The Hurufiyya movement ( adjectival form , 'of letters' of the alphabet) is an aesthetic movement that emerged in the second half of the twentieth century amongst artists from Muslim countries, who used their understanding of traditional Islamic calligraphy within the precepts of modern art. By combining tradition and modernity, these artists worked towards developing a culture-specific visual language, which instilled a sense of national identity in their respective nation-states when many of these states were shaking off colonial rule and asserting their independence. They adopted the same name as the Hurufi, an approach of Persian Sufism which emerged in the late 14th–early 15th century. Art historian Sandra Dagher has described Hurufiyya as the most important movement to emerge in Arabic art in the 20th century.
Definition The term Hurufiyya is derived from the Arabic term (), the plural form of harf (حرف), which means 'letter'. When the term is used to describe a contemporary art movement, it explicitly references a medieval system of teaching involving political theology and Lettrism. In this theology, letters were seen as primordial signifiers and manipulators of the cosmos.Mir-Kasimov, O., Words of Power: Hurufi Teachings Between Shi'ism and Sufism in Medieval Islam, I.B. Tauris and the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2015 Thus, the term is charged with Sufi intellectual and esoteric meaning.Flood, F.B. and Necipoglu, G. (eds) A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, Wiley, 2017, pp 1294-95; Treichl, C., Art and Language: Explorations in (Post) Modern Thought and Visual Culture, Kassel University Press, 2017 p. 115
The Hurufiyya art movement (also known as the Al-hurufiyyah movementAli, W., Modern Islamic Art: Development and Continuity, University of Florida Press, 1997, p. 16 or the Lettrism movementIssa, R., Cestar. J. and Porter, V., Signs of Our Times: From Calligraphy to Calligraffiti,New York, Merrill, 2016) refers to the use of calligraphy as a graphic element within an artwork, typically an abstract work.Mavrakis, N., "The Hurufiyah Art Movement in Middle Eastern Art," McGill Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Blog, Online:;Tuohy, A. and Masters, C., A-Z Great Modern Artists, Hachette UK, 2015, p. 56 The pan-Arab hurufiyya art movement is distinct from the Letterist International, which had an Algerian section founded in Chlef in 1953 by Hadj Mohamed Dahou.
The term Hurufiyya has become somewhat controversial and has been rejected by some scholars, such as Wijdan Ali, Nada Shabout and Karen Dabrowska. An alternative term, al-madrassa al-khattiya fil-fann ('calligraphic school of art'), has been proposed to describe the experimental use of calligraphy in modern Arabic art.Shabout, N.M., Modern Arab Art: Formation of Arab Aesthetics, University of Florida Press, 2007, p.80; Shabout, N., "Huroufiyah" in: Routledge Encyclopedia Of Modern Art, Routledge, 2016, DOI: 10.4324/9781135000356-REM176-1; Ali, W., Modern Islamic Art: Development and Continuity, University of Florida Press, 1997, pp 166-67
Brief history and philosophy
Traditional calligraphic art was bound by strict rules, which, amongst other things, confined it to devotional works and prohibited the representation of humans in manuscripts.Schimmel, A., Calligraphy and Islamic Culture, London, I.B. Taurus, 1990, pp 31-32 Practising calligraphers trained with a master for many years to learn both the technique and the rules governing calligraphy. Contemporary hurufiyya artists, however, broke free from these rules, allowing Arabic letters to be deconstructed, altered and included in abstract artworks.Treichl, C., Art and Language: Explorations in (Post) Modern Thought and Visual Culture, Kassel University Press, 2017 p. 3
The use of traditional Arabic elements, notably calligraphy, in modern art arose independently in various Islamic states; few of these artists working in this area had knowledge of each other, allowing for different manifestations of hurufiyya to develop in different regions.Dadi. I., "Ibrahim El Salahi and Calligraphic Modernism in a Comparative Perspective," South Atlantic Quarterly, 109 (3), 2010 pp 555-576, DOI:; Flood, F.B. and Necipoglu, G. (eds), A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, Wiley, 2017, p. 1294 In Sudan, for instance, the movement was known as the Old Khartoum School,Reynolds, D.F., The Cambridge Companion to Modern Arab Culture, Cambridge University Press, 2015, p. 202 and assumed a distinctive character in which both African motifs and calligraphy were combined, while media such as leather and wood replaced canvas to provide a distinct African style.Flood, F.B. and Necipoglu, G. (eds), A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, Wiley, 2017, p. 1298-1299; Reynolds, D.F., The Cambridge Companion to Modern Arab Culture, Cambridge University Press, 2015, p. 202 In Morocco, the movement was accompanied by the replacement of traditional media for oils; artists favoured traditional dyes such as henna, and embraced weaving, jewellery and tattoo as well as including traditional Amazigh motifs.Reynolds, D.F., The Cambridge Companion to Modern Arab Culture, Cambridge University Press, 2015, p. 202 In Jordan, it was generally known as the al-hurufiyyah movement, while in Iran, a similar approach was formed which was called the Saqqa-Khaneh movement.Flood, F.B. and Necipoglu, G. (eds) A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, Wiley, 2017, p. 1294
