Impressions from Cairo 2017

Kamal Manour is speaking about Dynamic view on Arabic script: “By surveying the history of Arabic script from its beginning to the present, we see a living system that has taken on a variety of styles over the centuries. Of course, a script comes alive only in the hands of creative people who move it in a new direction. In its earliest stages, Arabic writing appeared incised in rock in striking rectilinear form. When applied to scrolls later on, the lines softened and became curvaceous. While the superficial forms varied greatly, the core forms of the letters remained a constant foundation. Arabic script spread eastward and westward; in time, it was adapted to write a multitude of languages, stretching from Spain to India. In various cultural centers, calligraphers gave it a new local flavor. The styles that developed in Persia differed drastically from those of the Maghreb. Yet in the end, they all represent Arabic writing, born from the same core. In the present day, because we have immediate access to centuries of various styles, we can quickly forget that they developed and were perfected through the persistent work of human hands. With this rich history in mind, what sort of future do we foresee for Arabic script?”