Ahmed Moustafa became a well-known figurative painter in Egypt and came to London 35 years ago to pursue higher-level artistic studies. He came across an important article on the science of Arabic script which changed the nature of his art. He is currently working on a two-volume publication on the origins of the Arabic letter shape co authored by Dr Stefan Sperl.

Yacout Info: How would you describe your art?

Ahmed Moustafa: I am reluctant to call it”my art”; I would rather say I am the servant of the art of Arabic penmanship which is considered to be the prime art of Islam. Of course, as in any art, the artist has to be initially gifted and the gift is like a raw material. It is like an unopened package and in order to know what is in the package you have to unpack it to find the treasured gift and to understand the components, the science of the art. All great ancient civilizations looked at the artist differently from modern times, where the artist is almost seen as entertainer. In ancient Egypt, ancient Babylon or Greece the artist is the priest of the art. Those that challenged Moses were the priests of the art of Ancient Egypt.

In Arabic the word “Sahaara” literally means the magicians. The priests are described as magicians because they mesmerise their audience by the eye or the ear with illusions. In reality, when the Egyptians actually challenged Moses, according to the limits of their knowledge illusory techniques at the time and Moses through down his staff, they realized that his powers exceeded their own human magic by far. They realized that he was truly a messenger of God and they protested prostrated themselves before him. The whole encounter here is about art. All messengers from God have a sign entrusted to them and that sign is in itself an art, a divine art. The same process was followed with Moses, Jesus, and finally Mohammed. Every messenger has to come with his art that challenges the best art of his community.   

The art of penmanship in Islam is considered the highest form of art in Islam. Europeans and orientalists writers have suggested that this was because pictoral images of people and animals were forbidden by Islam but this is not true. If you look at certain aspects of horsemanship where the horse and horsemen are illustrated in manuscripts. The point is that the artist is encouraged not to illustrate something beyond his imagination and not to base his art on conjectures such as what the Archangel Gabriel looked like. Islam reveres prophets or holy people for their teaching not an imaginary image of what they were like. The artist should not concern himself with matters he has no knowledge of.

Y.I: Does that preclude the use of the artist’s imagination?
I am reluctant to call it”my art”; I would rather say I am the servant of the art of Arabic penmanship which is considered to be the prime art of Islam. Of course, as in any art, the artist has to be initially gifted and the gift is like a raw material. It is like an unopened package and in order to know what is in the package you have to unpack it to find the treasured gift and to understand the components, the science of the art. All great ancient civilizations looked at the artist differently from modern times, where the artist is almost seen as entertainer. In ancient Egypt, ancient Babylon or Greece the artist is the priest of the art. Those that challenged Moses were the priests of the art of Ancient Egypt.

In Arabic the word “Sahaara” literally means the magicians. The priests are described as magicians because they mesmerise their audience by the eye or the ear with illusions. In reality, when the Egyptians actually challenged Moses, according to the limits of their knowledge illusory techniques at the time and Moses through down his staff, they realized that his powers exceeded their own human magic by far. They realized that he was truly a messenger of God and they protested prostrated themselves before him. The whole encounter here is about art. All messengers from God have a sign entrusted to them and that sign is in itself an art, a divine art. The same process was followed with Moses, Jesus, and finally Mohammed. Every messenger has to come with his art that challenges the best art of his community.   

The art of penmanship in Islam is considered the highest form of art in Islam. Europeans and orientalists writers have suggested that this was because pictoral images of people and animals were forbidden by Islam but this is not true. If you look at certain aspects of horsemanship where the horse and horsemen are illustrated in manuscripts. The point is that the artist is encouraged not to illustrate something beyond his imagination and not to base his art on conjectures such as what the Archangel Gabriel looked like. Islam reveres prophets or holy people for their teaching not an imaginary image of what they were like. The artist should not concern himself with matters he has no knowledge of.

Y.I: Does that preclude the use of the artist’s imagination?  
A.M: No! Not all. It is quite the reverse, if the artist paints one version of the Archangel Gabriel his imagination is locked on that one image.

Y.I: How did you begin your life as an artist?

A.M: I started as a pictorial artist and this was a fascinating transformation. I achieved the highest distinction in Egypt as a pictorial and figurative artist. At that time, I didn’t really realize why I was a Muslim. As I said before I was like someone carrying a package without knowing what was inside it. Fine art colleges in Egypt at that time were following a western culture, which was neither Islamic nor Egyptian. That proved later to be a great advantage for me in helping to define my artistic role.

Y.I: Was this teaching of art in Egypt at the time due to ideological reasons such as Nasser’s Arab socialism policies? 
I started as a pictorial artist and this was a fascinating transformation. I achieved the highest distinction in Egypt as a pictorial and figurative artist. At that time, I didn’t really realize why I was a Muslim. As I said before I was like someone carrying a package without knowing what was inside it. Fine art colleges in Egypt at that time were following a western culture, which was neither Islamic nor Egyptian. That proved later to be a great advantage for me in helping to define my artistic role.

Y.I: Was this teaching of art in Egypt at the time due to ideological reasons such as Nasser’s Arab socialism policies? 
A.M: This was not a matter of Egypt it occurred in many developing countries. Especially in the Islamic world where art students were influence by modernism, cubism and different schools of art and modernity. When I came to England to study for my higher degree as a painter. I had finished my degree and was about to return to Egypt and just by pure coincidence, I came across an article about the proportions of Arabic script by Ibn  Muqla the Abbasid Wazir,  who actually was the reason behind the transition of the linear Kufic rigid   Arabic script to its cursive state which we use today. After that, I was engaged in some research, which took me to another MA and PHD initially, St Martin’s College of Art, Design, and the first PHD awarded by that College. Was done there in conjunction with the British Museum. I came to realize that the Muslim scholars from more than 1,000 years ago came across a most sophisticated system by which they were able to actually give the 28 Arabic characters an exact proportion to each other on due measures and proportion so that in the process of writing itself mirrors the exact creation of man himself. They recognized a measuring unit called dot. That dot measures the surface area of the first letter, then all the other letters have to be aligned in proportion to Alif (the initial letter).

So after encountering this level of sophistication , I felt this was by far the most elevated way to express oneself in an absolute field , but at the same time in itself  it is with the signs and rich vocabulary it contains an additional meaning in the audio and visual level. The art is very visual in my paintings but knowledge of Arabic is not a prerequisite to appreciating it.