Influence of Religion on symbolic birds in Islamic calligraphy

Calligraphy is the most important and scared form of art in Islamic culture. Holy Quran verses are one of the popular topics of calligraphy, and among them all the verse of Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim(In the name of Allah, the Beneficient,the Merciful )has a dramatic importance .This scared verse has a great influence on all of the aspects of Muslims life and has been present in Islamic Art during different eras in many different forms and Materials.Due to the value of this verse to the Muslims, calligraphers have written this verse in a verity of forms; among them, writing the verse in the form of a bird was widely common. This form was usually called the Bismillah bird. In literature and art bird is the symbol of human soul and in the Islamic belief birds are praying God constantly.These artworks have been created due to religious and aesthetic value of the bird and its symbolic meaning as human soul and worshiper which are counted as one of the last innovative works of Islamic calligraphy .Bismillah bird is one of the forms of pictorial calligraphy which is common among Islamic nations especially Iran and Turkey.In this essay we are up to investigate the symbolic value of the birds which Bismillah has been written in the form of their body. It seems that there is a meaningful connection between symbolic value of these birds and their figures.

Keywords:

calligraphy , Besmellah , symbol , bird