No. 2 is part of an inscription copied from a public building in Tarragona in Spain. It reads:—
بسم الله بركة من الله لعبد الله عبد الرحمان امير المومنين اطال الله (بقاءه)
Bi-smi ʾllāhi! barakatun mina ʾllāhi li-ʿabdi ʾllāhi ʿabdi ʾr-raḥmāni amīri ʾl-muʾminīna at̤āla ʾllāhu (baqāʾa-hu).
“In the name of God! May a blessing from God be upon ʿAbdillāh ʿAbdur-raḥmān, Commander of the Faithful; may God lengthen his life.”
No. 3.
MAGHRIB MONUMENTAL CHARACTER.
No. 3, an inscription taken from the Alhambra, exhibits a style of monumental writing which can scarcely be called Cufic any longer, so much resembles it the Nask͟hī character. While in the previous specimen neither vowel points nor diacritical signs are made use of, here we find them employed in the shape, which they assume in manuscripts written in that hand. The reader will not have much difficulty in tracing the component letters by comparison with the following transcript and transliteration:—
يا وارث الانصار لا عن كلالة تراث جلال تستخف الرواسيا
Yā wāris̤a ʾl-anṣāri lā ʿan kalālatin turās̤a jalālin tastak͟hiffu ʾr-rawāsiyā.
“O thou who inheritest from the Anṣārs, and not by way of distant kindred, a heirloom of glory that makes every summit of fame appear low.”
It will be noticed that the فـ (f) of the word tastak͟hiffu is left without the diacritical point which distinguishes this letter from the letter قـ (q). This tallies with a remark of Ḥājī K͟halīfah, according to which the diacritical points of these two letters may be put or omitted ad libitum; and we seem therefore justified in concluding that the necessity for their distinction was latest felt and provided for. Hence arises one of the peculiarities which at once mark the difference between the Western and Eastern styles of writing, and which the reader will observe in the next three specimens, presenting instances of the Mag͟hrib manuscript character.
The first (No. 4) is written in a bolder hand, and consequently shows more strikingly the close relationship with the monumental style of the Western Arabs.
