Muhammad Amin Khayyata
1944–2024 · Aleppo
Muhammad Amin ibn Abd al-Rahman Khayyata was born in Aleppo on 7 May 1944 (15 Jumada I 1363 AH) into a family of religious scholars. At his father's direction he learned to write in the kuttab under Shaykh Badr al-Din Tama and the Aleppo calligrapher Ibrahim al-Rifa'i. He studied for four years as a boarder at the Asadiyya school, read the Qur'an with Muhammad Najib Khayyata, and also studied at the Sha'baniyya and Khusrawiyya schools. He became librarian of the waqf library in Aleppo and taught calligraphy, Arabic, literature and the law of inheritance at the Sha'baniyya school and in other schools and mosques, and he served as imam of the Mawazini mosque until the war destroyed it. He copied several Qur'ans and Sahih al-Bukhari in his own hand, as well as other manuscripts. He also wrote history: his handwritten Rashahat 'uyun al-hikma records his teachers and many Aleppo scholars, and he kept historical diaries of Aleppo and Syria. He died in Aleppo on 21 June 2024.
Achievements
- Learned calligraphy in the kuttab from Shaykh Badr al-Din Tama and the Aleppo calligrapher Ibrahim al-Rifa'i.
- Copied several Qur'ans and Sahih al-Bukhari by hand.
- Taught calligraphy, Arabic, literature and inheritance law at the Sha'baniyya school and other schools and mosques in Aleppo.
- Librarian of the waqf library of Aleppo and imam of the Mawazini mosque.
- Wrote in his own hand Rashahat 'uyun al-hikma, biographies of his teachers and Aleppo scholars.
Taught by: Badr al-Din Tama, Ibrahim al-Rifa'i
His work
He died in 2024, so his calligraphy is still under copyright and no works can be shown. No freely licensed photograph of him was found.
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, teachers, posts, manuscripts, death 21 June 2024 ar.wikipedia.org
- Nabd: death of the calligrapher and historian (cited by Arabic Wikipedia) nabd.com
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).