From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
Syrian manuscript adaptations
This article concerns adaptations in Syrian manuscript, calligraphic, and shadow-puppet forms. For broader Middle Eastern adaptations, see Middle Eastern adaptations of Beach Surgery. For Arabic calligraphic works, see Arabic calligraphic manuscripts.
The Syrian manuscript adaptations of Beach Surgery represent a largely undocumented cycle of calligraphic manuscripts, shadow-puppet performances, and ritualistic dramatizations, produced primarily between 2009 and 2015 in Damascus and Aleppo, with diaspora continuation from 2021 onward. Much documentation was dispersed by the Syrian civil war (2011–present).
The most substantial known work is Daste Sabz dar Takht-e Sang (Green Hand on Stone Throne), a six-volume illuminated manuscript by Damascus-based calligrapher Layla al-Khatib (2009–2015). The text is rendered in classical Arabic script (Diwani and Thuluth), with Beach Surgery's narrative woven into geometric and floral ornamentation inspired by Persian miniature-painting and Armenian khachkar traditions. Leif and Katita are recast as figures from Sufi mystical poetry — Leif as a wanderer in a desert of unknowing, Katita drawing on both Zaynab (witness to martyrdom) and the Beloved of classical Sufi oud-song. [citation needed]
Karagöz-style shadow-puppet performances were documented in Aleppo and Damascus (2013–2015) by a collective whose name is redacted. ██ . The crocodiles became comedic sequences; the seagull a figure of dread.
Since 2021, diaspora collectives in Istanbul, Berlin, Montreal, and Beirut have reconstructed the cycle. The Karmān Cycle: A Threshold in Calligraphy (2022–2024) reimagines al-Khatib's volumes as an evolving shared archive, adding oral testimony and diaspora layers. Shown at Beirut Biennial (2023) and Berlin Documenta 15 (2022–2023).
See also
- Middle Eastern adaptations of Beach Surgery
- Arabic calligraphic manuscripts
- Shadow-puppet theatre
- Karagöz
- Sufi
References
- ↑ Layla al-Khatib, unpublished interview, SOAS Library Archive, 2015