Cool. I often eat in Tamil Muslim restaurant here in Bangkok with an eclectic collection of no-doubt Farsi tradition derived geometric calligraphic pieces. However, some of them seem to place very little weight on the calligraphic side and more on the geometric side. I am curious as to whether you know of any kind of semi-holistic study of geometric patterns used for illustrating either Quran or free-prose / poetic pieces and whether there is any traditionally prescribed relationship (I assume there is) between the geometries chosen and the nature of the subject.

It seems almost as if some pieces here are inspired by a popular Thai love of 'magical' wards rather than anything remotely connected to Islamic traditions ... generally with a strong showing of circles ringing a Pascalesque triangle and inscriptions in Pali written in Khmer (Cambodian) script and probably have nothing to do with Mughul or Persian traditions. In the same vein as, for example, the hamsa / hand of Fatima in Maghreb countries.

Incidentally, there's a Chinese/Arabic calligraphic tradition that's dying out that you may be interested in. It takes either Arabic or the relatively line-heavy, complex Chinese characters and applies traditional Islamic (probably in no small part Persian) styles to their interweaving. A not so great example online that I shot previously... http://pratyeka.org/ennin/2006-05-10-huaian/ (part of the retracing of a Japanese Buddhist monk's journey through China 1000 years ago I did half of, years ago, with a crazy American) or http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nYF7e1Kd9sE/Tj6mau7h8uI/AAAAAAAAAE...