Recommend Reading: Paper Before Print

Jonathan Bloom, Paper Before Print. The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World
Nov 19, 2001
320 p., 8 1/4 x 10 1/2
53 b/w + 48 color illus.
ISBN: 9780300089554

Like the printing press, typewriter, and computer, paper has been a crucial agent for the dissemination of information. This engaging book presents an important new chapter in paper’s history: how its use in Islamic lands during the Middle Ages influenced almost every aspect of medieval life. Focusing on the spread of paper from the early eighth century, when Muslims in West Asia acquired Chinese knowledge of paper and papermaking, to five centuries later, when they transmitted this knowledge to Christians in Spain and Sicily, the book reveals how paper utterly transformed the passing of knowledge and served as a bridge between cultures.

Jonathan Bloom traces the earliest history of paper—how it was invented in China over 2,000 years ago, how it entered the Islamic lands of West Asia and North Africa, and how it spread to northern Europe. He explores the impact of paper on the development of writing, books, mathematics, music, art, architecture, and even cooking. And he discusses why Europe was so quick to adopt paper from the Islamic lands and why the Islamic lands were so slow to accept printing in return. Together the beautifully written text and delightful illustrations (of papermaking techniques and the many uses to which paper was put) give new luster and importance to a now-humble material.

Jonathan M. Bloom, Norma Jean Calderwood University Professor of Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College, is coauthor of The Art and Architecture of Islam, also published by Yale University Press.

Reviews

“A very ambitious book of wide intellectual scope and down-to-earth relevance to the humanities—not just to the study of Islamic culture. It is brimful of ideas and fizzes with life.”—Robert Hillenbrand, University of Edinburgh

“A learned, rich, readable, and provocative work.”—Choice

“A fascinating cultural and historical examination that is beautifully complemented by detailed reproductions of maps and manuscripts.”—Christies (Website)

“Jonathan Bloom traces the history of paper and explores the impact of paper on the development of writing, books, mathematics, music, art, architecture and even cooking, and he discusses why Europe was so quick to adopt paper from the Islamic lands and why the Islamic lands were slow to accept printing in return.”—Discourse

"A refreshing history. . . . Bloom offers a compelling perspective of the humble and indispensable contributions of Islamic culture to Western society."—Jake Benson, Hand Papermaking

“Paper Before Print is a sumptuous book, beautifully illustrated, lucidly written, and meticulously researched: its bibliography runs to thirteen pages.”—Guy Davenport, Harper’s Magazine

“By taking a technological perspective, Bloom has added greatly to our understanding of how medieval Islamic civilization was so successful, shone so brightly, and was able to advance along a broad front. The outcome is a fine piece of scholarship, the influence of which should be felt for many years. Yale University Press is to be congratulated, too, for matching this achievement with a well-produced and well-illustrated book that greatly enhances the argument.”—Francis Robinson, Isis

“This book is a comprehensive and analytical view of everything involving paper, including the origins of papermaking and its spread from China to the rest of Afro-Eurasia. The main emphasis, however, is the effect of paper on the medieval Islamic world. . . . The book is lavishly illustrated with hundreds of samples of parchment, papyrus, and paper. The technical information makes the otherwise abstruse production of papyrus, parchment, felt, paper, and molds easier for a non-expert to understand.”—Farid overshadowed, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“This luxuriously produced and most satisfying history ought to be bought by every self-respecting library and by every lover of books.”—Hazhir Teimourian, Literary Review

“Bloom explores paper’s early evolution and use. . . . Accompanying Bloom’s elegant prose are 48 color plates and 53 b&w illustrations—of maps, illustrated texts of Islamic poetry, pages of the Koran and papermaking techniques.”—Publishers Weekly

“Bloom gives the reader ample reason for a change of mind about the importance of this apparently humble product of human ingenuity. . . . Bloom writes very engagingly, with the odd crinkle of wry wit, drawing together an immense range of materials. . . . This is a beautifully designed and executed volume. . . . Bloom has made a first rate contribution that pays fitting homage to the unpretentious nobility of its subject.”—John Renard, Religion and the Arts

