Abu Saymeh
Yasser Abu Saymeh is a Muslim calligrapher who earned worldwide fame when he was selected by Victor Batarseh, the Christian mayor of Bethlehem on the West Bank, to copy out in Arabic script the Gospel of Luke from the New Testament of the Christian Bible for presentation to the Catholic Pope Benedict XVI. On April 27, 2009, The Washington Post reported that he had "nearly completed the Gospel's text, which will eventually cover 65 poster-sized pages." It was set to be accompanied by coloured images depicting the life of Jesus Christ from his nativity through to his crucifixion. Trained in Baghdad, Saymeh works in a small Bethlehem studio only a few hundred metres from the Church of the Nativity.