Hilyah

Location: Ottoman Turkey

Materials: ink on coated paper; mounted on board

Dimensions: 32.3 x 25cm

Accession Number: CAL 463

Other Notes:

The design of this hilyah departs radically from the traditional Ottoman layout attributed to Hafiz Osman [see CAL 459]. At the centre is a quotation from the Qur’an, surah al-Baqarah (II), verse 20, ‘For God hath power over all things.’ This is repeated five times in a dynamic rotating arrangement, with one of the letters, the ‘ayn, forming the central rosette around the name of the Prophet. The text of the hilyah is arranged around the composition.

According to the colophon, Ibrahim Edhem copied this composition from one by Mehmed Nazif Effendi.

Script:

written in thulth, naskh and riqa‘ scripts

Bibliography:

N.F. Safwat, The Art of the Pen. Calligraphy of the 14th to 20th Centuries, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume V, London 1996, cat.37, pp.65 and 67.