Impressions of a Murakkaa
Mohamed Zakariya
Seyh Hamdullah
So, who was this Seyh? (I use the Turkish word, not Shaykh – it’s easier to say and fits English better.) He was born in Amasya, a town full of illustrious calligraphers. His father, Mustafa Dede, was a Sufi Seyh, so Hamdullah signed many of his works “son of the Seyh.” Prince Beyazid (1450-1512) befriended him and took calligraphy lessons from him. When he became sultan in 1481, Beyazid invited Hamdullah to Constantinople, where he became the top professional calligrapher of the Ottoman Empire. Known as Seyh because he was the leading figure in the archery lodge, Hamdullah followed other interests in addition to calligraphy. He was a record-setting archer well into his later years, as well as a cook, a tailor, and a swimmer – clearly a fit athlete all his life. Seyh Hamdullah taught a huge number of students. He is thought to have copied 47 mushafs (copies of the Kuran), as well as a large number of smaller books, scrolls, individual kit’as (pieces), and murakkaas. In addition, he filled many mosques with magnificent permanent inscriptions in architectural settings. These are in large jeli sulus or jeli muhakkak scripts. Nevertheless, his true calligraphic legacy is, I believe, his development of the nesih script, changing it from a practical, utilitarian script for copying texts into a script of power and elegance – what should be called the international style of writing nesih. It is the style most calligraphers following him would depend on in their work. Many of Seyh Hamdullah’s murakkaas were assembled using special ebru papers, some, we believe, made by the greatest ebru marbler of all time, Mehmed Hattib (d. 1773). Koltuks (geometric spaces on the right and left of the text) often are elaborately decorated, but many in the Seyh’s works are left elegantly blank. In addition, they are usually more square in shape. The square koltuks sometimes required a smaller version of the nesih text. As time passed, it became more common to make koltuks more rectangular, or even triangular, and soon these spaces became more standardized. There is about Seyh Hamdullah’s albums, even if highly decorated, a powerful simplicity, which provides a strong artistic look.
Taklid
Students and connoisseurs collected some of the Seyh’s smaller works found on single sheets of paper. These were pasted together in ways that look random, thus confusing students, scholars, and curators, as there is no textual follow-through on some of them. Among these pieces were favored texts that he also taught his students. His albums could be thought of as private exhibitions. Students could take an album home to study, as the album’s shape and layout allowed for easy set up and use. Teachers must have loaned such works to advanced students so they could make taklids of them. Taklid is an ancient Arabic word that has, as usual, a bewildering quantity of possible meanings: to twist a string or rope, to string beads, to put a necklace on someone, to invest someone with an important office or dignity, and on and on. At worst, the word took on the pejorative sense of to copy blindly or to allow a practice to become traditional. Among calligraphers, however, taklid took on a special meaning: to try to copy another work as an homage or, by copying, to learn the inner strategy of how the work was produced. To do this, the calligrapher has to figure out the cut of the original pen (that is, reverse-engineer the pen), duplicate the original ink, and try to hold the pen in the same way as the original calligrapher did. The goal is to reproduce a copy of the original so close that it is almost a photographic copy. Such works were never to be called forgeries, although forgery was known. Some master calligraphers specialized in making taklids. Two come to mind: Omer Vasfi, who once made so close a copy of a piece by Sami Efendi that it cannot be distinguished from the original; and his brother, Neyzen Emin Efendi, who was also a master of the large reed flute, or ney.
