MASHQ: Where Art Meets Tradition
Last updated 9 October 2026.
MASHQ is a workshop in the UAE. Two founders, a laser cutter, a shelf of acrylic and a great deal of hand-finishing — and, since 2026, a calligraphy engine on the web that anyone can use for free.
What we make is Arabic calligraphy and Arabic-inspired ornament turned into objects you use: trays that come out for guests, boxes that hold dates through Ramadan, jars, tissue boxes, name pieces, wall art. Nothing is warehoused. Every order is made after you place it.
Our mission
MASHQ is a UAE brand that brings Arabic calligraphy back into homes and workplaces, and puts it within everyone’s reach. We hold ourselves to four commitments:
- Keeping Arabic calligraphy alive for a new generation. We teach it through Mashq Learn, whose first level is free, and we publish a free encyclopedia of 160 calligraphers.
- Fairness to calligraphers and artists. We show and sell their original works, and the larger share of every sale goes to the artist.
- Made to order in the UAE. Nothing is made before it is ordered, so there is no surplus stock and no waste, and deliveries within the UAE leave from a local workshop.
- Arabic first. Everything we publish is complete in both Arabic and English, so calligraphy reaches the people it belongs to and those meeting it for the first time.
Where it started
MASHQ began with a simple observation: Arabic calligraphy, one of the richest visual traditions in the world, rarely showed up in modern homes in a way that felt current rather than only traditional. We wanted pieces that sit as comfortably in a minimalist apartment as in a classically styled majlis. The tools have got better since we started; the intention has not moved — take a tradition worth keeping, and make it something people actually want to live with.
MASHQ took its first order in February 2024. By 9 October 2026, 83 pieces had been ordered from this shop — Shopify's own count, not an estimate: a small number, and the true one.
How a piece is made
Every piece starts as a drawing — a phrase in a classical script, or an arabesque pattern — and the proportions and spacing are settled first, because that is what makes a finished piece feel balanced rather than only accurate. Then it becomes an object here: an acrylic piece is cut with laser precision, then assembled, sanded, cleaned and inspected by hand before it reaches a box; a calligraphy paint is printed on canvas and framed by hand. The precision comes from the material and the machine; the care comes from the people finishing each piece. Every step, with photographs, is on how a piece is made.
Most pieces are produced within 5–7 working days before dispatch, and personalised work adds a step for confirming the spelling and approving the layout. Every product page states its own time, and the page is the promise. (Why we work in acrylic is in the journal.)
Who makes what
- Our workshop in the UAE cuts and engraves the acrylic range — trays, boxes, tissue boxes, jars, mabkhara, the square-Kufic name frame — and sands, cleans, assembles and inspects each piece by hand. It prints the calligraphy paints and framed names on canvas, frames them by hand, and frames originals with glass when you ask.
- Named calligraphers write the originals, by hand, in ink, and sign them: Anwar Alhulwani, Ahmed Alhawary and Rasha Kasim. Affanah Zohir's work is sold as fine-art prints, and labelled so. We never write an original ourselves and never call a print an original.
- Software sets real typefaces in Mashq Studio and renders the rooms on product pages, so you can judge a piece's size. It never draws or repaints a letter of a calligrapher's work.
Before it ships
A piece made with your words goes through two checks. First, we set your words in the script you choose and send you the picture with its price, usually the same working day; you confirm the spelling, and nothing is printed or cut until you say yes. Then, when it is finished, we send you a photo of it before it leaves the workshop. For any other piece, ask on WhatsApp and we will send you a photo before dispatch.
Design it yourself
Since 2026 the workshop has a front door on the web. At Mashq Studio anyone can compose real Arabic calligraphy — Naskh, Thuluth, Diwani, Ruq’ah, Kufic, Nastaliq and Maghribi, with modern and display faces beside them, true vector output, no account and no charge — and then order the result made here in the UAE. Your design, our hands. It is not a mockup generator: what the screen draws is the file we print or cut.
The calligraphers
Most calligraphy sold as décor is unattributed — a phrase, a font, no hand behind it. Some of ours is different, and we say which. Anwar Alhulwani works in Thuluth; the pieces of his we carry are originals, written by hand on burnished paper and signed. Affanah Zohir also works in Thuluth; hers we carry as fine-art prints on archival paper. We also carry signed originals by Ahmed Alhawary and Rasha Kasim, written by hand and signed. An original and a print are both worth owning and they are not the same thing, which is why the price differs and why we label it. Meet them here.
Getting it to you
Delivery is a flat fee per order, whatever the quantity: AED 25 anywhere in the UAE for décor (trays, tissue boxes, boxes, jars, mugs, the acrylic name frame) and AED 50 for wall art (calligraphy paints, framed names, prints and originals). Outside the UAE everything travels by Worldwide Express at a flat AED 250 per order, delivered within 8 days. There is no free-delivery threshold. Framing with glass for an original is done in our UAE workshop and is for UAE deliveries only. The exact amount is shown at checkout before you pay. A piece that arrives damaged is replaced or refunded in full — what to send us.
Who you are buying from
MASHQ is operated by 1click2open LLC, a free-zone company registered in Sharjah (Sharjah Media City, SHAMS), United Arab Emirates, trade licence 2647497.01; every piece is made in the UAE. We have no showroom: everything is ordered online or on WhatsApp and delivered across all seven emirates. Payment is taken in AED on Shopify's own checkout, and the price you see is the price you pay — nothing is added at checkout. Write to connect@mashq.ae or call +971 50 122 6579 on working days, Monday to Friday, UAE time. If anything on this site disagrees with what you see at checkout, the checkout is right and we have a mistake to fix — tell us.