Ottoman Decoupage Calligraphy Signed “Suleyman”

Ottoman Decoupage Calligraphy Signed “Suleyman”.

Ottoman Empire, Signed Suleyman.

Dated 1282 AH / 1865 AD.

Dimensions: 55.5 x 42 cm.

Decoupage calligraphy cut out from white paper, pasted on salmon paper. Written in nasta‘liq and thuluth scripts. The calligraphy in the centre is a mirror-image composition in thuluth which reads ‘Māshāllāh’ (As God willed), the name of the Prophet ‘Muhammad’, and his grandson ‘Husayn’. The four roundels surrounding the central composition are the names of the four righteous caliphs: ‘Abū-Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthmān, ‘Ali’.

The Turkish poem in nasta‘liq on the top reads:

Ey mihr-i cihantāb-ı harīm-i ezeli
Vey māh-ı münīr-i felek-i lemyezelī
Pervāne gibi şem‘ine cem‘ oldu senin

Būbekr ü Ömer Hazret-i Osman ü ‘Ali

(Oh you [Muhammad]! the universe-illuminating sun, God’s eternal confidant,
You! The bright moon of heavens of eternity,
The following were attracted to the candle of your divine beauty like moths,
Abū-Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman and ‘Ali)

The Turkish poem in nasta‘liq at the bottom reads:

Muhibb-i çār-yārım öz vücudum sadrıdır Sıddık

Ömer’dir cismimin canı değil dersem olam zındık

Söven Osman’a buğz ile adın almasun tevfik

Yezid ibn Yezid olsun Ali’yi eyleyen tefrik

(I am an admirer of the four righteous caliphs, Abū-Bakr is like my heart,
‘Umar is my soul, may I be an infidel if I deny, May those who curse Uthman be left without divine grace,
‘May those who leave ‘Ali out be inauspicious like Yazid ibn Yazid)

The only other recorded decoupage calligraphy by Suleyman is in the Khalili Collection, London, please see: Empire of the Sultans – Ottoman Art from the Collection of Nasser D. Khalili, The Nour Foundation, London, 1995, p. 266.

Price on application

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance