a. Also Cuphic, Kufic. [f. Cufa or Kufa, an ancient city near Babylon, the residence of the caliphs before the building of Bagdad, and a great seat of Mohammedan learning.] Of or pertaining to Cufa; applied to a variety of Arabic writing, attributed to the scholars of Cufa.
Cufic is found mainly in old copies of the Koran, on coins of the Abbasid and other early dynasties, and in inscriptions. It differs from ordinary Arabic writing (Naskhī) in the angular form of many of the letters, and the general rigidity of the strokes, in which it bears a considerable resemblance to the Syriac Estrangelo. The name is sometimes loosely applied to old forms of Arabic writing generally; but the opinion once current that the Cufic writing is older than the round characters is now known to be incorrect.
1706. Hearne, Collect., 22 June. The Cufic characters.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann., II. IV. iii. 262. Cufic coins inscribed in the old Arabic character.
1878. C. R. Conder, Tent Work Pal., I. 318. Over the outer arcade of the Dome of the Rock runs the great Cufic inscription, giving the date of the erection of the building in 688 A.D.
