Art · Corner

Mushaf-ı Sharif — where calligraphy meets illumination.

From Shaykh Hamdullah to Hāmid Aytaç, the canonical Mushaf-ı Sharif copies of the Ottoman world — each one the hand of a calligrapher, the gold of an illuminator, the memory commissioned by a palace patron.

13 copies · five centuries

Mushaf calligraphy is bound, within the six pens of the aklām al-sitta, to the naskh script in particular. The bodied architecture of thuluth appears in chapter headings, muḥaqqaq and rayḥānī in certain palace volumes; but the carrier of the verse body itself is naskh — the pen that, with Shaykh Hamdullah, settled wholly into the Ottoman page. The mushaf, as the longest text where this pen is patiently applied, constitutes the most exacting discipline of the calligraphic art.

The page does not arrive as paper. A mushaf page is first illuminated, then written. The double serlevha, the chapter headings, the vocalisation marks, the hizib roses, the markers of every ten verses — all come from the hand of the illuminator. The calligrapher steps into the space the illuminator has left, and writes. In palace ateliers these two hands often worked on the same street, sometimes in the same room; the mushaf is the page where calligraphy and illumination meet on a single plane.

The tradition of patronage carries the bones of mushaf art. Bayezid II held Shaykh Hamdullah, Süleyman the Magnificent held Karahisârî, Mustafa II and Ahmed III held Hāfız Osman, Mahmud II held Mustafa Râkım, Abdülhamid II held Sâmi Efendi — and even the last copies before the Republic were nourished by the same old patronage vein that reached as far as King Fuʼād of Egypt. The mushaf is written between the reed of the calligrapher and the signature of the patron.

The discipline of berʼ-i tashīḥ gives these works their ethic. The master finishes the mushaf, carries it to his teacher, has each folio read aloud; errors are marked on a sheet above; only after correction does the volume earn the name mushaf-ı sharīf. When lithography and then the press arrived in the nineteenth century, even the first printed mushafs took these corrected manuscript copies as their archetype. The widely-read printed Hāfız Osman type that you find today is the last link in this hand-written chain.

— Plate 01 —

Mushaf of Shaykh Hamdullah

1494 (899 AH) · Early classical Ottoman · reign of Bayezid II

Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts · TIEM 402

Şeyh Hamdullah
Naskh script; an opening folio (f. 1b) in ink, watercolour and gold on burnished paper.
A mushaf attributed to Shaykh Hamdullah, copied in naskh in Istanbul in April 1494. The master is reported to have copied forty-seven mushafs; this one is kept today in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts as TIEM 402.
— Wikimedia Commons · TIEM
— Plate 02 —

Bayezid Mushaf · Topkapı A. 5

1503 – 1504 (909 AH) · Palace commission · for Sultan Bayezid II

Topkapı Palace Library · A. 5

Şeyh Hamdullah
Double illuminated serlevha · gold-ruled · thuluth chapter headings over a naskh body.
The palace mushaf that Shaykh Hamdullah copied himself for Sultan Bayezid II. Its opening double-serlevha stands among the cleanest examples of the classical Ottoman illumination idiom; the Fātiḥa–Baqara opening still rests today in the Topkapı collection.
— Wikimedia Commons · Topkapı Palace
— Plate 03 —

Shaykh Hamdullah Mushaf · Aga Khan Museum

c. 1500 · Early classical Ottoman

Aga Khan Museum · Toronto · AKM 00262

Şeyh Hamdullah
The whole of the Fātiḥa is set in naskh on the illuminated opening double page; the Ottoman Turkish colophon on folio 278a names the scribe as Shaykh Hamdallah ibn Mustafa.
A mushaf copied in Istanbul around 1500, whose colophon bears the name of Shaykh Hamdullah. Its opening double page sets the Fātiḥa within illumination; the volume is kept today at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto.
— Wikimedia Commons · Aga Khan Museum
— Plate 04 —

Mushaf attributed to Ahmed Karahisârî

c. 1550 – 1560 · Age of Süleyman the Magnificent · Istanbul court production

Khalili Collection of Islamic Art · QUR 420

Ahmed Karahisârî
Main text in naskh, incidentals in thuluth; twelve lines to the page. Two pairs of large rosettes on facing pages open and close the volume.
This single-volume mushaf carries no colophon; the quality of its script and illumination has led many scholars to attribute it to Ahmed Karahisârî. Its restrained illumination is typical of court production under Süleyman; the volume is now in the Khalili Collection.
— Wikimedia Commons · Khalili Collection
— Plate 05 —

Karahisârî Mushaf · 1526–27

1526 – 1527 (933 AH) · Early reign of Süleyman

Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts · Istanbul

Ahmed Karahisârî
A naskh mushaf dated 933 AH. The TDV encyclopaedia records a signed Karahisârî mushaf of the same year as TIEM 400: eleven lines of naskh to the page, with an illuminated serlevha and chapter headings.
A single-volume copy made by Ahmed Karahisârî in the year 933 AH, held in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts. It is a dated work from the opening years of Süleyman’s reign by the calligrapher who revived the manner of Yāqūt in a new reading.
— Wikimedia Commons · TIEM
— Plate 06 —

Mushaf of Hāfız Osman · 1686

1686 (1097 AH) · Ottoman golden age

Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts · TIEM 405

Hâfız Osman
Naskh script, from 1679–1689 — the decade counted as Hāfız Osman’s finest in naskh.
One of the twenty-five mushafs Hāfız Osman (1642–1698) copied between 1659 and his death. This copy, dated 1097 AH, was printed in 1881 by order of Abdülhamid II by the printer Osman Bey and distributed across the Islamic world.
— Wikimedia Commons · TIEM
— Plate 07 —
﷽ work image unavailable

