One of the things we want this shop to do is introduce the people behind the work. Not a signature in the corner: a maker, with teachers, and a line of them going back. We are starting with Muhammad Hobe.
Hobe is a South African calligrapher who works in the classical tradition. He learned it the way it has always been learned, one letter at a time, corrected in person by a master, twice a week, for as long as it took. To do that he had to leave the country.
He is the first South African to be given an ijazah in Islamic calligraphy by the late Turkish master Hasan Çelebi. The ijazah is the licence to sign your own work. He holds the title of Calligrapher of the House of Mandela, has taught and exhibited across the Emirates, and was commissioned for the new Park Hyatt in Johannesburg. He lives in Istanbul and is still, by his own description, a student.
The long way round
Nearly twenty years, and a move to another continent.
In his own words
Asked why he could not simply have stayed and practised at home, his answer is about proximity, not resources.
“It is very important for a student to be able to visit his/her teacher regularly and to see the hand movements.”
There is no substitute for sitting in the room. The correction happens with the teacher's own hand on the page, in red, on the sheet you just wrote. Asked what a student actually needs, he lists three things: hard work, dedication, and respect for the teachers. He warns against shortcuts, and against rushing to produce finished pieces before the letters are ready.
“One has to work very hard to be a calligrapher.”
He tells students to enjoy the learning rather than chase output. In a craft where a single letter can take months to settle, that is not encouragement. It is the method.
Quotations from his interview with Scripts 'n' Scribes.
Reading the work
Islamic calligraphy is not one handwriting. Each script carries its own proportions and its own purpose. These are the three in this collection.
ثلث
One of the two scripts Hobe is licensed in. Tall, curved, deliberate, with roughly a third of each letter given to the sweeping stroke, which is where the name comes from. The script of mosque inscriptions, made to be read across a room. Look for long verticals standing like columns, with open curves beneath them.
جلي ثلث
Jali means clear, or large. Thuluth scaled up and composed as a picture: letters interlock, stack and overlap until the panel reads as one form. The hardest to compose, because every letter added changes the balance of everything already on the page. Most of the works below are in this hand.
نسخ
The second script in his ijazah, and the one the Qur'an itself is copied in. Small, even, quiet, built for legibility across hundreds of pages rather than for display. If you have read a printed mushaf, you have read Naskh. Look for a steady horizontal rhythm and very little ornament.
The same piece, five ways
More than people expect. The Shahadah, in each of the finishes we frame in South Africa.
لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللهِ
Jali Thuluth. Black ink on a naturally textured ground, the verticals rising in sequence so the panel reads as one movement rather than a row of words.
Choose a finish
The collection
Shown in the white frame so they can be compared. Open any one to read what it says.
A Hilya describes the appearance and character of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in words rather than image. Four medallions carry the names of the Rightly Guided Caliphs; across the lower centre runs “And We have not sent you, except as a mercy to all the worlds” (21:107). The most demanding format in the tradition: every panel has a fixed place, and the illumination has to be built around text that cannot move.
لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللهِ
from R1 850“There is no god worthy of worship except Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.” The repeated verticals give the composition its strength; the flowing forms beneath bring it back into balance.
The verse recited after prayer and before sleep, on Allah's oneness, His eternal life, and His authority over the heavens and the earth. Black on ivory, with gold floral illumination and a deep blue mount.
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ
from R2 000The verse repeated through Surah Ar-Rahman, each return pulling the reader back to gratitude. Gold on deep black, the strongest contrast in the collection.
وَأُفَوِّضُ أَمْرِي إِلَى اللَّهِ
from R1 600“And I entrust my affairs to Allah. Indeed, Allah is All-Seeing of His servants.” A piece about tawakkul: doing everything within your ability, then letting the outcome go.
وَلَسَوْفَ يُعْطِيكَ رَبُّكَ فَتَرْضَىٰ
from R1 750Revealed as reassurance to the Prophet ﷺ during a period of silence. A verse for uncertainty: what is coming is not limited to what can presently be seen.
O Preserver, O Protector: a reminder that protection comes from Allah alone. Black ink on a warm, aged-paper ground, in a wide landscape format made for the space above a sofa or a console.
Before you choose
A licence from a master calligrapher confirming that a student's hand has reached the standard, and permitting them to sign their own work. It is granted in named scripts, Hobe's in Thuluth and Naskh, and only after years of correction in person. There is no exam to sit, only a teacher's judgement.
Prints. Museum-quality reproductions of Muhammad Hobe's original compositions, made in partnership with him, on archival pigment inks and fine art paper.
Yes, a royalty on every sale. That is the whole point of the arrangement: the work should be reachable without cutting the person who made it out of it.
In South Africa, in five finishes: natural oak, white, black, mahogany and African walnut, with or without a white border.
Jali Thuluth rewards scale. The interlocking letters only resolve when the piece is big enough to step back from, so above a sofa or a bed, go larger than feels obvious. In an entrance, a study or a prayer space, a smaller sheet sits better.
Printed on fine paper, framed in South Africa, made with the artist.
See the collection