Page with illuminated calligraphy
İsmâ‘îl Zühdî (“Eski Zühdî”)
(Ottoman, died 1731)
1723 A.D./ 1136 A.H.
Object PlaceTurkey
Medium/TechniqueInk and gold on paper
DimensionsHeight x width: 33.4 × 25.5 cm (13 1/8 × 10 1/16 in.)
Credit LineHelen and Alice Colburn Fund
Accession number29.117
On View
Not on viewClassificationsBooks and manuscripts
Collections
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 into accordion fold albums, known as muraqqaʿ. This vertical folio contains several horizontal panels of calligraphy containing Hadith, each outlined with gold margins. An illuminator added verse markers and the marbled papers were speckled with silver leaf.
ProvenanceMiss Elizabeth (Riefstahl) Titzel (b. 1889 - d. 1986), New York; 1929, sold by Miss Elizabeth (Riefstahl) Titzel to the MFA for $5000.00 (total price for 29.56-136). (Accession Date: January 3, 1929)
Mehmed Şehrî b. İsma’il
18th century
Recto early 16th century; verso about 1420–40; mounted in album about 1544–45
16th century
Ömer b. Abdurrahman
18th century
Yedikuleli Seyyid ʿAbdullâh Efendi
1731 A.D./ 1141 A.H.
Ṣālih Efendi-zāde Meḥmed Emīn
about 1725
about 1500
