Hattat Aziz Efendi (born 1871,

Maçka Maçka ( el, Ματζούκα, Matzoúka, the "club"; Laz: მაჩხა ''Maçxa'') is a town and district of Trabzon Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The name derives from the medieval Greek '' Matzouka'', which was one of the pro ...

– August 16, 1934,

İstanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

) ( ota, خطاط عزیز افندی) was an Ottoman

calligrapher Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

Life and work

Born Mehmed Abdulaziz Efendi, in Maçka in 1871, his family moved to Istanbul, the Ottoman capital during

Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histor ...

. Aziz Efendi completed his primary education in 1885 and started to learn calligraphy from Ahmed Arif Effendi of

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...

(known more commonly as "Bakkal" -the grocer-) and he also studied at Hat Mektebi (Calligraphy School). He graduated in 1894 and continued to practise under the supervision of Muhsinzade Abdullah Hamdi Efendi until 1896. In 1921, King Fuad of Egypt invited him to

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

, where he transcribed the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

and gilded the result.Kamel Al-Baba, Calligraphy a Noble Art, ''Saudi Aramco World, July/August 1964''
/ref> After completing his mission, he remained in Egypt, where he worked as a teacher and contributed to the establishment of schools to improve Arabic fonts. He returned to Istanbul in 1932, where he died two years later. Two of his calligraphic panels are hanging in the

Grand Mosque of Bursa The Grand Mosque of Bursa ( tr, Bursa Ulu Camii) is a historic mosque in Bursa, Turkey. It was commissioned by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I to commemorate his great victory at the Battle of Nicopolis and built between 1396 and 1399. The mosque i ...

, Turkey. He transcribed 11 copies of the Quran in his lifetime, a number of

hilya The term ''hilya'' (Arabic , plural: ''ḥilan'', ''ḥulan''; tr, hilye, plural: ) denotes both a visual form in Ottoman art and a religious genre of Ottoman Turkish literature, each dealing with the physical description of Muhammad. Hilya lit ...

s and other textual compilations.Calligraphic Practice Sheet (Meşk), ''Indiana University Art Museum''
/ref>

Examples of works

Image:FirstSurahKoran.jpg, The first

sura A ''surah'' (; ar, سورة, sūrah, , ), is the equivalent of "chapter" in the Qur'an. There are 114 ''surahs'' in the Quran, each divided into '' ayats'' (verses). The chapters or ''surahs'' are of unequal length; the shortest surah ('' Al-K ...

of the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...

al-Fatihah Al-Fatiha (alternatively transliterated Al-Fātiḥa or Al-Fātiḥah; ar, ألْفَاتِحَة, ; ), is the first ''surah'' (chapter) of the Quran. It consists of 7 '' ayah'' (verses) which are a prayer for guidance and mercy. Al-Fatiha i ...

, in the hand of Hattat Aziz Efendi File:Aziz_efendi-muhammad_alayhi_s-salam.png, The name "

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

" in traditional

Thuluth ''Thuluth'' ( ar, ثُلُث, ' or ar, خَطُّ الثُّلُثِ, '; fa, ثلث, ''Sols''; Turkish: ''Sülüs'', from ' "one-third") is a script variety of Islamic calligraphy. The straight angular forms of Kufic were replaced in the new s ...

calligraphy, possibly inspired by a 19th-century disk in the

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia ( 'Holy Wisdom'; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque ( tr, Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi), is a mosque and major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The cathedral was originally built as a Greek Ortho ...

References

External links

A profile of Hattat Aziz Efendi
by

Muhittin Serin Muhittin Serin (born 1945) is a ''hattat'' ( islamic calligrapher) and professor. Early life Muhittin Serin was born on 3 August 1945 in the Dimorta-Üzümören District of Tokat. Education He graduated from the Islam Institute in 1970. He ear ...

. (in Turkish) *

: ''Hattat Aziz Efendi'', Istanbul (1988, 1999), , * Sâmiha Ayverdi, ''İbrâhim Efendi konağı'', Kubbealti Publishing (2009), , 147ff.
p. 147
has a portrait photograph)

Life and work

Examples of works

See also

References

External links

Further reading