A large illuminated Hilye, signed by Osman, student of Hafiz Osman, Turkey, Ottoman, dated [1]120 AH/1708-09 AD

The colophon of this Hilye is signed by Osman known as the writer among the students of the famous Osman, imam of Gul Mosque. The reference to the famous Osman is most likely a reference to the renowned calligrapher Hafiz Osman (d.1698). Of the students of Hafiz Osman recorded by Omer Faruk Dere, only one is named Osman and active in the early eigteenth century, Osman Mir Erzurumi, serving in the Royal Palace before studying as a scribe under Mustafa Suyolcuzade and subsequently under Hafiz Osman (Dere 2009, p.35).

A Hilye produced by Seyyid Abdullah, another student of Hafiz Osman, is in the collection of the Sakip Sabanci Museum (inv. no.9) and shares a closely comparable large format and layout to the present lot with the 99 names of God in tables on each side. Together they indicate how scribes of the early eighteenthncentury developed the calligraphic art form of the Hilye that was canonised by Hafiz Osman. In Tim Stanley’s study of the Seyyid Abdulleh Hilye, he notes how the additional elements such as the tables and the inclusion of the names of the seven Companions of the Cave resemble talismanic manuscripts and were probably designed to have greater apotropaic force (Stanley 2018, p.565). A Hilye of comparably large format was sold in these rooms, 1 May 2019, lot 68.