Khalil al-Zahawi murdered

What a sad story this is. It reminds me of the annihilation of the Polish intelligencia under Stalin's orders.
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Baghdad art scene reels after slaying.
Published May 28, 2007
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BAGHDAD -- In what was left of Baghdad's art community, the murder felt like a priceless parchment ripped apart. Khalil al-Zahawi, the Iraqi artist who was one of the Arab world's most prominent calligraphers, had been shot to death on the steps of his home.
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Among Iraqis, Sunday's news of al-Zahawi's death last week was another cruel benchmark of loss. The grandfatherly calligrapher had influenced a generation of Middle Eastern artists from Egypt to Pakistan. His dedication to beauty had been an elegant counterpoint to the devastation of war.
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"It is a big sadness," said a quiet Haidar Rabia, professor of Arabic calligraphy at the Fine Arts Academy at the University of Baghdad. "Just as a father in a house brings blessings and takes care of his children, we calligraphers lost our father."
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Al-Zahawi's most famous calligraphy was in the ta'liq method, the formal Arabic script of Iran, Pakistan and India and an art elsewhere. Iraq's calligraphers say it was a style al-Zahawi mastered and perhaps surpassed.
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In ta'liq, which means "hanging" in Arabic, letters appear to float above the page, anchored by their ends.

The method is hundreds of years old, but after mastering it, al-Zahawi sought to alter the classic style. He lengthened the script until the letters seemed like words. He filled backgrounds with more writing, creating landscapes of flowing script. Other contemporary artists seized on the notion, and the ancient writing took a quantum leap into the realm of painting.
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