Mustafa Râkim ( ota, مصطفى رآقم;

Modern Turkish Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant smal ...

: ''Mustafa Râkım'') (1757–1826), was an Ottoman calligrapher. He extended and reformed

Hâfiz Osman Hâfiz Osman ( ota, حافظ عثمان Modern Turkish: ''Hâfız Osman'') (1642–1698) was an Ottoman calligrapher noted for improving the script and for developing a layout template for the hilye which became the classical approach to page ...

's style, placing greater emphasis on technical perfection, which broadened the calligraphic art to encompass the Sülüs script as well as the

Nesih Naskh ( ar, , qalam an-naskh, from the verb , , 'to copy', from n-s-kh root (ن-س-خ)) is a smaller, round script of Islamic calligraphy. Naskh is one of the first scripts of Islamic calligraphy to develop, commonly used in writing administrativ ...

script.Mustafa Rakım Efendi
/ref>

Life and career

Mustafa Râkim was born in Unye 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. 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. Ismail Zühidi and Mustafa Râkim went on to develop their own style of calligraphy based on the work of

. They were able to develop a style of ''celî sülüs'' that was aesthetically pleasing, something that other calligraphers had not been able to do. Râkim also reformed the calligraphic shape of the tughra script. With the revolutionary changes brought about in calligraphy by Mustafa Râkim,Haşim Söylemez, Türk Picassosu Rakım Efendi, Aksiyon Dergisi, Sayı 455, 25.08.2003
/ref> 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

tughra A tughra ( ota, طغرا, ṭuġrā) is a calligraphic monogram, seal or signature of a sultan that was affixed to all official documents and correspondence. Inspired by the tamgha, it was also carved on his seal and stamped on the coins minted ...

s 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.Uğur Derman, M., ''Letters in Gold: Ottoman Calligraphy from the Sakıp Sabancı Collection,'' Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998, p. 19 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.Ordu İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü web sitesi, Erişim tarihi:03.06.2011
/ref> He drew a portrait of Sultan

Selim III Selim III ( ota, سليم ثالث, Selim-i sâlis; tr, III. Selim; was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1789 to 1807. Regarded as an enlightened ruler, the Janissaries eventually deposed and imprisoned him, and placed his cousin Mustafa ...

who was amazed by his work and recited a poem in his honor in return.

References

*Rapture and revolution: essays on Turkish literature, Talât Sait Halman, Jayne L. Warner, 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mustafa Rakim Ottoman culture Calligraphers from the Ottoman Empire 1757 births 1826 deaths Muslim artists 18th-century artists from the Ottoman Empire 19th-century artists from the Ottoman Empire

Life and career

See also

References