Scholars have suggested that the hurufiyya art movement probably began in North Africa, in the area around Sudan, with the work of Ibrahim el-Salahi,Mavrakis, N., "The Hurufiyah Art Movement in Middle Eastern Art," McGill Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Blog, Online:;Tuohy, A. and Masters, C., A-Z Great Modern Artists, Hachette UK, 2015, p. 56; Dadi. I., "Ibrahim El Salahi and Calligraphic Modernism in a Comparative Perspective," South Atlantic Quarterly, 109 (3), 2010 pp 555-576, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-2010-006 who initially explored Coptic manuscripts, a step that led him to experiment with Arabic calligraphy.Ali, W., Modern Islamic Art: Development and Continuity, University of Florida Press, 1997, p. 156 Madiha Omar was also a pioneer in the movement; active in the US and Baghdad from the mid-1940s. She was one of the first to explore the use of Arabic script in a contemporary art context in the 1940s and exhibited hurufiyya-inspired works in Washington in 1949. It is clear that by the early 1950s, a number of artists in different countries were experimenting with works based on calligraphy, including the Iraqi painter and sculptor, Jamil Hamoudi who experimented with the graphic possibilities of using Arabic characters, as early as 1947;Inati, S.C., Iraq: Its History, People, and Politics, Humanity Books, 2003, p.76; Beaugé, F. and Clément, J-F., L'image dans le Monde Arabé,CNRS Éditions, 1995, p. 147 Iranian painters, Nasser Assar (b. 1928) (:fr:Nasser Assar) and Hossein Zenderoudi, who won a prize at the 1958 Paris Biennale.Ali, W., Modern Islamic Art: Development and Continuity, University of Florida Press, 1997, p. 156
Hurufiyya artists rejected Western art concepts, and instead grappled with a new artistic identity drawn from within their own culture and heritage. These artists successfully integrated Islamic visual traditions, especially calligraphy, into contemporary, indigenous compositions.Lindgren, A. and Ross, S., The Modernist World, Routledge, 2015, p. 495; Mavrakis, N., "The Hurufiyah Art Movement in Middle Eastern Art," McGill Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Blog, Online:; Tuohy, A. and Masters, C., A-Z Great Modern Artists, Hachette UK, 2015, p. 56 The common theme amongst hurufiyya artists is that they all tapped into the beauty and mysticism of Arabic calligraphy, but used it in a modern, abstract sense.Treichl, C., Art and Language: Explorations in (Post) Modern Thought and Visual Culture, Kassel University Press, 2017, p. 117 Although hurufiyya artists struggled to find their own individual dialogue with nationalism, they also worked towards a broader aesthetic that transcended national boundaries and represented an affiliation with an Arab identity in the post-colonial period.Flood, F.B. and Necipoglu, G. (eds) A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, Wiley, 2017, p. 1294
The art historian, Christiane Treichl, explains how calligraphy is used in contemporary art:Treichl, C., Art and Language: Explorations in (Post) Modern Thought and Visual Culture, Kassel University Press, 2017 p. 3 "They deconstruct writing, exploit the letter and turn it into an indexical sign of calligraphy, tradition and cultural heritage. As the sign is purely aesthetic, and only linguistic in its cultural association, it opens hitherto untravelled avenues for interpretation, and attracts different audiences, yet still maintains a link to the respective artist's own culture... Hurufiyya artists do away with the signifying function of language. The characters become pure signs, and temporarily emptied of their referential meaning, they become available for new meanings."
The hurufiyya art movement was not confined to painters, but also included important ceramicists such as the Jordanian, Mahmoud Taha, who combined traditional aesthetics, including calligraphy, with skilled craftsmanship,Asfour, M., NABAD Art Gallery and sculptors, such as the Qatari, Yousef AhmadAnima Gallery, "Yousef Ahdmad," [Biographical Notes], Online: and the Iraqi sculptors, Jawad Saleem and Mohammed Ghani Hikmat. Nor, was the movement organised along formal lines across the Arab-speaking nations. In some Arab nations, hurufiyya artists formed formal groups or societies, such as Iraq's Al Bu'd al Wahad (or the One Dimension Group)" which published a manifesto,"Shaker Hassan Al Said," Darat al Funum, Online: https://web.archive.org/web/20120707071823/http://www.daratalfunun.org/main/activit/curentl/anniv/exhib3.html; Flood, F.B. and Necipoglu, G. (eds), A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, Wiley, 2017, p. 1294 while in other nations artists working independently in the same city had no knowledge of each other.Ali, W., Modern Islamic Art: Development and Continuity, University of Florida Press, 1997, pp 165-66; Dadi, I., "Ibrahim El Salahi and Calligraphic Modernism in a Comparative Perspective," South Atlantic Quarterly. Vol. 109, No. 3, 2010, pp 555-576, DOI: 10.1215/00382876-2010-006
Art historian, Dagher, has described hurufiyya as the most important movement to emerge in the Arab world in the 20th-century. However, the Cambridge Companion to Modern Arab Culture, while acknowledging its importance in terms of encouraging Arab nationalism, describes hurufiyya as neither "a movement nor a school."Reynolds, D.F., The Cambridge Companion to Modern Arab Culture, Cambridge University Press, 2015, p. 200
Evolution of hurufiyya
Art historians have identified three generations of hurufiyya artists:Issa, R., Cestar. J. and Porter, V., Signs of Our Times: From Calligraphy to Calligraffiti,New York, Merrill, 2016
First generation: The pioneers, who were inspired by the independence of their nations, searched for a new aesthetic language that would allow them to express their nationalism. These artists rejected European techniques and media, turning to indigenous media and introducing Arabic calligraphy into their art. For this group of artists, Arabic letters are a central feature of the artwork. First generation artists include: the Jordanian artist, Princess Wijdan Ali, the Sudanese artist, Ibrahim el-Salahi; the Iraqi artists, Shakkir Hassan Al Sa'id, Jamil Hamoudi and Jawad Saleem; the Lebanese painter and poet, Etel Adnan and the Egyptian artist, Ramzi Moustafa (b. 1926).
Second generation: Artists, most of whom live in exile, but reference their traditions, culture and language in their artworks. The artist, Dia Azzawi is typical of this generation.