Renowned Islamic calligraphy artist and VCUQatar Joint Advisory Board member Mohamed Zakariya was recently commissioned by U.S. President Barack Obama to create a gift of calligraphy for King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia. Zakariya has been represented exclusively by Linearis Institute since 2005.
The commissioned gift is a work of Islamic calligraphy in Arabic Sulus script with ink and gold on Ahar paper with Ebru borders and backing, created on June 2, 2009 for the occasion of President Obama’s visit to the Middle East. The gift was presented to King Abdullah shortly after President Obama’s arrival on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, when the two leaders met privately at King Abdullah’s farm. Taken from the Qur’an (Chapter 49:Verse 13), the English translation of the script reads:
“O people, we created you from the same male and female, and rendered you distinct peoples and tribes, that you may recognize one another. The noblest among you in God’s sight is the most conscientious of you. God is All-Knowing, All-Aware.”
In echoing King Abdullah’s important calls for interfaith and intercultural dialogue, President Obama included this quote from the Qur’an in his speech at Cairo University in Egypt on Thursday, June 4.
Commenting on this historic occasion, Linearis co-principal and managing director Suleyman Cooke has remarked, “The profound power of art has played a key role in the President delivering his message of inclusion. Like many times in the past, art was used as an instrument of change, in this case, positive change. We are deeply appreciative for the opportunity to be part of history and the promotion of the President’s positive message to the greater Muslim world.”
In response to the President’s commission, master calligrapher and artist Mohamed Zakariya has expressed, “I am deeply honored that President Obama chose my work as part of his historic initiative to open new doors between America and the Muslim world. I believe Islamic art can be a fitting ambassador of much-hoped-for policy change.”
Mohamed Zakariya is an American master of Islamic calligraphy. With no formal education, Zakariya learned his trades in aerospace-industry machine shops; in the Los Angeles atelier of Oscar Meyer, the French impresario of antiques and objects de virtu; at the British Museum; and at Istanbul’s Research Center for Islamic Art, History, and Culture, where he earned two licenses in Islamic calligraphy—the first Westerner to do so. Since settling in the Washington, D.C., area in 1972, Zakariya has traveled frequently to Turkey and the Persian Gulf and has exhibited and lectured extensively in this country and abroad. Known for his design of the “Eid Greetings” U.S. postage stamp, he concentrates primarily on classical Arabic and Ottoman Turkish calligraphy.
