Assalamu alaykum warahmatullah everyone.
You made it through 3 weeks, alhamdulillah. Remember the 4 stages of learning any skill:
The Four Steps
- Unconscious Incompetence: You do not know how to do the skill, and you do not even know that you do not know how to do it.
- Conscious Incompetence: You realize you lack the skill. You see your mistakes and understand what you need to learn.
- Conscious Competence: You can do the skill, but you have to think very hard about every step. It takes focus and effort.
- Unconscious Competence: You have practiced so much that the skill is second nature. You can do it without thinking.
It is a good idea to evaluate yourself and check in which stage you are placed. For the very least, you might fall into stage 2 or 3. the goal at this point is not mastery, but the process that leads to mastery. Analyse, practice, analyse, practice, improve. Practice makes improvement.
Explanation of the rest of the letters
Visit this link to view the explanation https://youtu.be/0o_lbX2T5wM?si=QoLdew-S2ZClBDal
The Puzzle: (explained in video)
What is Siyaah Mashq / tasweed / karalama?
Siyaah Mashq (Persian), Tasweed (Arabic), and Karalama (Turkish) all refer to traditional calligraphic practice sheets densely filled with overlapping letters, words, and pen strokes.
Purpose and Technique
- Hand warm-up: Used by scribes and masters to loosen their hands and test their pens before formal writing.
- Repetition: Letters and phrases are repeated over and over in multiple directions, diagonals, and sizes regardless of literal meaning.
- Visual rhythm: Focuses purely on the balance, movement, and composition of letterforms.
Evolution into Art
Independent genre: Over time, people realized these chaotic, abstract sheets possessed a stunning graphic beauty. Master calligraphers began crafting them intentionally as independent works of high art.
Blackened pages: The overlapping layers of dark ink often make the entire page look nearly black, inspiring names like siyaah mashq (“black practice”) and karalama (“blackening/scribbling”).
Challenge:
Create your own siyah mashq or karalama using any letters you like of the Ruq’ah script.