Return to Website

CalligraphyIslamic Discussions

Salient Features of Islamic Arts

CalligraphyIslamic Discussions
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
View Entire Thread
Re: Re: Identifying mediocrity by careful study

Thank you for your reply, Brother Sajjad. There are many useful links I wish to send you about hat sanati. Al Hamdulillah, the Arabs of the UAE have woken up to the fact that it was their responsibility to preserve khat al arabi and fund the art; and deciding that it is never too late they have done and are still doing exhibitions in Dubai, and have set up workshops, seminars, and special exhibition venues in Mimzar.
This is just like the Arabian Horse. The English people discovered the value of the breed, and the Germans followed suit, but the Americans really went to town in enhancing the qualities and preserving the strain of Aseel Arabian. Now, of course, when the Arabs of the peninsula saw the foreign interest, and the articles in Saudi Aramco magazine, they became embarrassed. They set aside special budgets for the preservation of remaining strains of Furs-Arabiyya-al-Aseel. I can send you information on this too. My brother wrote a book on Arabian Horse last year.
The best thing about the survival of Khat al Arabi is that the future is ensured with the Emarati working hard to sustain interest ever since they acknowledged that the Turks are the indisputed leaders in flowering and bringing the art to bloom, after Ibn Muqla, Bawwab, and alMusta'simi passed away into history. Even today Hoca Celebi and the brothers Ozcay visit UAE as emissaries of this art, otherwise Turkey was closed, like a prison. To Ugur Derman goes the credit of nurturing the Khattats of Turkey and getting the wealthy people and institutions to sponsor the upkeep of the work of past masters.
There are others too, from Iran, visiting and participating in UAE's exhibitions.
Syrians, in doing justice to the hard work and strivings of Derani, excelled and proved themselves recently (Haddad).
As for Nastaliq and Taliq the Persians are incomparable and undisputed masters, followed by the Indians and Pakistanis, although many will disagree. One needs only to look at Hadi Zul Riyasatin Neamatullah's Daqiq Taaliq, that won first prize at Ircica, his masterpiece Hadith e Qudsi, No114, Ya Ibaadi . . ."
To Pakistanis and the Pakistani settled abroad goes the credit of preserving Urdu and hence the Faris script. On your site Nafees of Gujranwala (Lahori) and other great stalwarts preserved the Mastaliq script and popularised it.
For the last fifty years India has lagged behind in institutionalizing this art. One of the reasons being that the neglect of Udru by the Government. Secondly, the economic condition of Muslims compel them to ignore the fine arts and acquire income, so that the focus is on earning a living, with no time for artn and culture. This may be a crude and unfair appraisal but the facts speak for themselves.
We know that Abdul-Lateef Madaki emigrated to New York, of all the destinations, to settle there, and exhibit his art. No one can fathom his reasons
We sympathise with Gholam Hosen Amirkhani who has cried himself hoarse about government neglect in sponsoring Khush Naveesi, and supporting Khattats in Iran.
We remember Kamil Ibrahim's (The elderly Khattat of Egypt) YouTube video, and wonder why this esteemed old relic of the art is neglected, or why there is nothing about him in Ircica catalogues.
Celebi's hands are full and his son Mustafa must be busy doing more Tezhip designs etc. so they are not responding to mails.
Mehmed Ozcay cannot correspond in English and prefers Arabic. The conclusion is that, as an Emarati or Egyptian aficionado of Khat al Arabi will tell you, how can you write Khat al Arabi when you don't know Arabic? Well is is a moot point, debatable from many angles . . .
The Malaysians and Indonesians are preserving the art by simply doing it for their own Masjids, and practising hard, for not all calligraphers all around the world have enough Ustadhs in Turkey to check their work and give Ijazahs. So they decided to go their own way by studying the work of masters, and practise, practise, practise.
Like Wissam Shaukat the Iraqi engineer in the UAE who did not get any Ijazah but perfected his art to the level of excellence so that he could participate wherever he wished. He has a nice Resume of his career, and has done prestigious calligraphy assignments in Dubai. In his CV you cannot find an Ustadh listed. He is also associated with Hroof Al Arabiya Magazine. Managed by Dr. Salah Sherzad, my own first teacher, and others.
Dr.Sherzads first teacher was Hashim Baghdadi and then when he went to Turkey he studied under Hattat Hamid Aytac. In Turkey Salah Sherzad did his doctorate in Islamic Art History and Heritage at Istanbul University and bore the title of Dr. Salah Sherzad, I was introduced to him in Sharjah in 1997 by my old friend and his student, Munir Ahmed of Lahore, who had the signage business in Sharjah. Munir had gifted me Ozcay's Quran al Kareem, which was originally given him by Dr.Sherzad.

Anyway I'll write more later. Was Salaam wa Rahmatullah, your Brother Yusuf ibn Aiyyoub

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Replying to:

Dear Friend,
Assalam-u-Alaikum,
I apologies for the delay in responding your post. I agree with your comments that's why we do not put the works of the persons who need fame not excellence in the art.
We are waiting for your further posts.
Editor

Re: Re: Re: Identifying mediocrity by careful study

I would like to read more on this issue from Brother Yusuf.