About a week ago, the program I’m here studying with (AMIDEAST) had a calligraphy lesson for anyone interested. I went to see what it was about and really enjoyed it. The lesson was given by a friendly unassuming man with a very heavy accent but flawless English. Unsurprisingly, his name was Mohammed. Mohammed told us about the history of calligraphy, that it was born in Mecca and worked its way up and around the Mediterranean to Turkey, east into Iran, south into the Arab peninsula, and west through North Africa. From the Maghreb it jumped into Spain, across the Pyrenees, and into France, where it was adapted into the Latin alphabet. Across the Arab world, differing styles developed- some more decorative, some more flowy, some with sharper corners.
Mohammed brought out his calligraphy pens and had us copy a series of Arabic letters, correcting our form. He showed us the giant traditional wooden “pens” that I’m certain he can use but that I am just as certain I couldn’t, all of which differed slightly depending on the region of calligraphy they’re use for.
He wrote our names for us:
(Yes, that says Gretchen. Actually, Kretsheen, but there isn’t a hard G in non-Maghreb/Egyptian Arabic.)
Then Mohammed pulled out a 50 dirham bill and pointed to the Arabic script all over it, and told us it was his handwriting.
…What?!
Yes, he said, he won the last Gold Medal in the world calligraphy championship (again, what?), and as a result the Moroccan treasury asked him to re-write the script on all Moroccan currency.
So that was pretty cool.
Very cool!
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