Author Liisa Ladouceur travels to North Africa for a brand new expertise with Intrepid to fulfill a grasp calligrapher in his studio and be taught the importance of this skilful script.
The pen makes a squeaking sound as I transfer it throughout the web page from proper to left. ‘Once more’, I’m gently inspired. Just some extra tries till my hand creates a strong mark of brown ink deemed the fitting measurement and form. It appears to be like like a easy outsized sprint, however it’s step one in studying to write down my identify in fancy Arabic script. I really feel a swell of delight at my tiny accomplishment. My hand repeats the transfer, this time working from prime to backside. ‘Voila’, says the teacher. ‘Now, we will work.’
I’m in a conventional dar (home) within the historic medina of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, studying the artwork of Arabic calligraphy.
My instructor is Hamza Chebbi, a 30-something effective artist and painter with a heat manner and mushy voice, who practises calligraphy each day. I, whereas a lifelong author, have by no means had what one might name nice penmanship. However I’ve lengthy admired the grace and glamour of calligraphy.
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Falling in love with letter writing
I’m the form of traveller that also sends bodily postcards dwelling. I romanticise the times after we nonetheless took our time with issues like writing letters. However the place I’m from in Canada, even writing by hand is turning into a misplaced artwork.
Right here in Tunisia, the place Arabic calligraphy dates again centuries, I discover practitioners like Hamza are conserving this lovely type of writing alive. On my Premium Tunisia journey with Intrepid, I’d come to note it in all places, from mosques and museums to its fashionable interpretation – a mix of calligraphy and graffiti, referred to as ‘calligrafitti’ – within the streets.
However first, the lesson. On the desk in entrance of us, Hamza spreads out his calligrapher’s instruments. Small pots of particular ink, he explains, are made with silk fibres – straightforward to switch and fast to dry. We use the brown one, his favorite color.
There’s additionally stack of straightforward pens, handmade from bamboo. He passes me one and I really feel a tinge of nervousness. I’ve held pens my complete life, however this one feels extra like chopsticks, awkward in my fingers. Like yoga instructor giving a slight adjustment to your posture, he rotates the pen and guides the angle till I’ve it good. I stab the nib into the inkwell and place it on the sleek white paper. Squeak, squeak. Slowly, with a lot laughter and humility, I discover a move.
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Cultural kudos from UNESCO
There are 47 completely different kinds of Arabic calligraphy, Hamza tells me, opening his notebooks full of beautiful texts written within the geometric Kufic, elaborate Thuluth and chic Diwani variations.
He first picked up the Diwani model whereas learning artwork at college within the coastal city of Nabeul, about 70 kilometres south of Tunis on the Mediterranean Sea. ‘After I was a child, I used to be at all times making sketches and drawing. After I learnt we might use it not solely to write down or learn, however to make use of the shapes to make work and graphic artwork, that’s after I fell in love with calligraphy.’
I just like the Diwani model, with its ornamental prospers. Hamza tells me the origins are Ottoman, from the sixteenth century, then factors upward to a shocking steel mild fixture and explains that the image etched in Diwani calligraphy is the Arabic phrase for ‘mild’. Ah, good.
Then I discover a repeating sample carved into the white partitions that encompass us. Earlier than, I may need mistaken this as a trellis of leaves, or pure abstraction, however now understand it’s the 99 names of Allah, a signature of Arabic design and structure.
It’s this mixture of custom and modernity that helped put Arabic calligraphy on UNESCO’s checklist of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2021.
‘That’s opened many doorways for calligraphy, to introduce this artwork that’s been going round 1600 years to the world’, says Hamza. ‘I’m pleased with it’.
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A script that spans centuries
The roots of Arabic calligraphy are sensible – a writing approach created to file vital Arabic language texts, such because the Qur’an. Over time, artists developed new kinds and innovated motifs to make use of in all types of mediums, from embroidery and wooden carving to summary artwork and graffiti.
At the moment, a gifted calligrapher could make good residing creating logos, signage, wedding ceremony invites and e book covers. I ask Hamza whether it is taught to younger individuals in colleges, both for creativity or as a profession prospect, and am stunned to be taught that it’s not. He says he’s working to alter that, growing a curriculum for elementary colleges in addition to these lessons for curious adults.
‘It’s not solely about writing,’ he says, of his love for educating. ‘It’s about sharing; it’s the connection within the second. You don’t must know find out how to learn it to really feel it.’
As we work on my class task, we discuss artwork. Arabic calligraphy is practised in lots of international locations, together with Morocco, Lebanon, Egypt and the UAE, however Tunisia can boast most of the world’s most well-known calligraphers. Like painter Nja Mahdaoui, an award-winning legend thought of the inventor of summary calligraphy; or muralist and sculptor eL Seed, whose large-scale avenue artwork has been displayed world wide, from the pyramids of Giza to the duomo in Milan.
‘You realize Cubism? Realism?’ Hamza asks. ‘Now we have Lettrism’. He reveals me a few of his personal work, a sequence which makes use of the shapes of the 28 letters from the Arabic alphabet, free of their linguistic constraints, to create particular person on a regular basis scenes. I realise I’ve seen Arabic calligraphy in artwork and structure for a very long time however by no means had the context for this visible language which being right here in Tunisia and speaking to an area artist brings.
Woke up to a brand new cultural language
I get right into a groove and eventually do handle to spell ‘Liisa’ in Arabic calligraphy: a symmetrical ‘swoosh’ with 4 small tooth and two dots under. It’s not good, however I feel it’s fairly. Hamza additionally presents me along with his skilled model: a lovely present.
Exiting the dar onto the slim streets of the medina, I spot my first calligraffiti on the aspect of a constructing beneath building. I realise my lesson hasn’t simply earned me a brand new ability and memento. It’s supplied me a special window into Tunisia’s tradition.
Later, when our group visits town of Kairouan, I bear in mind Hamza educating me in regards to the Kairouani model of calligraphy, utilized in vital non secular texts. Within the Bardo Museum in Tunis, after I spot pages from the famed Ninth-century Blue Qur’an, which many students imagine originated on this nation, I respect the delight through which Tunisians soak up displaying it. And within the seaside streets of Sidi Bou Mentioned, I look past the picturesque blue doorways to hunt out avenue artwork, the place calligraphy is used to show the general public sentiments of the day. I can’t learn any of it, however I can perceive that on this nation with such a wealthy historical past, the story continues to be written.
Grasp calligraphy on Intrepid’s Premium Tunisia journey and discover out what else is new for 2026 with The Items – a group of latest journeys and experiences to encourage a 12 months of journey.
