At 21:35 -0800 2001-12-08, James Kass wrote:
>Avsar (with cedilla or line on "s") seems to be a Turkish surname.
It's a male personal name in Azerbaijani, according to one page I found.
At 08:54 +0200 2001-12-09, Iman Saad wrote:
>The word written on the disk is "Muhammad". That's the name of the prophet.
Good thing I didn't hang it on my Christmas cactus then....
I'm not being flippant.... I do have a cactus decorated for the Yule,
from my old stomping grounds in the Arizona desert. Pictures of Spike
dolled up for Christmas will be seen in the new year, but there are
some summer shots of him at http://www.evertype.com/misc.html.
But I have just hung the disc on the wall to the right of me at my
desk, just beneath a plaque I received from WG2 last year. The disc
reminds me of the simplicity and complexity of the world's scripts.
The prophet's name is easy to read once you know how! It reminds me
too of the influence one person can have on the whole world, and of
how connected we all are. Both the prophet whose name the potter
honoured, and the potter himself, because of a small piece of work,
are part of my daily life.
The other day I was in the Chester Beatty Library
(http://www.cbl.com) here in Dublin. It has the most exquisite
collection of European, Islamic, and Asian calligraphy, manuscripts,
and books. Not to be missed by any who come to Dublin in May for the
IUC and WG2!
>You read the first two letters correct . The third letter is a 'miim' (not
>laam) followed by a 'daal'.
Ah, that knot at the bottom of the ligature is a MIIM.
>I'm not an expert in calligraphy, but this
>looks like the THULUTH font, and the yellow parts are decorations.
Decorations!
At 10:03 +0300 2001-12-09, Vladimir Ivanov wrote:
>The word on disk reads Muhammad. See Arabic Presentation Form U+FDF4. There
>are some additional ornamental elements as well.
Ornamental elements make it more difficult to decipher, certainly.
I've updated http://www.evertype.com/standards/Arab/disc.html to
reflect the answers I've received.
Many thanks, James, Iman, and Vladimir.
-- Michael Everson *** Everson Typography *** http://www.evertype.com
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