[Calligraphic specimen, 1205?, i.e. 1790 or 1791?].

Exquisite album of calligraphy (muraqqaʻ or murakkaa) with design for a monumental inscription to appear in stone on a commemorative range marker (menzil taşı) of Bilâl Ağa (d.1807?), likely executed by Yesari Mehmed Esad Efendi (d.1798), the great Ottoman master of nastaʻlīq (talik).

Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Library, Isl. Ms. 402

Origin: Date at close, 1205 [1790 or 91] during the reign of Sultan Selim III (r.1789-1807). Most likely executed by the master calligrapher Mehmet Esat Yesari (d.1798) as proposed by Muhittin Serin (see note on catalog card dated "20.4.1993") and Mohamed Zakariya and confirmed by Uğur Derman.

Former shelfmark: "538 T. De M. [i.e. Tammaro De Marinis]" inscribed in pencil on upper cover.

Binding: Pasteboards faced in cream silk with dark red leather over spine and edges / turn-ins (silk faced, leather edged, framed binding) ; Type III binding (without flap) ; boards and recto of opening and final panel lined in marbled paper (kumlu or kılçıklı ebru in pink, light blue, and dark blue) ; upper and lower covers carry gold-tooled border in a series of s-shaped stamps ; panels hinged together with dark red leather ; in somewhat poor condition with lifting of silk and leather, delamination of boards, much abrasion, staining, panels detaching from spine, etc.

Support: Well-burnished laid paper (with roughly 8 vertical laid lines per cm.) mounted on heavy paper with pieced marbled paper (kumlu or kılçıklı ebru in blue and cream) framing the written area.

Decoration: Written area surrounded by frame consisting of inner orange band and heavy gold outer band, outlined in black fillets.

Script: Exquisite specimen of Ottoman calligraphy ; text throughout in an elegant, large nastaʻlīq (celi talik) in a heavy line ; pin-pricks surround each letter, presumably for transfer to the commemorative stone by pouncing.

Layout: Written in a single line per page (opens vertically with lines running parallel to the spine).

Collation: Eight heavy leaves or 'panels' hinged together.

Explicit: "قيروب بيك ايكيوز بش سالى دستى پيك اديم يرده"

Incipit: "جناب حضرت سلطان سليم خان جهانبانك ..."

Title supplied by cataloguer.

Ms. codex.

Derman, M. Uğur. Letters in gold : Ottoman calligraphy from the Sakıp Sabancı collection, Istanbul. (New York : Metropolitian Museum of Art : Distributed by H.N. Abrams, c1998),

Zakariya, Mohamed. "Islamic calligraphy: A technical overview." In Brocade of the pen: the art of Islamic writing. Carol Garrett Fisher, ed. (East Lansing, MI: Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, 1991):

Brocade of the pen : the art of Islamic writing. Carol Garrett Fisher, ed. (East Lansing, MI: Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, 1991),

Exquisite album of calligraphy (muraqqaʻ or murakkaa) with design for a monumental inscription to appear in stone on a commemorative range marker (menzil taşı) of Bilâl Ağa (d.1807?), likely executed by Yesari Mehmed Esad Efendi (d.1798), the great Ottoman master of nastaʻlīq (talik).

Mode of access: Internet.

Acquired by purchase (funds donated by Horace Rackham).

Inscription in pencil on upper cover "538 T. De M. [i.e. Tammaro De Marinis]" ; clean copy.