Mehmed Şeker-zâde

The Ottoman calligrapher Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān (d. 1753) signed his works, "şeker-zâde." This epithet is attributed to his father's supposed profession as a candy-maker. Although he was known as “şekerci-zâde” or “son of the candy-maker,” he elected to sign his works “şeker-zâde," meaning "son of candy." He studied with İbrahim of Crimea, but his real teacher was Seyyid Abdullâh of Yedikule. Şeker-zâde thus wrote in the style of Hâfız Osman. He was commissioned by Sultan Ahmed III (r. 1703–1730) to copy a manuscript of the Qur’ān that had been copied by Shaykh Hamdullâh and donated to the Prophet’s Tomb in Medina. On his return to Istanbul, he presented another manuscript of his to Sultan Mahmud I (r. 1730–1754), who had replaced his deposed brother.Şeker-zâde is also well known for having copied the first Qur’ān manuscript to have ever been printed using lithography.