Page with illuminated calligraphy, Hadith (Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad)

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 Hadith, or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, was composed by the Ottoman calligrapher Hâfız Yûsuf (d. 1786) using the thuluth style of calligraphy for the heading and the naskh style for the five small lines. To make the verse markers, an illuminator used gold to paint pinwheel medallions and revolving circles. The calligraphic panel is mounted with a dynamic set of marbled papers. The thin inner border, lined with gold margins, was made by speckling gold over pink-tinted paper. The larger, outer border was made by the famous Istanbul paper marbler, Mehmed Necmeddin Okyay (1883-1976), nearly one hundred years after the calligraphic panel was inscribed. The decorative panels were also made by Mehmed Necmeddin Okyay and each feature a single flower on a textured background.