In Ottoman calligraphy, the highest praise a calligrapher's hand could receive was the saying "He wrote like the Sheikh." The man behind those words is Şeyh Hamdullah, born in the fifteenth century in the Eslem Hatun Quarter of Amasya. He taught calligraphy to Şehzade Bayezid (Prince Bayezid), was summoned to Istanbul when his pupil came to the throne, recast the writing tradition inherited from Yâkût al-Musta'simî to suit Ottoman taste, and made his Qur'an script (mushaf) the measure for the centuries that followed. Part of what we know of his life rests on documents, part on biographical dictionaries and hagiographic tales; on his birth year, his Sufi affiliation, his teachers and his age the sources differ. These differences are set out below without concealment, with documented information kept apart from hearsay.

Family and Birth

Şeyh Hamdullah was born in the Eslem Hatun Quarter of Amasya. Among the townspeople the quarter was known as "İslam"; today it is called Dere. His family is the Sarıkadızâdes, whose line goes back to holy men who migrated from Bukhara to Amasya. His father was the Suhrawardiyya sheikh Mustafa Dede, who is also recorded as having won the closeness of Şehzade Bayezid. Hamdullah's habit of putting the phrase "ibn al-sheikh," that is, "son of the sheikh," in the colophons of his works comes from this family. The titles he bore are sheikh, ibn al-sheikh, qiblat al-kuttâb, qutb al-kuttâb and sheikh al-rumât. The last of these he owed to being one of the renowned archers of his day.

Little is known about his mother. One compilation gives her name as Hafîze Hâtun and relates a tale of his birth: when Mustafa Dede reached marrying age, a saint told him to take a poor girl from such-and-such a quarter and not to hesitate, and Dede married an orphan girl. The same saint later prayed for a child whose name would be remembered until the Day of Judgement, saying "let his name be Hamdullah." This account rests not on a document but on hagiography, and should be read as such.

Views on the Year of Birth

The sources do not agree on the date of birth. Müstakimzâde Süleyman Sadeddin gives the year 840 (1436) in Tuhfe-i Hattâtîn, while Osman Fevzi Olcay and Ekrem Hakkı Ayverdi point to the range 830-833 (1426-1430). A popular article says 1437, and the calligraphy museum in Amasya states "1426-1430, though not known exactly." An encyclopedia entry leaves the matter open, saying "dates ranging from 830 to 840 AH are put forward; there is no certain information." The debate over his age depends on this uncertainty as well. Rather than writing a single year, the range of roughly 1426 to 1436 is taken as the basis here.

Education and Ijazah

Hamdullah received the religious sciences and his knowledge of language and literature from Hatib Kasım Efendi, who was also one of Şehzade Bayezid's teachers. Hamdullah became versed in Arabic, Persian and Turkish language and literature. He completed his schooling in Amasya, the princes' sanjak, where a fertile cultural life flourished throughout the fifteenth century, by attending the lessons of well-known scholars and artists.

In Amasya, regarded as the cradle of calligraphy, he practised meşk (the traditional method of copying under a master's eye) with Hayreddin Mar'aşî, one of the leading masters of the day, and received an ijazah (licence) for the aqlâm-ı sitte, the six scripts (muhakkak, reyhânî, thuluth, naskh, tevkî and rikâ). This learning took place along the path of Yâkût. Mar'aşî's death date is given as 1472, though with a question mark. Yâkût al-Musta'simî had died in 1298 and Abdullah Sayrafî after 1344; Hamdullah's teacher was thus among the last links of a chain spanning nearly two centuries. Hamdullah first received this inheritance as it was, and then changed it.

On the teachers, the sources do not fully coincide. Some compilations name Sûfî Yahya Çelebizâde Ali Çelebi as his first calligraphy teacher. Another account says he practised thuluth and naskh with Mar'aşî, but the aqlâm-ı sitte with Ali b. Yahyâ es-Sûfî, the great calligrapher of the Conqueror's time. The common line of the encyclopedia entries, namely the ijazah from Mar'aşî, is the line this article follows.