Mushaf of Yedikuleli Seyyid Abdullah

1687 – 1731 · Reigns of Mustafa II and Ahmed III · in the manner of Hāfız Osman

Most of his works were endowed to the Nuruosmaniye Library

Yedikuleli Seyyid Abdullah
Naskh in the manner of Hāfız Osman; most of his mushafs were illuminated by Ruganî Ali Üsküdârî.
Yedikuleli Seyyid Abdullah, also known as Hāshimīzāde, received his licence from Hāfız Osman in 1686–87 and copied twenty-four mushafs. He was known for the speed of his hand and became calligraphy master of the New Palace under Ahmed III. No single copy of his is yet publicly digitised.
— Plate 08 —

Mushaf of Şekerzâde Mehmed Efendi · 1728

1728 (1141 AH) · End of the Tulip Era · on the eve of Patrona Halil

Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts · Istanbul

Şekerzâde Seyyid Mehmed Efendi
The copy held in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts. The mushaf he copied in Medina, printed in 1874, is in the Süleymaniye Library (Yenicami K 3).
Şekerzâde Seyyid Mehmed of Manisa took his licence in thuluth and naskh from Yedikuleli Seyyid Abdullah. By order of Ahmed III he copied in Medina a mushaf modelled on Shaykh Hamdullah’s; that copy was printed in 1874. This mushaf, dated 1141 AH, is in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts.
— Wikimedia Commons · TIEM
— Plate 09 —

Mushaf of Mahmud Celâleddin Efendi

1778 (13 Zilkade 1192 AH) · Reign of Abdülhamid I

Khalili Collection of Islamic Art · QUR 1076

Mahmud Celâleddin Efendi
Main text in naskh, incidentals in riqāʿ; fifteen lines to the page. Illumination by İbrâhim Nazif; 279 folios, 15 × 9.5 cm.
A small mushaf dated 3 December 1778 by Mahmud Celâleddin Efendi, the self-taught calligrapher from Daghestan. Its illumination is by İbrâhim Nazif; an ownership note shows that in the nineteenth century it belonged to Nazime Sultan, daughter of Sultan Abdülaziz. It is held today in the Khalili Collection as QUR 1076.
— Wikimedia Commons · Khalili Collection
— Plate 10 —

Mushaf of Abdullah Zühdī

1848 – 1849 (1265 AH) · Mid-Tanzimat · reign of Abdülmecid

Sadberk Hanım Museum · Istanbul

Abdullah Zühdî Efendi
Late classical naskh · post-Râkım page-layout · ruled in gold along every line.
A middle-age mushaf by Abdullah Zühdī Efendi — the teacher of Sâmi Efendi, and the calligrapher of the inscriptions of the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. Its page-layout carries the quiet reflection of the Râkım reform onto the mushaf page; the Sadberk Hanım Museum’s copy stands among the best-preserved witnesses of the mid-nineteenth century.
— Wikimedia Commons · Sadberk Hanım Museum
— Plate 11 —
﷽ work image unavailable

Mushaf of Hasan Rıza Efendi

1878 – 1912 (en verimli dönemi) · Final Ottoman · reigns of Abdülhamid II to Mehmed V

Topkapı Palace Museum Library · Istanbul University Library

Hasan Rıza Efendi
The āyet-berkenār layout: every page opens and closes on a whole verse, with fifteen lines of naskh to the page.
Hasan Rıza Efendi (1849–1920), who copied nineteen mushafs, is known for the legibility of his naskh. The āyet-berkenār mushaf he wrote to help those memorising the Qurʼan was printed again and again from 1884; he also copied an eight-volume Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī for Sultan Reşad. A freely-licensed digital image is not yet openly available.
— Plate 12 —
﷽ work image unavailable

Mushaf of Aziz Efendi

1922 – 1923 (1341 AH) · Reaching into the Republic · written in Cairo for King Fuʼād I

Lost · untraced since the 1952 revolution

Mehmed Aziz Rifâî Efendi
The "King Fuʼād copy": written in six months under the supervision of al-Azhar scholars, in the Ottoman orthography; its illumination too was entrusted to the calligrapher.
The mushaf Aziz Efendi — licensed by Filibeli Ârif Efendi and Muhsinzâde Abdullah Hamdi Bey, and a clerk of the office of the Şeyhülislam — copied in Cairo in 1922 at the invitation of King Fuʼād I of Egypt. The copy was lost after the 1952 revolution; the calligrapher returned to Istanbul in 1933 and died in 1934.
— Plate 13 —
﷽ work image unavailable

Mushaf of Hāmid Aytaç

XX. yüzyıl · Republican period

Location not recorded · one of his two mushafs was printed in Turkey and Germany

Hâmid Aytaç
One of the two mushafs the calligrapher — who wrote jalī thuluth, thuluth, naskh and taʼlīq — counted among his most important works.
Hāmid Aytaç (1891–1982), the calligrapher from Diyarbakır, kept working in his atelier and writing office after the alphabet reform. One of the two mushafs he copied was printed; through the licences he granted he became one of the most influential teachers of the next generation. His mushaf is not openly available in digital form.

— Page —

Yā Hū. The mushaf is the page where the calligrapher sits, the illuminator pauses, and the patron signs.