Gateway to a Sacred Art: Islamic Calligraphy and Its Hidden Treasures
4-week online lecture series with Deniz Öktem Bektaş
Sept 13-oct 4 (4 Saturdays) | 10 am- 11 Am ET
$55 Full course | $15 Individual Sessions
Open to everyone | Recordings available for a limited time
Course Description
A 4-week lecture series with our instructor Deniz Öktem Bektaş exploring Islamic calligraphy in detail, from the history and evolution of the six main scripts to their use in manuscripts, mosque architecture, and other forms.
Each presentation will be followed by a Q and A session.
Class Schedule:
Week 1 (Sept 13)- Mustafa Halim Özyazıcı: A Prolific Master of the early Turkish Republic: We will learn about the life and work of one of the important masters of the 20th century.
Week 2 (Sept 20)- The Love for Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in Calligraphy: We will delve into the importance of the Hilye-i Sharif in written form in Islamic calligraphy. The Hilye-i-Sharif (Noble Hilye) is a beautiful and ornate calligraphy art form that embodies the moral, spiritual, and physical descriptions of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
Week 3 (Sept 27- Jali Thuluth: How to read complicated Jali Thuluth compositions and the signatures of calligraphers.
Week 4 (Oct 4)- Meet Significant Masters from the Past: Inspiring stories from the lives of past calligraphers
Instructor Bio
Deniz Öktem Bektaş was born in Holland in 1976. She graduated from ‘İmam-Hatip’ high-school in Istanbul in 1994. After completing her studies at the Department of English Literature at Boğaziçi University, she continued her graduate work at Georgetown University in the U.S.A. While working on her masters at the Department of Communication, Culture and Technology, she met Mohamed Zakariya with whom she started calligraphy lessons in riq’a and naskh. Coming back to Turkey at the end of 2002, she continued to take calligraphy lessons with Hasan Çelebi and Davut Bektaş in the scripts of riq’a, naskh and thuluth. In 2007, she obtained her ijaza in the naskh and thuluth scripts. She received encouragement awards in naskh at the 7th International Calligraphy Competition organized by IRCICA in 2007 and at the Calligraphy Biennial in Sharjah in 2008. In the national calligraphy competition conducted by the Presidency of Religious Affairs of Turkey (2015), she received 3rd prize in writing several pages from the Qur’an in the script of naskh. Mrs. Öktem has participated in exhibitions in Turkey and internationally, and continues her work alongside her husband, Davut Bektaş, in their studio in Istanbul.
For more information about her work, please visit her website: https://www.hattatdenizbektas.com/