Layla AlAmmar

Calligraphy as Identity: Defining Arabness in Script

When a line makes its way from a 1919 poem by Kahlil Gibran to a 1965 melody sung by Fairuz to a calligraphic piece by the Dubai-based artist Majid al-Yousef, who set the words down in the diwani script that goes back half a millennium — this is "Arabness."