Page with illuminated calligraphy

Ottoman calligraphers often demonstrated their skills by writing different styles and sizes of Arabic script on rectangular sheets of paper, which were then illuminated, mounted on pasteboard with colored and marbled papers, and assembled into accordion fold albums, known as muraqqaʿ. This calligraphic panel containing fifteen lines of script in the naskh style was composed by Mustafa Dede (d. 1538), the son of the famous Ottoman calligrapher, Shaykh Hamdullâh (d. 1520). The reverse side of the folio contains marbled papers of a later date produced in the 18th-century hatip style, which is characterized by a second layer of vibrant, stylized shapes over an initial layer of lighter pigment. In this case, black and red shapes in alternating lines create a checkerboard effect on top of a muted blue and brown stone pattern.