1. The first scribes of the Qur’an

Posterity has remembered only a dozen scribes who wrote down the revelation as it was transmitted to the Prophet Muhammad. These were Abân b. Sa’îd, (d. 632), ‘Alâ b. al-Hadramî (d. 632/3 or 641/2), b. Alî b. Abî Tâlib (c. 600-661), Hanzala b. Abî Rabî'(m.670/1), Jâbir b. Sa’îd b. al-‘As (606-697), Mu’âwiya b. Abî Sufiân (602-680), Ubayy b. Ka’b (d.649), Uthmân b. ‘Affân (574-656) and Zayd b. Thabît (611-665). Women calligraphers played a key role in the learning and transmission of writing and knowledge. They were encouraged by the Prophet to study, like the Meccan Al-Shifa bint ‘Abdullah al-Qurashiyyah al-Adawiya (d. 640), who is reported to have taught writing to Hafsa (605-661), wife of the Prophet.

2. Calligraphic style

Hijâzî (7^th century)

Born at the beginning of the 7^th century, the Hijazi style, whose name is inspired by the script used in the region of Mecca and Medina (Hijâz), is characterized by its angular, wide, widely-spaced forms, with a certain irregularity in the size and shape of its slender letters whose vertical shafts lean to the right.

For several decades, the Qur’an remained the only Arabic book copied in this style, according to the famous author Muhammad ibn Ishâq Ibn al-Nadîm (d. 990), who described the first script used in Hijâz in his catalog, “Al-Fihrist”.