“Paper Before Print asks students of cultural geography to consider the interaction between industry and art. . . . In a history of paper, we are asked to think about traditional art forms and ‘visual literacy,’ communication and calculation, innovation and circulation. These ideas proved, as does paper, the background for an erudite study of Islamic culture that offers readers a chance to question the mechanism of change and explore the impact of an invention ‘overshaadowed’ by its most powerful offspring, printing.”—Christopher Pastore, Sixteenth Century Journal

“Bloom’s book takes a major step forward in paper studies, venturing well beyond technical and production history into the cultural, social, and economic consequences of that history.”—Marianna Shreve Simpson, Speculum

“This is a book of uncommon quality, both in thought and in production. It will equally inform the historian of technology, the Islamicist, and the art historian. . . . It should be recognized as a major contribution to the world history of technology in general. Hats off the Jonathan Bloom.”—Richard W. Bulliet, Technology & Culture

"[Paper before Print] provides a highly readable introduction to a millennium of the civilisation that has enriched half the world."—Peter Daniels, Times Higher Education Supplement

"Jonathan Bloom writes with an elegant lightness of touch and his arguments, by and large, convince. Paper before Print is beautifully illustrated and produced, a tribute to the art of paper-making in its own right. . . . This book will surely become fundamental to the discussion of Islamic art and literary culture."—Hugh Kennedy, Times Literary Supplement


Text/Photograph ©http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300089554

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Ottoman and Arabic Manuscripts of the National Library of the Czech Republic: Hafiz Mustafa

Mushaf sheets is dated 1211 A. H. (1796 C. E.) Size: 17 x 12.4 cm. The copy was made by Hafiz Mustafa. The book was bought in Damascus in 1896. Location: National Library of the Czech Republic.


Photograph © National Library of the Czech Republic.

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Chart of the Persian Gulf to Baghdad

“Chart of the Persian Gulf to Baghdad” Printed in color by the Naval Academy in 1865. Drawn by the schoolmaster Ali Bey of the War Academy, the chart includes the monogram of Sultan Abdülaziz (1861-1876) and is made to an Ottoman scale. Dimensions: 55 x 134 cm.


Photograph © Turkish Naval Museum Istanbul

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“Armorial from the Reign of Sultan Abdümecit (1839-1861)”

Armorial from the Reign of Sultan Abdümecit (1839-1861). Artist: unknown. This wooden armorial carved in relief with the Sultan's monogram and a floral motif was used on ships. Dimensions: 85 x 60 cm.

Photograph © Turkish Naval Museum Istanbul

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Editor´s Excerption Picks: "Cloud Papers for Philip Taaffe"

by Peter Lamborn Wilson

"...Islam does not “ban the image.” On the contrary, it symbolizes itself by an image, the crescent and star. Arabesque and crystal are images. But Islam exercises extreme care that the image not colonize the imagination. Indiscriminate imagism opens the floodgates of the trivial and leaves the mind passive to an onslaught of persuasion and unconsciousness. Image becomes a substitute for lived experience; absorption of imagery takes the place of the living creative imagination. Images are parasites that kill the host. (Advertising offers perhaps the most perfect example.)

Vegetative and crystalline forms are not mere “decorative motifs,” but rather the very subject matter of Islamic art and architecture—the images of a culture that eschews and distrusts imagery. This misunderstanding about decoration leads to a great deal of superfluous writing by Western art historians who judge everything by Western values and categories, thus forcing all flowers toward the sun of realism, even those that bloom in the moon of dreams.

Islamic miniaturists, for instance, do not use perspective. Western art historians have actually accused them of failing to evolve toward scientific perspective, due to the “religious ban” on imagery. But lack of perspective in miniatures represents not failure but refusal. By extending the image in time rather than in space the miniaturist refuses to lure the viewer’s unconscious into the idolatry of mistaking representations for things. The miniature is liberated from the tyranny of a perspective that consequently never appears.

In reality the miniature serves a minor decorative function as an embellishment of the book. The central art form in Islam is writing, with the ancillary arts that serve it, especially calligraphy. Writing itself is sacred, and Moslems (like Jews) preserve every scrap of it, not just Koran and Torah, because the Arabic and Hebrew letters themselves are revealed and cabbalistic. Although the Koran was transmitted orally (the Prophet was “unlettered”), it symbolized creation itself as the work of a primordial Pen and Tablet: the writing of being on the paper of becoming: another yang/yin combination.

