The past, present and future of traditional arts in our words
I think I've been attracted to Islamic art and exotic things since I was a child. I was fascinated by the decorative patterns of the mosque, Arabic music, and traditional Indian and Middle Eastern costumes. The Taj Mahal in India, the Alhambra Palace in Spain, and various buildings and mosaics of Arab culture that I saw in Morocco and Sicily made a strong impression on me.
Yushaa Abdullah is a pioneer. He is one of the first master calligraphers from Nigeria who brought the art, and support from Istanbul to the whole of the Black African Region. He is a man of many firsts. He is the first person in the African region to receive an Ijazah or diploma in Arabic calligraphy, studying under Turkish grandmaster Hasan Çelebi.
Practicing calligraphy in the UK has required a lot of adaptation for many reasons; firstly, it is quite difficult to reflect the traditional ways where a student would go out in search for a teacher and stay in his /her Suhbat (companionship) for a number of years devoting himself/herself to that field. Similarly, the essence of a calligrapher is their materials..
When you look at a writing of thuluth script, you will notice invisible lines going in a certain angle that have measurements, like 5 dots or 10 dots. Zakariya hoca said, “these relationships of dimensions are only the beginning of writing.” Therefore, when you are first learning how to write in Arabic calligraphy, you are learning the measurements of letters.
I have been doing graffiti since my teens, so as I came across Islamic art and Islamic Calligraphy it really captivated me. I looked at how the master calligraphers played with the structure of the letters, stretching, and bending the forms. I automatically saw the correlation with what I was, or should I say, what we were, doing as graffiti artist with the latin script
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