The Murakkaa
A murakkaa can take one of several forms, such as the simple album, or the book murakkaa, which opens page by page like a book, or the bellows murakkaa, in which the pages are bound edge to edge and can be viewed one or two at a time or, if stretched out, all at once. In either format, all the pages are edged in thin-skived leather. On older albums, sometimes the leather would rot and the album fall apart. The individual pages of the damaged album would thengenerally be added to other collections, or the original album could be, as deserved, completely restored. The individual pages of an album are called kit’as. Various layouts were possible. Albums consisting of a series of hadises (or hadiths, Maxims of the Prophet), were called hadis murakkaasi. Collections of kit’as by different calligraphers were called toplama murakkaasi. There were also sequential albums made up of kit’as in a particular order. These were very specific works: one would read all the lines in sulus script, kit’a by kit’a, and then go back and read all the lines in nesih script. Albums were widely used and clearly played a large part in raising the quality of calligraphy being produced and in developing calligraphers who were experts in learning their masters’ style. One murakkaa by the Seyh has passed through generations and was still being copied in the late 19th century, namely, the Kisra Anushirvan text, used by Seyh Hamdullah and copied by others, finally by Hasan Riza (d. 1920). It remains a work worthy of study.
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A note on accents:
Seyh – S with cedilla
Omer Vasfi – O with umlaut
Celebi – C with cedilla
kit’a – apostrophe before the a
The Kitab ash-Shifa of Qadi Iyad
Mohamed Zakariya
- Mohamed Zakariya
The Long Hilye from Al-Hasan, Son of Ali, Recorded in the Book Ash-Shifa [The Healing], by Al-Qadi lyad, d.544 A.H.jn49 A.D.
Al-Hasan, son of Ali [May God be pleased with both of them] said: "l asked my uncle Hind, son of Abu Hala about the hilye [ description] of the Prophet of God, my peace and blessings be upon him. Hind was known to be a prolific describer of the Prophet, and 1 wished him to relate some of it for me so l might hold fast to it."
So Hind said: "The Prophet of God, peace be upon him, was of mighty significance to God, and profoundly honored among the people. His face radiated light like the moon on its fullest night. He was a bit taller than the medium stature and a bit shorter than the tall and skinny. His head was large. His hair was wavy. lfhis hair parted, he would leave it parted, if not he would leave it, and it would not be long enough to pass his earlobes. His complexion was fair. He had a wide forehead, arched, thick eyebrows with a space between them. There was a vein between them that would swell and pulse when he was angry. His nose was aquiline; it had a brightness about the upper part that led those who were less observant to think him haughty. He had a thick beard. His eyes were very black and the whites very white. His cheeks were not prominent, he had a wide mouth. His teeth were white and there was a space between his front teeth. There was a fine line of hair on his chest, and it was as if it were an ivory statue with the purity of silver. His figure was well proportioned, full bodied and strong. There was no slackness in his musculature, his chest didn't protrude over his belly, nor the reverse. His chest was broad and his shoulders wide and muscular. He had large limbs. The parts of his body that could be seen while he was clothed were luminous. His body from the neck to the navel was joined by hair which flowed down like a line. There was no hair on his nipples. His forearms, shoulders, and upper chest were hairy. The bones of his forearms were long. His palms were wide and generous. His hands and feet were thick. His limbs were long. He had long sinews. His insteps were high. His feet were smooth without protuberances and water would run off of them. When he would move off, he would move with determination. He would step surely and unhurriedly and not proudly. He walked gently and with dignity, and he would take wide steps when he wanted to walk quickly. When he walked, it was as ifhe were descending from a slope and when he would look at someone, he would turn to him fully. He would lower his gaze and look down more often than up. He didn't stare. He would lead his companions by walking behind them out of modesty and would always be the first to greet them."
At this point, Al-Hasan said to Hind, "Describe to me the way he spoke."
Hind said, "The Prophet of God, peace and blessings be upon him, was continually full of concern. He was constantly deep in thought. He had no rest, and would not speak without a reason. He would be silent for long periods of time. He would begin conversations, and end them clearly and distinctly and would speak in a way that combined many meanings in few words. He spoke with excellence, and there was no excess in it, nor unnatural brevity. He was gentle by nature and not coarse, nor was he contemptuous of anyone. He would extol the favors he received, even when they were few and small. He never found fault with them. He never criticized the food or drink that was prepared for him, nor did he overly praise it. No one would stand against his anger when matters of the Lord's truth were opposed, until he had triumphed, but he would never get angry for his own sake, nor would he ever seek to win such an argument. He would gesture with his whole palm, to point. When he was astonished, he would make his palm face upwards. He used his hands frequently as he spoke, and would strike his left palm with his right thumb. When he would get angry, he would turn away and avert his gaze, and when he was full of joy he would lower his eyes. Most of his laughing was as smiling; when he did laugh, it was not loud, and he would show his teeth a bit like they were hailstones."