The mysticism of writing was carried to an extreme in the twelfth century by the sect of the Hurufis (also known as the Abecedarians or Letterists). They traced letters in the shapes of human faces, noble animals, and plants and trees: the alphabet of Revelation revealed in the alphabet of Nature. Hurufi doctrines were condemned as heretical but survived amongst the Sufi orders (especially the Turkish Bektashis), who created a beautiful new art form of calligrams —heraldic devices made entirely of letters.

Western art tends to separate the arabesque from the crystal, the Baroque from the Neoclassical, and even to value one over the other—whereas Islamic art tends toward a coincidencia oppositorum, a mystical reconciliation or harmony. In this it resembles Romanticism. But “Oriental Romanticism” (to coin a phrase) never had to deal with an Enlightenment or react against any “cruel instrumentality of Reason.” Oriental Romanticism is one of the sources of Western Romanticism but lacks its agonistic aspect, its subjection to history. In Islamic art the rose and the star have never been rendered unintelligible to each other because they are seen as signs of each other.

The Koran describes Nature as “God’s Waymarks . . . signs on the horizon for those of discernment.” Nature is a revelation that requires hermeneutic exegesis to uncover its meaning, much like the Koran itself—with one important difference. Alphabetic writing functions as a complete semiotic system in which signs do not change their meaning, while the alphabet of Nature is an incomplete or indefinite system that requires for its “reading” either revelation or esoteric transmission of meanings.

Some forms of writing seem to share elements of both alphabetism and naturalism (for want of better terms). They stand somewhat outside the semiotic in that they use written signs but meanings are assigned by esoteric transmission. In this category belong the Neolithic signs such as the incised rocks of megalithic Ireland and Brittany. The esoteric keys to these writings are lost and they cannot be deciphered. The wampum of the Iroquois was not only money but also writing, and in this case the elders responsible for decipherment have preserved the keys in collective memory. The enigmatic Effigy Mounds of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Ohio, are written on the pages of the landscape, interpreting Nature while becoming part of it. Keys may be preserved amongst certain Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) elders, but they’re not talking to anthropologists and archaeologists. If the keys to European heraldry were lost, its blazons would appear just as enigmatic and tantalizing.

Here meaning seems to hover behind a thin veil in these lost sign systems, in somewhat the same way that meaning seems to lurk behind the scrim of Nature itself. This blind immanence of significance resembles the sensations associated with certain phantastica or hallucinogenic drugs. In fact one theory of the marked stones at the megalithic sites of Newgrange and Gavrinis attributes them to entoptic hallucinations of the carvers, to a kind of Soma Function that is rooted in the body. Entoptic patterns include both arabesque and crystal forms and can be induced by pressing one’s closed eyelids. They seem to be common to all cultures, and are patterns which can be enhanced by psychotropic agents.

In the West the doctrine of signatures (or occult correspondences) goes underground with the failure of hermeticism versus “modern science,” in the paradigm wars of the sixteenth century. It persists in occult circles and resurfaces as aesthetic theory in the Romantic era. Baudelaire and Rimbaud speak of correspondences but few take them seriously. Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus (real name Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim) and Jakob Böhme are all but forgotten; the world sees itself through Cartesian eyes as a brain surrounded by dead automata.

Without synesthesia (the perception of sound as color, for example, or of form as meaning) the imagination could never arrive at a system of correspondences or even at a concept of symbolization. The alphabet itself is deeply implicated in such magical doubling (or splitting) of consciousness. Our Greco-Roman letters are all derived from Egyptian hieroglyphics, and writing itself is a form of magic as “action at a distance.”

Thus even colors can be read for meaning, as in the elaborate series of correspondences in the writings of Charles Fourier, or in Rimbaud’s “Sonnet of the Vowels.” The attempt of Goethe and certain proponents of Naturphilosophie to preserve color as substance rather than accident represents a last-ditch defense of hermeticism against Cartesianism and its disenchantment of the landscape, its denial of the soul of the earth. When Goethe called out on his deathbed for “More light!” was he asking for more Enlightenment or for more luminousness?..."

