An Ottoman Talismanic Shirt (jama) with Extracts from the Qur'an and prayers, Turkey, 16th Century

Cotton shirt (jama) covered with text written in a variety of scripts, including Muhaqqaq, Naskh, Ghubar, Thuluth and square Kufic, in assorted colours, arranged in numerous panels, roundels, cartouches, crescent moons, stars and cypress tree forms, the lower section with musenna-form calligraphy reserved in Thuluth script, with interstices and borders comprising interlacing foliate motifs

In good overall condition, faded in areas, as viewed.
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inscriptions

The inscriptions include quotations from the Qur'an, invocations to God, attributes of God and prayers. They are written in thuluth, rayhan, naskh of different sizes and square Kufic in different shapes, patterns, mirrored form and reserved against text and in colours black, blue, red/pink, green, and gold/yellow.

This is an unusual and finely executed Qur'an jama. The basic layout relates to other jamas of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with a large number of panels and roundels containing Qur'anic quotations, pious phrases, prayers and talismanic numbers, but here their arrangement is unusually varied and inventive, with a number of distinctly Ottoman features. What is particularly noteworthy is the accomplished quality of the calligraphy, which is executed in a number of different scripts, and retains a confident aesthetic in even its most minute form. The larger passages in blue Thuluth script are particularly striking in their beauty, and this combined with the overall finesse of the decoration suggests a commission from a wealthy and important patron. 

The present shirt and its decoration relates to a group of Ottoman shirts now housed in the Topkapi Saray Museum which all date from the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. The six-pointed star motif that appears on both sides of our shirt can be found on one such jama (TKS 13/1133, published in J.M. Rogers and R.M. Ward, Suleyman the Magnificent, London, 1990, p.176-7, no.111), where it is similarly encircled by a band of calligraphy. The appearance of the comparable square Kufic motif can also be witnessed, but exists more prominently on a further Topkapi shirt (TKS 13/1150, see ibid, no.110), reflecting the contemporary decorative styles of the day.

The crescent moon and cypress tree designs also represent typical Ottoman stylistic themes of the sixteenth century, and the amalgamation of all the decorative and calligraphic styles is a technique visible on other comparable talismanic shirts including the jama of Cem Sultan (TKS 13/1404, see Roxburgh 2005, pp.300-1, no.257) and that of Mehmed II (TKS13/1408, published in Palace of Gold and Light, Treasures from the Topkapi, exhib.cat, Istanbul, 2000, pp.66-69, no.A7).