A dialogue session took place today, Tuesday, at the "Bidayatina" Association in the Bab Sharqi district of Damascus, discussing the experience of Syrian artist and calligrapher Monir Al-Shirani in developing Arabic calligraphy and exploring its aesthetic horizons, in cooperation with "Atlas" and "Mamdouh Adwan" publishing houses, and in the presence of a group interested in visual arts and Arabic calligraphy.
The session, moderated by critic Muhyi al-Din Malik, was based on Al-Shirani's recently published book titled "A Contemporary Artistic Vision for Arabic Calligraphy," which presents an intellectual and artistic vision that treats the letter as an independent compositional element, focusing on Al-Shirani's artistic career based on studying the aesthetic origins of Arabic scripts and re-reading historical models.
Reviving "Nishapuri Script" and Moving from Heritage to Experimentation
Al-Shirani presented his experience in searching for the "Nishapuri script" during the session, explaining that he found an old page containing limited examples of its letters, which attracted his attention with their compositional richness, prompting him to study their characteristics and complete their structural construction according to the logic of the script itself to make it usable in new artistic works.
He emphasized that renewal does not mean abandoning roots or disconnecting from heritage, but rather relies on understanding and absorbing its characteristics to launch into contemporary expressive and aesthetic possibilities, stressing the importance of distinguishing between calligraphy as a craft and calligraphy as a visual art based on experimentation and innovation.
A Book Summarizing the Approach to Renewal
The book "A Contemporary Artistic Vision for Arabic Calligraphy" summarizes Al-Shirani's experience in studying Arabic scripts, developing them, and rediscovering some of their models, combining theoretical vision with practical works through more than a hundred calligraphic panels illustrating his work on multiple scripts such as Kufic, Maghrebi, and Andalusian.
The book was published in 2025 in Arabic with translations into English, French, and Spanish as part of a joint publishing project, presenting Arabic calligraphy as an independent art within visual arts. In a statement to SANA, Al-Shirani clarified that the book summarizes his experience in research and development.
An Extended Career Between Academic Design and Artistic Practice
Artist Monir Al-Shirani was born in the city of Salamiyah in 1952, and began learning calligraphy at an early age under the calligrapher Badawi Al-Dairani. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Damascus University in 1977 with a specialization in decorative design and advertising, dedicating his career to developing Arabic calligraphy and expanding its presence in visual arts.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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