Mohamed Zakariya

Linearis Institute, California (acquired directly from the artist)

Condition: This work is in very good condition.
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Allah huwa, La ilaha ill Allah Muhamad-ur Rasul Allah (He is God, there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet)

"Because calligraphy isn't bound by the need to represent objective reality, it's free from the cultural and political constraints associated with the pictorial arts. This sets the calligrapher free and, at the same time, adds new constraints. This constant tension between constraint, tradition, and standards makes Islamic calligraphy neither a representational art nor an abstract one but something entirely other—a living, evolving art of the word, of meaning itself."

Mohamed Zakariya

There In No Divinity Except God is a rare and important example of a contemporary calligraphic master working in time-honoured style.

Following a visit to the Middle East as a teenager, the American Mohammed Zakariya became fascinated with middle-eastern culture and is today recognised as one of the greatest living masters of traditional calligraphy and the preeminent ambassador of the Arabic script to the United States. He is also the first western calligrapher to be awarded two licenses in calligraphy from the Istanbul Research Centre for Islamic Art, History and Culture, one of the most highly regarded institutions of its type in the Islamic world. 

Zakariya's fine hand has been developed in the long-established tradition of practise, scholarship and apprenticeship. Engaging the various styles of calligraphy found across the region, Zakariya's dedication to calligraphic institution can be seen throughout his oeuvre.  In There Is No Divinity Except God the calligrapher exhibits his mastering of calligraphy in the perfect geometry and proportions of his letter forms, the customary illumination that he produces himself and to great effect by creating different impressions of colour, texture and richness, and even marbling his own paper in the manner of the Turkish ebru tradition.