Maymoun: I like Islamic calligraphy [Archives:2006/932/Culture]
19-year-old Maymoun Abdu Al-Hamadani who lives in Taiz is practicing calligraphy and Isalamic ornamentation. He is studying at the Arts Institute in the city of Taiz.
His skill as a calligrapher appeared about six years ago and was influenced by a calligrapher and draftsman called Fath Al-Rahman. He also learned calligraphy rules from books he borrowed from friends.
“They jeered at me that I devote my time to calligraphy,” he said, complaining of some people's disregard for art. He is practicing decor as a profession for a living. Although decor is an artistic profession, he feels more at home with calligraphy and Islamic ornamentation inside mosques. He works either on paper, boards or walls of mosques by carving plaster.
Arabic words are written in different styles of calligraphy but he always writes in Kufi, a type of calligraphy named after the town of Al-Kufah in Iraq. “I like the Kufi calligraphy because it is most adopted in Islamic inscriptions. It also yokes calligraphy and ornamentation,” he said.
He points out that nowadays people are not oblivious to the importance of calligraphy as part of the Islamic heritage. He compared the current situation to times in the past. “Contrary to what we see nowadays, the Ottoman rulers, for instance, were giving awards for the best works of calligraphy.”
He relates that in Indonesia, there are schools for teaching calligraphy and the people are interested in calligraphy. They are teaching it to kids. “I saw on Al-Jazeera TV a program featuring a calligraphy school with 20 thousand students. They consider it the essence of faith that is to say faith culminates in Islamic calligraphy and artistic inscriptions.”
He spoke about the difficulties he encountered for example no institute is teaching calligraphy. He himself learned it just by observation of some craftsmen in his neighborhood. He also does not have enough time to put into this spiritually rewarding interest. However, the most important thing is that there is no official encouragement for calligraphers. “What we here in the media is rhetoric,” he said. He cited the example of the Sana'a as the Arab Culture Capital year during which only one activity featured a calligraphy exhibition and that was for a Yemeni artist living in Turkey.” What is similarly bitter is that when people come to the works, many of them look at them superficially and hastily due to lack of artistic awareness.
Maymoun said that he has drawn one hundred artistic representations of the word Allah, each of which is totally different from the other. He is still generating more ideas for how to do it.
He said that computer-based drawings are not real art. “They are artificial and kills the talents of calligraphers,” he said.
His dream is to exhibit his works at a gallery in Sana'a. He also wants to be an authority on calligraphy and publishes books on its rules.
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