The Hurufiyya movement (Arabic: حروفية‎ ḥurufiyyah, adjectival form ḥurufī, literally "letters [of the alphabet]") was an aesthetic movement that emerged in the late twentieth century amongst Arabian and North African artists who used their understanding of traditional Islamic calligraphy within the precepts of modern art. By combining tradition and modernity, these artists worked towards developing a Pan-Arab visual language, which instilled a sense of national identity in their respective nation states, at a time when many of these states where shaking off colonial rule and asserting their independence. They adopted the same name as the Hurufi, an approach of Sufism which emerged in the late 14th–early 15th century.