Poet, writer, essayist and translator, Peter Lamborn Wilson's work has been translated into dozens of languages, widely disseminated on the internet, and in the alternative press. He spent a decade living and traveling throughout India, Afghanistan, and Iran, and has written extensively on Islamic history, culture, and society. He is an editor at Autonomedia, and has been a radio personality in the New York region through his Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade on WBAI-FM. His books include The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry, Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs and European Renegadoes, Ploughing the Clouds: The Search for Irish Soma, Avant Gardening: Ecological Struggle in the City & the World, Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam, Escape from the Nineteenth Century and Other Essay, and Gone to Croatan: Origins of North American Dropout Culture.

Excerpt from essay by P.L.Wilson © http://www.philiptaaffe.info/Critical_Commentary/PLW.php

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Osman Özcay (b.1963)

Calligrapher Osman Özçay, younger brother of calligrapher Mehmed Özcay, was born in Çaykara, in the province of Trabzon in 1963. He attended the same school as his brother Mehmet in Gerede and finished high-school there. After studying at the Islamic Institute in Erzurum for two years, he transferred to the Islamic Studies Department of Marmara University in Istanbul. He graduated in 1986.

In 1982, even though he did not have a special interest in Islamic calligraphy, he joined his brother when he first visited calligrapher Fuat Başar. He was suddenly attracted to the art and he started lessons in the script Thuluth the same day. He later received his diploma in the scripts of thuluth and naskh from his teacher.

When he came to Istanbul, he met M.Uğur Derman from whom he has benefited greatly throughout the years. Mr. Derman gave him some copies of Sami Efendi`s Jali Thuluth writings which were written for a public water fountain behind `Yeni Cami` (New Mosque) in Istanbul. These sources served as the most important guide in learning the script of Jali Thuluth.

In the first (1986) and second (1989) international competitions organized by The Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA) which serves as the secretaryship of The Commission for the Preservation of Islamic Cultural Heritage associated with the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, he received five awards, gaining second and third prizes in various scripts including Jali Thuluth and Thuluth. He won the first prize at the calligraphy competition organized by the Maktab al-Shahid Kuwaiti institute in 1997.

Osman Özçay has participated in personal exhibitions with his brother Mehmet Özçay in Istanbul (1996), Abu Dhabi (1998), Sharjah (1999), and Dubai (2003). He has also taken part in the exhibitions organized by IRCICA in association with the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing in Dubai 2003, 2004 and 2005. In 2003, he participated in the calligraphy exhibition in Tokyo and joined some other calligraphers on The Days of Arabic Calligraphy in Tunisia in 1997 and 2006. He has also participated in various exhibitions in Turkey and abroad.

Osman Özçay is producing works in the styles of thuluth, jali thuluth, naskh and muhaqqaq according to the classical approach. Throughout the years his pieces of calligraphy have entered museums and special collections.

Text/Photograph © http://www.ozcay.com/

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Mehmed Özcay (b. 1961)

Mehmed Özçay was born in 1961 in the Çaykara district of the province of Trabzon, in Turkey. He completed his elementary and secondary education in Gerede, subsequently graduating from the School of Theology of Atatürk University, Erzurum, in 1986. He studied naskh and thulth scripts with the calligrapher Fuat Başar, whom he met there in 1982. In 1986, he moved to İstanbul where he met M. Uğur Derman, who became his guide in calligraphy; this gave him the opportunity to broaden his horizons and deepen his appreciation for, and knowledge of, this art.

In 1986 and 1989, Özçay participated in the first two international calligraphy competitions organized by the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), winning six prizes in various categories, most notably First Prize in thulth-naskh scripts. He began to copy the Holy Qur’an in 1986; completed in 1991 and first published in 1992, that work has played a key role in the development of his mastery of naskh script, and more generally in the establishment of his career as a professional calligrapher. Fine art reproductions of his copy of the Surat Ya-Sin, as well many of his panels, have also been published.

