Yemen

New Arabic Original cloth bdg. 592 p. In Arabic. Elephant folio. (49 x 35 cm). First Edition. Illuminated. Reprinted from the original manuscript of Topkapi Palace Museum dated 1584-87. The Koran known as Ahmed Karahisarî's Mushaf-i Serif is leading among the most important works created by artists, who are experts of letters of the Ottoman Palace dealing with the art of books. The work is registered at number 5 among the Hirka-i Saadet books of the Library of Topkapi Palace Museum. Its binding with golden gilded ornament, angle and border has miklep and is made of black leather and was repaired in time. Being the Koran with the largest size written in the Ottoman world, is sized 61.5x42.5 cm and consists of 300 sheets. The place of the work where the name of the calligrapher and the date of transcription would have been written, i.e. the colophon is left empty. The reason for attributing it to Ahmed Karahisarî, the famous calligrapher of the period of Kanunî Sultan Suleyman, is based on a foundation record at its beginning: in this foundation record on page 1b, it is briefly stated that the work is the Mushaf-i Serîf of Karahisarî, was kept in the sultan's treasure until then and was devoted to the Hirka-i Serîf Chamber (Private Chamber) for being recited in 1107 (1696) by Sultan Mustafa II. The beginnings of Fâtiha and Bakara chapters of the Koran, every page of which is gilded carefully, are written with celî muhakkak (large cursive style) and reyhanî calligraphy. Two opposed pages following the epigraph demonstrate a different arrangement. Here, one line each of celî calligraphy at the bottom and top and reyhanî calligraphy in a round medallion at the middle are used. In the opposed pages following this, the same arrangement is used without the medallion. Following this diversity at the beginning, the Koran is written according to a classical arrangement known as Yakut style, consisting of one line of celi muhakkak, five lines of nesih (roundish writing), one line of celî sulus (large style), again five lines of nesih and celî muhakkak calligraphy at the bottom. Ahmed Karahisarî is the most famous artist writing in this style among 16th century Ottoman calligraphers. However, it is quite surprising that the signature of Ahmed Karahisarî, who had great reputation in his time, is not seen at the end of the work. This can be explained by the failure to complete the Koran of the artist due to his death or his old age. It is possible to determine the period in which the work, accepted to be written by Ahmed Karahisarî, famous calligrapher of the time of Kanunî Sultan Suleyman, and incorporating the richest examples of Ottoman palace gilding art was completed with its main lines in the light of some documents.It is understood that 220 pages of the Koran known as Ahmed Karahisarî Mushaf-i Serif and which is one of the most valuable works of Topkapi Palace Museum were written by Karahisarî at the time of Kanunî Sultan Suleyman between 1545-55 and was left unfinished upon the death of the artist. It is also understood that the remaining 80 pages completing the Koran were possibly written by Hasan Celebi, his adoptive son, under the patronage of Sultan Murad III between 1584-87. Conjunction, drawing of rulers, gilding of every page and binding and final completion of the work was performed between 1584-1596. Murad III, who died in 1595, could not see the result of this study that he assumed the patronage of for long years.