Rimon רימון - Pomogranate

This is a simple calligraphy which can be counted as an anatomic calligraphy of hebrew, The basic font used is the font used for writing the sta''m but the shape and size has been adjusted  for the final work, the nun at the end of the word helped me to put the crown shape as nun is one among the sha'atnezgets letter and the shape is almost similar to the floral tip or the blossom of the pomogranate. The crown was the driving factor which made me to design such.

Nahl (Honey bee) - A Sign from God

I had made a calligraphic piece of a honey bee which contains the verses from Quran, Surat al Nahl which itself means Honey Bee. The verses are given below :

⁶⁸ And your Lord taught the bee to build its cells in hills, on trees, and in habitations;

⁶⁹ Then to eat of all the produce, and find with skill the spacious paths of its Lord: there issues from within their bodies a drink of varying colours, wherein is healing for men: truly in this is a sign for those who give thought.

Looking into the meaning of these verses actually made me to think about this creature. And as stated in Quran, the honey is a main ingredient in the Ayurvedic medicines. According to ayurveda is one of the five elixirs of immorality.

Jewish Kashurath law states pure honey is kosher even though its not from a kosher creature.

In Islam, Quran, Hadith states about this creature and in hadith Prophet Muhammed strongly recommend the healing properties of Honey.

Apart from that hope all of you liked this work.

Hebrew Anatomic Calligraphy

            

Recently the word גמל made me to think, there is a chance of anatomic calligraphy in Hebrew language. After just wasting two three papers I reached my destination, and understood that it was near to my finger tip. Just putting the letters in proper place and giving them a new look with maintaining the basic shape, and it happened to be a success, just before publishing the designs in the blog I had forwarded a calligraphic piece of Magen david, to Mr.Zeev Barkan ( who does research on that ) he published it in his flicker account. Soon he received a request from a person seeking permission to make it a tattoo, that made me more happy. The responds was so fast. Thank God.

Hebrew word גמל gamal, which means camel written in a shape of 

a camel

Hebrew word נבל nevel which means harp, written in the replica of 

a harp.

Hebrew word סוס soos which means horse.

Hebrew word אריאל which means lion of God, an alternate name of 

Jerusalem. in the shape of lion head.

מגן דוד Magen David, means star of David in hebrew, drawn in a 

exact magen david shape.

And i dedicate this work for the world peace.its written shalom, in a style of 7 branch Menorah.

Hebrew Quran Manuscript From Cochin

I was stunned to see a web page which really fascinated me; I was goggling in the net checking for any existing written documents belonged to Cochin Jewish community, as a part of my research. I was just visiting the pages, after having a glance if it is worth I saved the pages or else I left but this page made me to get stuck into it for a long time. Even after reading it thrice I was still in surprise mood.

The web page was about one of three existing manuscripts of Quran. And interesting part is that it was from Cochin, India. Rather than me explaining about that I would like to quote the words from the page.

“In a tour de force of bibliographical sleuthing, Myron M. Weinstein, former Head of the Hebraic Section, using both painstaking scholarship and creative imagination, offers the missing date and even a nineteenth-century provenance. In his "A Hebrew Qur'an Manuscript" in Jews in India, edited by Thomas A. Timberg, Weinstein, in elegant narrative style, leads the reader along a thoroughly documented road, at whose end we are convinced that this Hebrew version is a translation from a Dutch copy which is itself a translation from the French translation of the original Arabic. Weinstein also persuades us that the translator is Leopold Immanuel Jacob van Dort, a Jewish convert to Christianity who was professor of theology in Colombo, Ceylon, and that the scribe was David Cohen, a native of Berlin then residing in Cochin, a city on the southwest coast of India. Weinstein is equally persuasive about the manuscript being written in Cochin in the 1750s or 1760s, probably in 1757, when van Dort was visiting that city, and that is the volume the missionary Joseph Wolff saw in Meshed, Persia, in 183 1, when he encountered a group of Jewish Sufis. Wolff writes:



I met here in the house of Mullah Meshiakh with an Hebrew translation of the Koran, with the following title: "The Law of the Ishmaelites, called the Koran, translated from the Arabic into French by Durier, and from the French into Dutch by Glosenmachor, and 1, Immanuel Jacob Medart, have now translated it into the holy language, written here at Kogen, by David, the son of Isaac Cohen of Berlin."



