RARE FOLIO FROM A CALLIGRAPHIC ALBUM ATTRIBUTED TO OTTOMAN COURT CALLIGRAPHER AHMED KARAHISARI (D. 1566)

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RARE FOLIO FROM A CALLIGRAPHIC ALBUM ATTRIBUTED TO OTTOMAN COURT CALLIGRAPHER AHMED KARAHISARI (D. 1566)

Ottoman Empire

16th Century
Dimensions: 24.6 x 22 cm.

Black ink on paper, a succession of combined letters displaying various combinations of the letter tā, three lines of large black thuluth script arranged between two lines of smaller black naskh script. The naskh lines include sayings about the art of calligraphy (al-khatt), attributed to the legendary Abbasid/Ilkhanid calligrapher Yāqūt al-Musta‘simī.

The present folio belongs to a dispersed album, showing letter combinations (müfredat murakkaı), signed by Ahmed Karahisari. Folios from the same album, and its last folio bearing the signature, is in the Harvard Art Museums (Inv No. 1958.208). Please see the following link for the folio bearing Ahmed Karahisari’s signature: https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/215386?position=0

For a folio from the same dispersed calligraphy album in the Harvard Art Museums see, Annemarie Schimmel, Calligraphy and Islamic Culture, 1984, p. 82.

Ahmed Karahisari (d. 1566)

Ahmed Şemseddin Karahisari was born in Karahisar, in Turkey. Unlike most of the Ottoman calligraphers of his era he did not follow the calligraphy style of the Ottoman court calligrapher Sheikh Hamdullah (d. 1520), but adopted the trend of the Abbasid/Ilkhanid court master Yāqūt al-Musta‘simī (d. 1298). He was particularly famed for his mastery in Yaqutian thuluth and naskh scripts. However, apart from a few of his students, such as Demircikulu Yusuf, his style was not widely followed. His most famous work is the magnificent Qur’an he wrote for Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566), now preserved in the Topkapi Palace Museum. In terms of the technique and innovations he introduced to calligraphy, he is considered one of the most important Ottoman calligraphers together with Sheikh Hamdullah (d. 1520) and Hafiz Osman Efendi (d. 1698). His best-known monumental calligraphies are those he designed for the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul. Among the followers of Karahisari, his student Hasan Celebi followed his path and produced magnificent works in his distinctive style. Karahisari died in 1566.

Categories: Calligraphy & Miniatures

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RARE FOLIO FROM A CALLIGRAPHIC ALBUM ATTRIBUTED TO OTTOMAN COURT CALLIGRAPHER AHMED KARAHISARI (D. 1566)

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