A workshop on Kufic Arabic Calligraphy in Damascus

Within the activities of the fifth Mahbat Qalam Festival for the Arts of Arabic Calligraphy and Ornamentation, the House of Arabic Calligraphy and Arts Association hosted a cultural symposium on the art of Arabic calligraphy entitled (Kufic Qur’anic Script) under the supervision of calligrapher Ahmed Kamal who was honored at the end of the workshop.

Mrs. Reem Qabtan, the head of the House of Arabic Calligraphy and Arts Association, , told Syria times that within the activities of the fifth Mahbat Qalam ( love of the pen )Festival for the Arts of Arabic Calligraphy and Ornamentation, which includes several exhibitions, Symposiums, and workshops we held this workshop for the calligrapher Ahmad Kamal, who is proficient in writing in all Arabic Calligraphy , and he specialized in the old Kufic letter.

“He gave a lecture in which he introduced us to the writing method and important information . Our next activity is an exhibition displaying the works of young artists at the Cultural Center” she added

Professor Ahmad Kamal, a teacher of Kufic Arabic calligraphy at the Damascus Citadel at the Institute of Applied Arts in the Damascus Citadel, has been writing in Arabic calligraphy since his childhood, but he specialized in Kufic script for five years.

Professor Ahmed said that the Arabic letter went through two basic stages. The first stage is the dry script stage, which was written vertically and continued to be written in this way for three centuries. The second stage is the soft script stage.

“In this workshop I talked about the dry letter stage that continued until the Abbasid era. We talked about the Kufic letter ,we reviewed the shape of the letter and a historical overview of this letter, in addition to some manuscripts and documentary pages.

. The importance of this workshop is that Arabic calligraphy is our heritage and part of Islamic art. The Arabic letter is flexible and malleable. We can form paintings and important art using our Arabic calligraphy . These workshops aim to preserve our heritage and the Arabic letter and to acquaint the new generation with Arabic calligraphy.