Project / The Signature Series
Al Bayan
An Arabic curriculum for non-native speakers — designed not as a textbook, but as a railway journey from Istanbul to Mecca.
A language is not memorised. It is travelled.
Eight books lay the track. Five hundred illustrations are the scenery.
From Istanbul's first platform to the gates of Mecca — one line, four levels, every mile drawn by hand.
The Al Bayan project entailed the creation of a comprehensive Arabic curriculum built on Quranic words and verses. A senior artist crafted the style and illustrations across four levels and eight books — each carrying over five hundred original drawings.
The Concept
One railway. Four levels. The Hijaz line, redrawn as a curriculum.
Each cover depicts a city along the historic Ottoman railway, from Istanbul to Mecca — so a learner's progress through the levels mirrors the traveller's progress down the line.
Istanbul
Level One
The platform. First letters, first sounds — the traveller boards.
Damascus
Level Two
Vocabulary gathers speed. Sentences begin to carry their own weight.
Madinah
Level Three
Fluency in sight. The learner reads passages, not words.
Mecca
Level Four
Arrival. Quranic text read with comprehension — the journey's purpose.
The Shelf
Eight volumes, two per level — every cover a station, every level its own hour of the day.
The Craft
Three passes over every plate
Every station began as graphite: loose horizons, rooflines, the geometry of a place.
Line work committed. Minarets, platforms and locomotives find their final contours.
Dawn over the Bosphorus, night over the Hijaz — each level given its own hour of the day.
Original Illustrations
Books Published
Learning Levels
Years of Craft
The books feel less like a curriculum and more like a voyage our students want to finish.
Next World
Vantage Financial
Cold steel · Electric precision · Digital & Strategy →