He completed his spiritual training with his father Mustafa Dede, finished his spiritual journey (seyrüsülûk) and received the caliphate (hilâfet) of the order. His being called "Sheikh" also comes from this upbringing. Some accounts stress that he was a genuine Zeynî sheikh with dervishes of his own, and add that after his father's death he continued to attend the gatherings of Seyyid Ahmed Emîr-i Buhârî. Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar writes that he received the Khalwati and Zeyniyye caliphate from his father and that a genealogy of the order (silsilenâme) in his own hand is held in the Esad Efendi Library. This silsilenâme could not be found in the library named; on the other hand, the Topkapı Palace Museum Library holds a Khalwati silsilenâme of eighteen verses in his hand, in thuluth, lacking its opening and its colophon page. The shifting name of his order from source to source (Suhrawardiyya, Zeyniyye, Khalwatiyya) comes from this interweaving.

Şehzade Bayezid and the Amasya Years

Amasya was the Ottoman sanjak for princes. While Şehzade Bayezid was sanjak governor (sanjak-bey) there, he probably met Hamdullah in the gatherings of Mustafa Dede. Bayezid was learned enough in music to compose and was at home in Turkish, Arabic and Persian literature. He appointed Hamdullah his calligraphy teacher and received an ijazah from him; he had taken his lessons in fine writing (hüsnühat) during his princeship in Amasya. At the prince's wish Hamdullah also copied some books.

The details of their closeness rest on weaker sources. According to some compilations, Bayezid would hold his teacher's inkwell with his own hand and keep him at his side at banquets; no reference is given to document this. A sounder account says that Hamdullah became famous for archery while in Amasya and that he often went hunting with Bayezid and practised shooting with him. The calligraphy museum in Amasya likewise states that the prince took lessons from his teacher in both calligraphy and archery.

In these years Hamdullah married the daughter of his maternal uncle, the famous calligrapher Cemal (Celâleddin) Amâsî. He had a daughter and a son named Mustafa, also a calligrapher (Mustafa Dede, d. 1538). In the same circle of relatives are Abdullah Amâsî and Celâlzâde Muhyiddin Amâsî. Hamdullah, his son Mustafa Dede, these three Amâsîs and their contemporaries Ahmed Şemseddin Karahisârî and Şerbetçizâde İbrâhim Efendi of Bursa were counted as the "esâtize-i Rûm," that is, the seven masters of calligraphy of Anatolia. This count was made in answer to the "esâtize-i seb'a," the seven masters that included Yâkût al-Musta'simî. For this reason Amasya is not only the place where Hamdullah was born but also the name of the calligraphy school that trained him: an artist who practised the aklâm-ı sitte under the masters of the city later turned the standards of that school into a new style in Istanbul. The detail of the school is the subject of the site's articles on the Amasya calligraphy school.

Works Written for the Conqueror's Library

While still in Amasya, where his name had begun to be heard, the calligrapher copied some works in the style of Yâkût for the private library of Mehmed the Conqueror. Two of them survive: Hunayn ibn Ishâq's medical question-and-answer book (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, III. Ahmed, no. 1996) and Mesâlihu'l-Ebdân ve'l-Enfüs (Süleymaniye Library, Ayasofya, no. 3740). The second was published by the Turkish Manuscripts Institution in a Turkish translation by Nail Okuyucu and Zahit Tiryaki (Istanbul 2012). When these early works are compared with Yâkût's mushaf in Istanbul University Library, the stylistic resemblance in the naskh script is plain to see.

Because he applied the style of Yâkût so successfully, he was called "Yâkût-ı Sânî," the second Yâkût. No mushaf written in this period has survived. His artistic life is divided into two periods: the beginning (evâil) works, in which the style of Yâkût prevails, he produced in Amasya, and the mature (evâhir) works, in which he set his own style, in Istanbul.

Summons to Istanbul and Palace Calligrapher

After the death of Mehmed the Conqueror in 1481, Bayezid, following his struggle for the throne with his brother Prince Cem, ascended the throne as Bayezid II. Shortly after his accession he summoned Hamdullah to Istanbul together with his family. Hamdullah first stayed in a house near the Kadıasker Bath and was then taken into the palace.

