Dr. Dukhan’s fascination with the Arabic language, written and spoken, started when he was in grade school. His interest in Arabic calligraphy began when he started learning the Riq’a script from his Arabic language teacher in the sixth grade. He then competed with neighborhood children in writing words on the nicely finished outside walls of the neighbors’ houses. He continuously trained himself, and still does, in all the classical styles of Arabic calligraphy by imitating the works of many master calligraphers. In 1998, he became a student of the noted Istanbul master calligrapher Hasan Celibi in Thuluth and Naskh styles.

Arabic Calligraphy and the Contemporary Designs of Nihad Dukhan

Delighting and elevating, Arabic calligraphy evokes the sacred and lifts the viewer into joy. Marked by its flowing patterns and intricate geometry, Arabic calligraphy expresses a broader dimension of the aesthetic. It aims at a mystic balance of meaning and beauty using strokes that flow from right to left with splendid energy. For many Muslims, Arabic calligraphy is considered a sacramental art. The quest of a calligrapher, as one master put it, is to “discern what is beautiful and what is most beautiful.”

The first Arabic script, which was later used to write the Qur’an, is strongly related to the Nabatian script which was derived from the Aramaic script. The Nabatians were semi-nomadic Arabs who inhabited the area extending from the Sinai and North Arabia to southern Syria, before the birth of Prophet Mohammed, P.B.U.H. Aramaic, which dates back to the 2nd millennium BC, was the language used by the early Christians.

Arabic, one of the Semitic languages, is considered the closest to Proto-Sematic, the language from which they all developed. The Arabic alphabet contains eighteen letter shapes. By adding one, two, or three dots to letters with similar phonetic characteristics, a total of twenty-eight letters is obtained. These contain three long vowels; for short vowels, diacritic can be added.

Before the advent of Islam, poetry was the foremost medium of artistic expression for the Arabs. It was highly refined in terms of vocabulary and in the diversity of tonal and rhythmic nuances. The revelation of the Qur’an, however, stands as the crowning literary achievement in the history of the Arabic language. The need to record the Qur’an compelled the Arabs to reform and beautify their script so that it became worthy of the divine revelation. After the simple and primitive early examples of the fifth and sixth century, the Arabic script underwent a rapid development. With the rise of Islam in the seventh century it achieved the status of an independent art form. Diplomatic correspondence and official record keeping, under the Ummayads and the Abbasid, led to more developments. The resulting wealth of classical calligraphic styles can generally be grouped into two broad categories: the “dry styles”, or the Kufic; and the “moist styles”, which are the soft cursive styles such as Naskh, Thuluth, Nast’aliq, Riq’a, and Deewani.

Abu Ali Mohammed Ibn Muqlah (d. 940 AD) is known as a figure of heroic stature. He laid the basis for Arabic calligraphy upon strict proportional rules and geometric principles based on the rhombic dot as a unit of measurement. It was his genius and his knowledge of geometric science that admirably brought about this most important development in Arabic calligraphy. Like many early calligraphers, Ibn Muqlah was a state official: he was three times vizier (chief minister) under the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad.

The second founding father was Abu l-Hassan Ali Ibn Hilal better known as Ibn al-Bawwab (d. 1022 AD). Also employed as a vizier in Baghdad and Shiraz during the late 10th and early 11th centuries, Ibn al-Bawwab broadened the firm principles of Ibn Muqlah and, through an artist’s soul, brought grace and splendor to them. Famed for their elegance and harmony, Ibn al-Bawwab’s works fetched high prices even during his lifetime. He is reported to have written sixty-four copies of the Qur’an and a large number of secular works. His genius remains unsurpassed.

The third figure in the assembly of ‘calligraphy virtue’ was the 13th-century scribe Yaqut al-Musta’simi, who was born in Amasya (in Anatolia) and practiced in Baghdad (d. 1298 AD). He adhered to the principles of Ibn Muqlah and to the aspirations of Ibn al-Bawwab for aesthetic grace. However, he altered the manner of the early masters by trimming the reed pen (qalam) and by clipping its nib at an angle. This enabled him to achieve greater thinness and linear variability.

Arabic calligraphy went through subsequent refinements in the meticulous hands of many masters throughout the Muslim World. It became a tradition for the rulers of different Muslim dynasties, such as the Mamluk Dynasty (1250 - 1517), mainly in Egypt and Syria, and the Ottoman Empire (1517 - 1918), to patronize important calligraphers. The greatest of the Mamluk calligraphers was Mohammed Ibn al-Wahid, and that of the Ottomans was Shaykh Hamdullah al-Amasi. Throughout its history, Arabic calligraphy was handed down by masters to their pupils over long periods of practice and discipline. This tradition continues, and Arabic calligraphy is a thriving art today.

The different classical styles of Arabic calligraphy, Dukhan asserts, offer unlimited possibilities to the calligrapher. The form shown in his work, however, is not one of these classical styles. Although it is inspired by, and occasionally resembles some of those styles, its postmodern look was achieved through innovation guided by artistic sensibility and a certain quality of integrating the letters into a whole. His designs are highly stylized, but remain legible, and their tremendous simplicity immediately puts the viewer at ease. They incorporate some of the meaning of the written words without compromising the general shape that the letters can take. As such, the designs offer a fresh rendering of the Arabic letters. Dukhan started experimenting, pursuing, and refining this form around 1989. His work was exhibited in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington DC, and other US cities.

Nihad Dukhan was born in central Gaza Strip, Palestine in 1964. He attended local schools before He arrived in Toledo, Ohio in August 1983 where he started his studies at the University of Toledo’s College of Engineering. He received his Ph.D. in 1996 in Mechanical Engineering. He settled and worked as Research Engineer in Chicago for three years. Now he is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico- Mayaguez. He regards himself as a reader and a listener: he has a compelling interest in Arabic and English poetry, Arabic classical music and Jazz.

It is said: “The written word is a talisman, and the process of writing is a magic connected not only to the master’s technique and skill, but also to his spiritual and moral character.” Dr. Dukhan’s intent as he puts it, “is not only to attract the Arabic speaking audience, but to cross barriers and touch other languages and cultures.” He invites you to his web site at www.ndukhan.com and welcomes your inquiries at e-mail: ndukhan [at] att.net