Calligraphy
The Muslim rulers of the Sultanate and Mughal periods introduced various intricate and stylised forms of calligraphy in the inscription style and raised it to a high aesthetic level. Like their Buddhist Pala and Hindu Sena predecessors, Bengal’s Muslim rulers used exquisite black basalt as the preferred medium for recording public inscriptions. But there is a marked difference in execution of inscription work between the earlier (Sanskrit and Proto-Bengali) epigraphs and Islamic (Arabic and Persian) ones. While the former epigraphs are mostly incised, the later ones are in general rendered in relief [Siddiq (2017): 49]. Glorification of Allah is at the heart of Islamic calligraphy.