At the palace he was appointed teacher to the scribes and servants and, as private scribe (kâtib-i hâs), took his place among the "ehl-i hiref-i hâssa," the palace artisans. For writing mushafs a workshop (meşkhâne) was assigned to him near the Harem Quarters and another in the Edirne Palace, and as a stipend two villages at Üsküdar; the revenue of one village was given to the polishers (mührezen) who burnished and glazed his paper. He began to produce his finest works after being appointed at the palace, and in his colophons used the title "kâtib al-sultân Bâyezîd Han," scribe of Sultan Bayezid Khan.

In the register of gifts (in'âmât defteri) of Bayezid II for the years 909-917 (1503-1512), the highest sums among the bounties given to scholars and artists were paid to Hamdullah for the mushafs he wrote. According to the records, 7000 akçe were paid for two mushafs written for the sultan, another 7000 akçe for a further one, and ten thousand akçe each for two different mushafs. Besides these, other gifts and bounties were also given.

The Sultan's Words in Council

The old sources tell a scene worth noting. Hamdullah was writing qit'as (calligraphic panels) of the Qur'an and the six scripts in the Harem Quarters of the palace and enjoyed the sultan's particular regard. When some people did not take kindly to this closeness, Bayezid brought together the scholars of the day and Hamdullah, and showed the Qur'an written by Hamdullah to each of the scholars present in the council. Then, speaking of the sheikh, he said words to this effect: this man's claim to respect is great, there is no other who has revived the writing of the Qur'an so much, how are we to seat him upon your throne. The date of the event is unknown; it is therefore fitting to treat the account as hearsay, not as a documented event.

The Founding of a New Style

What made Hamdullah a "pîr" (patron master) was not only that he wrote beautifully but that he re-established the measure of the script. According to the account, Bayezid II took out of the treasury seven writings belonging to Yâkût al-Musta'simî, gave them to him, and offered words to this effect: you have not seen what Yâkût wrote with such care, it would be good if another way were invented apart from this manner. According to all the sources, Hamdullah set out his own style from then on. In the calligraphy museum in Amasya the episode is summed up as the sultan saying "we must now have a writing technique of our own" and Hamdullah retiring to his corner to work.

Around 1485 Hamdullah withdrew several times into retreats of forty days (erbaîn) and made a long and laborious study of the writings of Yâkût and Abdullah Sayrafî. In each of the six scripts he gave clarity to the form and measure of the letters and words, and of parts such as the bowl, the vase, the cup and the extended strokes (çekiliş). The style of Yâkût, which had held sway for about a century and a half, lost its influence outside Iran from the early sixteenth century after this work, and calligraphy in the Ottoman lands entered a new process.

A tale that Müstakimzâde relates in his Tuhfe adds a spiritual reading to this labour. In a distressed moment when Hamdullah could not set down on paper the manner taking shape in his mind, Khidr (peace be upon him) appeared to him and taught him the script; after a brief exchange a consolation arose in him, and the manner he sought reached him with little effort, as a gift. This account is not a document but a legend that the tradition attributes to its own master, and a historian who relies on texts marks it as hearsay.

Changes in the Script

In the Şeyh Hamdullah manner the proportions of the letters, their spacing and the way words sit on the line were rearranged. Regular upright strokes, leaning slightly to the left, and the extended strokes brought fluency, suppleness and vitality to the script, and removed the stillness of Yâkût-style writing. Where the letters and words of Yâkût sit stiffly on the line, in the Hamdullah school the letters flow toward the line at a certain angle. The angle of the reed pen's nib, readjusted according to each kind of script, gave grandeur to the aqlâm-ı sitte and a distinct delicacy to naskh. In the style of Yâkût words seem to push one another apart, while in the Sheikh's style the letters fuse and the words stand in the line as a single body.

A similar correction was made in thuluth. In the school of Yâkût, in thuluth as in naskh, the body structures, forms and proportions of the letters had been set out, but a hesitation could be seen in the proportions. With Hamdullah's school this hesitation vanished, the letters found their classical ratios, and thuluth, which had not found unity in the arrangement of line and page, was freed of disorder. A couplet said in praise of this style is remembered: "Şeyh oğlu Hamdi hattı, tâ kim zuhûr buldu / Âlemde bu muhakkak, nesh oldu hatt-ı Yâkût." (Since the script of Hamdi, the sheikh's son, appeared, it is certain that in the world the script of Yâkût was abrogated, with a play on nesh and naskh.)

