The Secret of the Kuran in the Topkapı Palace

Abstract

It is a very difficult to determine the name and the period of an unknown calligrapher's work if it does not have a signature. In the art of calligraphy and especially in the celî scripts the calligrapher imitates basically the ideal forms. While writing every calligrapher fully concentrates on the form he has learned from his master which he whole heartedly believes uses the best form in achieving the ideal beauty. On the contrary in the past, even though very few in number, there are calligraphers very skilled in spotting the name and the period of the artisan. But there are no basic studies on how they achieve this skill. This is not studied in books, papers and in the universities and there is no known research made on this subject. At the Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul there is a very preciously written Koran with a beautiful calligraphy, decoration and binding presented to the Sultan Suleiman the Lawmaker. Concerning this Koran the calligraphy authorities are in conflict in identifying the name of a known calligrapher of the period from the signature (ketebe) of the manuscript. In this paper the above mentioned subject is studied in detail and some clues are derived to give an end to this conflict.