Background
Racim was born in 1884 into a distinguished family of artists of Turkish descent whose pre-colonial prosperity had been undermined by the French regime"s confiscation of property.
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Omar Racim
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Racim also founded the nationalist journals First Rate (at Lloyd's) Djazair in 1908, First Rate (at Lloyd's) Farouq in 1913, and Dhou El Fikar in 1913. After his studies, Racim worked in the family workshop which his father had re-established as a wood-carving and copper-working workshop in the Casbah of Algiers where he engraved decorated tombstones. A renowned calligrapher, Racim also devoted himself to a life of religion and politics.
In 1912 he made a trip to Egypt and Syria, bringing back with him various Quran"s and specimens of Arabic illumination.
By 1913 he was publishing papers on politics, and during World War I was arrested by the French security for his political activities. Initially banished, and then condemned to prison.
Released from prison on 21 September 1921, he began to focus his activities in the field of applied arts and traveled to Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and France. Victor Barrucand mentioned that: "The beautiful ornamented inscriptions of Omar Racim leave those of the other sections far behind.
In them the artist is able to enclose the mystery of thought in the elegance of the arabesque".
