Kenneth Ainsworth Ahmed Mukhtar is a designer and maker of Islamic tilework known as Zillij.

I went to visit Ken Ahmed at his home and workshops near Bethnal Green in East London where he has lived for about 30 years. Though he is originally from Stoke-on-Trent which can sometimes still be heard in his accent.

He also embraced Islam many years ago and studied a degree in contemporary western art before discovering the beauty to be found in the Islamic patterns of the traditional Muslim world.

Alongside learning the Arabic of the Holy Quran which he reads everyday, Ken Ahmed has learnt the geometry that is the extraordinary language of the Zillij tilework that he makes in his workshops.

Ken Ahmed talks about the satisfaction and contentment that is derived from the study, practice and contemplative nature of the craft he surrounds and fills his life with. The three aspects of Islamic art being calligraphy, geometry and arabesque (Islimi). "In a sense the geometry is a kind of Yang and the arabesque is the Yin, the and masculine geometry and feminine fluidity. In the Mosque and in most Islamic art all three are combined". Some of the tiled Zillij panels Ken Ahmed has produced have been worked on to combine geometric and Celtic elements. Celtic being an ancient British style that is seen particularly to work well together with the Islamic patterns.

I ask how long it takes to make these colourful panels and its explained how each tile piece is handmade, coloured and decorated. To describe this process more clearly he takes me from the living room and out to the workshop at the back of his garden. Several panels are in development. Some have been decorated with arabic calligraphy of the Bismillah, others with Allah, Huwa, Muhammad. Different letter styles are used but prominent is a Kufic style that well reflects the hard edges of the tilework. The lettering is not simply copied from templates but is designed by Ken Ahmed to fit that space. The individual Zillij pieces are put together to build up the patterns by fixing them with glue on to large sheets of paper. This makes for easy handling as the panel comes together and is in turn fixed to a rigid wooden panel.

Ken Ahmed uses patterns that are traditional to Persia and others mostly from the Maghreb region of North Africa. He uses well known patterns and his own developments of those patterns. Often he will derive his own patterns from scratch. The eight pointed star he explains is the principle geometric element that a great many works use as a starting point. The square, triangle and the pentagon are the essential primary shapes so for example the square is rotated on its self to produce the eight pointed star. Seven or nine pointed stars are more rarely used because they are more difficult to integrate.

Symbolism

With an art form so enmeshed with mathematic principles it is not surprising that the symbolism of numbers gets considered. Ken Ahmed touches on the tradition of Abjad which ascribes numbers to the letters of the alphabet so that words then correspond to a numerical equivalent. For example the Islamic phrase 'Bismillah arRahman arRahim' is a transliteration of the original arabic words into a roman script. Now, the arabic words are Allah Almighty's words that were revealed to mankind and when written down in the arabic script have a special status which Muslims hold in such high regard they avoid applying the written word of god in inappropriate places, such as papers that will be discarded or thrown away. The above original arabic phrase which is often translated as 'In the name of Allah the Compassionate the Merciful, is  numbered as 786 in the Abjad system. That number is often seen in use by Muslims who want to refer to the holy words in some form of communication but at the same time not risk demeaning their sanctity.

The patterned ceiling of the Shah mosque in Isfahan symbolises a veil behind which is the Reality. It is also imagined as a kind of net which is bringing down Allah's mercy from heaven. Some non-Muslim commentators unfamiliar with non-figurative art have simply failed to properly aquatint themselves with the aesthetic and they only saw the patterns in terms of space fillers. They therefore failed to understand the symbolism which is otherwise obvious and well known to those who live with it.

Ken Ahmed starts his work with a compass and ruler and squared paper and he likes to compare the creative process he follows to Jazz music, which is a colourful metaphor. The influence of colour completely effects the nature of a piece so that comparing two panels with different colour schemes you would need to train your eye to detect the identical geometry. After  the geometric grid is drawn up attention turns to making the individual pieces. Some shapes are recurring, for which Ken Ahmed has a library of tile cutters he uses to press the shapes directly from clay. Other shapes are unique or adaptations to suit the composition. He sees the various shaped tiles akin to musical notes which are literally arranged as they are with a piece of music.

Jokingly he says that he creates pieces of art, and with trepidation I mention the term 'create' is sensitive to some religious minded people, while to others its simply a word to describe a natural process that mankind has engaged in since his time began. He reassures me that the only creator is Allah really and the art just comes through the artist. At first he used to just copy what was out there until he felt able to readily manipulate his work according to his own devices. He compares it to a trainee western artist who is sent out to copy the pictures of the masters until he develops his own ability. With work based largely on Spanish/Moroccan styles a new drawing could take a couple of days. He cant see all his designs materialised into tiles because there are so many of them, they just keep coming. Like someone who writes songs, they are just endless. Cutting the pieces may take a week or two, they then are fired and glazed and then put together like a jigsaw. So for a new commission 6-8 weeks may be required just to make sure there is enough time to do all the work. "These pieces do take a lot of time" he says, "but whats the rush".

I ask if his creative work is profitable. He had at one point thought to establish a workshop like a small 'atelier' in order to ratchet up the output for making pieces to order. Not exactly mechanised or industrialised, but introducing some efficiencies to repetitive tasks. At the moment the plan is to get a selection of work together, make CD's to promote it and send them to various people who would be interested in making commissions or publishing a book on the subject. There are galleries in London, the V&A and British Museum as he now feels his work is good enough, and laughing…"I think of myself as a national treasure". Ken Ahmed has previously fulfilled a number of commissions including one for a restaurant in Bethnal Green for eight tables. He has held local exhibitions and sold work privately. Currently he has 20-30 finished pieces. Being retired from the conventional life of work and not dependent on an income from his creative work, he is free to do it for the satisfaction and enjoyment the process brings him. "So unlike most people I don't hate what I am doing and get home needing to chill out or seek oblivion in some form or other, where as I don't need to do that. Basically its a contemplative art, thats what I believe Islam is about, or any religion for that matter. You can see from the past the kind of buildings they put up compared to the kind of shit they do today, just look at it. Bloody hell the Olympic development (visible at the end of his street) is an absolute junkscape. What the hell, its so breath takingly ugly. Mecca today looks like Chicago with the Ka'ba in the middle of it. all other religions do all they can to preserve the minutiae of their architectural history".

Ken Ahmed's workshop has several panels in progress. The shelves are full of boxes and boxes of tiles, some coloured and fired, some like dry biscuits. On the other wall are dozens and dozens of pots of colours and glazes, like an alchemists laboratory. Taking up a large footprint in the workshop is the kiln in which all the tiles are fired, sometimes once only, sometimes with a bisque firing and then a glaze firing. As mentioned some of the pieces have celtic knotwork in them. Typically the celtic style which is native to this country is non-figurative. They obviously had in some way a similar mindset to the Muslim artists whose work is also largely non-figurative and the two styles do work quite well together actually. They seem to have a natural affinity. "I see myself as a bridge between Islam and the West and art is also a kind of a bridge that connects a lot of common ground. Islam, Christianity and Judaism are three bunch's of the monotheistic religious traditions. each have influenced the West to quite a degree. Muslim science was translated from the ancient Greeks and past on to the West in the Renaissance. Islamic Spain also passed on a lot of knowledge from the Muslims to the West. so Islam has been a big influence on the West just as much as Judaism and Christianity. What I am doing is for anyone who loves beauty and they will find it interesting and hopefully enriching as well, especially these days as there is so much ugliness about especially in art and architecture".

Ken Ahmed can be contacted through britishmuslimart@gmail.com