Joumana Medlej is an artist from Lebanon whose connection with early Arabic calligraphy was awakened by years spent working with master calligrapher Samir Sayegh in his Beirut studio. She specialises in the Kufi scripts, roughly corresponding to the Abbasid era, and in the materials of the time, having abandoned store-bought paints for the old ways of natural colour-making. She studies both scripts and art technology directly from primary sources, and is now drawing on her practitioner’s experience to translate medieval Arabic manuals and bring the voices of past masters to a general audience.

Joumana works out of her Hackney studio and has pieces in private and public collections from California to the Middle East. She teaches Kufi calligraphy at the Arab British Centre and book arts at the Prince's Foundation School of Traditional Arts.