İsmail Zühdi Efendi (

Modern Turkish Turkish ( , , also known as 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, a member of Oghuz branch with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languages of Cyprus. Si ...

: ''Hattat İsmail Zühdü Efendi'', also known as Yeni İsmail Zühdi; died 1806) was an Ottoman

calligrapher Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an exp ...

. “

Efendi Effendi or effendy ( ; ; originally from ) is a title of nobility meaning ''sir'', ''lord'' or ''master'', especially in the Ottoman Empire and the Caucasus''.'' The title itself and its other forms are originally derived from Medieval Greek ...

” is a title of nobility, so this name can also be rendered İsmail Zühdi.

Life and career

İsmail Zühdi was born in Unye on the Black Sea. His father, Mehmed Kaptan, took him to Istanbul at a young age to learn the

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

.Uğur Derman, M.
Letters in Gold: Ottoman Calligraphy from the Sakıp Sabancı Collection, Istanbul
', pp. 19, 96-98 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998). He is also known as Yeni İsmail Zühdi, or İsmail Zühdi the Second, to distinguish him from another calligrapher by the same name who lived in an earlier period. İsmail Zühdi had a much younger brother,

Mustafa Râkim Mustafa Râkim (; Modern Turkish: ''Mustafa Râkım'') (1757–1826), was an Ottoman calligrapher. He extended and reformed Hâfiz Osman's style, placing greater emphasis on technical perfection, which broadened the calligraphic art to encomp ...

, who also became a calligrapher.Mülayim, Selçuk and Akşit, İlhan. ''Turkish Art and Architecture in Anatolia & Mimar Sinan'', p. 260 (Akşit, 2005). When Mustafa was still quite young, their father took the boy to Istanbul to live with İsmail and study calligraphy with him. By that time, İsmail had been appointed as an instructor of calligraphy at the Imperial Palace, which is where the young Mustafa Râkim received his formal training, studying under his brother. İsmail Zühdi wrote in a firm and masterful way. Huart, C., ''Les Calligraphes et les Miniaturistes de l'Orient Musulman'' 1972, p. 18
Digital copy (in French)
/ref> The two brothers, İsmail Zühdi and Mustafa Râkim, went on to develop their own style of calligraphy based on the work of

Hâfiz Osman Hâfiz Osman ( Modern Turkish: ''Hâfız Osman'') (1642–1698) was an Ottoman calligrapher noted for improving the script and for developing a layout template for the hilye which became the classical approach to page design. History Born Osm ...

. They were able to develop a style of ''celi sülüs'' that was aesthetically pleasing, something that other calligraphers had not been able to do. His younger brother, Mustafa Râkim, also perfected the

tughra A tughra (; ) is a calligraphy, calligraphic monogram, Seal (emblem), seal or signature of a sultan that was affixed to all official documents and correspondence. Inspired by the Tamga, tamgha, it was also carved on his seal and stamped on the co ...

and went on to perfect other scripts, becoming İsmail Zühdi's most celebrated pupil. Some forty Qur’ans copied by him have survived. He also left many writing boards, ki'tas and

muraqqa A Muraqqa ( , ) is an album in book form containing Islamic miniature paintings and specimens of Islamic calligraphy, normally from several different sources, and perhaps other matter. The album was popular among collectors in the Islami ...

s. The inscriptions of the mausoleum of Châh-Sultane at the Deftèrdâr of Eyyoub are by him as is the inscription placed above the door of this same mausoleum is from Mouçtafa 'Izzèt Yasâri. He died in 1806 and was buried outside the gate of

Adrianople Edirne (; ), historically known as Orestias, Adrianople, is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the Edirne Province, province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, Edirne was the second c ...

, at the

Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery The Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery (), one of the largest burial grounds of Istanbul, Turkey, is located in the neighborhood of Edirnekapı of Eyüp district, in the European part of the city. It consists of an old, historical part and a mode ...

. His brother Mustafa wrote his epitaph. Mustafa postponed his major calligraphic innovations until İsmail died, in deference to seniority.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ismail Zuhdi Efendi Culture of the Ottoman Empire Calligraphers from the Ottoman Empire 1715 deaths Year of birth unknown 17th-century artists from the Ottoman Empire 18th-century artists from the Ottoman Empire 18th-century calligraphers 17th-century calligraphers

Life and career

See also

References