From Cochin to Meshed to Washington, and who knows where in-between, a  hegira from the ends of the earth indeed!



Check it in the below link  http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/loc/Word.html



That is really an interesting fact isn’t it?  And even I feel proud to be a cochinite as this happened to be in Cochin.


The word Kogen (Kogin or kotzin as been called by Jewish community of cochin for the name Cochin) made me to recall an incident happened in my encounter with the Cochin jewish community.



It was a Tuesday, just after my lunch I received a call from Thaha saying, Joseph Hallegua one of the oldest member in the community wants to meet me to recreate the seal of Pardesi synagogue, I was taken to a 18  ^th century mansion, the residence of Joseph Hallegua. His daughter was there to whom I seemed to be an alien even though I had met her many times form the ticket counter of synagogue. I think it might be because she saw me from her home.



Joseph Hallegua took me and Thaha to a table and gave me some papers and the seal. The seal was made of bronze and look very antique in nature. I was very much exited to see the seal and was glad to get an opportunity recreate it. The part of me was to draw the exact replica of it. I have done it in course of time Joseph Hallegua asked me, how is studied Hebrew language and I had narrated the story and I finished drawing the outline then started with writing part, Mr Hallegua gave me a piece of paper in which he tried to draw it and I read it but there was a mistake in it and I found it and showed to Mr. Hallegua he didn’t admit it first but after a healthy argument finally I took a photo of the seal in my mobile and I zoomed it and then showed to him he understood it the word in which he made the mistake was Kogin it was written  קוגין   in the seal but Mr.Hallegua told it is כוגן , even later Thaha took a enlarged Xerox copy imprint of the seal and gave him a copy.

The word Cochin is written kotzin by the new age Hebrew users, ie instead of gimel they use tzadik, even called by any name Cochin is always Cochin.



And here i would like to say that printing and issual of Hebrew translation of Quran is been announced by the King Fahad complex in 2007, hope the works are still going or it would have published, any way i would like to get one copy of it, Inshallah. 

A Calligraphic Gift for Bar Mitzvah.

Almost a month ago, while i was checking my mail i got stuck with a mail from States, i read it was a calligraphic request, as i anticipated it was also a bit challenging work, the request was from Mr.Yohan Jeffereis from U.S.A it was to create a Bar Mitzvah calligraphic gift with a Indian Jewish and antique touch. so it was interesting too. so gladly i proceeded with the work, with all the Cochin Jewish design and other Indian design specimens we had a discussion and came to a decision and he send me a layout how it has to be.he send me a copy of invitation card too.

The name of the boy is Marcus Binyamin Eller, i scribed his name in golden letters, in a hand made paper which has a rough texture. And to get parchment colour i had used a secret mixture.

And just below that i had made a lotus design, which is a fusion style and two magen davids in it. Then a scroll   with the Torah portion ie, the Lech-Lecha from Bereshith ( Genesis 12:1-2 ) this is the portion which is to be recited by the boy during the ceremony.

The pillar shown here is a replica of the pillar of Aron Kadesh of Cochin Pardesi Synagogue. A combimation of red and golden colour. The floral design given in white colour frame is of Taj Mahal floral design. Finally, after all the work i had just placed a picture which was forwarded by Mr.Jefferies in the place left for the photo.And even the frame he brought from Thailand or Indonesia, i don't remember the place.

Hope he will like it, and you too will.

סיפורי - My story

This posting is the answer for the frequently asked question and request of my well wishers, that how I get acquainted with the Hebrew language and Cochin Jews.

