Mustafa Râkim

Mustafa Râkim (Ottoman Turkish: مصطفى رآقم; Modern Turkish: Mustafa Râkım) (1757–1826), was an Ottoman calligrapher.[1] He extended and reformed Hâfiz Osman's style, placing greater emphasis on technical perfection, which broadened the calligraphic art to encompass the Sülüs script as well as the Nesih script.[2]

Mustafa Râkim
Calligraphic panel written by Mustafa Rakim, late 18th - early 19th century
Born1757
Died
1826
Known forIslamic calligraphy
MovementNaskh (script), Thuluth

Life and career

Mustafa Râkim was born in Ünye on the Black Sea in 1758. When he was very young, his father, Mehmed Kaptan, took him to Istanbul to live with his brother, İsmail Zühdi Efendi, who was an established calligrapher.[3] After Ismail was appointed as an instructor of calligraphy at the Imperial Palace, the young Râkim received his formal training there studying under his brother. Mustafa Râkim would become Ismail Zühidi's most celebrated pupil.[4]

Ismail Zühidi and Mustafa Râkim went on to develop their own style of calligraphy based on the work of Hâfiz Osman. They were able to develop a style of celî sülüs that was aesthetically pleasing, something that other calligraphers had not been able to do.[5] Râkim also reformed the calligraphic shape of the tughra script.[6]

With the revolutionary changes brought about in calligraphy by Mustafa Râkim,[7] scholars treat Turkish calligraphic art history into two key eras: "Pre-Râkim" and "Post-Râkim". He was able to accomplish what nobody before him could in the Jali-Thuluth script and tughras of sultans. By finding the ideal measurement between the letter thickness and pen (writing tool) thickness, he established the style and form for the ideal beauty of tughras.[8]

He is regarded as the first great Turkish painter in the Western sense of painting. His bird, parrot, painting is considered to be the first realist work of Turkish painting.[9] He drew a portrait of Sultan Selim III who was amazed by his work and recited a poem in his honor in return.

See also

References
  1. "The Ottoman Period". Les Arts Turcs. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
  2. Mustafa Rakım Efendi
  3. Uğur Derman, M., Letters in Gold: Ottoman Calligraphy from the Sakıp Sabancı Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998, p. 98
  4. Uğur Derman, M., Letters in Gold: Ottoman Calligraphy from the Sakıp Sabancı Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998, p. 96
  5. Uğur Derman, M., Letters in Gold: Ottoman Calligraphy from the Sakıp Sabancı Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998, p. 19
  6. Ga'bor, A and Masters, B.A., Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, Infobase Publishing, 2010, p. 117; Uğur Derman, M., Letters in Gold: Ottoman Calligraphy from the Sakıp Sabancı Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998, p. 19
  7. Haşim Söylemez, Türk Picassosu Rakım Efendi, Aksiyon Dergisi, Sayı 455, 25.08.2003
  8. Uğur Derman, M., Letters in Gold: Ottoman Calligraphy from the Sakıp Sabancı Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998, p. 19
  9. Ordu İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü web sitesi, Erişim tarihi:03.06.2011
  • Rapture and revolution: essays on Turkish literature, Talât Sait Halman, Jayne L. Warner, 2007
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