Al-Hasan said, "I kept this report to myself, away from [my brother] Al-Husayn for awhile, then I told it to him, but he had already heard it and found out even more. He had asked our father [Ali] about the way the Prophet of God, peace be upon him, was at home, when he went out in his assemblies, and about his way ofliving." Al-Hasan left nothing of this out.
Al-Husayn said, "I asked my father [Ali], may God be pleased with him, about how the Prophet of God, peace be upon him, was at home."
He [Ali] said, "He always asked permission to enter his home, from God, and those within. When at home, he would divide his time into three parts, one for God, one for his family, and one for himself. Then he would divide his own portion between himself and the people. His elite companions would mostly share this time with him, and they would convey his words to the common people. He would hold nothing back from them, neither knowledge or worldly things. It was his way to prefer the people of excellence, according to their merit in religious matters. Among the people there were those with a need, those with two needs, and those with many needs. He would work with them, and he would occupy them and the community in general with that which would improve their situations. This he would do by asking about them and their needs, and informing them what they ought to do. He would say, 'Let the one who is present among you inform the one who is absent, and bring to me the need of he who is unable to tell me himself. Truly, the one who informs a person of authority of the need of one who is unable to convey it himself, God will make firm his feet on the day of judgment.' This was the kind of topic mentioned in his presence, and he didn't accept anything else from anyone [he didn't like meaningless conversation and liked to talk about how to help people]."
Ali then said, in the hadith ofSufyan lbn Waki: "They would come as scouts [seeking decisions or knowledge], and they would not go on their way until they had found what they sought, and then they would leave as guides and learned people."
I said [Husayn to his father Ali], "Tell me about his going out and how he acted outside."
Ali said, "The Prophet of God, peace and blessings upon him, would hold his tongue except in matters which concerned his companions. He would encourage affection and concord between them and would say nothing to alienate one from another. He honored the nobles of every people who would come to him and make them their leaders. He would be wary around some people and on his guard against them [especially nomads], but he would never withhold from anyone his open-faced friendliness and fine personality. He would ask his companions about their situations, and he would ask people about what was going on amongst them. He would approve of that which was good and advocate it, and he would denounce that which was base and discourage it.
"Everything he did was in moderation, without excess or contrariness. He was not thoughtless, out of fear that those who came to him would become unmindful or weary. He was prepared for every situation in this world and the next. He didn't fail to fulfill what was right, and he didn't overstep his authority in regards to those near him. The most meritorious and excellent people to him were those whose advice was most universal; the most significant of them to him were those most beneficial to others, and the most helpful in helping others bear their burdens."
Then Al-Husayn said, "Then I asked him [Ali] about his gatherings and about what he did in them, and he said: "The Prophet of God, peace be upon him, did not sit down or stand up without mentioning God, nor did he reserve for himself fixed places among the people to be seated, and he forbade others also to reserve places for themselves [especially in mosques and public gatherings]. When he would go to visit a group, he would sit in the nearest available spot, and ordered that others follow this practice. He would give those seated near him his full share of attention in such a way that no one would think others had been given precedence over him. Whenever someone he would be sitting with would tell him of his needs, he would bear with that person until that person left him. When someone would ask him to solve a problem, he would not turn him away without solving it for him, if possible, or saying a comforting word or a prayer for its fulfillment. His cheerfulness and open personality were felt by all the people, and he became like a father to them. They came to have the right of mercy and compassion from him, as they were close, like the relation of parent and child, distinguished only by virtue and devotion to God. And in another narrative, they became equals regarding their rights in his eyes. Assemblies with him were gatherings of gentleness, dignified conduct, modesty, patience, and trust. No voice would be raised, nor would women be spoken of in a depraved way, nor would peoples' errors be mentioned. [This last item comes via different narrations.] They inclined to each other in affection out of devotion to God, as humble people. In these gatherings, the old were honored, the young were treated with gentleness. They would come to the aid of the needy and would have compassion for the stranger."