Influence on Qur'an Script

The most lasting change in mushaf writing is this: whereas before, mushafs in the Yâkût arrangement were written with muhakkak, reyhânî and the other scripts of the aqlâm-ı sitte in mixed use, in his hands the text of the mushaf came to be written in naskh alone. Reading became easier and the text gained continuity. Page layout and line spacing found their most beautiful measures in him; elegance, simplicity, continuity and charm came to mushaf writing. The tradition of writing mushafs in the naskh he developed in time came to prevail in the Islamic world.

In muraqqa albums he gave the Turkish-taste form and measure to the thuluth-naskh qit'a with its sitting panels (koltuklu); later calligraphers imitated the format, shape and textual character of these qit'as down to the colour of the paper. In the school, reyhânî and tevkî were abandoned in time. Muhakkak was used for writing the basmala, and rikâ, under the name "hatt-ı icâze," in calligraphers' colophons, in the ijazah certificates of the learned class and in the closing notes of books. The style of Yâkût, apart from Ahmed Şemseddin Karahisârî, who was regarded as "the sun of calligraphy" in Süleyman's time, completed its age with the spread of this school. Hamdullah reinterpreted the aqlâm-ı sitte in accordance with Ottoman taste and, especially in thuluth and naskh, brought the form and measure of the letters to flawless beauty.

Works

Relying on Müstakimzâde's record, it is reported that he wrote forty-seven mushafs, nearly a thousand copies of the sûras An'âm, Kehf and Nebe', collections of prayers and litanies, a Meşârik-ı Şerif, scrolls, qit'as and muraqqas. Yet among these works are also the works of those who imitated him for practice or for trade, and it is hard to separate them. Today thirty mushafs, fifty An'âm and juz copies, 121 muraqqas and qit'as, together with eight books on medicine and hadith and six prayer collections have been counted as his in museums and libraries; some of them were copied for the Conqueror (for a detailed catalogue see Muhittin Serin, Hattat Şeyh Hamdullah, 2007). In another count the number of securely identified mushafs is thirty-three; this small difference depends on which works the count treats as certain.

Mushafs and Technical Study

The Qur'an he wrote for Bayezid II in naskh, rikâ and nastaliq is held in the Topkapı Palace Museum Library (III. Ahmed, no. 5). A naskh mushaf of his mature period is in the Istanbul University Rare Works Library (AY, no. 6662). A mushaf in naskh in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts is also attributed to him.

Hasan Yücel's article, published in 2025 in the Amasya İlahiyat Dergisi, studies Hamdullah's technique of mushaf writing by comparing this Topkapı mushaf with the one in the Ankara Ethnography Museum. Yücel bases his assessment on the transformations in the history of the mushaf: Abu al-Aswad al-Du'alî's addition of the vowel dots, Nasr b. Âsım's introduction of the dots that distinguish letters, Khalîl b. Ahmad's fixing of today's vowel marks and dots and his addition of the hamza sign, Muhammad b. Tayfûr al-Sajâwandî's placing of the pause marks, innovations in calligraphy and illumination, and finally the addition of verse numbers. According to him, Hamdullah wrote taking into account these transformations up to his own time and developed a technique that carried what existed a step further, especially in the field of letterform. In the two mushafs examined, different sajâwands are at times used in the same places, new pause marks are added, or fewer pause marks are preferred. Yücel takes this as a sign that Hamdullah was trying to develop his own technique, since it is not known which mushaf was written first.

Muraqqas and Qit'as

Hamdullah produced most of his works as muraqqas and qit'as. The texts of the muraqqas are chosen from Arabic prayers, blessings and supplications, and mostly from verses, hadiths, sayings of sages and sayings of Ali. The albums of the aqlâm-ı sitte, in which he states the name of the script above or beside the qit'as, are considered very important for being instructive and illustrative. The aqlâm-ı sitte muraqqas in Topkapı Palace (Emanet Treasury, nos. 2083, 2084, 2086) are among the finest examples showing his development in the six scripts. His supplication of Shihâb al-Dîn Suhrawardî, written in muhakkak, is also among his known works in the Kubbealtı collection.

