Making of a master calligrapher

He's a septuagenarian who spends his rather routine days with his poetess wife. Their day starts with the newspaper before each of them spend the afternoon in their respective home studios, ending the day with dinner, a good read or the television. A pleasing life indeed. But behind the closed doors of his studio, Mohamed Zakariya, a pre-eminent specialist in Islamic calligraphy churns out beautiful works of art, some commissioned by the former US President Barack Obama and the US Postal Service.

His commissions by Obama were presented to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Abdullah bin Abdal-Aziz Al Saud, King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on his visit to the country in June 2009. About the calligraphic work in the Sulus script done in ink and gold on Ahar paper with Ebru borders and backing, Zakariya says, "There won't be anything like that for a while." He also created postage stamps in the 'Holiday Celebrations' series for the US Postal Service, in 2001, 2011 and 2013. Commemorating Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, the Eid stamps were first issued in 2001 and were created in the thuluth script.

Zakariya's story dates back to 1961 when after a trip to Morocco, the then 19-year-old machinist from Los Angeles decided to convert to Islam and teach himself Arabic. An enquiry at an Oriental rug dealer's store, during an afternoon walk, was the beginning of his life-long relationship with Arabic calligraphy. Self-taught for a while with the help of libraries and knowledgeable friends, Zakariya travelled to Istanbul in 1983, to study the Sulus and Nesih scripts with master calligrapher Hasan Celebi, and the Talik script with the late master calligrapher Ali Alparslan, both of whom continue to inspire him. "Although most of my lessons were exchanged by mail, I visited Istanbul as often as I could. I received my icazet (license) in Sulus and Nesih in 1988 and in Talik in 1997," says Zakariya, who was a slapstick comedian in London for a couple of years in the late 1960s.

Zakariya also has one-on-one calligraphy sessions with small groups of students at his home near Washington, D.C. "We meet every other week for tea and discussion. During that time, I go over each student's work individually. I don't do correspondence courses," he says.

As for his own work, Zakariya does the entire process himself, from preparing the paper with a coating of egg white to drafting and completing the calligraphy, as well as working on the tezhip (illumination), which often includes the application of gold leaf. He has made many of his own tools, including agate burnishers for the paper, and brass rollers used to imprint designs on a narrow gold border. "I make ebru (marbled paper), which I use to border some pieces. I have also made my own ink from soot, but generally use commercial inks. As for pens, the best are reeds from Iran," says Zakariya, highlighting the importance of selecting the right sized pen for each script and cutting the nib at the correct angle. The finished piece is laminated onto a many-layered paper backing, illuminated, and burnished again.

Zakariya works with Andalusian and North African calligraphy, but concentrates primarily on classical Arabic and Ottoman Turkish calligraphy. "One must study the great 19th and 20th century Ottoman calligraphers for inspiration and guidance, because no other Islamic culture puts such deep emphasis on the art. Critics, customers and artists all consult each other," he says.

While handwritten calligraphy is slowly being replaced with computer fonts, the results, he says, are starkly different from the original. That said, there is no denying that the rise of printing has put many professional calligraphers out of work. "I don't recommend trying to make a living from calligraphy, but I can't imagine doing anything else myself," says the artist.