Özçay participated in many exhibitions, both in Turkey and internationally—including the Kazema Festival for Islamic Heritage (Kuwait, 1996), the Islamic World Calligraphy Festival (Tehran, 1997), Seven Ottoman Arts that have Lived Beyond 700 Years (İstanbul, 1999), the Riyadh Calligraphy Exhibition (1999), the Holy Qur’an Exhibition (Tehran, 2000), the National Calligraphy Festival (Tunis, 2001), the Tokyo Calligraphy Exhibition (2003), Salam & Calligraphy (Doha, 2003), the Sharjah International Biennal for Arabic Calligraphy (2004), the Dubai International Calligraphy Exhibitions (2004, 2005, 2006), and the Tunis Arabic Calligraphy Days (1999, 2006).

Mehmed Özçay’s first individual show was held in conjunction with his brother Osman Özçay and his sister Fatma Özçay in May 1996 at the Yıldız Palace, İstanbul. He subsequently partook in the “Özçay” exhibitions at the National Culture Foundation (İstanbul, 1998), in Doha (November 1998), Abu Dhabi (December 1998), Sharjah (1999), and Dubai (2003). He has also served as a member of the jury in a number of international calligraphy competitions.

More than 300 of Mehmed Özçay’s calligraphic panels in jali thulth, thulth, naskh, ijazah, and jali diwani scripts are currently in various collections both in Turkey and abroad.

Text/Photograph © Mehmed Özcay. http://www.ozcay.com/

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Hamid Aytac [Azmi, Musa; al-Amidi, Hamid] (1891-1982)

(b Diyarbakir, 1891; d Istanbul, 10 May 1982). Turkish calligrapher. Originally called Musa Azmi, he was the grandson of Seyyid Adem, a famous calligrapher of Diyarbakir. He practised writing in Diyarbakir with his school teacher Mustafa Akif Tütenk and others, and in 1908 went to Istanbul to continue his education, first at the School of Law and then at the Fine Arts Academy. However, he was soon forced to give up his studies to earn a living. In 1910 he became a writing teacher at the Gülsen school in Istanbul, where he taught the calligrapher Halim Özyazici. He went on to direct the Rusumat press and then worked at the press of the Military Academy in Istanbul. During World War I he worked for one year in Germany, where he prepared military maps. After the war he resigned his job and began to work independently. He changed his name to Hamid Aytaç, and in the early years of the Turkish republic made labels and calling cards. As a calligrapher he practised the jali-thuluth (Turk. celi-sülüs) style with Mehmed Nazif (1846–1913), the naskh and thuluth styles with Kamil Akdic (1862–1941) and the ta`liq style with Mehmed Hulusi (1869–1940). He worked on a number of magnificent manuscripts, including Korans. He also worked at the Sisli Mosque in Istanbul and on other buildings in Istanbul and Ankara.

Text/Photograph © Macmillan Publishers Limited, publishers of The Grove Dictionary of Art.

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Notable Readings: Açıklamalı Hüsn-i Hat Bibliyografyası Yazmalar - Kitaplar - Makaleler Kitaplarda Hatla İlgili Bölümler Dış Ülkelerdeki Yayınlar

Açıklamalı Hüsn-i Hat Bibliyografyası Yazmalar - Kitaplar - Makaleler Kitaplarda Hatla İlgili Bölümler Dış Ülkelerdeki Yayınlar, Ali Haydar Bayat(Editor); Foreword by: Ekmeleddin İhsanoglu,IRCICA Yayınları (Publications); İstanbul, 2002, 14 x 20 cm., xxxıv+416 p. Turkish,ISBN 929063126

This book gives a comprehensive bibliography of manuscripts, books, articles, the parts of books related to calligraphy as well as publications that appeared on calligraphy abroad. In the foreword, Prof. Dr. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu underlines the importance of this art for the Islamic world and the characteristics that make it unique among other arts. He then dwells on various activities of IRCICA in the field of calligraphy since its establishment 1980, in the form of research, publications, training programs, competitions and exhibitions. He points out that the bibliographic studies of the literature on calligraphy are a major part of the studies in this field. The book also includes a brief preface by Ali Haydar Bayat and an introduction by Prof. M. Uğur Derman. The present bibliography is the revised and enlarged version of the first edition covering the years of 1888-1988 and published in 1990.

