays out a vision and guidelines for the development of contemporary Arabic fonts. The book also focuses on the history and state of Arabic printing (as opposed to Arabic calligraphy), and highlights the technical challenges that arose from the adoption of what essentially is a calligraphic script to mechanical (or digital) printing processes.

The book ends with a selection of type designs by contemporary Arab type designers, which gives the reader a feel of what is happening out there in this field.

I recommend this (beatifully designed) book to anyone who deals with Arabic publishing, design or type design.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful book, made to the highest Western design standards
Review: The fact that no comparable alternative exists, should not lead one to overrate it, as some did: `Astonishing ... a masterwork ... offers a thorough foundation in Arabic typography and type design.' (quoted by the publisher).
The chapter on calligraphic styles, e.g., has many flaws. The most serious of them is in §2.3.4.6., The Ruqaa style, where the author combines the 19th century riq`ah and the 12th century riqa` styles in a single, novel and quasi early style (9th century!). Just imagine a musicologist classifying the works of Bach and Bacharach collectively as Gregorian. One would wish it was just an unfortunate blunder, but in an article in the Dutch design magazine ITEMS (November 2004), the same author presents a sample of 19th century riq`ah (also known as ruq`ah) script again as 9th century "Ruqaa". This is definitely not a sourcebook for Arabic calligraphy.
It should be pointed out that there are basically two approaches to Arabic type design. The first and the older one is to find ways to reproduce Arabic script as it is attested without unduly distorting it. This is the objective approach, where the design focus, if any, is on the technology to make this possible. All the great Arabic typographers in the West (Granjon, Erpenius) and in the East (Müteferrika, Mühendisoglu) followed this principle. Computer technology still has to catch up with the accomplishments of Middle Eastern typographers of the first half of the 20th century. The second approach emerged out of the need to deal with machines built for Latin script: the focus is on graphic design to reshape Arabic script within mechanical constraints and culturally alien models. Graphic design can also become ideologically driven, e.g., to make the script easier for the illiterates or to "move the Arab Nations into the third millenium" (§1.3): the subjective approach to design.
Arabic Typography is written strictly from the point of view of graphic, subjective design and takes matters technical for granted: "It is highly tempting with the technological possibilities today to keep on copying the past (sic!) and to ignore issues of modernizing Arabic type" (§1.3) and "with the advent of digital technology ... the only limit being the type designer's imagination and know-how" (§2.4.3.7). Such uncritical faith in Digital Omnipotence is characteristic of the uninitiated. And indeed, in §4.7.4 the author presents a list of computer type design tools without remarking - and probably without even knowing - that - when this book was written - none of these programs can generate a working Arabic computer font for any system. Designing accurate digital presentation of traditional script ("copying the past"), requires more than admiration for Islamic calligraphy. This book, too, follows the approach found in elementary Western teaching materials that offer beginners in Arabic script a maximally simplified scheme (§3.2, `anatomy of letterforms'). This provides too narrow a basis for the development of professional typography. Like practically all works in this field, the author mentions the calligraphic standardization of individual letters by Ibn Muqlah (Baghdad, 885 - 940 AD), but without realizing that elaborate proportions of isolated letters shed no light on the equally elaborate contextual assimilation and dissimilation that is essential for sophisticated Arabic script. A random selection of historically correct letter groups - the product of the design process set in motion by the same Ibn Muqlah - is mentioned cursorily in §4.2.3.3, `the shapes of characters'. As usual, they are presented to the reader as `ligatures' and `artistic expressions' without so much as a hint at the strict allographic rules underlying them. With such a fundamental lack of analysis and knowledge, "copying the past" is not even an option for the school this book represents.
One final quote: "It is high time for Arab typographers to collectively assume the responsibility for shaping and promoting their script in a way that is suitable for modern design applications and communication technologies". Seen in this light, the reviewed publication, Arabic Typography, a comprehensive sourcebook becomes itself an icon of the "alarming schism between craft and technological developments" (§1.3) - this is a beautiful book, amply illustrated, written in English and made to the highest standards of ... Western design.
The author missed an opportunity to appeal to Arab typographers in their own language and for setting a sample by demonstrating her skills in Arabic typography.