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 albums known as muraqqqaʿ. This calligraphic panel containing Hadith, or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, was composed using the thuluth style of script for the two large lines and the naskh style for the smaller lines written diagonally in the center of the page. An illuminator added naturalistic floral bouquets charactersitic of the 18th century to the decorative panels and floral and vegetal motifs around the perimeter of the calligraphic panel. The borders are colored papers speckled with silver leaf.