And then I asked him [Ali] about the Messenger's conduct among his close associates and servants.
[Ali] said: "The Prophet of God, peace be upon him, was unfailingly cheerful, easy going by nature, and mild mannered. He was neither crude nor coarse . He was not a clamorous loudmouth, nor a repeater of obscenities. He was not one to find faults in others, nor did he overly praise them either. He was unconcerned about what he did not want, and this did not bother him. He allowed his soul no portion of three things - hypocrisy, acquisitiveness, and that which did not concern him. He did not allow himself to engage in three things regarding people - he would not criticize others, he would not revile anyone, and he would not seek out others' faults. He would speak of nothing unless he hoped a reward from God for it. When he would talk, the ones sitting with him would be so still and quiet, you would imagine birds were sitting on their heads. When he was silent, they would talk, but not quarrel in his presence. When one of them would talk, they would all listen attentively until he had finished. They would speak about a subject that was brought up by the first to speak until they had finished with it. He would laugh at what they laughed at, and he would be amazed by what amazed them. He was patient with the stranger who had roughness in his speech. He would say, 'Whenever you see someone seeking to solve a problem, help him out.' He did not seek praise, except to be spoken of appropriately. He wouldn't interrupt another's speech unless it got excessive or too long, then he would end it or get up to leave."
Here ends the hadith of Sufyan lbnWaki. Through other narrators, Al-Hasan continues in the words of his brother Al-Husayn. l said [to Ali], "What was the silence of the Prophet of God [peace upon him] like?"
He said, "His silences were for four situations: forbearance, caution, estimation, and contemplation. As for his estimation, it was to take an impartial study of events and listen to the people in order to be just. As for his contemplation, it was about what was eternal and what was transitory. His forbearance was part of his patience, he was not angered by that which was provocative. His caution was for four reasons - taking good speech or action into consideration so he might use it in an exemplary way; abjuring the ugly and bad so it would be left alone; exerting his judgment to improve the situation of his community; [and] establishing ways to maintain the good order of his community in regard to this world and the next."
The description is finished, with thanks and praise to God for His aid.
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The Avant la Letter of Islamic Calligraphy in North America
Nihad Dukkhan
Hoçam is a master of many crafts. The combination of various manual, artistic and intellectual skills that he has is truly remarkable. A master machinist, woodworker and maker of Islamic scientific instruments from antiquity are some of the titles that can be attached to his name. Often times, when he needs something, he invents it and constructs it! With regard to book arts, in addition to being a world-renowned calligrapher, he is a master ebru artist, illuminator and bookbinder. Zakariya collected his knowledge, understanding and skills through his life-long learning, by delving into original sources to find the “truth”. These sources include Ottoman and Arabic treatises on a considerable range of subjects. He studied old techniques from different historical periods, digested them and used them to produce artwork, art materials and designs. For calligraphy, ebru and ahar paper making, he had teachers, otherwise he is completely self-taught. I was really excited when he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar in 2012.
Zakariya is fluent is a few languages: Arabic, Turkish (Ottoman and Modern) and Romanian. He and I once co-existed in Istanbul few years ago. He asked me to accompany him to a meeting. Well, a local Turkish TV program hosted him to talk about Muvekkithans (timing buildings for determining the time of prayer, and for conducting astronomical studies during the Ottoman period). Hoçam conducted the whole episode in Turkish, and cover all relevant information about these historical/religious buildings in Turkish, with no hesitations.
