Music of the Eye
Posted on Apr 28th 2009 by Elisabeth.
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to meet Sanaa Boutayeb Naim, a Moroccan filmmaker who lives here in Washington, DC. In the fall of 2008 she produced a documentary feature about master calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya, and kindly allowed me to feature the video on the CalligraphyQalam.com blog. In this 11-minute documentary, Mohamed Zakariya offers insight into the art of Arabic script calligraphy. I’m sure you’ll enjoy watching.
4 Responses to “Music of the Eye”
Dr Osman Khan on: May 22nd, 2009 at 2:14 pm
I was delighted to browse your brief film on calligraphy by Muhammad Zakriya.
I would like to be on your mailing list for all key events on Islamic Calligraphy.
I am planning to visit Turkey and Morocco. Would appreciate your guidance if I were to focus on visits to centers of excellence and museums on the subject.
Kind Regards
An amatuer Calligrapher
Elisabeth on: May 25th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Dear Dr. Osman,
Thank you for your kind words; I will pass them along to the filmmaker, Sanaa. I invite you to visit calligraphyqalam.com regularly for updates on events and exhibitions about Islamic calligraphy.
If you’re in Istanbul, start with a visit to IRCICA: http://www.ircica.org/. And you will find excellent calligraphy at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum: http://muze.sabanciuniv.edu/main/default.php?bytLanguageID=2
Elisabeth
joan mckniff on: June 13th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
My friend Anne O’Leary introduced you, at least the virtual you, to me. It is an honor and privilege to see a bit of your work and this wonderful video. I thought you might like to hear this little true story, I was on a crowded train in Maroc, not in a window seat, so I decided to write and address my Christmas cards. The stamp I was using was your Eid stamp. After some time the old man across from me asked in halting French, as I don’t speak Arabic, if I knew that decoration was in Arabic. I said yes, that I greatly admired it, and that it was a postal stamp. From the where, he asked and was dumbfounded when I said from USA. He then asked me 12 ways if it really worked as postage, was it freely sold, and on. He then took the stamped envelope and passed it to the other 4 people in our compartment leading a heated conversation that even I could recognize was full of amazement. He then left, with my stamped envelope, to deliver this news to several other compartments.
When I got out of the train in the rain, facing a slippery flight of stairs, there was no end of people to help me, rather ordered about by the old man seat mate. Only when i got to the street, did a preteen boy express amazement that M. X, a most conservative religious leader, was being so friendly and protective of me.
Thank you.
Rauf Jaleel on: July 29th, 2010 at 9:57 am
The true and the beautiful side of Muslim Ummah is not been reflected in the popular media.May Allah bless you for all these efforts to reveal this beautiful face of Muslim culture.
All the information and the videos in your website are marvelous and most appreciable.
There is another Master Calligrapher in the USA from Syria his name is Mamoun SAkkal, it will be highly appreciated if he may be the subject of next documentary by Sanaa Boutayeb Naim !
Thank you very much.
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