Welcome to
The Art of the "Greatest Name"
Greetings, what you will find here is an index that leads you to a variety of pictures of "Greatest Name" Art, along with short explanations and translations where available. All were "Hand Crafted" by Larry Curtis, yours truly, unless otherwise noted. Most of the ones here were done in ink on parchment, but a few are fretworks, cut out of wood and mounted in picture frames over material backgrounds. Of course I only crafted them and I lay no claim on the original designs, most of which, I found in the Bahá'í World Volumes.
You see soon after I became a Bahá'í I started noticing that there were several artistic versions of the "Greatest Name". When I mentioned this I was usually told that I must be mistaken for, really there was only one. Well I kept looking and finding and I soon wanted a collection of my own, which wasn't possible since no one had one available. So I started making it myself. Mind you I had never gotten past Art 101 in Junior High School and I did, so, wish to be respectful, as I still do. I hope that you will enjoy them as much as I do!
(Now a bit of history first. I'm going by memory here so, don't quote this PLEASE! I'll get the reference as soon as I can find it again. Shoghi Effendi, the blessed Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, in the midst of an effort to add some degree of standardization to it, (The Faith), chose the rendering of the "Greatest Name" that we are all most familiar with, to be the one that would be used for Official Bahá'í Purposes. This helped to develop a uniform and recognizable front for the Faith, who's character he was pains takeingly defining throughout his Ministry. In 'The Bahá'í World' vol. VI, 1934-1936 on page 350, one can find a facsimile of the US Trademark application serial no. 349,883 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada dated April 12, 1934 and registered August 28, 1934.)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS |
1) In "It's" (normal) written form 3) Ringstone Symbol (Standard) 4) Combination from the Akka Cell 6) Yá Bahá'u'lláhu'l-Abhá by MQ 7) The Celestial Rooster in wood 8) The Celestial Rooster in ink 9) The Celestial Rooster by MQ 12) GN Egypt 13) GN Bombay 14) GN Tihran 15) GN Bird in Tree 16) Alláh 17) Mishkín-Qalam - a short biography 18) GN Tom 19) GN Face 20) Bahá'u'lláh Bird 21) Star ____________ |
Some "Greatest Name"
Links
An Explanation of the
Emblem of the "Greatest Name"
by Hand of the Cause Abu'l-Qásim Faizí
Also
A Compilation on the "Greatest Name"
and
Bahá'í Graphics Gems Gallery
by Bryan Stover
A Classic
"Greatest Name" by Mishkín-Qalam
Listen to
"Ya-Bahá'u'l-Abhá', Ya-Alí'u'l-Alláh" in RealAudio format
Listen
to "Alláh'u'Abhá" in RealAudio format
Putting it all to Good Use!!
Several of you have written in to tell me about projects you are developing, mainly personal and community deepenings, summer schools and children's classes. Here is an example of one.
Candace Hill wrote: "Here are the photos from Heartland Bahá'í School in Illinois where we used images from your web site about the Greatest Name. As the theme for the special edition of Brilliant Star magazine for this summer school was community, we used the theme of the Community of the Greatest Name for our classes."
Back to Curtis Artworks
Back to Larry's Home Page
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| Made on: June 7th, 1999 |
Note: This is just the first version. I plan to add much more as I get the opportunity. I've been wanting to build this site ever since I first thought of it. Sharing both the Art and the Appreciation for the "Greatest Name", brings great joy to my heart. So far, I've been through three scanners and two computer crashes, to do it. Oh and BTW there's lot's more to come. I'm still researching, copying and organizing.
Send mail to Larry D. Curtis
with questions or comments about this web site.