What calligraphic script is used for the inscriptions on the Taj Mahal? The answer is Thuluth.
Much of the Taj Mahal’s Qur’anic calligraphy is written in the elegant, flowing Thuluth script. The inscriptions appear in black marble or jasper inlaid into white marble panels, especially on the Great Gate and the mausoleum’s exterior and interior surfaces.
The work is associated with Amanat Khan Shirazi, a Persian calligrapher at Shah Jahan’s Mughal court. His signature appears in several inscriptions, an unusual feature that helps identify his role in the monument’s decoration. The texts emphasize faith, judgment, paradise, and spiritual repose, fitting the building’s function as a funerary complex.
Readers sometimes confuse Thuluth with Arabic or Persian. Arabic is the language of most Qur’anic passages, while Thuluth is the visual script style used to write them. Naskh also appears in some parts of the complex, so Thuluth describes the dominant, celebrated style rather than every individual inscription.