The Kufic script (Arabic: الْخط الْكوُفِي; Romanized: ‘Al-khat ‘al-Kūfī) is a style of Arabic script that gained prominence early on as a preferred script for Quran transcription and architectural decoration, and it has since become a reference and an archetype for a number of other Arabic scripts. It developed from the Arabic alphabet in the city of Kufa, from which its name is derived.[3] Kufic is characterized by angular, rectilinear letterforms and its horizontal orientation.[4] There are many different versions of Kufic, such as square Kufic, floriated Kufic, knotted Kufic, and others.[4] The artistic styling of Kufic led to its use in a non-Arabic context in Europe, as decoration on architecture, known as pseudo-Kufic.
^Déroche, François. Catalogue des manuscrits arabes. Deuxième partie: manuscrits musulmans, Tome I, 1. Les manuscrits du Coran. Aux origines de la calligraphie coranique (Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1983), pp. 41–45.