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 and mounted on pasteboard. Known as qit'a, these calligraphic panels were commonly bordered with colored and marbled papers and assembled into accordion fold albums, known as muraqqaʿ. This calligraphic panel was composed by Ottoman calligrapher Hamdi Efendi (d. 1784), whose nickname, Karalamacı, literally translates to "Hamdi the scribbler." The nickname refers to the calligraphic exercises (karalama) intended to maintain the calligrapher's dexterity, for which Karalamacı Hamdi was most well known. Here, Karalamacı Hamdi used thuluth for the large text, naskh for the five small lines, and riqa' for the four lines written diagonally on the left side of the panel. An illuminator added floral decorations and verse markers decorated with blue, red, and white dots.