Mamduh al-Sharif
1885–1934 · Damascus
Mamduh al-Sharif was born in Damascus into a family of sharifs; Arabic Wikipedia gives 1304 AH, which it renders as both 1885 and 1886. When the Ottoman calligrapher Yusuf Rasa came to Damascus to write the inscriptions of the Umayyad Mosque after the fire of 1893, Mamduh stayed close to him and received his ijaza. He also learned thuluth, the kinds of kufic, diwani, ta'liq and ruq'ah from Musa al-Chalabi, and ta'liq from Mustafa al-Siba'i and Persian scribes passing through on pilgrimage. He opened a studio in Suq Midhat Pasha and taught in many Damascus schools, among them Maktab Anbar, cutting reed pens for whole classes himself. He also served as handwriting expert to the courts. His thuluth, which bends letter proportions to suit the composition, came to be called the Mamduhi style, and his work was sought from Iraq and the Hijaz. His pupils included Badawi al-Dirani and Hilmi Habbab. He died of pneumonia in Damascus in 1934 and was buried in the Bab al-Saghir cemetery.
Achievements
- Received an ijaza from the Ottoman calligrapher Yusuf Rasa, who had come to Damascus to write the inscriptions of the restored Umayyad Mosque (Arabic Wikipedia).
- Developed a personal manner of thuluth, known in Damascus as the 'Mamduhi style' (Arabic Wikipedia).
- Taught calligraphy in Damascus schools, among them Maktab Anbar and the Kamiliyya school, and served as handwriting expert to the Damascus courts (Arabic Wikipedia).
- Ranked among the leaders in a calligraphy competition held by King Fuad in Egypt (Arabic Wikipedia).
- Published a series of calligraphy copybooks in the 1930s (Arabic Wikipedia).
Taught by: Yusuf Rasa, Musa al-Chalabi, Mustafa al-Siba'i
Taught: Muhammad Badawi al-Dirani, Hilmi Habbab
His work
1931 · private collection (gift to the calligrapher Ahmad al-Zinati)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
1351 AH (1932) · unknown
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
1351 AH (1932) · unknown
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
1930 · Damascus
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
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 (citing Adham al-Jundi, Ali al-Tantawi, Zafir al-Qasimi): life, teachers, pupils, schools, style, death ar.wikipedia.org
- Commons: signed works and portrait commons.wikimedia.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).