A TUGHRA OF SULTAN ABDÜLMECID I
A TUGHRA OF SULTAN ABDÜLMECID I

SIGNED THABIT, OTTOMAN TURKEY, DATED AH 1268/1851-52 AD

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A TUGHRA OF SULTAN ABDÜLMECID I
SIGNED THABIT, OTTOMAN TURKEY, DATED AH 1268/1851-52 AD
The oval blue card decorated in two colour gold and silver with a sunburst above the tughra of Sultan Abdülmecid I, floral illumination around the tughra, signed Thabit to the lower left and dated 1268 to the lower right, within a border of scrolling floral motifs, edges scuffed
16 1/8in. (41.4cm.) high

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Andrew Butler-Wheelhouse
Andrew Butler-Wheelhouse

Lot Essay

Thabit is not one of the best known calligraphers of the later Ottoman period, but is obviously gifted; he must have been particularly favoured by Sultan Abdülmecid. He is the calligrapher who wrote the tughra of Sultan Abdülmecid that was placed above the door of the Imperial Gallery, the Hunkar Mahfili, in the great mosque/church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

This fine tughra illustrates the developments of the form in the 19th century. Mustafa Raqim (1758-1826) is credited with great innovation with regards to the copying of the tughra. His advances concerned the shape and dimensions of calligraphy, and with them the tughra was transformed into a masterpiece of proportion. Unlike earlier examples, which were heavily illuminated (see for instance the following lot for an illuminated tughra surmounting a firman of Abdülhamid I), in the 19th century under Western influence, the tughra was instead decorated simply with radiating sun rays in gold, as here (M. Ugur Derman, Letters in Gold. Ottoman Calligraphy from the Sakip Sabanci Collection, Istanbul, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1998, p. 38).

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