For centuries, the Quran’s centrality to the Muslim faith has led people across the Islamic world to turn scripture into works of art. As sociologist Mustapha Hashim Kurfi writes, in Hausa communities of northern Nigeria, calligraphy is deeply valued both as part of Islamic scholarship and as gorgeous embellishment for everything from building walls to horse blankets.
Kurfi writes that calligraphy has been among the most important art forms in the Islamic world since Islam’s early decades. Muslim traders and missionaries began traveling to Hausa lands in the twelfth century, and much of the society gradually converted to Islam. In the process, it adopted and adapted calligraphy from Arab societies for both sacred and secular purposes.
Hausa already had a strong bureaucracy and class divisions before the arrival of Islam. But soon Islamic scholars became recognized as the second-highest status group, ranking below aristocrats but above the merely wealthy. The scholars included a variety of specialists, including experts in the text of the Quran, jurisprudence, and calligraphy.
Today, calligraphy remains part of northern Nigeria’s scholarly traditions. Kurfi profiles one modern master calligrapher from the city of Kano, Sharu Mustapha Bala Gabari. Mustapha comes from a family of Islamic scholars and calligraphers. For his work, he has learned various Arabic scripts and Ajami—a script derived from Arabic used to write many African languages—as well as color theory and methods of producing certain inks from ingredients including charcoal, millet, and the bark of certain trees.
Calligraphers like Mustapha produce sacred work, such as copies of the Quran, books of religious poetry, and amulets. But they also create decorative work for clothes, walls, calabash bowls, and many other objects. The artists may use Arabic writing or Ajami.
Kurfi writes that Mustapha has incorporated many different traditions into his work. He studies design used in architecture, embroidery, henna designs, and other diverse fields. He also teaches students who may go on to work in any of those areas. For example, many female students work in henna design, which in Hausa society is only practiced by women.
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Another influence on Mustapha and his students is modern geometry, a field that meshes well with the Islamic mathematics that help inform traditional calligraphy.
“Both fields of creativity share common methods and dispositions,” Kurfi writes. “They equally demand clarity of vision, precision of thought and considerable organizing capabilities.”
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For their clients, Mustapha and his students make everything from copies of sacred texts to wedding souvenirs, each made with a specific client in mind. He rarely repeats a design.
While Mustapha incorporates designs originally created for religious purposes into work done for purely aesthetic purposes, he tells Kurfi that he views all his work as part of fulfilling a religious obligation: the requirement to use his God-given creativity and talent in a humble and ethical way.
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