SIGNED MAHMUD CELÂLEDDIN, OTTOMAN TURKEY, SECOND HALF 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY

From a Daghestani family, Mahmud Celâleddin Efendi (d.1829) is said to have taught himself calligraphy by studying the work of various masters. He developed a distinctive style, referred to by Derman as a 'hard and static' and relating more closely to the calligraphic mode of Ahmad Karahisari or Yaqut al-Musta'simi than to the cursive naskh of Sheikh Hamdullah that was favoured by his contemporaries. Some say that this diversion from the norm was reflective of Celâleddin's stubborn and obstinate character (M. Ugur Derman, Letters in Gold, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1998, p. 108). Celâleddin wrote the inscriptions inside the foundation of the Eyüp Camii and on the tomb of Mihrishah Sultan. His wife Esa Ibret, a famous female calligrapher, was also his pupil (Sevket Rado, Türk Hattatlari, Istanbul, 1980, pp.199-200). Several levhas by Mahmud Celâleddin are in the Museum for Turkish and Islamic Art. Another, dated AH 1204, is in Konya (Mehdi Bayani, Ahval va Asar-e Khosh-Nevisan, Tehran, 1363/1984, p.1210).