Haji Noor Deen Mi Guang Jiang’s calligraphy work is on permanent display at the British Museum, one of the oldest and most prestigious exhibition and archival spaces in the world. His piece, Ninety Nine Names of Allah, became a permanent part of the museum’s Islamic Art section in 2005 — a rare distinction that artists everywhere crave for.

The Islamic identity of Jiang’s calligraphy, in spite of the fact that he does not belong to a Muslim-majority country, is so pronounced that his work cannot be lumped together with other exhibits from his native country, China. And his output is of such high quality that those familiar with the millennium-old tradition of calligraphy in Islam can ignore his work’s peculiar beauty and distinct character only at their own intellectual peril. That easily explains why many prominent art museums across the world –apart from the British Museum – have exhibited his work in recent years. These include the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the National Museum of Scotland and the Harvard Art Museums at the Harvard University.

The Islamic identity of Jiang’s calligraphy, in spite of the fact that he does not belong to a Muslim-majority country, is so pronounced that his work cannot be lumped together with other exhibits from his native country, China.

Born in 1963 in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, Jiang did a course in Arabic calligraphy in Egypt when he was quite young. He does a lot of his work in what is known as Sini style of calligraphy which essentially is the Arabic script written with distinctly Chinese flourishes and frills. The Sini style is mostly used in mosque inscriptions in eastern China and to a lesser extent in Muslim places of worship in central and western Chinese regions such as Gansu, Ningxia, and Shaanxi. When written in the Sini style, the thick part of the Arabic letters suddenly tapers into thin and curled endings, just like what we find in Chinese language characters and unlike the traditional Arabic script in which tapering is always gradual. Some historical accounts suggest the Sini style was developed during the long reign of China’s Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and it came about as a manifestation of the desire among the Chinese Muslim artists to merge their ethnic and native cultural and linguistic forms with those associated with Islam.

Jiang has the spectacular ability to produce a piece of calligraphy in a few minutes right in front of an audience looking at him in awe and has been instrumental in popularising Islamic calligraphy within the western academic institutions in recent times. He has been giving regular lectures and doing residencies at such distinguished places as the Harvard University, the Cambridge University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also teaches calligraphy at the Islamic College in Zhen Zhou, China, and the Zaytuna Institute, Berkeley.

Jiang came to Pakistan in February 2016 as one of the panelists and speakers at the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF). Attending his solo session at the festival was a unique experience as he dazzled the viewers with demonstration of such beautiful Arabic scripts as khat-e-naskh and khat-e-divani besides regaling them with instantly produced works in his signature style.

Here are excerpts of an interview with Jiang conducted during his stay in Lahore:

Ayesha Majeed. When did you start doing calligraphy?

Haji Noor Deen Mi Guang Jiang. I was eighteen years old when I started practising calligraphy. I studied under a master teacher in Egypt for eight years.

Majeed. Why did you choose this medium of expression?

Jiang. As a Chinese Muslim, I understand the beauty of both the Islamic and the Chinese cultures; their rich [artistic and cultural] heritage inspired me to develop a medium of expression by combining the two.

Majeed. Where do you get your inspiration from?

Jiang. My earliest inspiration came from my study of Islamic texts including the Quran. Even inscriptions on the mosque walls became sources of inspiration for me. It is from the Quran that I choose texts to render into pieces of calligraphy as I try to express the beauty of Islam as a religion through my work.

Majeed. The Muslims among your audience have linkages with the Quran and, therefore, may find it easier to identify with your work but how do western audiences respond to your calligraphy?

Jiang. The western audiences always try to find the meanings and the spiritual linkages of the words that I write in my calligraphy. When they discover those meanings and the linkages, they are able to enjoy the work I produce.

Majeed. Why did you opt for doing your work in the Sini style?

Jiang. I inherited the Chinese calligraphic style from my ancestors but I was also really inspired by the Arabic script. I thought I could create a new style of calligraphy (by merging the two). It is a unique experience to mix the two to produce a beautiful piece of art.

Majeed. How is the Chinese calligraphic style different from the one done in an Arabic script?

Jiang. The main difference between the two is that the Arabic script is written horizontally but the Chinese characters are written in a vertical pattern. The two scripts are totally opposite in how they appear to the viewers and the readers. I believe that Arabic script has a lot of internal logic in it though both scripts are among the most influential and most distinguished forms of the written word.

Majeed. How long do you take to produce a piece of calligraphy?

Jiang. It depends on many things. Producing a piece of calligraphy can take anywhere between two minutes and two months [depending on what is being written].

Majeed. How do you see the work of Pakistani calligraphers?

Jiang. Pakistani calligraphers are producing beautiful work. Through their different ways, they are all exploring the beauty of the Islamic culture.

Opening image: Haji Noor Deen Mi Guang Jiang speaks about his calligraphy work at the Lahore Literature Festival | Ayesha Majeed