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| Source: IRCICA. Poster for the 11th International Calligraphy Competition, held in the name of Mehmed Shawqi Efendi. |
The competition will be finalised in April 2019. In line with IRCICA’s tradition to dedicate each competition to an illustrious master of the art, the 11th competition is organised in the name of Calligrapher Mehmed Shawqi Efendi (1829-1887).
The 11th competition has 10 categories: Jali Thuluth (الثلث الجلي), Thuluth (الثلث), Naskh (النسخ), Muhaqqaq (المحقق), Thuluth-Naskh, Jali Ta'aliq (التعليق الجلي), Ta’aliq (التعليق, Nastaliq), Jali Diwani (الديواني الجلي), Diwani (الديواني), or Kufi (الكوفي).
The judges panel will be chaired by IRCICA Director General Dr Halit Eren while the advisory board for the competition is composed of masters of calligraphy from different countries.
The international calligraphy competition has been organised every three years since 1986. The 10th competition was finalised in May 2016. The 10 competitions, held over thirty years, saw 6,885 participants from around the world. A total of 762 calligraphers have received awards in various categories of writing styles.
Promoting the arts of the Islamic world is one of the priorities of IRCICA’s mandate. The Centre aims to preserve the classical artistic heritage while encouraging advancements and achievements. It undertakes research, organises training programmes and holds events to foster exchanges between artists. In this context IRCICA puts emphasis on the art of calligraphy on account of its special place and role in the cultures of the Muslim peoples.
The calligraphy competition aims to encourage artists of Islamic calligraphy to produce works within the framework of the traditional spirit and rules.
The 1st international competition (1986) was organized in the name of Hamid al-Amidi (1891-1982); the 2nd (1989) in the name of Yaqut al-Mustasimi (died 1298);
the 3rd (1992) in the name of Ibn al-Bawwab (died 1022);
the 4th (1997) in the name of Sheikh Hamdullah (1429-1520);
the 5th (2000) in the name of Sayyid Ibrahim (1897-1994);
the 6th (2003) in the name of Mir Imad al-Haseni (1554-1615);
the 7th (2006) in the name of Hashim Muhammad al-Baghdadi (1917-1973),
the 8th (2010) in the name of Muhammed Badawi al-Dirani (1894-1967);
the 9th (2013) in the name of Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu (born 1943) and
the 10th (2016) in the name of Hafiz Othman (1642-1698).
The 11th competition is dedicated to Mehmed Shawqi Efendi, who worked in the Secretariat of the Ministry of Defence of the Ottoman state and as teacher of calligraphy in military schools of Istanbul. The exercise books for the Thuluth and Naskh scripts that he prepared and used in his teaching were published by IRCICA in 1999.