Page 46 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

well as an effortless and gentle flow. The elongation and ex- Hamdullah school and his nesih script is closely related to the
aggeration of certain letters help to create a rhythmic pattern style established by the master.
that enhances the movement of the script. The work of such Bayram, the illuminator, is recorded in the register of 1526
a master calligrapher required the assistance of the most as having entered the nakkachane during the reign of Bayezid
highly qualified illuminator of the court. Although this artist II; the same document states that his sons Ali and Mehmed
is anonymous, he must have been well regarded to be called were also working in the studio, the latter having joined in
upon to decorate a volume of the great §eyh Hamdullah. 1499. Bayram must have been a fairly well-established mas-
Among manuscripts produced during the early years of Süley- ter in the 1520s. A later document states that Bayram died
man's reign is a unique Koran that provides not only the date on 5 November 1558, at which time he must have been close
and the name of the calligrapher but also identifies the illu- to ninety years old.
minator, who is listed in the payroll registers. 29 This Koran, Similar to Hamdullah's Koran, this manuscript contains an
dedicated to Süleyman, was transcribed in 1523/1524 by Ab- illuminated double frontispiece and an illuminated double
dullah b. ilyas and decorated by Bayram b. Dervi§ §ir, who is serlevha with the opening verses. The decoration of the fron-
called "nakka§." The calligrapher, whose name is found only tispiece is dazzling, employing several tones of gold high-
in this work, appears to have been a follower of the §eyh lighted by deep blue and touches of polychrome pigments

7. Illuminated folios from a Koran transcribed by §eyh Hamdullah in 14957
1496 (Istanbul, Topkapi Sarayí Müzesi, E.H. 72, fols. 327b-328a)

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