Art · Corner

Islamic calligraphy — light fallen from the reed.

From Yāqūt to Hāmid Aytaç, the great masters of Ottoman calligraphy across eight centuries — for each, one plate, one mushaf, one hilye that bears the tradition forward.

16 masters · eight centuries

Calligraphy is built around the six pens — Aklām al-sitta: thuluth and its monumental jalī, naskh, muḥaqqaq, rayḥānī, tawqīʼ and riqāʼ. When Yāqūt al-Mustaʼṣimī standardised these six in Baghdad with their full proportions, he also opened the chain of Ottoman calligraphy.

Shaykh Hamdullah turned Yāqūt’s line into an Ottoman idiom; Karahisârî, working outside the Shaykh school, raised muḥaqqaq and jalī from a different vein. In the seventeenth century Hāfız Osman gave the hilye — the verbal portrait of the Prophet — its definitive classical form, an architecture of words on a single sheet.

At the threshold of the nineteenth century Mustafa Râkım Efendi redrew the anatomy of jalī thuluth. The proportions of the tughra, the body of the letters, the geometry of the curves — all came from his reed into the form they bear today. Kazasker Mustafa İzzet monumentalised that reform in the eight great roundels of Hagia Sophia.

Sâmi Efendi, the last great Ottoman master of jalī, left a school behind into the twentieth century; his pupil Hāmid Aytaç carried this art — banished by the alphabet reform — through a hidden atelier. Every chain of licensure (icāzet) in the discipline today traces back to him.

— Plate 01 —

Folios 1b–2a from Part 15 of a 30-part Qurʼan

1282 – 1283 (681 AH) · Ink, gold and pigments on vellum

Baghdad — Khalili Collection

Yâkût el-Müstaʼsımî
1242 – 1298 Late Abbasid · Baghdad · Aklām al-sitta — the six pens
The “qibla of scribes.” Trained in the court of the last Abbasid caliph, this master of Turkic origin standardised the six classical pens. The figure at the root of Ottoman calligraphy; the chain that reaches Shaykh Hamdullah descends from him.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 02 —

A folio in naskh

c. 1500 · Ink on paper

Sakıp Sabancı Museum · Istanbul

Şeyh Hamdullah
1429 – 1520 Early classical Ottoman · Aklām al-sitta · thuluth · naskh
The founder of classical Ottoman calligraphy. Teacher of Bayezid II, he turned Yāqūt’s tradition into an Ottoman idiom — the so-called “Shaykh manner.” He copied more than forty mushafs in his lifetime.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 03 —

Illuminated serlevha (Qurʼan frontispiece)

c. 1546 – 1547 · Ink, gold and pigments on paper

Topkapı Palace Museum · Y.Y. 999

Ahmed Karahisârî
1469 – 1556 Age of Süleyman the Magnificent · Muḥaqqaq · thuluth · jalī
An independent peak who carried Yāqūt’s line outside the Shaykh school. Author of the great Süleymaniye Mushaf, and the most accomplished Ottoman master of muḥaqqaq and thuluth.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 04 —

Süleymaniye Mosque · central dome inscription

c. 1557 · Ink on plaster

Süleymaniye Mosque · Istanbul

Hasan Çelebi
? – 1594 Classical Ottoman · Jalī thuluth · monumental inscription
The spiritual son and heir of Karahisârî. The interior and exterior monumental inscriptions of Sinan’s Süleymaniye Mosque — the mihrab, the dome roundels, the gate cartouches — are all from his hand.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 05 —

Album leaf from a muraqqaʼ

c. 1665 · Ink and gold on paper

Chester Beatty Library · Dublin · T 447

Derviş Ali
? – 1673 17th-century classicism · Thuluth · naskh
The link that carried the Shaykh school down to Hāfız Osman. Among his teachers, Derviş Ali stood as the most respected exponent of the Shaykh manner in the 17th century, bridging into the golden age of Ottoman calligraphy.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 06 —

Hilye — Description of the Prophet

c. 1691 – 1692 · Ink, gold and pigments on paper

Chester Beatty Library · Dublin · T 559.4

Hâfız Osman
1642 – 1698 Ottoman golden age · Thuluth · naskh · hilye
The master who gave the Hilya — the verbal portrait of the Prophet — its definitive classical form. He purified and rebuilt the Shaykh manner; sultans Mustafa II and Ahmed III studied under him personally.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 07 —

A kıtʼa in thuluth and naskh

c. 1700 · Ink and gold on paper

Sakıp Sabancı Museum · Istanbul · 110-0141

Yedikuleli Seyyid Abdullah
1670 – 1731 The Tulip Era · Thuluth · naskh · mushaf
The most accomplished successor of Hāfız Osman. He carried mushaf calligraphy to its peak at the opening of the eighteenth century; also known by the epithet Hāshimīzāde.
— Wikimedia Commons · Google Art Project
— Plate 08 —