He concerned himself very little with large-scale thuluth (celî sülüs). The foundation inscriptions of the Bayezid II mosques at Istanbul and Edirne and of the Fîruz Ağa and Dâvud Paşa mosques in Istanbul are said to be his work. We have seen this information in only a limited number of sources; the attribution of each inscription could not be separately verified. An older account says his sülüs reached the splendour of celî panels; this does not agree with the finding above and should be read as general praise rather than documented fact. The same account adds that he also wrote hilye panels, but the sources at hand name no work of that kind.

Collections Abroad and Imitations

His works are also found in collections in Europe and America. The calligraphy album of fourteen qit'as in the British Library (Or. 11925), measuring 29.2 x 22.5 cm, is regarded as one of his finest works in script, binding and illumination; the album was illuminated and bound in the eighteenth century. In this album the first qit'a, with the muhakkak basmala and verse 162 of the sûra al-Baqara, is not in the Sheikh's style and must belong to later calligraphers; the other thuluth-naskh qit'as with sitting panels, in which hadiths are written, are Hamdullah's and carry a colophon. The second juz of the Qur'an with the colophon of Şeyh Hamdullah in the same library (Or. 15570) does not at first glance look to have come from his pen. In the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin there is a fine An'âm-ı şerif (M.S. 1512) written in thuluth-naskh and muhakkak-naskh, and a muraqqa of ten thuluth-naskh qit'as with sitting panels (T. 426). These examples make plain that not every work showing his colophon is from his hand.

Archer, Swimmer and Tailor-Sheikh

Hamdullah was not only a calligrapher. He was among the famous archers of his time and bore the title "sheikh al-rumât," the sheikh of archers, for this reason. He kept up the pursuit in Istanbul too; breaking a shooting record among the wrestlers, he became a master holding a range record (menzil). Bayezid II appointed him, after the elders Mahmud and Hamza, to the sheikhdom of the Archers' Lodge at Okmeydanı.

According to the archery treatises, he broke the range of a wrestler named Şîr-i Merd by shooting a wooden arrow 1105.5 gez (about 729.63 metres), and in its memory set up a marker stone near the Okmeydanı Lodge. This stone is the oldest of the marker stones on plot 1454 at Okmeydanı; it is 1.53 metres tall and reads: "Master of the range, Hamdullah ibn al-sheikh, chief of calligraphers, sheikh of archers, year 911" (1505-06).

The sources also tell that he was so good a swimmer that he could swim from Üsküdar to Seraglio Point, and that he sewed a caftan for Bayezid II whose seams could not be found. These are accounts passed down in treatises and biographical dictionaries; since they are not supported by a contemporary document, they should be read in the mood of "it is reported." Some accounts also mention his falconry.

Eight Years of Seclusion

Bayezid II abdicated in 1512 and was succeeded by his son Selim I. Hamdullah then withdrew into seclusion for eight years, spending this time at home in worship, training students and guiding his disciples. On the place of the seclusion the sources say different things: some say Üsküdar, some accounts the village of Sarıkadı on Alemdağ; another record writes that he would at times retreat to his residence at Akbaba and Alemdağ and spend his days in remembrance (zikir) and worship.

As for the reason, the encyclopedia entry gives none. One account cites as the cause that Selim's deposing of his father was not forgotten; this is an interpretation and should not be read as documented information.

Süleyman's Sable Fur and His Death

Süleyman the Magnificent, who came to the throne in 1520, invited Hamdullah to the palace and showed him respect. Süleyman referred to him as a "friend of the elder" and received him with affection and esteem at the palace. During their conversation he asked him to write a mushaf. Hamdullah excused himself on the grounds of age and recommended in his place Celâlzâde Muhyiddin Amâsî, the son of his maternal uncle. Süleyman thereupon had a sable fur placed on him and received his blessing. One account adds a trembling of the head to this old age. This invitation is also interpreted as the restoration of the standing lost after Bayezid's death.

Hamdullah died a few months after this event, according to Müstakimzâde within two or three months. Müstakimzâde set the date of his death in this couplet, a chronogram: "Şeyh Hamdullâh olup küttâba kıble pîr-i hat / Rihletinde dil dedi târîhini dayf-i ilâh" (Sheikh Hamdullah, having become the qibla of scribes, the pîr of calligraphy; at his departure the heart gave its date: "guest of God"), which yields 926.

