Category / Visit

by ALAZAAT

At Al-Hallabat

I didn’t post anything here for a long time, so I decided to make a good return with this photographic article, I have recently visited Al-Hallabat historic site in Zarqa governorate, it includes the magnificent Umayyad palace and mosque, over a hill covered with unlimited textures and tones of flint stone, plus, while flipping the stones and big rocks you might be lucky as me and find glass, pottery and fossils!

Let’s start with stones:

    Pottery:

    The following capture is something! I was so amazed to find small fragments of mosaic scattered in the hill (Out side the historical palace and mosque) As you see, they comes in various colors, the different tones from lime green to turquoise are super rare to my eyes!

    Umayyad glass:

    Some weird objects:

    Fossils:

    • Yes, Shark tooth!

    More generic photos of my visit:

    • فراسيون
      Horehound / Marrubium vulgare
    • قلبي وأشهد نفسي

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    by ALAZAAT

    In Cairo after 8 years!

    A quick walk in Cairo streets will immediately reveal the rich contrast in the city, in all different levels and meanings, you’ll see the records of ups and downs beside each other, and that is very important since it answers many things to me: What happened to the Arab world? And what would happen tomorrow? In which direction we are going? And most importantly, are we learning from this valuable narrative source? 

    I’ve passed beside these signs a few days ago, exactly on the 25th of January, my feelings were really disturbed! I stood up here before eight years, few months after the revolution, where the tents sill at the Tahrir square and every young person literally holding a stencil and spraying designs and messages! And now, I’m looking at this chunk of history, and reaching one conclusion:

    Do not lose hope!

    P.S.

    Dear Arabic type designer,

    Kindly stop converting classical Arabic Calligraphic scripts into computer fonts, it wastes your time and hurt our eyes.

    Best Regards,
    Hussein 


    by ALAZAAT

    ELHARF Tour

    I’ve guided the design and crafts tour during the 2nd edition of Amman Design Week, the title of the tour was named after my new established project: ElHARF, which will be the home of calligraphy and Arabic visual arts.

    The tour started from Calligrapher Shehadeh Haroun’s shop, to meet him and learn from his experience in silkscreen printing, Haroun still using the old-school methods that he acquired from the sign painters of Damascus once he was there 50 years ago! I’ve collaborated with Haroun to produce the English lettering of Amman Design Week, and to demonstrate the essential skills and give some funny tips for the tour members.

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