It was Islamic architecture and Arabic writing on mosque walls that first attracted Ahmad Fares to Arabic calligraphy. His father noticed this passion and he bought his son a book about Arabic calligraphy when Fares was in preparatory school.  From that point on, Fares began imitating everything he saw in that book.

Fares’ religious upbringing further developed the interest, which evolved into a professional pursuit. While in secondary school, Fares began working for a commercial calligrapher that produced billboards.

It was Islamic architecture and Arabic writing on mosque walls that first attracted Ahmad Fares to Arabic calligraphy. His father noticed this passion and he bought his son a book about Arabic calligraphy when Fares was in preparatory school.  From that point on, Fares began imitating everything he saw in that book.

Fares’ religious upbringing further developed the interest, which evolved into a professional pursuit. While in secondary school, Fares began working for a commercial calligrapher that produced billboards.

“That’s when I found out that Arabic calligraphy cannot be drawn or imitated,” Fares recalled. “Otherwise, it loses its spirit, consistency and design and appears dull and lacking originality and artistic value.”

Fares then began studying calligraphy formally and enrolled in Kalil Agha School, which is the first specialized calligraphy school founded in 1922 in Bab El Shaareya.

Fares hopes to get a license in calligraphy from Turkey that indicates that he has mastered calligraphy through apprenticeship from a master who learned the skill from another master in a chain of calligraphers extending back a thousand years.

Calligraphy’s evolution

Arabic letters and their forms have gone through many stages of development as part of the evolution of Arab culture and the role of Islam.

Today, with the dominance of electronic writing, calligraphy has become an ‘alien’ art in a deformed modernism in which standard Arabic is often accused of being static and incompatible with changing times.

Arabic-language-based arts are often considered static as well. The interest of some youth in Arabic calligraphy is not necessarily concerned about a revival of this art form in the classical sense. Rather, it involves adapting calligraphy to new settings such as ornamentation on clothes or in plastic arts.

Learn the rule — break it

Hatim Arafa’s interest in Arabic calligraphy started as a hobby but became more serious when he discovered how it might enrich his profession as a graphic designer.

The 25-year-old from Alexandria explains: “My experience with Arabic calligraphy started when I was young and used to look at calligraphy paintings; which, I inherited from my father.”

When Arafa got older, he studied at the Arabic calligraphy school in Alexandria. But he found learning more than one Arabic font at the same time confusing. So he quit school and continued learning on his own, in a fashion consistent with his graphic design work.

Unlike Fares, Arafa did not like following rules. “For me, the rule is the beginning of a work of art,” said Fares.  “It does not govern it. I like to learn the rule in order to break it. I believe this is a way of developing and renewing calligraphy so it can be seen from a new perspective.”

Renewal starts with dissecting tradition

While Fares’ passion for calligraphy emerged from his religious upbringing, Arafa’s came from a purely artistic background. The former is inclined to abide by the rules and seek higher formal training while the latter deals with calligraphy as an art, which could open wider horizons for free artistic expression.

Somewhere between these two young calligraphy artists is Mahmoud Atef, who feels neither bound by tradition nor compelled to challenge it.

Atef was brought up in the Muslim Brotherhood school, which drew him closer to Islamic arts. He loved Arabic as a language and enjoyed drawing its letters so he became a poet and a calligrapher. Nothing remains of his Muslim Brotherhood background but his special relationship to standard Arabic and Arabic calligraphy.

Atef does not see the question as a dichotomy of originality versus modernism. “Art transcends such restricted dichotomies,” he said. Yet, he is inclined to learn the rules first based on the belief that: “Renewal starts with dissecting tradition.”