Born in 1942 in Yazur, a town east of Jaffa, Palestine, Mahmoud Taha was a painter and a ceramist. He earned his BFA from the Academy of Fine Arts, Baghdad, in 1968, specializing in ceramics. Trained under renowned calligrapher Hashem Mahmoud for nearly six years, Taha merged traditional aesthetics of Arabic calligraphy with skilled craftsmanship.

Taha drew inspiration from Islamic art, mainly calligraphy and geometric patterns. He investigated and adopted different types of Arabic calligraphy scripts, including the Kufic, the Thuluth, and the Ta'liq or Farsi script. Taha's research in different calligraphic styles exposed the artist into a spectrum of linear shapes and forms that would develop into unique abstract formations introduced into his art. Using calligraphy as a graphic element, he added texts and verses from the Coran into his contemporary creations. His work comprises murals, pottery, and ceramic sculptures onto which he would also apply symbolic elements inspired by his own cultural heritage. Painted in earthy colors, Taha incorporated ornamental patterns, archaic figurines, and regionalist symbols such as the dome of the rock designed in bas relief onto his ceramic plates,

Taha was awarded several prizes for his work, most notably the Jury Prize at the First International Cairo Biennial for Ceramics and the Al-Hussein Medal of Distinction, Jordan. Mahmoud Taha died in Jordan in 2016.

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