Une séance de calligraphie

Maghrebi script is its own tradition. It keeps the rounded bowls that eastern Arabic calligraphy straightened, it drops below the line where the eastern hands sit on it, and it dots the fa and the qaf differently, which is why a Moroccan manuscript reads oddly to an eye trained in Cairo.

The session begins with the qalam. You cut a reed to your own angle, which decides everything that follows, then mix ink from soot, gum arabic, and water. The master writes a line, breaks it into its strokes, and puts you to work on the letter alif until it stands straight.

Two hours. You take the reed and the sheet home. It makes a good afternoon after a morning on your feet.