Nassib S. Makarem, the Grandfather
Sheikh Nassib, among the Arab World’s most famous and renowned calligraphers, started training himself in the art of calligraphy during his spare time. His mother encouraged him and supported him. The young Sheikh gathered a sizable collection of calligraphy from some of the most famous calligraphers of Arab, Persian and Turk calligraphers. From them, he learned the various rules and conventions of calligraphy. In Lebanon, Sheikh Nassib Makarem, was honored by the President of the Republic, President Slyman Frangieh, for The Fine Writings he made throughout his lifetime. The President bestowed upon Sheikh Nassib the highest honor for a civilian. Before that, Sheikh Nassib received numerous awards from other governments and heads of state for the fine writings he did for them, as well as for their governments. He received twenty-two medals in all and ten honors from the Heads of countries, as well as, from their governments.  In Lebanon, as well as in many countries in the Arab World, one has only to look at the skyscrapers to see the name of the building in Sheikh Nassib’s fine writing. His sons, Said and Sami, also acquired this galvanizing talent from their father. I would like to tell you about an incident during the Civil War in Lebanon.

I remember one morning at daybreak, at the height of the Civil War in Beirut in mid July 1982, I heard a commotion outside of the front of my house. A family in the building was loading the car to leave Beirut when someone in the building had seen them. The conversation regarding what he was doing was going on between Abu Fadi, the father, and someone in one of the apartments who had first seen him loading the car. The silence in the city was so heavy that all who were in the building had awakened by their talking. Abu Fadi had broken the promise to keep the rest of us informed of his impending departure. I was devastated. Now, we were just a handful left in this very large building. What was going to happen to us? ………

Prior to that exchange, we, the remaining tenants in the building had promised each other that we would keep each other informed on our future movements, i.e., would we leave; would we stay, etc. Hiam Munlah, a prominent young Beiruti socialite lived in the building, and one morning, she knocked at my door before daybreak to tell me that she and her daughters had decided to leave Beirut. She was a widow, and Hiam and her mother had raised Hiam’s daughters single-handedly .  She and I had become good friends, and true to her promise, Hiam stopped by my house to give me the news of her departure.  I was devastated, and predicting that I would be, she had for me a small piece of art on wood in beautiful Arabic calligraphy.  One day after that period, I dropped the piece of art and the calligraphy that had been pasted on to the frame fell off.  Sami could see how upset I was, and he told me he would make me something more beautiful on the piece of wood.  He did!  And, from  there, his work truly developed into the masterpieces he now produces. Therefore, it would be only natural that our children would inherit this rare talent of writing in the form of art.  My daughter, Rand Kaidbey, has produced some beautiful work, some in the form of pictures, some in jewelry.  Sahar even went to study with Haidar Hamawi, a noted artist in the Arab world; she also produced some very nice work.  Samir has dabbled in this field, but the most serious to follow in his father’s and his grandfather’s footsets is Nassib. Nassib made the logo for this web site; americandruzeheritage.  Here is more of Nassib’s work.  Enjoy!

See Nassib S Makarem's work of art