Ibrahim Abu Tawq
1958– · Amman
- Calligraphers
- Living
- Hurufiyya
Ibrahim Abu Tawq is a Palestinian artist and calligrapher born in Amman in 1958. He took a diploma in architecture at Wadi al-Sir in 1977 and also studied music and Arabic calligraphy. He worked as an architect, then headed the design department of a printing house in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, before returning to Jordan in the early 1990s to manage printing firms. His passion for calligraphy grew in the 1990s, and from 2002 he exhibited regularly. He studies the Arab heritage of architecture, music and writing, takes the inherited letter apart and builds it again; from this came a script of his own, the 'Petra script', in which letters become strict geometric blocks set in measured colour. Jordan's daily al-Rai called him one of the best-known innovators of modern Arabic calligraphy. He has won prizes in Dubai, Sharjah, the UAE's Burda award, Aramco and Tlemcen, and in 2021 the Cairo International Forum for Arabic Calligraphy named him a guest of honour.
Achievements
- Devised a geometric Arabic script he calls the 'Petra script' (khatt al-Batra').
- Solo exhibitions in Amman: Hyatt hotel (2003), French cultural centre (2007), National Library (2017).
- Prizes at the Dubai international exhibition (2009), the Burda award, UAE (2008, 2009, 2011), Sharjah (2010), Aramco (2010) and Tlemcen (2011).
- Guest of honour of the sixth Cairo International Forum for Arabic Calligraphy (2021), and honoured for it by Jordan's Minister of Culture.
His work
He is living, so his calligraphy is still under copyright and no works can be shown; no freely licensed photograph of him was found on Commons.
Write in the tradition this hand shaped.
Open Mashq Studio →Living calligraphers you can buy from — signed originals on paper, from AED 550: Anwar Alhulwani (Thuluth) · Ahmed Alhawary (Jali Thuluth, Naskh) · Rasha Kasim (Kufi).
Sources
- Arabic Wikipedia: birth, studies, career, Petra script, exhibitions, prizes ar.wikipedia.org
- al-Rai (2011): profile as a modern innovator 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).