Mohamed Zakariya – A 21st century Master Calligrapher is a study of the life and impact of Mohamed Zakariya, a contemporary American artist, who through his pursuit of a centuries old art form, Islamic calligraphy, has become known world-wide for his work. Along the way, he has had a major role in bringing this art form to the US and through his teaching, public appearances and work, creating a uniquely American version of the practice of Islamic calligraphy. 

The account of Mohamed Zakariya’s life is told from a variety of perspectives, from his students, from colleagues and by scholars. This multivocal approach to the subject results in a nuanced, thoughtful presentation of a complex and brilliant artist. 

Essays by leading scholars in the fields of Islamic art, calligraphy and Islamic religious studies unpack the complexities of Islamic calligraphy through history, and place Zakariya and his work in a historical context stretching back over many centuries, but also explain why he is a maverick at the forefront of a global resurgence of traditional Islamic calligraphy. 

There are no book length English language studies of traditionally trained Islamic calligraphers working today or of the American community of such artists. This book fills a gaping hole in the literature on a key aspect of Islamic culture.   

Most books that address traditional Islamic calligraphy assume that the art form stopped developing with the advent of westernization/modernization efforts in the Middle East in the mid-nineteenth century. That is not true. This project is the only book in English to delve into the modern history of a traditional art form, and to focus on a major figure, Mohamed Zakariya, working in that field. 

Current literature that considers calligraphy in the Middle East generally does so from the point of view of artists who use some aspect of calligraphy to create large scale works in a range of media, and on buildings. While this is an important component of global contemporary art, it is only tangentially related to traditional Islamic calligraphy, a subject typically overlooked in studies of contemporary art from Islamicate societies. 

The central figure in this book, Mohamed Zakariya, is intriguing in his own right. Mohamed Zakariya’s life story is the stuff of Hollywood: California child of the 50s travels to Morocco, then converts to Islam and decides to become a calligrapher in Arabic, a language he doesn’t yet speak.  An American calligrapher spurs a fledging Turkish cultural institute to found a calligraphy training program which has had worldwide impact, and receives diplomas from the two greatest living calligraphers in Turkey. Settling in a suburb of Washington DC, Zakariya establishes a studio which becomes a center of calligraphy training in the US and gains widespread popular recognition for designing a US Postal Service stamp for the Eid holidays which has sold millions.

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This work will be of interest to a series of overlapping international audiences: scholars and students of Islamic calligraphy and culture in art history, religious studies, and cultural studies; artists and craftspeople working in the book arts of calligraphy, illumination and paper marbling; Islamic calligraphy enthusiasts and collectors; calligraphers working in other languages; students of traditional forms of material culture and their transmission, and art students.

Because the chapters each stand on their own, they could be used individually in a range of courses—studio courses in calligraphy, Ottoman history, Islamic art, history of the book and of calligraphy, and the place of calligraphy in Islamic religious thought. 

Mohamed Zakariya
Hasan Çelebi

About Mohamed Zakariya
Uğur Derman

A Man with a Reed Pen
Nabil F. Safwat

Humane Letters
Mohamed Zakariya

Mohamed Zakariya: A Life in Pictures
Nancy Micklewright

The Last Hezarfen: Mohamed Zakariya and the Legacy of the Ottoman Polymath Artist
Josh Berer

Mohamed Zakariya, the Avant la Letter of Islamic Calligraphy in North America
Nihad Dukhan

The Inimatable Mohamed Zakariya
Elinor Aishah Holland

The Beautiful Pen: Mohamed Zakariya and Contemporary Islamic Art
Emily Neumeier

The Alif and the Ba: The Spirit and Letter of Islamic Calligraphy
Omid Safi

The Master-Student Relationship: Supplication and the Power of Prayer in Ottoman Calligraphy
Bilal Badat

Corporal Memory, Mental Memory, Written Source: Calligraphy, Some Dimensions of Today’s Transfer
İrvin Cemil Schick

Calligraphic circuits: present-day practices of a classical art
Nuria Garcia Masip