L’équipe CallFront est heureuse d’avoir pu participer au dernier cahier de la Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée (Remmm) sur la thématique des études sur les mondes musulmans et les humanités numériques.
Continuer la lecture de « [Publication] – Décrire la calligraphie en caractères arabes : enjeux et méthodologies pour la constitution d’une base de données pour le projet CallFront »Auteur/autrice : callfront
[Video] Parole aux chercheurs – Umberto Bongianino
Experimenting with Maghribī Scripts: Meeting with the Moroccan Calligrapher Belaïd Hamidi
In November 2023, CallFront welcomed Umberto Bongianino, Assistant Professor at the Khalili Research Center in Oxford, in Paris, for a session on praxis focused on the study of the instruments used to write Maghribī mabsūṭ, and the techniques employed in Maghribī thuluth chrysography, as well as issues related to letter forms in epigraphic Maghribī thuluth and potential methods of transposing models. A few months later, in June 2024, Umberto Bongianino, Eloïse Brac de la Perrière, Nuria Garcia Masip and I traveled to Morocco to meet M. Belaïd Hamidi, a Moroccan calligrapher and expert in Maghribī script. Antoine Brendlen, the filmmaker associated with the CallFront project, accompanied and filmed the team throughout this visit, thereby fully documenting this scientific investigation as well as the calligraphic demonstrations performed by the artist.
This meeting took place in Fez, the calligrapher’s hometown and former capital of the Marinid dynasty (1244-1465), and it aimed to continue the documentation of the history of calligraphy in Arabic script in the Maghrib and to further explore the themes raised during the session on praxis and the international workshop. Belaïd Hamidi shared his expertise on Maghribī scripts as well as his professional considerations as a calligrapher regarding some ancient manuscripts and calligraphic inscriptions adorning the city’s monuments.

[Workshop CallFront] : 22-23 janvier 2025 – Calligraphie et inscriptions aux frontières du monde islamique

Le matériel épigraphique constitue une part non négligeable des calligraphies en caractères arabes. Beaucoup reste à explorer dans certaines régions où ces formes écrites ont souvent pris des significations spécifiques pouvant aller bien au-delà de leur message textuel. Cette rencontre est organisée en deux temps : une table-ronde réunira d’abord un chercheur, une calligraphe et un tailleur de pierre, dans un échange portant sur les modus operandi. Une journée d’études rassemblera ensuite archéologues, historiens de l’art et épigraphistes travaillant sur les inscriptions sur les rives de la mer Noire, la Péninsule Ibérique, et le monde indo-persan.
Continuer la lecture de « [Workshop CallFront] : 22-23 janvier 2025 – Calligraphie et inscriptions aux frontières du monde islamique »[Video] Parole aux calligraphes – Cheikh Hamou
[Video] Maghribi script – Discussion with master calligrapher Belaid Hamidi
[Video] Workshop – L’art de la calligraphie arabe de la péninsule Ibérique à l’Afrique de l’Ouest
International Workshop: Calligraphic practices from the Iberian Peninsula to West Africa
Between the 13th and the 17th of May 2024, CallFront hosted a week-long international workshop in Paris, focusing on calligraphic practices in the Iberian Peninsula, the Maghrib, and West Africa. This event brought together a panel of specialists in the field, who engaged with the scientific community of Paris and presented their work to a broader audience.
The workshop featured three major events, fostering the dialogue among scholars from diverse disciplines, such as History of Art, History, Paleography, and Anthropology. This interdisciplinary exchange enriched the CallFront corpus of scripts, and encouraged the advancement of research in these areas. Additionally, one of the goals of this workshop was to document some of the West African calligraphic traditions before they disappear, as they have in other regions.
West African manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale de France
The first event was held on May 14th at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, where the CallFront team was welcomed by Khalid Chakor Alami, in charge of the Persian and Arabic manuscript collections. This work session was led by Susana Molins Lliteras (University of Cape Town) and Mauro Nobili (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), who examined several West African manuscripts. The following manuscripts were given a particular attention: BnF Arabe 402[1], BnF Arabe 509[2], and BnF Arabe 6869[3].

[Seminar CallFront] – 15 oct. 2024 : Zulfikar Hirji & Sana Mirza
La prochaine séance du séminaire Calligraphies en caractères arabes aux frontières du monde islamique (CallFront) aura lieu le 15 octobre 2024, de 18h à 20h, à l’Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (Paris), salle Walter Benjamin :

Styling the Script: Calligraphy and Illumination in Eastern African Qur’an Manuscripts
Zulfikar Hirji (York University)
Sana Mirza (Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art)
Organisation : Eloïse Brac de la Perrière, Maxime Durocher
Continuer la lecture de « [Seminar CallFront] – 15 oct. 2024 : Zulfikar Hirji & Sana Mirza »
