Uthman Taha

Uthman ibn Abduh ibn Husayn ibn Taha Alkurdi (or Uthman Taha, Arabic: عثمان طه‎‎) is an Arab calligrapher renowned for hand-writing Mushaf al-Madinah issued by the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an.

He was born in 1934 in a rural area of Aleppo, Syria. Gaining a BA in Shari’ah from the University of Damascus, he also studied Arabic language, Islamic decoration arts, and painting. He gained certification (Turkish icazet) in calligraphy from Hamid al-Amidi, the so-called master of calligraphers in the Islamic world. He was also taught calligraphy by Muhammad Ali al-Mawlawi, Ibrahim al-Rifa’i (Aleppo), Muhammad Badawi al-Diyrani (Damascus) and Hashim al-Baghdadi.

He wrote his first Mushaf (written copy of the Qur’an) in 1970. In 1988 he travelled to Saudi Arabia and was assigned a handwriter and calligrapher in the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an in Madina. The same year he was made a member of the international jury for the Arabic Calligraphy Award which is held in Istanbul once every three years.

During 18 years of his life at the King Fahd Complex, Uthman has hand-written four Masahif. More than 200 million copies of which were distributed worldwide. Over thirty years he has written 10 Masahif. A Mushaf usually requires more than 3 years in writing and an additional year for proof-reading and reviewing.

His beautiful, clear, easy-to-read style used in the Madina Mushaf is also used in a commercial copy known as Mushaf al-Tajweed.