Following the surprising popularity of my RT of the unique #Maghribi style script of Qandūsī this weekend from @taourati1, a quick roundup of different Maghribi styles seems in order! (read to the end for more examples of Qundūsī who started this all off!) 
1/ When you think Maghribi script, a recent example to come to mind is Tunisian President @TnPresidency #Kais_Said‘s letter (HT @MariemRMasmoudi )
This is part of a tradition that goes back over a millennium & is often not recognised as a family of styles
This is part of a tradition that goes back over a millennium & is often not recognised as a family of styles
2/ There are many types of Maghribi-style scripts, mostly derived from early Kufic styles. This treatise from 1256H describes the history, as well as techniques for writing (usually with a pointed reed - قلم مدبب):
نظم لآلئ السمط في حسن تقويم بديع الخط
archive.org/details/ylside…
نظم لآلئ السمط في حسن تقويم بديع الخط
archive.org/details/ylside…
3/ The Andalusi style is considered a Maghribi script as well, which is often characterised by more rounded strokes:
4/ Evolving from the Andalusi style was the use of Arabic script for other languages in Andalus, known (in Spanish) as aljamiado, or 'ajami/عجمي in Arabic like these examples of Latin/Romance in a variant of Maghribi script:
5/ Speaking of 'Ajami (a problematic term to be sure!)- the use of Maghribi-style scripts in West Africa, both for Arabic & African languages has an even longer history than Andalusia. Here's a colophon for poetry by Nana Asma'u bint Fodio, an important female author in Fulfulde:
6/ The diversity in W. African variants of the Maghribi style is among the important reasons for seeing it as a family of scripts, not just one style. They evolve away from the thin curved style of Andalusi to a more square style written w/ a flat nib often held quite vertically:
7/ So where does Qundūsī fit in all of this? His style is often cited as an outlier, the trippy aberrations of a Sufi mystic, but it does have precedents in examples from both architecture and some earlier manuscripts with the thick, bold weight with extreme contrasts.
8/ Qundusi obviously elaborated on this in a bold and highly personal way over many years in copying the Qur'an that brought us to this subject, which isn't just made up of the 'decorative illuminations' on facing pages that are so impressive...
9/ but also a 'book hand' which is more aligned with many of the traditions that we've seen above - if anything it may be more prosaic, underscoring the imaginative decorative lettering alongside it!