This bibliography is organized in the following way: Part I gives information on the manuscripts located in the libraries in Turkey and related to calligraphy. Part II brings together the printed works in Arab and Latin characters. Part III presents the list of books and articles, newspapers and sections on calligraphy and their subjects [....] were added at the end of the bibliographic heading. Part IV brings together the catalogues of auctions covering the subjects of calligraphy, calligraphers and materials of calligraphy. Part V brings together the works on calligraphy written outside of Turkey. Part VI presents those articles that were published outside of Turkey and that were available to the author. Part VII includes the necessary addresses for reaching the studies on calligraphy through the Internet. Part VII also contains the indices of authors, calligraphers, books and periodicals covering the articles on calligraphy, different styles and materials of calligraphy. This reference book appears as the most voluminous one of the bibliographies that were compiled till the present day since it covers almost the entire literature in Turkey on this subject.

A Collectors´ Vision - Ugur Derman

Professor M. Ugur Derman's name is synonymous with calligraphy and marbling. Though he majored in pharmacy as a profession he has rather spent most of his 71 years of life on calligraphy and book arts. More than anyone in his generation, Ugur Derman is responsible for the survival of the arts of the book in Turkey, and for the recent resurgence in their appreciation. He is a student of Necmeddin Okyay (1883-1976) but has also benefited from Macid Ayral (1891-1961), Halim Özyazci (1898-1964), and Süheyl Ünver (1898-1986). Since 1962, he has written more than 350 articles, conference proceedings, and encyclopedia items, in addition to his 13 books on the subject. He is currently teaching at both Marmara and Mimar Sinan Universities in Istanbul.

Photograph ©http://www.kitabat.org/

Calligraphic Art in The Library of Congress: Ottoman Calligraphers and Their Works

This collection presents 355 Arabic calligraphy sheets, ranging from the 9th to the 19th centuries, including examples of calligraphic art - illuminated panels, albums, and poems. In addition to individual calligraphy sheets, the presentation has essays on Ottoman and Persian calligraphic styles, an in-depth look at Qur’anic calligraphic fragments, and an essay discussing some of the Library’s notable Arabic script calligraphy sheets and illuminations.

During the late 1920s, early 1930s, and 1990s the Library of Congress acquired a large collection of Arabic script calligraphy sheets. This presentation exhibits 355 Arabic calligraphy sheets, ranging from the 9th to the 19th centuries. A majority of the calligraphy sheets were written on paper, however, a group of Qur’anic fragments from the 9th and 10th centuries were executed on parchment.

Text © The Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/intldl/intldlhome.html, http://memory.loc.gov/intldl/apochtml/apochome.html

Calligrapher: unknown (c.1550-1600)

Dimensions of Written Surface: Recto: 9.5 (w) x 19 (h) cm

Script: Ottoman naskh

This fragment contains on the top line the last two verses (ayat) of the last chapter (surah) of the Qur'an, entitled Surat al-Nas (Chapter of Mankind). This particular chapter extols seeking refuge in the Lord from Satan, who, like the spirits (al-jinn), whispers evil things in the hearts of people (116:5-6). The verses at the top of the folio are separated by two ayah markers shaped like gold disks with five blue dots on their peripheries.

Immediately below the last verse of the Qur'an appears a prayer in five lines praising God, the Prophet Muhammad, and all Prophets (or messengers, al-mursilin) of Islam. The continuation of this terminal du'a (or formulaic prayer) continues in illuminated bands on the folio's verso (see 1-85-154.74 V and James 1992b: 178-9, cat. no. 43). The prayer is beautifully calligraphed in large Ottoman naskh in alternating gold and blue ink.

This prayer is said upon completion of the Qur'an (al-du'a ba'd khatim al-Qur'an), in which God is praised as the all-hearing (al-sami') and the all-knowing (al-'alim). It continues the initial, non-illuminated five-line prayer on the folio's recto (1-85-154.74 R) and serves as an appropriate closing to the Holy Book. In some cases, illuminated terminal prayers in rectangular bands such as this one precede a four-page treatise on how to practice divination (fal) using the letters of the Qur'an (see 1-84.154.42 R).

Although only one illuminated folio remains, it originally would have created a double-page illuminated du'a. This layout is typical of Safavid Persian Qur'ans from the second half of the 16th century (see James 1992b: 178-9, cat. no. 43), as well as Ottoman Turkish Qur'ans from the same period. For instance, a similar prayer appears immediately at the end of an Ottoman Turkish Qur'an dated 980/1573, now held in the Keir Collection in London, England (VII.49; Robinson 1976, 294). Due to similarities in script (in which three lines of text in gold alternate with a line in white ink), composition, and illumination, the prayer fragment here probably dates from the second half of the 16th century as well.

