Uthman ibn Abduh ibn Husayn ibn Taha al-Halyabi (or Uthman Taha, ) is a Kazakh-Syrian-Saudi calligrapher of the Quran in the Arabic language renowned for hand-writing Mushaf al-Madinah issued by the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an.Ghawi, Ahmad.
Uthman Taha
, AlRiyadh newspaper, November 23, 2006. He was born in 1934 in Sandi, Çobanbey a rural area of

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' ) is one of the fourteen Governorates of Syria, governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of the t ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. Gaining a BA in Shari’ah from the

University of Damascus A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

, he also studied

Arabic language Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, Islamic decoration arts, and painting. He gained certification (Turkish icazet) in calligraphy from Hamid al-Amidi, the so-called master of calligraphers in the Islamic world. He was also taught calligraphy by Muhammad Ali al-Mawlawi, Ibrahim al-Rifa’i (Aleppo), Muhammad Badawi al-Derani (Damascus) and Hashim al-Baghdadi. He wrote his first

Mushaf ''Mushaf'' (, ; plural ) is an Arabic word for a codex or collection of sheets, but also refers to a written copy of the Quran. The chapters of the Quran, which Muslims believe was revealed during a 23-year period in Muhammad's lifetime, were wr ...

(written copy of the

Qur’an The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

) in 1970. In 1988 he travelled to

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

and was assigned a handwriter and calligrapher in the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an in

Madina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

. The same year he was made a member of the international jury for the Arabic Calligraphy Award which is held in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

once every three years. During the first 18 years of his life at the King Fahd Complex, Uthman hand-wrote four

Mus'haf ''Mushaf'' (, ; plural ) is an Arabic word for a codex or collection of sheets, but also refers to a written copy of the Quran. The chapters of the Quran, which Muslims believe was revealed during a 23-year period in Muhammad's lifetime, were wr ...

, more than 200 million copies of which were distributed worldwide. , he has hand-written 12 Maṣāḥif. A Muṣḥaf usually requires more than 3 years in writing and an additional year for proof-reading and reviewing. His beautiful, clear, easy-to-read style used in the Madina Muṣḥaf is also used in a commercial copy known as Mushaf al-Tajweed. He was granted Saudi citizenship in December 2021.

References

External links

The King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an

Biography/interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taha, Uthman 1934 births Living people People from Aleppo Syrian Sunni Muslims Syrian calligraphers Calligraphers of Arabic script Damascus University alumni 20th-century calligraphers Syrian emigrants to Saudi Arabia

See also

References

External links