Mustafa Ja'Far

Born Nasariya, Iraq, 1952

Ja’far is a graphic artist and, in his own words, ‘a passionate letterer rather than a calligrapher in the traditional sense’. He studied painting and design in Baghdad and in Rome at the Accademia di Belle Arti, as well as Arabic calligraphy under the celebrated master Hashem Muhammad al-Baghdadi at the Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad, 1969–71. He lives and works in London,where he conducts workshops and teaches Arabic calligraphy at a number of museums and cultural institutions, including the British Museum, the British Library and Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of Arabic Calligraphy: Naskh script for beginners, British Museum Press, 2002.