Fatima al-Baqqali
1974–2024 · Dubai
Fatima Sa'id al-Baqqali was born in Dubai on 1 January 1974. She loved writing from primary school and studied at the Institute of Arabic Calligraphy and Islamic Art from 1994 to 1998, then trained at the Sharjah centre for calligraphy until 2001, first in the Arab manner of Hashim al-Baghdadi. From 2002 to 2005 she studied Kufic, thuluth and ornament with the Iraqi calligrapher Salah al-Din Shirzad. On the initiative of the Ruler of Sharjah she went to Istanbul, where she studied with Hasan Çelebi and Davut Bektaş from 2005 to 2009, and learned illumination as well. In 2008 she received an ijaza in thuluth and naskh, and in 2010 one in diwani and jali diwani from Hasan Çelebi, which made her the first Emirati and Gulf woman to be licensed in calligraphy in Turkey. She won the Al Owais prize for young artists four times, worked for ten years at the Dubai Calligraphy Centre organising exhibitions, and had a studio in Sharjah's calligraphers' houses. She died on 27 March 2024.
Achievements
- Diploma with distinction from the Institute of Arabic Calligraphy and Islamic Art (1994-1998), then training at the Sharjah calligraphy centre until 2001.
- Ijaza in thuluth and naskh from Hasan Çelebi, Davut Bektaş, Ferhat Kurlu and Ayten Tiryaki, 2008.
- Ijaza in diwani and jali diwani from Hasan Çelebi under IRCICA, 2010: the first Emirati and Gulf woman with calligraphy ijazas from Turkey.
- Al Owais award for young artists in calligraphy four times (2002, 2003, 2005, 2008), and first prize for calligraphy in the Emirati Women's Award for Arts and Literature (2004).
- Projects executive at the Dubai Calligraphy Centre (2008-2018) and coordinator of the Dubai International Calligraphy Exhibition.
- Honoured by the sixth Cairo International Forum for Arabic Calligraphy, 2021.
Taught by: Salah Shirzad, Hasan Çelebi, Davut Bektaş, Ferhat Kurlu, Ayten Tiryaki
Her work
She died in 2024, so her calligraphy is still under copyright and no works can be shown. Her portrait on Arabic Wikipedia is a local non-free file and cannot be reused.
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 Thuluth piece the store makes: Thuluth collection.
Sources
- Arabic Wikipedia: birth, training, teachers, ijazas, work, prizes, death ar.wikipedia.org
- English Wikipedia: dates, ijazas, awards en.wikipedia.org
- Ketebe artist page ketebe.org
- Emarat Al Youm on the 2010 ijaza emaratalyoum.com
- Al Owais Foundation obituary web.archive.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).