# Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book & Periodical Design

> The illustrated book, magazine and children's-book culture that ran from Cairo's post-1952 publishing houses to the Arab nationalist and leftist presses of Beirut. Hand-drawn Arabic titles reworked from Kufic and everyday scripts, rough, expressive pen-and-brush drawing and flat offset colour gave mass readers and children a modern, decolonised Arabic page. Helmi el-Touni and Mohieddin Ellabbad also brought folk ornament and borders back to it.

- Period: 1952–1990
- Where: Middle East & North Africa
- Origin: Cairo's publishing houses and illustrated magazines, and the Arab nationalist and leftist publishers of Beirut, notably Dar al-Fata al-Arabi (1974)
- Branch: Pictorial & machine age
- Also known as: Arab modernist book covers, Dar al-Fata al-Arabi style, Nasser-era Egyptian illustration
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/cairo-beirut-book-design/

## How it works

- Draw the Arabic title by hand for each book, reworking Kufic and everyday scripts instead of relying on scarce metal type or classical khatt.
- Illustrate with a rough, expressive pen-and-brush line taken from street life (stray cats, dogs, crowds), and reject sweetened, Disney-style drawing.
- Print in two or three flat offset colours and let the drawn line carry the image.
- Reclaim Egyptian and Levantine folk ornament, borders and frames as a modern Arab visual language: ornament is no crime.
- Address children and mass readers with pan-Arab, socially committed content without reducing the book to propaganda.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (characteristic)
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (characteristic)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (characteristic)
- [Sequential narrative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/sequential-narrative/) (characteristic)
- [Measured density](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/measured-density/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining)
- [Brush & pen calligraphy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/brush-and-pen-calligraphy/) (characteristic)
- [Type as image](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/) (characteristic)
- [Ornamented display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornamented-display/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (defining)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (defining)
- [Earth & mineral](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/earth-and-mineral/) (occasional)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (occasional)
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (occasional)
- [Biomorphic curves](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/biomorphic-curves/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (characteristic)
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (defining)
- [Borders & frames](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/borders-and-frames/) (characteristic)
- [Abundant decoration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/abundant-decoration/) (occasional)
- [Floral & vegetal](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/floral-and-vegetal/) (occasional)
- [Geometric tessellation](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-tessellation/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (defining)
- [Comic & cartoon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/comic-and-cartoon/) (occasional)
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (defining)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (defining)

### Tone & intent
- [Warm & approachable](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/warm-and-approachable/) (characteristic)
- [Utopian & idealistic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/utopian-and-idealistic/) (characteristic)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (characteristic)
- [Agitational & persuasive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/agitational-and-persuasive/) (occasional)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (occasional)

Avoids: Ornament-free, Straight photography, Gloss & highlights, Luxurious & glamorous, Grotesque & neo-grotesque, Modular grid

Palette: #f0e6cf, #1c1a17, #c4362c, #e1a930, #2a8a8a, #6b7a3a

Typefaces: Hand-drawn Kufic-derived Arabic display lettering, Hand-lettered titles based on Ruqʿa and Naskh, Arabic Naskh text type

Known for: Hussein Bicar, illustrations for the children's magazine Sindbad (Cairo, 1952–1960); Mohieddin Ellabbad, co-founder and first art director of Dar al-Fata al-Arabi (Beirut, 1974); Mohieddin Ellabbad, Kashkoul al-Rassam (The Illustrator's Notebook; Golden Apple, Biennial of Illustration Bratislava); Mohieddin Ellabbad, cover for Zakaria Tamer's The Cat's Banquet (Dar al-Fata al-Arabi); Helmi el-Touni, book design for the Beirut Arab Book Fair and the Arab Institute for Research and Publishing (1974–c. 1984); Dar al-Fata al-Arabi illustrators Nazir Nabaa, Kamal Boullata, Laila Shawa and Nawal Traboulsi

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Hurufiyya Calligraphic Modernism](https://stylogeny.com/styles/hurufiyya.md) (1949–present)
- Influenced by: [Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition](https://stylogeny.com/styles/islamic-geometric.md) (c. 690–present)
- Alike in its design choices: [Bengali Modernist Book Cover (Prachchhad)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/bengali-book-cover.md) (1943–present), 75% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Push Pin Style](https://stylogeny.com/styles/push-pin.md) (1954–1980), 74% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Pardhan Gond Painting (Jangarh Kalam)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/gond-painting.md) (1981–present), 71% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Kultur-Lige & Yiddish Avant-Garde Book Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/kultur-lige-book.md) (1917–1924), 70% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Santiniketan & Bengal School Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/santiniketan-graphics.md) (1905–1954), 68% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Woodland School (Legend Painting)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/woodland-school.md) (1962–present), 67% alike

## Real works

- [Alifbaʾiyyat Filastin (Palestine Alphabet) (ألفبائية فلسطين), cover](https://online-exhibit.aub.edu.lb/items/show/33): Mohieddine Ellabbad, 1985, American University of Beirut Libraries, online exhibit 'Dar al-Fata al-Arabi'
- [Sindbad (سندباد), no. 7, 14 February 1952: masthead page with facing comic, and the 'Rihlat Sindbad' spread](https://online-exhibit.aub.edu.lb/items/show/59): Dar al-Maʿarif, Cairo (magazine illustrated under Hussein Bicar; a small signature on the Rihlat Sindbad spread appears to read 'Bicar'), 14 February 1952, American University of Beirut Libraries, online exhibit 'Dar al-Fata al-Arabi' (section on Ellabbad's influences)
- [Nadam hisan (A Horse’s Regret) (ندم حصان), cover](https://online-exhibit.aub.edu.lb/items/show/43): Laila Shawa (illustration); story by Zakaria Tamer, 1975, American University of Beirut Libraries, online exhibit 'Dar al-Fata al-Arabi'
- [al-Balah al-ahmar (The Red Dates) (البلح الأحمر): cover, back cover and interior illustration](https://online-exhibit.aub.edu.lb/items/show/19): Bahgat Othman (illustration); story by Mahjoub Omar, 1975, American University of Beirut Libraries, online exhibit 'Dar al-Fata al-Arabi'
- [Hiya (She) (هي), cover](https://online-exhibit.aub.edu.lb/items/show/207): Helmi el-Touni, 1980, American University of Beirut Libraries, online exhibit 'Dar al-Fata al-Arabi'

## Sources

- Zeina Maasri, Cosmopolitan Radicalism: The Visual Politics of Beirut's Global Sixties (Cambridge University Press, 2020), ch. 4 'Ornament Is No Crime: Decolonizing the Arabic Page from Cairo to Beirut'
- Bidoun, 'Revolution for Kids' (https://bidoun.org/articles/revolution-for-kids)
- AUB Libraries online exhibit, 'Dar al-Fata al-Arabi' (https://online-exhibit.aub.edu.lb/exhibits/show/dar-el-fata)
- Bahia Shehab & Haytham Nawar, A History of Arab Graphic Design (AUC Press, 2020)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book & Periodical Design”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/cairo-beirut-book-design/