(Imam Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti and Arabic Calligraphy.) The calligrapher Mustafa Hilmi Efendi, known by the epithet (Hakkakzade), is one of the important names in the art of Arabic calligraphy. The importance of this great calligrapher comes from his being the author of the book (Mizan al-Khatt, “The Balance of the Script”); and the man’s importance derives from the importance of the Mizan …
The book’s importance comes from several reasons. Perhaps one of the most important of them is that it contained a calligraphic tree (lineage), in which Sheikh al-Suyuti was placed (as a link) between the calligrapher ʿAbd Allah al-Qrimi (d. 999 AH) and (Badr al-Ghazzi, ʿUmar al-Qari, and Khwaja Muhammad Amkanaki) …
Sheikh Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti — despite the abundance of his compositions, which number in the hundreds — did not write about calligraphy in its aesthetic aspect; rather, the concept of “khatt” in Imam al-Suyuti’s usage appeared with a different meaning …
What is strange about the matter is that in another important source — the book (Hikmat al-Ishraq ila Kuttab al-Afaq) — Imam al-Suyuti is not mentioned at all; instead, a report is given that needs much review and verification, its text being: (“… In his era was ʿAbd al-Karim Khalifa, known as Wiqaya-zade, and Shukr Allah Khalifa, and Ahmad Chelebi. Among those famed in their time was ʿAbd Allah Efendi al-Qrimi, who wrote in the manner of the Sheikh, plagiarizing from his scripts — for it is said that he sought instruction and the ijaza from the Sheikh, who did not consent; so he strove until he became a master of the art, wrote several Qur’ans, and carved out for himself a manner drawn between the manner of the Sheikh and the manner of Ahmad Tayyib Shah, deriving from the two a kind of Thuluth. But his standing fell between the scribes and the masters, and he became one of those wavering between the two — belonging neither to these nor to those.”)
To be continued.
