Uthman Taha is an internationally acclaimed Arabic calligrapher who has handwritten the Mushaf Al-Madinah, which is the copy of the Qurβan issued by the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qurβan, and thus read by hundreds of millions of Muslims.
Background: Sheikh Taha was born in 1934 near Aleppo, Syria. He developed a passion for calligraphy when very young, but had to wait until he moved to Damascus (where he gained a BA in Shariah at DaΒmascus University) before he met the chief calligraΒpher in Syria, Muhammad Badawi Al-Diyrani, and the Iraqi calligrapher, Hashim Al-Baghdadi. He then travelled to Istanbul, where he met the most celebratΒed calligrapher of the time, Hamid Al-Amidi, from whom he received certification.
Copying the Qurβan: The written copy of the Qurβan is known as a mushaf, and it took Taha apΒproximately three years to copy one out. He wrote his first copy in 1970 and in total has written out over ten copies. The most significant one was the one asΒsigned to him in 1988 by the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qurβan in Madinah. This copy is the one printed by the King Fahd Complex and distributed to millions of pilgrims every year. It is the most common copy of the Qurβan available worldwide. Taha has copied out six different textual variants including Warsh (used in Morocco and AlΒgeria), Hafs (worldwide), Duri (Africa and Sudan), and Qalun (Libya).