Assylbek Urynbassarov

Assylbek Urynbassarov (b. 1984) from Almaty, Kazakhstan, studied Islamic studies and Arabic language at the Egyptian University of Islamic Culture Nur-Mubarak, and continued his studies at the Republican Institute to become an imam.

Since 2006 he started his training in traditional Islamic calligraphy at the Khalil Aga Institute of Islamic calligraphy in Cairo. In 2010 he met and studied under the master calligrapher Hasan Çelebi in Istanbul, but also under other master calligraphers such as Ferhat Kurlu, Mumtaz Durdu, Ahmad Fares, Abdullah Osman to name a few.

Since 2013 he worked as an Islamic calligraphy teacher and was invited at various prestigious art institutes to give classes. Assylbek taught at the exhibition "The Art of Islamic Calligraphy", organised by the International Center for the Study of Islamic Art and Culture (IRCICA) and the National Center for Manuscripts and Rare Books of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2019.

Assylbek’s works have been admired across various exhibitions and Kazakh mosques like the Ryskeldy Haji mosque, Alzhan Ana mosque and the Aq Meshit mosque in Astana to name a few.