Page 53 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

only on this folio), and gold sülüs at the bottom. The follow- his death by his student and adopted son, Hasan, who in re-
ing page repeats the same design, except that the gold and verence to his master did not put his name on the manu-
black sülüs lines are reversed. script. The volume's expenses were recorded in detail in doc-
The binding of this album reveals an interesting technique: uments dated between 1584 and 1586, which list the costs
the exterior, covered with reddish-brown leather, has a cen- and amounts of paper, pigments, gold leaf, and burnishing
tral medallion and four corner quadrants that are stamped utensils purchased for the artists. Later documents, dated be-
with gold and decorated with saz scrolls, the motifs of which tween 1590 and 1593, record the amount of blue pigment
were cut out of black or dark brown leather and applied to and liquid gold purchased for the illuminated serlevha as well
these areas. The binding also bears a noteworthy label added as the expenses of the gold-stamped bookbinding. 32 The same
to the manuscript when it was in the library of Ahmed III. It documents also state that Karahisari died in 1556 before
describes the contents of the volume and concludes with a completing the transcription. Nevertheless, the monumental
phrase that is translated "protect it from worms/' a highly work is known as the Koran of Karahisari. The volume,
significant precaution issued by a conscientious conservator. which was assigned to the Has Oda, was superbly designed
Karahisari conceived the layout and began the transcription and executed, carefully documented, and highly revered
of possibly the most spectacular Koran in the history of Islam. throughout the centuries.
The large volume (62 by 41 centimeters, or about 24 by 16 Hasan (known as Çerkes Hasan, Hasan b. Abdullah, Hasan
inches, with 298 folios) is thought to have been finished after b. Ahmed Karahisari, or Hasan Çelebi), who finished the
transcription of the great Koran, was a Circassian slave in the
service of Karahisari. The master freed him, adopted him as
his son, and taught him his art. Hasan worked on the celi in-
scriptions on the Süleymaniye Mosque and executed those in
the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne. It is said that while he was
working in the Selimiye, a piece of lime fell into his eye and,
without realizing what he was doing, he washed out both
eyes with the water in which he had been rinsing his lime
covered brushes. Totally blinded in one eye and seriously
handicapped in the other, he was forced to retire and was as-
signed a lifetime pension by Selim II.
The calligraphier, who died in 1594, closely followed the
tradition established by his master, as can be observed in his
collection of daily prayers, called Evrad el-Usbu. The volume,
transcribed in 1566/1567 and dedicated to Selim II, is written
in alternating large and small scripts with illuminated rectan-
gular panels flanking the blocks of small script. Illuminations
also appear on the double-folio zahriye (dedication) at the be-
ginning, on the serlevha, and on headings for the seven
prayers; the margins of the folios are gold-speckled.
The serlevha (12) contains the title executed in white tevkii
on the right folio; the text below has two blocks of three
lines of nesih, each followed by a line of sülüs or muhakkak.
The first and last lines on the facing folio are in muhakkak
with the central one rendered in white sülüs and placed on
an illuminated panel; between them are the same two blocks
of nesih seen on the first folio. The illuminations, similar to
those of the large Koran of Karahisari, contain both naturalis-
tic and stylized motifs and may have been executed by the
artists who worked on that volume.
The illuminators were also assigned to work on Korans
transcribed by the great calligraphers of the past, including
Yakut el-Mustasimi, Abdullah Sayrafi, and Argun Kamili,
which were preserved in the palace libraries. Periodically
11. Two folios from an album of calligraphy transcribed by Ahmed these volumes would be restored and embellished. This prac-
Karahisari in 1552/1553 (Istanbul, Topkapi Sarayí Müzesi, A. 3654, fols.
lb-2a) tice was particularly noticeable during the reign of Süleyman

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