Year of Death and Age

The main source for the year of death is the date 926 (1520). Although some works write that he died in the time of Selim the Grim, Müstakimzâde's finding is accepted as the more accurate. The date 1526 found in some compilations contradicts the sources and appears to be an error.

On his age there is no single figure. From the colophon of a muraqqa at Istanbul University it is understood that when he wrote this work he was over eighty-three. If Müstakimzâde's birth date is right, he died at eighty-four; some researchers say he passed ninety. Nefeszâde İbrâhim and Suyolcuzâde Mehmed Necib write that he lived 110 years, but this account looks exaggerated. A mushaf colophon, on the other hand, records that he wrote "in the days of old age, at eighty-nine, with whitened hair and trembling hands." The sources do not resolve this contradiction among themselves.

His Tomb at Karacaahmet

His funeral prayer was led by the Sheikh al-Islam Zenbilli Ali Efendi at the Hagia Sophia Mosque. As he had requested in his will, he was buried in the Karacaahmet Cemetery at Üsküdar, near Ali b. Yahyâ es-Sûfî, a calligrapher of the previous age. Many famous calligraphers were later buried near him; the place is called the "Sheikh's Terrace" or the "Calligraphers' Terrace."

The inscription on the gravestone was written by Şâhin Ağa (d. 1701), court calligrapher of Mustafa II: "Chief of the calligraphers, Hamdullah, known as Ibn al-Sheikh, the mercy of God be upon him." It is also reported that Hamdullah attached no importance to worldly epithets and did not wish his name to be written on the gravestone. The date 927 on the stone is absent from a photograph taken about a hundred years ago; it was carved later and is wrong. The grave lies on Tunusbağı Street in Üsküdar, near the tomb of Karacaahmet Sultan. The range stone at Okmeydanı stands within the grounds of the Archers' Lodge, within the boundaries of Beyoğlu.

His Students and the School's Continuation

Hamdullah had forty-three students named in the biographical dictionaries; this number rests on Muhittin Serin's identification. Among them are a sultan, princes, statesmen, scholars, sheikhs and poets. The most important are his son Mustafa Dede and his son-in-law Şükrullah Halife. Among the students to whom he gave an ijazah are named Bayezid II, Şehzade Korkut, Mehmed Handan, Ali b. Mustafa, Behrâm b. Abdullah, Hüseyin Şah (alive in 1557), Câfer Çelebi, Mehmed b. Ramazan, Receb b. Mustafa, Mehmed b. Sâdî, Mahmud Defterî and Mustafa b. Nasûh.

After Mustafa Dede and Şükrullah Halife the chain of the school extends to the end of the Ottoman Empire through names such as Derviş Mehmed (d. 1593), Hasan Üsküdârî (d. 1614-15), Hâlid Erzurûmî (d. 1630-31), Derviş Ali (d. 1673-74), Ramazan b. İsmâil (d. 1680), Mustafa Suyolcuzâde (d. 1685-86), Şeyh-i Sânî Hâfız Osman (d. 1698-99), Seyyid Abdullah (d. 1731), Şekerzâde Seyyid Mehmed (d. 1753), Hoca Mehmed Râsim (d. 1755-56), Kazasker Mustafa İzzet Efendi (d. 1876), Mehmed Şevkî (d. 1887), Kayışzâde Hâfız Osman (d. 1894) and Hasan Rızâ Efendi (d. 1920). Among the many schools of calligraphy in the Islamic world, the school of Şeyh Hamdullah is the longest-lived; its classical forms were divided into many branches and manners by later masters who refined the proportion, stance and composition of the letters, and the school has continued to the present day.

His Traces in Amasya

Şeyh Hamdullah went from Amasya to Istanbul; in the sources we have there is no record of whether he later returned to the city. His trace in Amasya is therefore less one of writing than of memory. The clearest trace in the city is the Şeyh Hamdullah Museum of the History of Writing and Fine Calligraphy, which bears his name. The museum is on Bülbül Hatun Street in the Hatuniye Quarter.

