Yaqut al-Musta'simi

Yaqut al-Musta'simi (Arabic: ياقوت المستعصمي) (died 1298[1]) was a well-known calligrapher[2][3] and secretary of the last Abbasid caliph.

Yaqut al-Musta'simi
ياقوت المستعصمي
Double page from the Qur’an copied by Ya'qut al-Musta'simi in Baghdad, 1282–1283 AD (681 AH). Main text in Muhaqqaq script, incidentals in Kufic.
BornAmaseia
(modern-day Amasya, Turkey)
Died1298
Known forIslamic calligraphy
Patron(s)Al-Musta'sim

Life and work

He was probably of Greek origin in Amaseia and carried off when he was very young into slavery. Made into a eunuch, he was converted to Islam as Abu’l-Majd Jamal al-Din Yaqut, better known as Yaqut al-Musta‘simi because he served Caliph al-Musta‘sim, the last Abbasid caliph.[4]

He was a slave in the court of al-Musta'sim and went on to become a calligrapher in the Royal Court. He spent most of his life in Baghdad.[5] He studied with the female scholar and calligrapher, Shuhda Bint Al-‘Ibari, who was herself a student in the direct line of Ibn al-Bawwab.[6] During the Mongol invasion of Baghdad (1258), he took refuge in the minaret of a mosque so he could finish his calligraphy practice, while the city was being ransacked. His career, however, flourished under Mongol patronage.[7]

He refined and codified six basic calligraphic styles of the Arabic script.[8] Naskh script was said to have been revealed and taught to the scribe in a vision. He improved on Ibn Muqla's style by replacing the straight cut reed pen with an oblique cut, which resulted in a more elegant script.[9] He developed Yakuti, a handwriting named after him, described as a thuluth of "a particularly elegant and beautiful type."[1]

He taught many students, both Arab and non-Arab. His most celebrated students are Ahmad al-Suhrawardi and Yahya al-Sufi.[10]

He became a much-celebrated calligrapher across the Arab-speaking world. His school became the model followed by Persian and Ottoman calligraphers for centuries. In the second half of the 13th-century, he gained the honorific, quiblat al-kuttab [cynosure of the calligraphers].[11]

His output was prolific. Although, he is said to have copied the Qur'an more than a thousand times,[12] problems with attributing his work, may have contributed to exaggerated estimates.[13] Other sources suggest that he produced 364 copies of the Q'ran.[14] He was the last of the great medieval calligraphers.[15]

  • Double page of Quran, dated to 1286–1287. Rayhani script. Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum
    Double page of Quran, dated to 1286–1287. Rayhani script. Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum
  • Two pages from the manuscript of "Divan shu’r al-Hadira" (The collected verses of Al-Hadira). Naskh and thuluth script. Freer Gallery of Art
    Two pages from the manuscript of "Divan shu’r al-Hadira" (The collected verses of Al-Hadira). Naskh and thuluth script. Freer Gallery of Art
  • Two pages from the manuscript of the 'Spiritual Words from Greek Philosophy with Sayings of the Philosophers Accompanied with their Portraits' (Al-Kalimat al-Ruhaniyya min al-Hikam al-Yunaniyya fi Kalimat al-Hukama’ wa Ashkalihim). Naskh script. Painting by Mahmud b. Abi'l-Mahasin Al-Qashi. Aga Khan Museum
    Two pages from the manuscript of the 'Spiritual Words from Greek Philosophy with Sayings of the Philosophers Accompanied with their Portraits' (Al-Kalimat al-Ruhaniyya min al-Hikam al-Yunaniyya fi Kalimat al-Hukama’ wa Ashkalihim). Naskh script. Painting by Mahmud b. Abi'l-Mahasin Al-Qashi. Aga Khan Museum
  • Line in thuluth. Part of the pilgrimage guide. Library of Congress
    Line in thuluth. Part of the pilgrimage guide. Library of Congress
  • Calligraphic album (Muraqqa) with arabic aphorisms in tawqi script. They were probably originally part of a manuscript and were later cut and arranged in their present form in Iran sometime in the 17th century, when the illumination was added. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art
    Calligraphic album (Muraqqa) with arabic aphorisms in tawqi script. They were probably originally part of a manuscript and were later cut and arranged in their present form in Iran sometime in the 17th century, when the illumination was added. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art

References
  1. Efendi, Cafer; Howard Crane (1987). Risāle-i miʻmāriyye: an early-seventeenth-century Ottoman treatise on architecture: facsimile with translation and notes. Brill. p. 36. ISBN 978-90-04-07846-8. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
  2. Dankoff, Robert (2004). An Ottoman mentality: the world of Evliya Çelebi. Brill. p. 42. ISBN 978-90-04-13715-8.
  3. Çelebi, Evli̇ya; Robert Dankoff (2006). Evliya Çelebi in Bitlis: the relevant section of the Seyahatname. Brill. p. 285. ISBN 978-90-04-09242-6. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
  4. Houtsma, M. Th (1987). E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913–1936, Volume 1. BRILL. p. 1154. ISBN 9789004082656. YAKUT al-MUSTA'SIMI, Djamal al-DIn Auu 'l-Madjd ... some say he was a Greek from Amasia; he was probably carried off on a razzia while still very young. He was a eunuch.
  5. Osborn, J.T., Letters of Light: Arabic Script in Calligraphy, Print, and Digital Design, Harvard University Press, 2017, [E-book edition], n.p.
  6. Robinson, G., The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World, Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 268; Bloom, J. and Blair, S.S., Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 442
  7. Bloom, J. and Blair, S.S., Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 442; "Yaqut al-Musta'simi" [Biography], Islamic Arts, Islamic Arts Online (in English):
  8. Sözen, Metin; İlhan Akşit (1987). The evolution of Turkish art and architecture. Haşet Kitabevi.
  9. Bloom, J. and Blair, S.S., Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 442; Sajoo, A.B., A Companion to Muslim Cultures, I.B.Tauris, 2011, p. 148
  10. Sajoo, A.B., A Companion to Muslim Cultures, I.B.Tauris, 2011, p. 148; Bloom, J. and Blair, S.S., Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 442
  11. Türk ve İslâm Eserleri Müzesi, The Art of the Qurʼan: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 2016, p. 80
  12. Knappert, Jan (2005). Swahili culture, Book 2. E. Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0-7734-6109-3.
  13. Mansour, N., Sacred Script: Muhaqqaq in Islamic Calligraphy, I.B. Tauris, 2011, p. 88n
  14. Islamic Arts, Islamic Arts Online (in English):
  15. Robinson, G., The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World, Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 268
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