Photograph ©Abdel Kader Haidara,Bibliotheque Mamma Haidara de Manuscrits et la Documentation. Siège: Tombouctou BP 71 RPp.du Mali.

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Abdulvehhap Zihni Efendi

Abdulvehhap Zihni, dated A.H.1264 (C.E.1847) Mevlawi crown, 23x17.5 cm.

Photograph © Macka Mezat, Istanbul

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Yahya Sufi [b.? -d.1477]

Tile panel by Yahya Sufi of celi sülüs kufi script, Fatih Cami (Mosque) Istanbul.

Photograph ©HAT SAN'ATI Tarihçe, Malzeme ve Örnekler, Istanbul. http://ismek.ibb.gov.tr/portal/yayinlarimiz.asp

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Ali Raif Efendi

Dimensions of Sheet: 28 (w) x 21 (h) cm

Script: thuluth and naskh

This ijazah, or diploma of competency in Arabic calligraphy, was written by 'Ali Ra'if Efendi in 1206/1791. The top and middle panels contain a Saying (Hadith) attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. It reads:

Secret charity quenches the wrath of the Lord. / The best of you is the best for his family. / The best of the followers is Uways.

In the two lowermost panels appear the signed approvals of two master calligraphers, Mustafa al-Halimi and Husayn Hamid ( Selim 1979, 173), dated 1206/1791. Each section of writing appears on a separate piece of differently colored paper, illuminated with gold and dimpled with a stylus for reflection.

The official function of the ijazah consists in giving a student the authority to sign his own calligraphic works with expressions such as katabahu (written by) and hararahu (composed by), thus allowing him to become independent and take on pupils of his own. In order to receive the diploma, the student had to transcribe or copy (taqlid) several lines of calligraphy that had to be approved by one or more co-signatory master calligraphers (Safwat 1996, 40). In some cases, the ijazah may include the calligrapher's chain of teachers (silsilah or sanad) reaching all the way back to the Prophet Muhammad himself (Gacek 1989: 44-55). In the Ottoman tradition especially, the calligraphic diploma (icazetname) was a well established practice linking, in an almost genealogical fashion, a student (talabah) to his teacher (hoca).

Photograph © Abdel Kader Haidara,Bibliotheque Mamma Haidara de Manuscrits et la Documentation. Siège: Tombouctou BP 71 RPp.du Mali

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Sami Efendi [b.1838-d.1912]

By Sami Efendi panel of zerendud celi talik script.

Photograph ©HAT SAN'ATI Tarihçe, Malzeme ve Örnekler, Istanbul. http://ismek.ibb.gov.tr/portal/yayinlarimiz.asp

Sami Efendi [b.1838-d.1912]

By Sami Efendi panel of zerendud celi sülüs script.

Photograph ©HAT SAN'ATI Tarihçe, Malzeme ve Örnekler, Istanbul. http://ismek.ibb.gov.tr/portal/yayinlarimiz.asp

Sami Efendi [b.1838-d.1912]

By Sami Efendi inscription of Fesciler Carsisi (Grand Bazaar,Istanbul) of celi tarik script.

Photograph ©HAT SAN'ATI Tarihçe, Malzeme ve Örnekler, Istanbul. http://ismek.ibb.gov.tr/portal/yayinlarimiz.asp

Sami Efendi [b.1838-d.1912]

Epitaph of Cemberlitas Atikalipasa Cami (entrance door) of celi sülüs script.

Photograph ©HAT SAN'ATI Tarihçe, Malzeme ve Örnekler, Istanbul. http://ismek.ibb.gov.tr/portal/yayinlarimiz.asp

Sami Efendi [b.1838-d.1912]

By Sami Efendi panel of celi sülüs zerendud scriptin Aksaray Valide Sultan Cami (Mosque) Istanbul.

Photograph ©HAT SAN'ATI Tarihçe, Malzeme ve Örnekler, Istanbul. http://ismek.ibb.gov.tr/portal/yayinlarimiz.asp