Customer Reviews

Letters in Gold Ottoman Calligraphy from the Sakip Sabanci Collection, Istanbul

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Letters of Gold is one of the most beautiful and informative books on Arabic calligraphy (khatt) I know. Ottoman calligraphy naturally strongly influenced calligraphy throughout the Islamic world, and in Arabic-speaking countries in particular. Certainly my two calligraphy teachers in the U.A.E. and Damascus had the highest regard for Turkish caligraphers.

As to the book, the introduction is the best I've ever seen: it covers the development of scripts, equipment and techniques, composition of pieces and concludes with a piece on the training of a scribe. All this is done with constant reference to the 71 examples in the book. The samples themselves are not, as so often in Western books on Islamic calligraphy, selected miniatures, but instead are frequently pages in the body of a work rather than merely ornate headings. It is possible, therefore, to concentrate on the khatt itself rather than the work of the anciliary craftsmen. The reproduction is excellent. Each piece of khatt has a facing-page biographical outline of the author and a small commentary on the khatt itself. Works range from the late fifteenth to the late twentieth centuries.

Terms are naturally presented in their Turkish form, so Arabists may need to guess the Arabic spelling of the word - it's not hard (h = h/H/kh, k = k/q, s = s/S/th, final Arabic b/d can become p/t). There's a glossary and a bibliography of works in English and Turkish. Anything else? I'd recomend the hardback edition.

This is a well presented work explaining the art of caligraphy as well as presenting the marvelous pieces from the Sabanci Collection which have also toured the Met.