Bernard O'Kane

Bernard O'Kane wrote chapter four, "Monumental Calligraphy in Fatimid Egypt", of an edited volume on Fatimid art. He opens by noting that Fatimid epigraphy in Egypt is justly celebrated for its magnificent, often floriated Kufic, and that the outlines of its stylistic development have been documented, yet controversy still surrounds its interpretation. ¹

He asks three questions: how novel was the Fatimid use of inscriptions on building exteriors? Was floriation an attempt to make the script deliberately ambiguous or nearly indecipherable? Did the later retention of Kufic, when cursive had begun to supplant it elsewhere, have ideological significance? He approaches them by examining the inscriptions themselves at al-Azhar, the Mosque of al-Hakim, Badr al-Jamali's works and al-Aqmar. ^{1 2 3}