Page with illuminated calligraphy in Ottoman Turkish, 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 mounted on pasteboard and assembled into accordion fold albums, known as muraqqaʿ. This calligraphic panel containing Hadith, or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, was composed in the Ottoman Turkish language by Mehmed Şeker-zâde (d. 1753). Şeker-zâde studied under Seyyid Abdullâh of Yedikule, and wrote in the style of the famous calligrapher, Hâfız Osman (1642 – 1698). Şeker-zâde is well known for having copied the first Qur’an manuscript to have ever been printed using lithography.