When it comes to calligraphy, he is completely independent and unintimidated. Over his long career, he developed his very distinctive and recognizable style in both calligraphy and illumination. All of his pieces are completely made by him, starting from dyeing the calligraphy paper with black tea and other fine natural dyes that produce the most beautiful colors. Hoçam has successfully modified Ottoman and old Arab techniques and materials, and brought them to life in our modern times. In the process, he has made many discoveries. In some cases, his modified techniques and materials surpass the old ones.
Talking about Mohamed Zakariya would not be complete without talking about Sally Zakariya, his wife whom he admires. Sally has been his supporter, manager, editor and secretary for most of his artistic career. She believed in him when he was starting, and made many sacrifices so that he masters calligraphy and makes a career out of it. Certainly, she is the woman behind our great man. Sally is always kind, generous and welcoming to students from all walks of life. She basically volunteers her house, time and privacy once a week for half a day, so students can take lessons from Hoçam. If a student comes from out of town, he or she may get to stay at Zakariya’s house. In that case Sally would take full care of the guest making sure that he or she is very comfortable. She actually sacrifices her home office for the duration of the guest’s stay.
Zakariya is very precise and he demands precision from his students. He measures strokes and letters with drafting tools. Basically, he opened my eyes to hidden secrets in letter shapes and connections, as well as organization and flow of a calligraphy line. Any precision and patience I have in writing calligraphy is influenced by his teachings, corrections, and guidance. In addition to calligraphy, he taught me a great deal about materials used in Islamic Calligraphy: ahar paper making, paper dyeing, reed pen shaping and special calligraphy backing board construction. I also learned applying gold to calligraphy from him.
Zakariya Hoçam is not my only teacher. I learned the Sülüs and Nasih calligraphy styles from grand master calligrapher Hasan Çelebi of Istanbul, receiving my other Ijazah from him in 2009. (Çelebi is Zakariya’s teacher in these two styles. So, Zakariya and I have this lineage in common.) While receiving an Ijazah in Islamic calligraphy is a milestone, one needs to continue practicing in order to further his or her skills and reach higher levels in the art. As such, I have continued my training with Zakariya, while practicing as a professional calligrapher. Part of this advanced training is to study calligraphic specimens of old masters. Whenever Zakariya finds such masterpieces he swiftly shares them with me, and we spend considerable spans of time discussing them. Islamic Calligraphy is a difficult art to master and understand. Zakariya’s discussions of calligraphy take different levels depending on the preparation of his audience. His calligraphy work and service to this art have been instrumental in restoring the stature of the art of Islamic Calligraphy as one of the excellences that embodies Islam’s spirit.
I am fifty some years old, and I want to be like Zakariya when I grow up!
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An Introduction to Sheyh Hamdallah
Mohamed Zakariya
Sheyh Hamdullah was born around 1436 in the town of Amasya in Ottoman Anatolia, a place famous for its many calligraphers. His father was a sheyh (or sheikh) of the Suhraverdi order, and Hamdullah often called himself “son of the sheyh.” The grand master of the archery lodge, Hamdullah was also a sheyh of the Sufi path. His teachers in calligraphy were trained in the style of writing perfected by Yakut el-Mustasimi of Baghdad, and Hamdullah excelled in these methods and the literature associated with them.
When Prince Beyazid, son of Mehmed the Conquerer, became governor of Amasya, he took calligraphy lessons from Sheyh Hamdullah and received his icazet from him. The two became life-long friends. Beyazid became Sultan Beyazid II in 1481 and, the following year, invited Sheyh Hamdullah to join him in Constantinople (now Istanbul). The sheyh was given a workshop in the Topkapi Palace, where he would write and teach and where the sultan could visit and watch him work. While there, the sheyh designed a good deal of monumental calligraphy around Constantinople, especially in the Beyazid Mosque and precinct, and in other cities.
