Arabic Genie » Arabic Calligraphy

Arabic Calligraphy – Inner Wealth Is Better Than Other Wealth

ArabicGenie — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:27:21 +0000

Arabic calligraphy of the proverb “inner wealth is better than other (types) of wealth”:

غنى النفس أفضل من غنى المال

ghinaa an-nafs afDal min ghinaa al-maal

Arabic Proverb: Inner Wealth Is Better Than Other Wealth

Beauty of the Soul – Calligraphy

ArabicGenie — Wed, 19 May 2010 11:17:06 +0000

In a comment on one of my blog posts on Arabic tattoos a reader suggested that

جمال الروح djamaal ar-rooH (beauty of the soul)

might be a good phrase for a tattoo. I like this phrase and have created a calligraphic design of it below:

If you are interested in getting a calligraphic tattoo design, please contact me for a quote. For simpler designs please take a look at this page here.

Mysterious Arabic Calligraphy #2

ArabicGenie — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:01:02 +0000

Firdaus sent me the following picture with the request to identify the Arabic writing in this tattoo:

The writing is an artistic calligraphic rendering of on top:

حب (Hubb)

and on bottom:

سلام (salaam)

which mean “love” and “peace” respectively. Confusingly, the dot that belongs to the letter baa’ is placed under the meem for what I guess are aesthetic reasons.

Arabic Calligraphy Design: Poetess

ArabicGenie — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 12:00:39 +0000

Recently, I received a request from a potential client for a crescent-shaped tattoo design of “poetess” (woman poet). The order didn’t materialize in the end but I went ahead and did a preliminary design anyways.

Here is the result:

In plain text:

شاعرة

Note that a lot of this calligraphic tattoo design consists of decorative elements and the ‘ayn is written in its full form for aesthetic reasons.

Heart Of The Ocean – Arabic Calligraphy

ArabicGenie — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:05:59 +0000

Apparently, the “Heart of the Ocean” is a fictional blue diamond used in the film Titanic (though I must confess I have never seen the movie). One of my readers requested a design for this name, so I made one right here:

In plain text: قلب المحيط (qalb al-muHeeT).

Mysterious Arabic Calligraphy

ArabicGenie — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:21:05 +0000

Today I received an e-mail from a reader of this blog who is struggling to decipher a piece of Arabic calligraphy. Here are the picture and the e-mail:

Hi

I’m planning on getting a tattoo. I have found this design but I don’t know what it says. I have even asked my mother who is a native arabic speaker, but because of the calligraphy style its really difficult to read even though you can differentiate the letters. I would really appreciate if you could take a look.

Thanks very much, look forward to hearing from you

Well, I’ll admit that it took me a few minutes myself to figure out what the writing says, not least because I was misled by my knowledge of Persian and suspected that part of the writing read خوب – “good”. However, it then dawned on me that the writing is divided horizontally, with the upper word reading خور (khawr) and the lower دبي (dubay). Below I have coloured the upper word red and the lower word blue:

Hence, the calligraphic writing refers to خور دبي (khawr dubay), or “Dubai Creek” in English – a famous geographical landmark in Dubai.

New Life – Arabic Calligraphy

ArabicGenie — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:35:14 +0000

Here are five calligraphies I made of حياة جديدة (Hayaat djadeeda), or “new life”.

New Life No. 1:

New Life No. 2:

New Life No. 3:

New Life No. 4:

New Life No. 5:

Love Hate Calligraphy

ArabicGenie — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:02:33 +0000

Through Tarek Atrissi’s excellent blog I cam accross this piece of Arabic calligraphy here that says “love hate” in Arabic:

Love Hate Calligraphy

The design is written with ornamental decorations. What some might disregard as doodles underneath the writings actually consists of a repetition of exactly the same two words – “love hate”.

I really like this calligraphy and it inspired me to attempt my own design of the “love hate” dichotomy in Arabic. The result is this:

Love-Hate Arabic Calligraphy Design

The word for “hate” – الكراهية – is flipped horizontally to indicate that it’s the flip-side of love – الحب. The two words “cross swords” by crossing letters: the raa’ of الكراهية and the laam of الحب, indicating the intertwined nature of the two emotions.