I have been discussing Arabic calligraphy with comrade Talal. We reached this conclusion that Ottoman calligrapher, Sami Efendi, is probably one of the best and I do believe that he influenced in his style many of the modern calligraphers. It was Sami Efendi who designed the Tughra of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II. Look at this piece above, for example. I have seen it done by the famous Lebanese calligrapher, Istifan, and it was quite inferior to this one despite the imitation.
PS I should mention that I did Arabic calligraphy (and did it semi-professionally in my graduate years in the US and got paid for some designs) but I was never that good. I realized that I was quite mediocre and the development of that art requires such painstaking patience that I do not possess.