A kıtʼa in thuluth and naskh

1806 · Ink and gold on paper

Sakıp Sabancı Museum · Istanbul · 110-0128

İsmâil Zühdü Efendi
? – 1806 Late classical · Thuluth · naskh
The elder brother and teacher of Mustafa Râkım. The quiet foundation behind the reform — the last great representative of classical mushaf calligraphy, the master whose hand made his brother’s jalī revolution possible.
— Wikimedia Commons · Google Art Project
— Plate 09 —

Calligraphic panel · levha

c. 1810 · Ink and gold on paper

Sakıp Sabancı Museum · Istanbul · 130-0073

Mustafa Râkım Efendi
1758 – 1826 On the threshold of reform · Jalī thuluth · tughra
The modern reformer of jalī thuluth; teacher of Mahmud II. He redrew the very anatomy of the tughra — the proportions between cradle, lance and curl as we know them today came from his reed.
— Wikimedia Commons · Google Art Project
— Plate 10 —

Illuminated mushaf · double frontispiece

c. 1811 · Ink, gold and pigments on paper

Khalili Collection · QUR 1076

Mahmud Celâleddin Efendi
? – 1829 Contemporary of Râkım · Thuluth · naskh · jalī
The great contemporary rival of Râkım. The other towering master of the reign of Mahmud II — in mushafs and in jalī panels he carried classical perfection forward.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 11 —

Hilye — Description of the Prophet

c. 1821 – 1822 · Ink, gold and pigments on paper

Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts · Istanbul

Yesârîzâde Mustafa İzzet
1770 – 1849 Reign of Mahmud II · Taʼliq
The supreme master of Ottoman taʼliq. With his father Yesârî Mehmed Esʼad he translated the Persian taʼliq idiom into Ottoman taste — and stood as the summit of that translation.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 12 —

Hilye in thuluth and naskh

c. 1850 · Ink, gold and pigments on paper

Private collection

Kazasker Mustafa İzzet Efendi
1801 – 1876 Tanzimat era · Jalī thuluth · thuluth · naskh
Author of the eight monumental roundels of Hagia Sophia — the names of Allah, Muḥammad, the four caliphs and the two grandsons. He carried the Râkım reform to the next generation, equally accomplished in mushaf, hilye and jalī.
— Wikimedia Commons
— Plate 13 —

Calligraphic panel · levha

c. 1865 · Ink and gold on paper

Sakıp Sabancı Museum · Istanbul · 130-0245

Mehmed Şefik Bey
1820 – 1880 Mid-Tanzimat · Jalī thuluth · tughra · inscription
A nineteenth-century master of jalī; court scribe of tughras and monumental inscriptions. One of the middle links that transmitted the precise refinement of the Râkım school to the last generation.
— Wikimedia Commons · Google Art Project
— Plate 14 —

Tughra of Sultan Abdülhamid II

c. 1876 – 1909 · Ink, gold and pigments on paper

Sakıp Sabancı Museum · Istanbul

Sâmi Efendi
1838 – 1912 Late Ottoman · Jalī thuluth · taʼliq · tughra
The last great Ottoman master of jalī; teacher of the teachers of modern Turkish calligraphy. The reed that drew the tughra of Abdülhamid II was his.
— Wikimedia Commons · Google Art Project
— Plate 15 —

Hilye — Description of the Prophet

c. 1880 · Ink, gold and pigments on paper

Sakıp Sabancı Museum · Istanbul · 140-0113

Hasan Rıza Efendi
1849 – 1920 Final Ottoman · Thuluth · naskh · mushaf · hilye
The last great representative of mushaf calligraphy. He copied thirty-three mushafs in his lifetime, and carried the transmission of classical naskh into the twentieth century on his shoulders.
— Wikimedia Commons · Google Art Project
— Plate 16 —

Composition in jalī thuluth · verse from Sūrat al-Tawba

XX. yüzyıl ortası · Ink and gold on paper

Private collection · signed Āmidī

Hâmid Aytaç
1891 – 1982 Bridge to the Republic · Thuluth · jalī · hilye
The last great master to carry Ottoman calligraphy into Republican Turkey. The hidden atelier of an art that the alphabet reform had banished; every chain of licensure (icāzet) in the discipline today traces back to him.
— Wikimedia Commons

— Reed —

Yā Hū. Calligraphy is where the reed meets the breath, and the ink meets patience.

Folios 1b–2a from Part 15 of a 30-part Qurʼan

A folio in naskh

Illuminated serlevha (Qurʼan frontispiece)

Süleymaniye Mosque · central dome inscription

Album leaf from a muraqqaʼ

Hilye — Description of the Prophet

A kıtʼa in thuluth and naskh

A kıtʼa in thuluth and naskh

Calligraphic panel · levha

Illuminated mushaf · double frontispiece

Hilye — Description of the Prophet

Hilye in thuluth and naskh

Calligraphic panel · levha

Tughra of Sultan Abdülhamid II

Hilye — Description of the Prophet

Composition in jalī thuluth · verse from Sūrat al-Tawba