Islamic Manuscripts at Michigan
المشاركة في الفهرسة: المخطوطات الاسلامية في جامعة ميشيغان

[Calligraphic specimen,1205?, i.e. 1790 or 1791?].[مرقع حسن الخط,1205ه؟, 1790 او 1791م؟].

Shelfmark:

Isl. Ms. 402

Title:

[Calligraphic specimen,1205?, i.e. 1790 or 1791?].[مرقع حسن الخط,1205ه؟, 1790 او 1791م؟].

Place/Date of Production:

[1790 or 1791?].

Size:

8 leaves :paper ;175 x 468 (98 x 395) mm.

Summary:

Exquisite album of calligraphy (muraqqaʻ or murakkâ) with design for a monumental inscription to appear on an archery stone (menzil taşı) of Bilâl Ağa (d.1807?), possibly executed by Yesari Mehmed Esad Efendi (d.1798), the great Ottoman master of nastaʻlīq (talik).

Other Title(s):

Unidentified-Can you help supply this information? Please comment!

Subject(s):

Islamic calligraphy--Turkey--Specimens.
Calligraphy, Turkish--Specimens.
Writing, Arabic--Specimens.
Manuscripts, Turkish--Michigan--Ann Arbor.

Language:

Ottoman Turkish.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloguer.

Incipit:

"جناب حضرت سلطان سليم خان جهانبانك ..."

Explicit:

"قيروب بيك ايكيوز بش سالى دستى پيك اديم يرده"

Colophon:

Can you help transcribe the colophon? Please comment!

Dedication:

Can you help transcribe the dedication? Please comment!

Contents:

Unidentified-Can you help supply this information? Please comment!

Physical Details:

Collation:

Eight heavy leaves or 'panels' hinged together.

Layout:

Written in a single line per page (opens vertically with lines running parallel to the spine).

Script:

Exquisite specimen of Ottoman calligraphy ; text throughout in an elegant, large nastaʻlīq (celi talik).

Decoration:

Written area surrounded by frame consisting of inner orange band and heavy gold outer band, outlined in black fillets.

Support:

Well-burnished laid paper (with roughly 8 vertical laid lines per cm.) mounted on heavy paper with pieced marbled paper (kumlu or kılçıklı ebru in blue and cream) framing the written area.

Binding:

Pasteboards faced in cream silk with dark red leather over spine and edges / turn-ins (silk faced, leather edged, framed binding) ; Type III binding (without flap) ; boards and recto of opening and final panel lined in marbled paper (kumlu or kılçıklı ebru in pink, light blue, and dark blue) ; upper and lower covers carry gold-tooled border in a series of s-shaped stamps ; panels hinged together with dark red leather ; in somewhat poor condition with lifting of silk and leather, delamination of boards, much abrasion, staining, panels detaching from spine, etc.

Former Shelfmarks:

"538 T. De M. [i.e. Tammaro De Marinis]" inscribed in pencil on upper cover.

Origin:

Date at close, 1205 [1790 or 91] during the reign of Sultan Selim III (r.1789-1807). Possibly executed by Mehmet Esat Yesari (Muḥammad Asʻad al-Yasārī) (d.1798) (identity of copyist proposed by Muhittin Serin, see note on catalog card dated "20.4.1993").

Ownership and History:

Inscription in pencil on upper cover "538 T. De M. [i.e. Tammaro De Marinis]" ; clean copy.

Contributor(s) / Included work(s):

Unidentified-Can you help supply this information? Please comment!

Scribe(s):

Unidentified-Can you help supply this information? Please comment!

Former Owner(s):

Abdülhamid II, Sultan of the Turks, 1842-1918, former owner.

In calligrapher:

05 Yesari Mehmet Esat Efendi, d. 1798, calligrapher. 05 يسارى محمد اسعد افندى, خطاط.

In Collection:

Abdul Hamid Collection.

References:

Brocade of the pen : the art of Islamic writing. Carol Garrett Fisher, ed. (East Lansing, MI: Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, 1991),no.12, p.84Zakariya, Mohamed. "Islamic calligraphy: A technical overview." In Brocade of the pen: the art of Islamic writing. Carol Garrett Fisher, ed. (East Lansing, MI: Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, 1991):1-17Derman, M. Uğur. Letters in gold : Ottoman calligraphy from the Sakıp Sabancı collection, Istanbul. (New York : Metropolitian Museum of Art : Distributed by H.N. Abrams, c1998),100-1.