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, and assembled with colored and marbled papers into accordion fold albums, known as a muraqqaʿ. The calligrapher, Abdülkādir Şükrî Efendi, identified himself as "scribe of the Imperial Palace" on this calligraphic panel containing Hadith, or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. An illuminator added decoration, including floral bouquets painted in the pinks, yellows, and blues typical of the late 18th and 19th centuries. The calligraphic panel is paired with two painted borders with interlocking vegetal patterns in contrasting color schemes. To make the marbled paper on the reverse, the artist dropped purple, red, and blue pigments onto the surface of a tragacanth bath and used a variety of techniques to achieve different textual effects, including the craquelure appearance at the center of the large circular forms.