Abd al-Jalil Ilyan
1966– · Manbij
Abd al-Jalil Ilyan is a Syrian calligrapher and poet, born in Manbij in 1966. He graduated from the intermediate institute of printing in Damascus in 1991 and holds a degree in Arabic language and literature from the University of Tripoli in Lebanon. From 1986 he worked as a calligrapher for the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums in Damascus. His strongest scripts are ta'liq (the Persian hanging script) and jali diwani: he won prizes for ta'liq and jali ta'liq at IRCICA's Ibn al-Bawwab competition in Istanbul in the early 1990s, and first and second prizes for jali diwani at the Abd al-Hamid al-Katib competitions in Raqqa in 2002 and 2003. He has shown work in Aleppo, Damascus, Sharjah, Cairo, Tehran and Beijing, and in the touring exhibitions of the Ruler of Sharjah's collection in Paris and Andalusia. Besides panels for mosques and homes, he has designed hundreds of logos, book covers and titles. His poetry won the al-Buhturi prize in Manbij in 2006. Among his students are Haydar al-Muhammad and Abd al-Basit Ilyan.
Achievements
- Prizes in ta'liq and jali ta'liq at IRCICA's Ibn al-Bawwab international competition, Istanbul (1993/1994).
- First prize in jali diwani at the first Abd al-Hamid al-Katib competition, Raqqa (2002), and second prize at the second (2003).
- Worked as a calligrapher at the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums in Damascus from 1986.
- Took part in the first Sharjah International Calligraphy Biennial (2004) and in exhibitions in Paris, Seville, Beijing and Tehran.
- Works held by the Syrian Ministry of Culture, the Sharjah Art Museum and IRCICA.
Taught: Haydar al-Muhammad, Abd al-Basit Ilyan
His work
He is living, so his calligraphy is not shown; no free photograph of him was found on Wikimedia Commons.
Write in the tradition this hand shaped.
Write in this tradition now →Living calligraphers you can buy from — signed originals on paper, from AED 550: Anwar Alhulwani (Thuluth) · Ahmed Alhawary (Jali Thuluth, Naskh) · Rasha Kasim (Kufi) — or every Nastaliq piece the store makes: Nastaliq collection.
Sources
- birth 1966 Manbij, studies, career, exhibitions, prizes, collections, students ar.wikipedia.org
Written by the MASHQ studio · last updated 2026-10-05. Further reading, the standard references in English: Sheila S. Blair, Islamic Calligraphy (Edinburgh University Press, 2006) · Annemarie Schimmel, Calligraphy and Islamic Culture (New York University Press, 1984) · Yasin Hamid Safadi, Islamic Calligraphy (Thames and Hudson, 1978).