I cannot actually recollect the entire story of my first visit to Cochin Jewish synagogue which sawed the seed of Hebrew language in me. when I was about 10 years old I even don’t know what actually it is ,but I was insisting my father to take me to the synagogue; I don’t know what driving force made me to think so,  It was not something divine but might be some curiosities arise in me by seeing the foreigners visiting cochin.

It was evening, the time might be around 6.30pm the roads leading to the Jew town started to get painted in dark by the night, I couldn’t find any person in the road and I think it was a Sunday. The curiosity in me made my each second to an hour and at last I reached to the Jew town junction where the yellowish tint of the street light gave the place to be a distinct from the other streets of Cochin. My father parked his bike aside and we walked, the buildings on the both side of the street seem to be extraordinarily large to me, and with a glance itself the antique shops in the street grabbed my attention. I saw a jumbo size crystal of orange colour and I stood there for a second my father came and hold my hand and made to walk to the synagogue, the two unusual lamps on the either side of the synagogues gate and the abruptly laid rocks in front took me decades back and still I feels that I am somewhere in the history when I visit Jew town.

The gatekeeper told the synagogue is closed for the visitors during that time someone from the synagogue who was lighting the lamp came out, I am sure he was a Jew he was fair with cat’s eye and he wore a skull cap, as my father explained to him that I was insisting him to take me to the synagogue. With a smile he allowed me and my father to get into the synagogue and I was in a dilemma, whether I have to walk further or what to do. That panoramic view is still there in my mind, I can even sketch it out. I paid my attention to Hebrew wall writings and the torah chest which is carved out exquisitely.  Then I just went near to the person who allowed me enter into synagogue he was still lighting the lamps that was quiet unusual lamp it was made in glass with some water and oil he said that was his relatives death anniversary day and he just came on behalf of his memories and he explained how that lamp worked

This incident was scraped out of my memory but it is a sort of incident which cannot be explained with same essence which I experienced.

Then after a long time when I was perusing with my 9^th I was curious about the languages and I love to write Hindi and Gujrathi, I used to write it for my friends and even I used to write the word “Gujrathi” in the black board just before I leave from my class (where the gujrathi classes are conducted) to another class room for my Malayalam class. Once the Gujrathi teacher caught me as if I had done a mistake, her sound is very rough and bold, which made my hands freeze but she appreciated me and told to me you have to write it for every class.

Later when I was in 10^th standard I was crazy with the Chinese alphabets and I created a set of alphabet which resembled Chinese of my own and used it as our classmates code language, it’s still there in my slam book. These where just told me to show my concern towards language.  

Leaving from that school and the friend circle made me to forget that language. I joined for my 11^th standard (in 2004) in Santa Cruz, Higher secondary school which was a catholic management owned school. From there I got one Gideon’s Bible while an hundred year old library was emptied then to be re-established. The copy was given to me by one teacher. I took it to home I started to turn the pages, there was some page which is has translation of one verse from John in different languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, German and so on there around 25 languages. The Hebrew attracted me after a long time from visiting the synagogue this was another moment which put me in touch with the Hebrew; I wanted to the word which means God in Hebrew I was that much alien to Hebrew language initially i failed to find it out that failure made me to learn more. And I started to just imitate the letters and started the journey with the Hebrew language.

My next intention was to get a Hebrew bible, I acquired one Hebrew book but it was not a bible it was a daily prayer book I brought from a street side bookseller. That book helped me a lot because in that book one side was Hebrew Prayer and other side was its translation in English that helped me to find out the corresponding word of God. And in last page there was transliteration of Kadeesh La’eela that actually helped me to get the idea about the alphabet and vowels after spending long hours in night i learned that there were around 30 alphabets but later I realised some letters at the ending of the word and found out their distinct character and the learning procedure went on finally comparing with the Arabic alphabets I learned at my childhood helped me to understand what is Hebrew language. Gradually I learned to write, read and then to understand some of the word meaning and it went on.

 For learning Hebrew I have not approached anyone other than God, The Almighty.  

