The Dance of Soma and Psyche This thesis is submitted to the AUT ...

Fig.16
Islamic calligraphy is very much inspired by the activities and the rituals that occur in a
space, such as practicing Namaz (Islamic prayer) in a mosque. Namaz is a set of choreographed
movements, varying from completely upright to almost foetal, in which the
forehead touches the ground. Islamic architecture and calligraphy are inspired by the
body movements and gestures that comprise the
body movements visible in performances such
as Namaz. Architecture and calligraphy work in
parallel to create an atmosphere suitable for the
rituals performed in a space. To create a heavenly
and ecstatic atmosphere, Islamic calligraphers
take lots of factors into consideration, from
the type of calligraphy, colours and textures to
the places the scripts are written. According to
Eymen Homsi, the Iraqi architect, calligraphers
“vied one another to devise a system for elongating
letters” (Homsi, 2008), without disturbing the
balance of a space. The relationships between
the body, words, and the architectural space emphasise
their sharing mutual space. This serves
to highlight the shared, inseparable and dependent
space that is encompassed by calligraphy,
literature and architecture.
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