Ottoman Turkey, circa 1500 - 1510 AD

Qur'an

Qur'an
Ink, gouache and gold on paper
Binding in embossed and gilt leather
15 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 2 1/2 in
Prince Saduddin Agha Khan collection
Wlech, Anthony (1972 - 1978), vol. II, 5, p. 35; Lings and Safadi (1976), 129, p. 79; Wlech, Anthony (1979)29, p.92; Falk (1985), 105, p. 133.
The manuscript consists of 278 folios, with 13 lines to the page, the text being copied in Naskh. No date or patron are mentioned, but the copy is signed by Shaikh Hamdullah, the legendary Ottoman Calligrapher (1440 - 1519).  The Opening folios of text are shown here: Surah II, al-Baqarah, The Cow, on the left.

Shaikh  Hamdullah was a native of Amasya, where his father, a Bukhara Turk, had settled. He became tutor to Sultan Bayazid while the latter was a prince and governor of Amasya. When Bayazid became Sultan in 1481 AD, Shaikh Hamdullah went with him to Istanbul and lived there until his death. He produced more than 40 complete copies of the Holy Qur'an, as well as a thousand copies of both, Surah VI, al-An'am, Cattle, and Surah XVIII, al-Kahf, The Cave. This was in addition to many the manuscripts, documents and album compositions.

His greatest contribution was the standardization of the Naskh style which became the most popular script for copying out the Holy Qur'an. Shaikh Hamdullah was one the finest Calligraphers ever known in the history of Arabic Calligraphy.

 

 

Ottoman Turkey, Istanbul, circa 1594 AD
A page from the Siyart en-Nabi, Life of the Prophet, by Darir of Erzerum Ink gouache and gold on paper
14 1/2 x 10 1/2 in
Switzerland, private collection.
Illustrated versions of the Life of the Prophet are rare. That is what makes this illustrated Siyart en-Nabi so precious. It was composed for one of the Turkish speaking Mamluk rulers of Egypt at the end of the 14th century, but in the 1590's, a lavishly illustrated version was produced in Istanbul for the library of Sultan Murad III (1574-1595). It was in six volumes, included hundreds of paintings and took several years to produce. The painting exhibited shows the Muslim army returning to Medina with booty. All the paintings are in a simple "minimalist" style, and this one is no exception. Like all the others it is unsigned, but nevertheless can be attributed to Naqqash Uthman (Osman) who did many of the paintings in the six volumes. The exhibit has not been chosen for the miniature, however, but for the finely calligrapher text copied by one of the palace scribes, Mustafa Ibn Wali.

This Siyart en-Nabi is written in a majestic Naskh of unusually large size, seemingly appropriate to both the language of the text which is pleasantly simple and to the bold austerity of the " statuesque and impressive " paintings. Some- how, the style of the painting and that of the script complement one another exactly: simple, unambiguous and intense.

 

 

Ottoman Turkey, Istanbul, 1845 AD
Ink, gouache and gold on paper. Ink, gouache and gold on paper.
21 1/4 x 28 in
Riyadh, Rifaat Sheikh El-Ard collection.
Sotheby's (1985), lot 250.
These compositions are both derived from the imperial Tughra - official monogram of the Ottoman sultan. In the 19th century, religious invocations were occasionally written in this form. N° 46 has two tughra. The large one contains the Asma' al-Husna, the Divine Names of Allah, and parts of Surah CXII,AI-Ikhlas, Purity. The smaller one,like the little cartouche next to it, invokes Allah's protection against Satan. N 47 consists of four separate invocations in the form of Tughra, together with one in mirror-script invoking the name of Jalal al-Din Rumi, the famous 13th century mystical poet and founder of the Mevlevi Order of Dervishes, the best known of all the Sufi orders.

The calligrapher gives his name as Sayyid Umar al-Wasif, of Sivas in eastern Anatolia. These pieces were executed in 1845 when he was living in Istanbul. At least four compositions by him are known, all employing the same complex, distorted Thuluth script in which the same letter shapes are repeated almost ecstatically - time and again. The compositions were presumably intended for display in one of the Mevlevi foundations inhabited by dervishes, such as that of Galata in Istanbul.

 

 

Republic of Turkey, 1959 - 1960 AD
Ink, gouache and gold on paper. Ink, gouache and gold on paper.
21 3/ 26 in
Hamburg, private collection
Despite the abolition of Arabic calligraphy in 1923 by Mustafa Kamal Ata'turk, the first President of The Republic of Turkey, modern Turkish masters still are considered to be among the leading practitioners of Arabic calligraphy in the Islamic world. This is not surprising when one recalls that, from the late Middle Ages onward, Ottoman masters were arguably the finest exponents of all the calligraphic scripts devised by the Arabs, the Persians and the Turkish themselves.
This composition consists of the opening Surah of the Qur'an, al-Fatiha (the exordium). It reads:

"In the name of God, The Compassionate, The Merciful; Praise be to God; the Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds; The Compassionate, The Merciful; Master of the Day of Judgment. Thee do we worship, and thine aid do we seek. Show us the straight way; The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, Those whose portion is not wrath, And who go not astray."

This is written in Thuluth Jali (large format Thuluth) by Hamid al-Amidi (1891 -1982), who was born Musa Azmi, one of Turkey's most famous modern calligraphers. Hamid was a student of many famous calligraphers: Haci Hafiz Bey, Kamil Akdik, Hulusi Efendi and Ismail Hakki Altunbezer. Hamid worked as a teacher of calligraphy from 1910- until 1912, then as a cartographer at the Military College until 1918, before devoting himself full-time to the practice of his art. He copied the Holy Qur'an twice and did the inscriptions on the Sisli Mosque in Istanbul. The decoration is based on a traditional style of manuscript illumination.

The calligrapher gives his name as Sayyid Umar al-Wasif, of Sivas in eastern Anatolia. These pieces were executed in 1845 when he was living in Istanbul. At least four compositions by him are known, all employing the same complex, distorted Thuluth script in which the same letter shapes are repeated almost ecstatically - time and again. The compositions were presumably intended for display in one of the Mevlevi foundations inhabited by dervishes, such as that of Galata in Istanbul.

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