Page with illuminated calligraphy, Adages about 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, and assembled with colored and marbled papers into accordion fold albums, known as muraqqaʿ. This calligraphic panel composed by Mehmed b. Ömer Ressam (d. 1744) contains adages about calligraphy, originally written by the famous calligrapher, Yāqūt (d. 1298) in the thirteenth century. An illuminator used gold and blue pigment to decorate the side panels with quatrefoil patterns. The calligraphic folio is bordered by gold margins and marbled papers.