Friday, April 24, 2009

Replica of Torah

Torah the jewish holy book has been a more valuable book to them and most of the people belonging to other religion dose'nt know any thing about it .But to the people of cochin and tourists in cochin, there was a chance to see it in paradesi synagogue but now it is no more opened to the curious visitors.But even i am a Muslim i have seen it twice and bit amazed to know that it was made of kosher (clean) animal skin.After that i tried to learn more about that and decided to make one replica of it.And sucessfully finished it.The image given below is the scroll made by me with thick handmade paper. only the ten commenments and following chapters are there.




Then i had made a minature torah with same material and its height is only 4 inches this is the image.and i had gifted it to my new friend Jono David who is a jewish photographer when he came to cochin for photographing the old synagogues.You can visit the photo library of jews around the world in his website
http://www.jewishphotolibrary.com/



A comparison in the size of my two Torahs
will give you a idea about its size.



The close view to my Torah. I have tried to make it error free and hope no error is there and once i took it to Samuel hallegua the warden of the jewish community in cochin to him on that day i had gifted a
oil painting

of menorah done by me. And one hebrew ten commandment in an old paper.He gave me a good comment on it.



Then when i went to the house one Malabari jewish family in Trichur,kerala.Mr.Namiah and Ruby Namiah they were amazed to see a replica of Torah made by a Muslim.
here is the photo of Mr.Namiah with my Torah scroll.



Hope you all will like it

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Hebrew inscriptions in Cochin


These are the some of the oldest hebrew inscriptions found in cochin even in other places like Mala,Parur,Chennamangalam we can find old hebrew inscriptions. The images displayed below is the marble found on the door post of Cochin Jewish Cemetery.the one is of Hebrew and other contains English and Malayalam.

  


















 

















This is the inscription found in Mattancherry Pardesi Synagogue. and it states about the oldest Kochangadi Synagogue.













There is another hebrew inscription in cochin which is unknown to most of the people, it is the tomb stone inscription of tomb of Namiah muthah (Nehemiah ben Abraham) it is situated in Chakkamaadom, which is near to my maternal ancestral house.



Most of the localites use to light the candle and pray there.


Another tombstone outside the recently restored synagogue in Chennamangalam
has Hebrew letters inscribed, which are clearly visible, with the words "Sara
bat Israel" (Sara, the daughter of Israel). The Hebrew date corresponds to
1269, making it the oldest Hebrew text in India.


Monday, April 20, 2009

Golden touch



The golden dust in calligraphy can make magics the completely hand designed ones are here for you.These ones are made on chart papers and the gold dust and gum is used to make the designes hope it will be a different one for you the hebrew birkat habayit.The one below is designed with a scroll and a golden Menorah with greek style pillars.





This one shown below is of same pattern with two golden Shofar,Magen David,Crown,chai("life"in hebrew),and greek style pillars.




My calligraphies

Hai readers,I am Thoufeek Zakriya from Cochin,India.I am bit interested in languages,Art calligraphy and i am crazy about History.

This blog is created by me to publish my calligraphic (in Hebrew,Arabic,aramaic,syrian etc ) works which is completely hand made ones and it will be a different experience to you................. even though i am not a professional in this i use to maintain a standard to erradicate the errors in it.


Here is a Birchat habayit ( ברכת הבית ) hebrew blessing for house recently made by me.This is a simple birkat made without more decorations and the font style used is that of Torah scribe style.


I use to make more birkats with gold dust decorated ones too will post such ones soon.
I am thanking my friend Paul Rockower, for his recommendation and suggesions inspired me to create a blog.thanks Paul.and i will posts more pictures of my creations and those who wants a copy can contact me by posting a comment.