On the ground floor of the museum are the names and tughras of the sultans who served as princes in Amasya; the verse facing the staircase is the first verse of the sûra al-Qalam ("Nûn. By the pen and what they write"), the letter nûn representing the inkwell and the pen. On the second floor are a list of 27 calligraphers of Şeyh Hamdullah's time, some of them students he trained, along with display cases showing theories on the origin of writing, the scripts used by civilizations, the development of the Arabic alphabet and calligraphers' materials. On the same floor it is explained that in calligraphy imitation is regarded not as a fault but as a mark of excellence, and that a calligraphy student's last lesson before receiving an ijazah certificate is to imitate the work of a master. On the third floor are a panel telling the story of Hamdullah's life and imitations of his works written by present-day calligraphers. The Şeyh Hamdullah works in the museum are not originals; the originals can be seen in places such as Topkapı Palace, the Sakıp Sabancı Museum and mosque inscriptions.

The quarter where he was born, that is, the present-day Dere Quarter, formerly Eslem Hatun, is also in Amasya. The "Amâsî" nisba in the names of his maternal uncle and relatives still carries the tie of that circle to the city in the colophons of their works. Since the museum's visiting hours and entrance fee change over time, current information should be obtained from the Amasya Municipality and the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism.

Chronology

1426-1436: Born in the Eslem Hatun Quarter, Amasya; the exact year is not known (Müstakimzâde 1436, Olcay and Ayverdi 1426-1430).

1481: Bayezid II ascends the throne and summons his teacher Hamdullah to Istanbul.

Around 1485: Forty-day retreats toward founding the new style.

1503-1512: In Bayezid II's register of gifts the highest sums are recorded for Hamdullah's mushafs.

1505-06 (H. 911): Date of the range stone at Okmeydanı.

1512: Bayezid II abdicates; Hamdullah withdraws into eight years of seclusion.

1520 (H. 926): Süleyman's invitation and the sable fur; death a few months later. Funeral prayer at Hagia Sophia, burial at Karacaahmet.

1538: Death of his son Mustafa Dede.

2020-2021: Exhibition at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum for the 500th anniversary of his death.

2025: Article on mushaf writing technique in the Amasya İlahiyat Dergisi (Hasan Yücel).

Sources

Academic studies

  • Muhittin Serin, "Hamdullah Efendi, Şeyh", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 15, Istanbul 1997, pp. 449-452 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Hasan Yücel, "On Sheikh Hamdullah's Mushaf Writing Technique", Amasya İlahiyat Dergisi, no. 26, 2025, pp. 79-108 (DergiPark, doi.org/10.18498/amailad.1712210). dergipark.org.tr

Official sources

  • Şeyh Hamdullah Museum of the History of Writing and Fine Calligraphy, Kültür Portalı (kulturportali.gov.tr) and Amasya Municipality (amasya.bel.tr). amasya.bel.tr

Books

  • Muhittin Serin, Hattat Şeyh Hamdullah, Istanbul 2007.

Other sources

  • Muhittin Serin, "Şeyh Hamdullah", Türk Maarif Ansiklopedisi, 2022 (turkmaarifansiklopedisi.org.tr). turkmaarifansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • "Şeyh Hamdullah", Ketebe.org (entries by Muhittin Serin and İsmail Orman, ketebe.org). ketebe.org
  • "Şeyh Hamdullah" and "Ölümünün 500. Yılında Şeyh Hamdullah", Sakıp Sabancı Museum (sakipsabancimuzesi.org). sakipsabancimuzesi.org
  • "Hattat Şeyh Hamdullah Efendi Kabri" and "Şeyh Hamdullah Menzil Taşı", Kültür Envanteri (kulturenvanteri.com).
  • Samet Tınas, "Hat sanatında Türk üslubunun öncüsü: Şeyh Hamdullah", Gerçek Hayat, 28 October 2019.
  • Mustafa Üzel, "Hattat Şeyh Hamdullah bin Mustafa, Amasi", Hattatlar Ansiklopedisi (hattatlarimiz.blogspot.com, 2015).
  • "Şeyh Hamdullah", Vikipedi (auxiliary source only; its date of death is wrong).