By this time, however, calligraphy had become rather stodgy and rigid, and the sheyh was inspired to undertake a basic overhaul of the art, top to bottom, using the best examples of Yakut’s original works. He was shortly able to transform the six proportional scripts (sulus, nesih, muhakkak, reyhani, tevki’, and riqa’) into a new and vivacious medium. Using these scripts, he wrote 47 mushafs (Korans) and numerous other works, inscriptions, and murakkaas (albums), at least three of which are in collections in the United States. The sheyh’s sulus (thuluth) script, while magnificent, was still a bit stiff. It was his nesih (naskh), enlivened with vitality, that really took off, becoming the most important script in the Ottoman repertoire.
In addition to calligraphy, the multi-talented Sheyh Hamdullah was a champion archer, swimmer, tailor, and falconer. He was a brilliant maker of arrows and composite bows and taught archery to the best masters of the day. The sheyh lived into his late 80s and died in 1520.
When we look at his work and at other Ottoman calligraphy, we need to be aware that these are normally joint productions, involving many people. The calligraphy is the basis of the piece. But it is the assembly, polishing, gilding, mounting, painting, and sometimes binding or monumental carving and architectural application that finish the work and make an art object.
The known and unknown geniuses of calligraphy who followed the great founding master of Baghdad, Ibnul-Bawwab, paved the road of calligraphy so it could, in the hands of Sheyh Hamdullah, begin to become a true art. The teaching method he developed is the origin of the method we use today. His students went on to teach others, over the generations creating something of a family tree of calligraphic genealogy, a key to study the evolution of the art.
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Calligrapher Nihad Dukhan
Respects Tradition as He Creates
Modern Designs
Eleni Zaras
QUIET AND ISOLATION, conditions we are all perhaps more accustomed to these days, are not unfamiliar to calligrapher and engineering professor Nihad Dukhan. “I, like many artists, normally have to work for long periods in self-imposed isolation,” he pointed out.
Originally from Gaza, Dukhan came to Toledo, OH in 1983 for his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. Jazz musician Miles Davis, a view overlooking railroad tracks, and boredom defined the artist and engineer’s early days in the United States. It was also a time when he began to miss the Arabic language and to practice calligraphy without particular purpose. Today, not only is Dukhan a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Detroit Mercy, but he is a master calligrapher.
Arabic calligraphy is a millennium-old art form with strict rules and traditions. Dukhan spent 11 years diligently training with Hasan Çelebi in Istanbul—in-person and through mail—to achieve his ijazah, a master scribe degree, in the Thuluth and Naskh styles. The ijazah qualification, he explains, “allows you to represent and talk about calligraphy, to sign your work, and to teach calligraphy according to traditional methods.” In 2013, he achieved his ijazah in a third style, the Taliq style, under the tutelage of Mohamed Zakariya in Arlington, VA.
While he writes Qur’anic verses in traditional calligraphic scripts, Dukhan also takes creative liberties in his set of modern works—restyling traditional techniques into his own innovative designs. Taking a word or concept in Arabic, he arranges the letters to abstractly illustrate the form or meaning of the word itself. For instance, for qalam-ملق (“pen” in Arabic) he stretches the letter “lam” into a thin, vertical column as the body of the pen, and the tail of the letter “meem” coming to its sharp point. It is a style he has polished, taking inspiration from Miles Davis’ minimalist and succinct phrasing, but some of the ideas came to him as if “witnessing a birth,” he describes, “as if I wasn’t doing it myself.”
Dukhan also noted that individual Arabic letters themselves are a source of artistic inspiration. “Would you hang a ‘W’ in your living room?” he asked, laughing. “In Arabic, the letter itself is so beautiful people do actually do this!”
While he believes traditional calligraphy is not in danger, Dukhan said his contemporary adaptations of the art form are a way he hopes to reach broader audiences. “This modern form, I thought, would be more appealing to people who don’t know Arabic,” but also to Arab-Americans, through form, simplicity, space and shapes.
From small coffee shop exhibitions in Toledo, to gallery exhibitions across the U.S., in Kuwait, the UAE and Istanbul, his work has gained recognition among Arabic speakers and non-Arabic speakers alike.