 I had used simple fountain pen, pencils, brushes, shaped Quill, shaped Bamboo stick and finally a calligraphic pen to write Hebrew and in course of time I was active in Arabic calligraphy and I use to write Ayathul Kurzeey for my relatives even gifted for their house warming. But I didn’t try to create one Hebrew piece.

I was having a great time with languages I came across with Aramaic, Syrian, Samaritan, Mandaic and Coptic; even I had translated a Coptic book to Malayalam language.

It was a co incidence that one of my friend Sharon who know about my interest in Hebrew asked me have you visited synagogue I told yes when I was a child I had visited it. Then he asked can we go tomorrow I told why not?

The very next day four of us Me, Peter, Sharon and Shaheed, went to Dutch palace and then to synagogue we were in our bicycles and kept it aside and went inside and the synagogue inside was cool as it is well ventilated. As photography was not prohibited my friend took some snaps in his mobile. Suddenly the doors of the synagogue was closed as it was closing time one old man with a kippah walked along with one lady and he was explaining about the history of synagogue, later I came to know that she was the wife the election commissioner(i don’t know her name). The old man opened the Aron Kadesh and showed the Torah scroll someone from the crowd told the torah is kept upside down it seems, I suddenly  told its not, the old man looked at me and asked how come you know that I told I can read Hebrew

He was surprised and asked me: are you a Jew?

 I told: no, I am a Muslim.

He asked: who taught you Hebrew?

I told: I learned of my own.

He asked me:Can you read a small portion from Torah?

I told I can only read with the vowels, but I will try.

And I read a small portion and I don’t know from which portion I read and was it correct or not.

But he congratulated me and asked me where I from am and so on.....

On the very same day itself I tried to make one replica but to make a replica I have to learn some of the rules to be followed, it took one week for me to get a small idea regarding that, the eagerness in me helped me a lot to finish the intended work to get over by another one week.  

I took it to the caretaker of synagogue Mr. Joy, and he helped me to meet the warden Samuel Hallegua, I met him after a long time from this incident(early 2007), He was sitting in a chair which is laid in synagogue I went and introduced myself and showed the replica of  Torah made by me he gave a good comment on that, He was interested to talk with me and he took me to his home to have a talk, he talked to me for a long time the topic was regarding Judaism and the life of Jews in Kerala. And he told that during the recent reconstruction of the First mosque of India, Cheraman Juma Masjid which is situated in Kodungalur, he met the Khatib and some of the office bearers and requested to reconstruct it in the same manner without disturbing the ancient structure but that was reconstructed in a different manner. He told he felt bad about it. He was a great storyteller and he gave stress on peaceful co existence and tolerance.

Then I used frequently visited him and just before  starting with my degrees (in later 2007) I met him for the last and I presented him an oil painting of Menorah and a calligraphic piece of Ten Commandments in Hebrew handwritten by me. And now he is no more he passed away couple of days before the last Rosh-Hashanah (September 2009)

Then I got acquainted with my studies and but during my second year I just tried to make a birkat ha bayith in and I made around 10 different type and then in 2009 I met Sarah Cohen and I remember it was on June during my vacation time. I showed the birkat ha bayith to her and she was very interested to see those works and these are some of the thriving instances which came into my mind while dusting out some.

Rest of the incidences are narrated in older blogs  

The Arabic-Hebrew liaison Calligraphic Project is done.............

The project from far west to create a Hebrew Birkat ha bayith in Arabic Kufic style font was really a challenge to me it, took a long time to frame the alphabets.Initially started it with calligraphy by following some basic rules of Hebrew calligraphy but as per the request from Mr.L I had done it vise-versa i.e, I included more of Arabic calligraphic elements. There were more constrains than the comfort so after overcoming those constrains i persued with the work and the work was finally done. I had received a good comment from Mr.L and here is the picture of the Birkat Ha Bayith.

He told that he will be engraving that in Jerusalem Stone. I hope that the engraved image will be almost similar to the below given image.

 
Hope everyone will like this word.