Issa Benyamin
Encyclopedia
Biography
Assyrian calligrapher, Issa Benyamin was born to Assyrian parents, Mirza Benyamin Kaldani and Esther in 1924 in TabrizTabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and shortly thereafter, settled in Urmia
Urmia
- Demographics :According to official census of 2006, the population of Urmia is about 871,204.- Language :The population of Urmia is mainly Azerbaijani people, with Kurdish, Assyrian Christian, and Armenian minorities...
, once a heavily Assyrian populated region in northwestern Iran that was the site of the Assyrian Genocide
Assyrian genocide
The Assyrian Genocide refers to the mass slaughter of the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac population of the Ottoman Empire during the 1890s, the First World War, and the period of 1922-1925...
of 1914-1918.
Benyamin's love for the Neo-Aramaic language developed early on when his father, who was originally from Salamas, Iran, taught him to read and write Neo-Aramaic. By the time Benyamin was seventeen, he fell in love with the art of calligraphy
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
and began mastering it under the tutelage of Bishop Havil Zaya, the Archbishop of Urmia and Salamas.
Benyamin's many publications included the weekly Assyrian-Persian Bright Future in 1951 and in 1962, one of the first books on the principles of Assyrian writing. From 1981 to 1983, he was the Assyrian editor of the weekly Ishtar.
Since 1975, Benyamin has devoted much of his time to paintings and illustrations using Assyrian calligraphy creating hundreds of pieces that will soon be published in a three-volume collection. He is credited with the development of fifty-two Assyrian fonts that can be used in a variety of word processors and similar programs.
In 1993, two of Benyamin's works were featured in the The Voice of Ink, a French magazine.
His daughter, Ramica and his son, Ramsin, founded Benyamin's company, CalligRam, in 1997. He makes his home in Chicago, Illinois. and is married to Clara Minassian.
Awards
- Excellence Award presented by the Assyrian Academic SocietyAssyrian Academic SocietyThe Assyrian Academic Society or AAS was established in 1983 in Chicago, Illinois, where there is a large Assyrian diaspora community. As stated in the preamble, the Assyrian Academic Society promotes Assyrian culture, history, and knowledge through a variety of activities including publications,...
of Chicago in 1991 - Excellence Award presented by Ashurbanipal Library in Chicago in 1991
- Hammurabi Award presented by The Assyrian Heritage Organization of Chicago in 1992
- Ashurbanipal Award presented by Assyrian American National Federation in 1994
- The Mesopotamian Arts Award (Raab-Amne) from the Assyrian Aid Society in 2009