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Page with illuminated calligraphy, Hadith (Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad)

Ottoman period
17th century
Object Place: Turkey

Medium/Technique Ink, color and gold on paper; marbled paper
Dimensions Height x width: 19.9 × 27.2 cm (7 13/16 × 10 11/16 in.)
Credit Line Helen and Alice Colburn Fund
Accession Number29.112
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAsia, Islamic Art
ClassificationsBooks and manuscripts
Ottoman calligraphers often demonstrated their skills by writing different styles and sizes of Arabic script on rectangular sheets of paper, which were then mounted on pasteboard. This calligraphic panel containing Hadith, or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, was composed using the thuluth style of script for the heading and naskh for the four small lines below. An illuminator used gold and vibrant blue and orange pigments to add quatrefoil patterns to the two decorative side panels. To make the verse markers, an illuminator used gold to paint large, expressive pinwheel medallions and ornately decorated them with pink, blue, and white pigments.

Throughout the 16th-18th centuries, individuals collected calligraphic panels from a variety of sources from the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires and assembled them, together with marbled papers, into accordion fold albums known as muraqqaʿ. This calligraphic panel is paired with a larger outer border made from marbled papers featuring concentric circles in shades of blue, gray, and red. To make the marbled paper on the reverse, the artist dropped vibrant pink, yellow, and blue pigments onto the surface of a tragacanth bath. Various instruments, such as a stylus and comb, were then used to create dynamic shapes on a visually undulating background.



Description
ProvenanceMiss Elizabeth (Riefstahl) Titzel (b. 1889 - d. 1986), New York; 1929, sold by Miss Elizabeth (Riefstahl) Titzel to the MFA for $5000.00 (total price for 29.56-136). (Accession Date: January 3, 1929)