Aleppo: Calligraphers
Date: before 1181
The Raqqan-born, Hashim ibn Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahid al-Hanafi (also known as Shaykh Abu Tahir; d. 577/1181) worked in Aleppo as the khatīb of the Umayyad mosque. He is recorded as having worked as a scribe in the style of the famous Iraq calligrapher, Ibn al-Bawwab (d. c. 1022). See also: Engraver of seal rings; Engraver of inscribed plaques; Inlayers of metalwork.
Citation: James, David, ‘Qurʾans and Calligraphers of the Ayyubids and Zangids’, in Robert Hillenbrand and Sylvia Auld (eds), Ayyubid Jerusalem: The Holy City in Context, 1187-1250 (London: Altajir Trust, 2009), p. 354.
Date: 1186-1213
Sharaf al-ʿAlaʾ al-Amidi al-Katib (d. 642/1244-45) was a native of Amid who worked in the chancery of the Ayyubid ruler of Aleppo, al-Malik al-Zahir (r. 1186-1213). See also: Engraver of seal rings; Engraver of inscribed plaques; Inlayers of metalwork.
Citation: James, David, ‘Qurʾans and Calligraphers of the Ayyubids and Zangids’, in Robert Hillenbrand and Sylvia Auld (eds), Ayyubid Jerusalem: The Holy City in Context, 1187-1250 (London: Altajir Trust, 2009), p. 355.
Date: before 1230-31
Muhammad ibn Hibatallah ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Jarada Abu Ghanim al-Hanafi was born in Aleppo and worked in the style of the famous Iraqi calligrapher, Ibn al-Bawwab (d. c. 1022). He was in the habit of copying a Qurʾan each year during Ramadan. See also: Engraver of seal rings; Engraver of inscribed plaques; Inlayers of metalwork.
Citation: James, David, ‘Qurʾans and Calligraphers of the Ayyubids and Zangids’, in Robert Hillenbrand and Sylvia Auld (eds), Ayyubid Jerusalem: The Holy City in Context, 1187-1250 (London: Altajir Trust, 2009), p. 354.
Date: mid-thirteenth century
ʿUmar ibn Ahmad ibn Hibatallah ibn Muhammad ibn Hibatallah ibn Ahmada Kamal al-Din al-Sahib ibn al-ʿAdim al-ʿUqayli (d. 666/1268) was a calligrapher who came from a family of judges in Aleppo. He wrote in the style of the famous Iraqi, Ibn al-Bawwab (d. c. 1022), and composed influential treatises on the calligraphy. He left Syria for Cairo because of the Mongol invasions in the late 1250s. See also: Engraver of seal rings; Engraver of inscribed plaques; Inlayers of metalwork.
Citation: James, David, ‘Qurʾans and Calligraphers of the Ayyubids and Zangids’, in Robert Hillenbrand and Sylvia Auld (eds), Ayyubid Jerusalem: The Holy City in Context, 1187-1250 (London: Altajir Trust, 2009), p. 355.