Interfaith and Multiculturalism

A Passion for calligraphy leads to epiphany

By Bob Keeler ©Newsday (Aug 25 1998)

Glowing vividly on the side of a modern building in Beirut, the large neon sign, in elegant Arabic calligraphy, stunned Rohana Filippi and changed her life — as surely, she feels, as a vision on the road to Damascus altered St.Paul's life

"All the letters were sort of flying, in this blue sky, with the sunset light, against this glass wall of the building," said Filippi, who had no idea what the sign meant. "I said, 'My God...This is beautiful.'"

Immediately, Filippi walked to the nearest bookstore and bought an Arabic book. That evening, after the performance of her touring theatrical troupe, she brought the book back to her hotel room. "I started copying those little letters, which were not at all fancy or graphically attractive," she recalled.

From that tentative start, in the late 1960s, Filippi developed her own style of Islamic art, going beyond merely copying calligraphy and learning to create her own designs. A self-described "gypsy soul" who has traveled the world widely as she developed her art, Filippi has now alighted in Manhattan and displayed her work locally at the Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury.

Her unique style has earned Filippi a place as the signature artist for Al-Baz Publishing, which sells English translations of the words of a beloved Muslim mystic, Shaikh 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, one of the greatest masters of Sufism, the Muslim approach to contemplative prayer. The distinctive cover for each of these books has been the work of Filippi.

"It's become almost a trademark," said Ruslan Moore, the founder of the publishing house. "You can recognize an Al-Baz book anywhere you see it."

On the surface, Filippi seems an unlikely choice for such Islamic prominence. Though she is now a Muslim, she grew up Catholic in Italy. Though phrases from the Qur'an inspire almost all of her work, she is still not fluent in Arabic. In one sense, however, she embodies a trend in the growing interaction between Muslims and Christians.

"To me, she's one of the mold who has been drawn to Islam, to its inner power," said Imam Feisal A. Rauf, spiritual leader of al-Farah Mosque in Manhattan, who helped arrange Filippi's exhibition in Westbury. "She is not a calligrapher in the classical sense of the word, but she found the calligraphy so powerful that it drew here. . . This is not unknown to us in the Sufi path." Many people are drawn to Islam "by the calligraphy, and also by the music, by the power of the architecture. There is something that is overwhelmingly compelling to them."

Filippi's journey to Islam began in Italy, where she grew up in Florence as one of seven children. Her father, Giorgio Filippi, was a devout Catholic who chaired an organization that helped sick people seek a cure at Lourdes. Her mother, Teresa, supported him in that endeavor, Eventually, however, Rohana Filippi drifted away from Catholicism, acquiring a degree in philosophy and pedagogy from the University of Turin and setting out on a quest for meaning.

"I started university with the illusion that I would have the big Answer, with the big A, the answer of my life: why we are here, where we are going," Filippi said. "I thought philosophy would give me all the answers. . . On the contrary, I was even more confused."

At university, she sang, played guitar and joined an avant-garde theater group. Travelling with the troupe, she studied various religious traditions. "I was a seeker," she recalled, "but I couldn't find what I wanted."

On one theatrical tour, in about 1967, she experienced her epiphany with the neon sign in Beirut. Without formal artistic training, she began copying Arabic calligraphy. A year later, she married a painter. They divorced after three years, but through him, she met a Mexican painter who became both her companion and mentor. His use of colors was as bold as her husband's had been restrained, and he encouraged her to use more color in copying Arabic script. "That was to me almost blasphemy," she recalled. "I said, "'No way.'" Eventually however, she took his advice.

Along the way, Filippi also received encouragement and counsel from her brother, Stefano, an artist, and from the Imam at an influential mosque in London. After 45 minutes with Filippi, the Imam invited her to exhibit her work with Arabic calligraphers. She protested that she wasn't a trained calligrapher. "He said, 'But you have the feeling of it, and that is the important thing,'" she recalled. "And to me, it was like honey on my heart."

The most important step in the development of Filippi's art took place in 1989, when she broke away from copying the calligraphy of others and began crafting her own designs - based on phrases from the Qur'an or other Islamic wisdom, but much freer and more innovative graphically than the more traditional, formal Arabic calligraphy.

"It's the year when, for the first time, I was able to do my own composition, and I joined officially Islam." Said Filippi, who found Islam through Subud, an international spiritual and humanitarian movement. "I used to say, 'I don't have any religion, but if I had to have a religion, it would be Islam.' And talking one day with this friend of mine who is Muslim, I said the same thing. He looked at me straight, but he said, 'But you are Islam.' And I looked at him, and I said, 'Sure, you're right. I am.'"

At about that time, living in Los Angeles, she met Sam Moore, who asked her to paint something for his father, Ruslan Moore. She created a version of the Muslim greeting of peace. 'It's very beautiful," said Ruslan Moore, who still has it on a wall at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Not long after that, Ruslan Moore invited her to create the cover art for his books. Like Filippi, he is a convert to Islam. He had begun to study Shaikh 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani. "I was just having these manuscripts translated for my own use," Moore said, "but when I started to read what he had to say, I was so moved that I kind of felt I had an obligation to share this."

The books began appearing in 1992, Moore said, and Filippi has done 14 covers for him, based on verses that he selects from the Qu'ran.

"Her works are very beautiful, and having known her so long, I've watched her work progress from fairly early beginnings that mimic the styles of existing calligraphies into an expression of her own artistic perception of the written word," Moore said. "There are many beautiful calligraphies, but they all fall into very set categories, and Rohana's work isn't like that."

Especially now that she lives in Manhattan, Filippi can't support herself on the proceeds of her art alone. In the past, she has survived on the income from a variety of jobs, and she is confident that she will survive now, as she pursues the art that has become the center of her life.

"I am open to the way that somehow Allah will take," she said. "God is really very merciful, and I always have what I need."