The
city of Kufah was established in Iraq in the year 641 A.D. It flourished
in a short time from a soldiers' camp into an urban center with vital cultural
activities. Among these activities was the refinement of the Arabic script
into an elegant and rather uniform script, which came to be known as Kufic
or Kufi. It had a combination of square and angular lines on one hand, and
compact bold circular forms on the other hand. The vertical strokes were
short, while the horizontal strokes were long and extended. As Kufic reached
perfection in the second half of the 8 th century, it superseded other earlier
attempts of improvement of Arabic calligraphy, and became the only script
used for copying the Holy Quran for the next three hundred years.Information provided by: http://www.sakkal.com