arabic calligraphy

google led me to saleh nasab, a syrian calligrapher currently based in jordan. i shot him an email a couple days ago and he informed me that he was holding a calligraphy workshop at the apartment of one of his students today. i had originally planned on visiting madaba and mt. nebo with some classmates today, but we decided to postpone our plans due to al-qaeda attack threats in the middle east. in response to word of these threats, many american embassies across the u.s., including the one in amman, will be closed on sunday (first day of the work week), and may continue to stay closed depending on how things play out in the days to come. this lesson is the first of a series of 6 that will be held each saturday at 11 am. for 15 JD we received 3 hours with mr. nasab and our very own arabic calligraphy starter kit (reed pens, ink, paper, handouts).



mr. nasab is a cute, stout man with receding hair. first, he showed us examples of different types of arabic calligraphy: freestyle, geometric, ottoman, iranian, ect… arabic calligraphy is found on the face of islamic architecture such as mosques, minarets.

i found the geometric pattern to be especially interesting. the b & w image below is an example of geometric arabic calligraphy. the black spells out “mohammed” and the white spells out “allah.”



then, he proceeded to show us how to prepare the ink and reed pen. in his words, “this is old technology and old technology is the best technology.” the ink is prepared by stuffing a little glass jar with a wad of string. this is to prevent spillage. then ink is poured in. the reed is prepared using an x-acto knife. you place the stick of reed on a makta. the one mr. nasab was using was made out of camel bone. this is to hold the reed stable as you fashion a pen out of it. after carving a out dip in the reed with the reed, you are left with a pointed end with which you write with. you can cut back the pen as you wish. finally, cut a vertical slit into the pointed end of the reed. i’m not really sure what this procedure was for but it’s important. after this, he wrote all our names on the writing pads he had given us, as well as all the characters of the arabic alphabet. he makes arabic calligraphy look so easy.



mr. nasab writing my name in arabic:



thereafter, we referenced his perfectly, beautifully written arabic characters to practice writing our own. it’s not easy! the reed also makes this really obnoxious noise, if you apply enough pressure, which ended up growing on me. i’m not sure that my hold or brush strokes were correct. nonetheless, i had fun. i look forward to improving my calligraphy and being exposed to other styles with saleh in two weeks (my last saturday in jordan). can’t make it to the next week because i’m planning on going to petra.

more information about saleh nasab and his work here: http://salehnasab.wordpress.com/