Istanbul Museum of Calligraphy

In one of the most beautiful museums in Istanbul you can admire the "architecture on paper" - the outstanding calligraphy of the Middle Ages.

As we know, muslim religion does not accept images of people and animals. This is idolatry. Nevertheless, the artists’ desire to be expressed always exists even in the Islamic world. What to do? Muslim artists have solved the problem ingeniously and simply. They began to develop the art of calligraphy, which reached its highest peak in the Ottoman Empire. You will be able to make sure in it when you arrive in Istanbul and visit the unique Museum of Calligraphy opened in this city many years ago.

The first thing a visitor sees in this museum is the beauty of Arabic writing fonts, borrowed for the Muslim scriptures, by itself. Arabic language for the Ottoman Empire meant as Latin for the West or Greek for the East. It was the language of church ministry. Therefore, the Turkish typists worked hard to "copy" the Koran by hand. The more you copied the Koran, the more grace you deserved. And, of course, developed the skills of the typist and the beauty of calligraphy. It was so important that in the early 16th century, when the first printing-presses had emerged in the empire, Sultan Selim forbade them. How to rewrite the Koran by hand if it can be printed?

The museum which contains hundreds of samples of the unique medieval calligraphy is located in the building of the religious school of Beyazit Mosque. It was named in honor of the Sultan Beyazit II who himself liked to do calligraphy so that he took the lessons from the famous copyist of hundred Korans Hamdullah al-Amasi. By the way, you will also see the works of this master of calligraphy in the Museum of Istanbul. For a few centuries madrasah was not just a school where boys were taught to interpret the Koran, but it was the city library of Istanbul.

The museum collection is one of the richest on the East (they do not exist on the West). These are manuscripts with miniatures of the color ink and precious stones, the Korans, rare miniatures, book bindings and calligraphy... on the glass and stones.

Also the Museum exhibited a large collection of stamps of the sultans with their signatures. Some of them, however, are made not by the rulers of the Ottoman Empire, but by their secretaries. After all, some sultans... could not really write. And not because they were ignorant, simple the calligraphy differs from the usual writing just the same as piloting "Formula 1" differs from driving carts in the supermarket...

Calligraphy Museum of Istanbul is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 9:00 till 16:00. The entrance costs 2 lire, just over 2 dollars.