Khatt: Egypt's Calligraphic Landscape

by Basma Hamdy, Noha Zayed (Photographer), Huda Abifares (Contribution by), eL Seed (Contribution by)

Overview

Egyptian cities and villages abound with an enormous wealth of khatt, or calligraphic script, ranging from casual scrawls and scribbles to elaborately-painted colourful murals. These historical and contemporary versions of urban lettering , varying in surface, medium and technique, adorn mosques, shop-fronts, houses, trucks, boats, schools, tuk tuks and walls. They are records of human existence, documenting expressions of hope, fears, dreams and anxieties.

Featuring beautiful, unique examples of these written expressions, Khatt is an extensive visual documentation of the found typography and calligraphy in Egypt, a calligraphy hub that possesses a rich tradition of education and production in the field. This timely volume records the traditional craftsmanship of hand-painted calligraphy, in decline because of the digitisation of the Arabic script.

Basma Hamdy is a research-based designer, author and educator. Currently Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth Universityin Qatar, Hamdy earned an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her publications include Walls of Freedom: Street Art of the Egyptian Revolution.

Noha Zayed is a photographer currently based in Cairo, Egypt. Zayed has exhibited in festivals across the Middle East. Her other creative endeavors include film and music projects such as a documentary on travel and education aired on Al Jazeera in 2017.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780863569012
Publisher:	Saqi Books
Publication date:	02/26/2019
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Basma Hamdy is a research-based designer, author and educator. Currently Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth Universityin Qatar, Hamdy earned an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is currently a candidate at PhDArts: Leiden Universityand The Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Netherlands. Hamdy has exhibited and spoken at several international art and design festivals and conferences such as Duke University’s Arts of the Revolution, Spielart Festival Munich and The Graphic Design Festival Breda. Her publications include Walls of Freedom: Street Art of the Egyptian Revolution. www.basmahamdy.com



Noha Zayed is a photographer and creative entrepreneur based in Cairo, Egypt. She has extensive experience in creative direction, product design, travel and documentary photography. Zayed’s interest in exploration and Arabic calligraphy led her to travel extensively across Egypt documenting found examples of Arabic calligraphy around the country. She was invited to co-curate the highly popular Instagram account ‘Arabic Typography’ which has a following of over ninety thousand users. Zayed has exhibited in festivals and platforms across the Middle East such as Dubai Design Week as part of the ‘Cairo Now!’ exhibit and the Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial. Zayed’s other creative endeavours include film and music projects such as a documentary on travel and education produced by Axeer Studios and aired on Al Jazeera Documentary Channel in 2017.



Dr Huda Abifares is a renowned Arabic typography expert. She holds a PhD from Leiden Universityin Middle Eastern Studies, an MFA from Yale UniversitySchool of Art in Graphic Design and a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. She specialises in bilingual typographic research and design. She has worked as a designer for a number of years, in the US, Amsterdam, France and Beirut. She has taught typography and graphic design at the American University of Beirut. She was the Chair of the Visual Communication Department for three years at the American Universityin Dubai and founder of the Khatt Foundation, Center for Arabic Typography (Amsterdam).



French-Tunisian artist eL Seed blends the historic art of Arabic calligraphy with graffti to portray messages of beauty, poetry and peace around the world. His goal is to create dialogue and promote tolerance as well as change global perceptions of Arabic culture. In 2016, he created a sprawling mural in the Manshiyat Naser neighborhood of Cairo that spans 50 buildings and can only be viewed from a local mountaintop. Other examples of his work can be found in his book, Lost Walls: A Caligraffiti Journey through Tunisia.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Huda Abifares
Messages and Meaning by Noha Zayed & Basma Hamdy
Cairene Visual Culture by Ahmad Hammoud
Trucks: A Moving Canvas by Noha Zayed
Semiology of Arabic Letters by Muhammad El Mahdy
Interview: Perception with Elseed
Interview: The Bronze Inventor