Mehmed Hulusi Yazgan (1868-1940)

Album of calligraphic exercises

h. 1323 [1905]

Sabancı Üniversitesi Sakıp Sabancı Müzesi (Emirgan, İstanbul, Türkiye)

This meşk murakkası (album of calligraphic exercises) dates from his best period, 1902-27. His colophon in talik script on the last page reads, ‘Written by Hafız Mehmed Hulusi, pupil of the leader of calligraphers Sami Efendi, may God grant him a long life and exalt his name,’ followed by the date 1323. The album consists of nine kıt’as in the form of exercises for advanced calligraphy students. These exercises usually consisted of couplets. For exercises in talik script the texts most commonly chosen were taken from the 19-couplet Besmele Kasidesi written in Persian by the Iranian scholar and poet Abdurrahman Molla Câmî (d. 1492) and the 716-couplet Hilye-i Hakani, a mesnevi in Turkish written in 1598 by Hakani Mehmed Bey (d. 1606). Here Mehmed Hulusi Yazgan has written couplets from the Besmele Kasidesi, with the word sa’y, meaning ‘work’, written in the spaces between the lines, showing that these are exercises for students. The first two kıt’as are written on lightly marbled paper and the others on plain paper. The margins are decorated with vassale collage in beige paper flecked with gold. There is no illumination. The murakka is of the concertina type, with a binding of chestnut coloured leather with tooled gold medallions on the covers.

Detail

Title:

Album of calligraphic exercises

Artist:

Mehmed Hulusi Yazgan (1868-1940)

Date:

h. 1323 [1905]

Dimensions:

17,4 x 25,3 cm

Medium:

Sized paper, black ink, paint, gold, marbled paper

Location:

Sabancı Üniversitesi Sakıp Sabancı Müzesi (Emirgan, İstanbul, Türkiye)

Credit:

Reference

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Album of calligraphic exercises

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