Despite these exhibitions and an existing high-end market for calligraphic works, there is a general “ignorance about calligraphy,” he lamented. Art historians may be interested “in a legacy, a history, but they bypass contemporary artists as an important source of information or correction of misconception or undoing myths about Arabic calligraphy.”
As many contemporary artists incorporate calligraphy into their works, the lack of education in the field results in a lack of sufficient criticism. Like any other art, “calligraphy can be bad,” he says bluntly, “some people think they can hide behind color or symmetry to create an effect.” Or, if someone writes something sacred, they “can get away with it [because it’s sacred], but it can be bad calligraphy.”
Even among his family in Gaza, he is unsure if they understand or appreciate his work, citing, in part, the proliferation of English and the subsequent ignorance of calligraphy’s rich history. As a child, he practiced writing with friends on the walls, “silly things—names of Egyptian soccer players for instance,” but became more serious and would cut his own pens to mimic fountain pens in order to practice. While he was praised for his handwriting by his family, it was not something he was encouraged to pursue in an artistic or professional capacity.
Currently, the stay-at-home orders have not dramatically changed his routine. “Artists are typically reflective,” he stresses, though “they should not need a crisis to start reflecting.” However, he is taking the extra quiet time to study the Diwani Jali style and knows that, during this period, “ideas will simmer and I may come up with designs related to this crisis.”
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Ottomon Style Calligraphy
Mohamed Zakariya
The goal of those who followed the sheyh was to abide by his methods and to write the way he did. A few of these people are named in the following list, an abbreviated list of the top calligraphers who came after the illustrious Sheyh Hamdullah:
· The first of the sheyh’s descendands were hs son Mustafa Dede (d. 1532) and son-in-law Shukrullah Halife (d. ?), among others.
· The teaching was handed down through people such as Halid Erzurumi (d. 1631) and Nefeszade Ismail (d. 1679)
· Improvements in the art were originated by Hafiz Osman (d. 1698) and then by Yedikuleli Seyyid Abdullah (d. 1731) and Mehmed Rasim (d. 1826).
· Moving into more modern times, we have Ismail Zuhdi (d. 1806), his genius brother Mustafa Rakim (d. 1829), and the North Star of calligraphers Kadiasker Mustafa Izzet (d. 1876).
The followers of the kadiasker (chief judge) form the longest surviving teaching chain of calligraphers in the 19th, 20th, and now 21st centuries:
· Mehmed Shefik (d. 1880) and Mehmed Shevki (d. 1887). Mehmed Shevki was out of this series, but everybody nevertheless studies his work.
· Kayishzade Hafiz Osman (d. 1894), Bakkal Arif (d. 1909), Hasan Riza (d. 1920), Sami (d. 1912), and Hamid Aytach (d. 1982).
· Still carrying on the tradition is Hasan Celebi.
Calligraphers love these people. We cherish their work and their stories.
The calligraphers included in this small collection are descendants in this line. All have studied to some degree with Hasan Hoca: Mohamed Zakariya, who received his icazet (license) in Sulus and Nesih scripts from Hasan Celebi; Nihad Dukhan, who received his icazet in Sulus and Nesih scripts from Hasan Celebi and his icazet in Talik script from Mohamed Zakariya; Deniz Oktem Bektas, Nuria Garcia Masip, Aishah Elinor Holland, and Manzar Moghbeli, who received icazets from Zakariya; and Halid Casadao who received his icazet from Nuria Garcia Masip.
Sidebar: The Talik Script
The line of descent in Ottoman-style Talik is roughly as follows:
· Yesari Mehmed Esad (d. 1798)
· Yesarizade Mustafa Izzet (d. 1849)
· Ali Haydar (d. 1870)
· Sami (d. 1912)
· Mehmed Hulusi Yazgan (d. 1940)
· Necmeddin Okyay (d. 1976)
· Ali Alparslan (d. 2006)
Mohamed Zakariya received his icazet in Talik script from Ali Alparslan.
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