Join a lecture, demonstration, and mini-workshop with master calligrapher Haji Noor Deen Mi Guangjiang 米广江 (b.1963) exploring the cultural and artistic convergence of Arabic and Chinese calligraphic traditions. Refreshments will be served.

Haji Noor Deen is the first Chinese person to have received certification, or ijaza, in the Thuluth and Naskh Arabic calligraphic scripts of the Ottoman tradition, after extensive training with renowned Turkish calligrapher Hasan Çelebi. He has gone on to develop his own unique style, known as Ṣīnī (literally, “Chinese” in Arabic) which incorporates both Chinese and Arabic calligraphic elements to elaborate a Chinese Islamic calligraphic form for the Arabic script.

In this lecture, master Haji Noor Deen will introduce Arabic and Chinese calligraphic traditions and their convergence in the Ṣīnī style. He will be joined by his students Alaa Elamin (Ijaza in Thuluth & Naskh and Arabic Calligraphy in the Chinese Style) and Farzana Razzaque (Ijaza in Thuluth & Naskh).

A selection of Haji Noor Deen’s works will be on display at the event and will be accompanied by a selection of books from the library’s collections featuring these calligraphic traditions.

Organized in partnership with the Deen Arts Foundation and sponsored by the University of Michigan Library, Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, and Global Islamic Studies Center.