Contribution to the Art Analysis of Qurʼan Caligraphy on the Examples of Mushafs from Gazi Husrev-beg Library

Abstract

Bosniak calligraphers of the 17th and 18th centuries understood the copying of the Qur’an as one of the imperatives of their calligraphic work and they tried to show all their skills. Ten copies of Mushafs from the collection of the Gazi Husrev-beg Library in Sarajevo were chosen for the purposes of this research. Analysis shows that each calligrapher was up to the task, but difference in the quality of their work was noticed. Some calligraphers lack skill, like hafiz Mustafa son of Omer from Mostar. Those more skilful made kind of deviation from the tradition, such was done by Bi-zaban Ali-pasha. The most famous Bosniak calligrapher at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, hafiz Ibrahim Šehović, shows on each page the self-awareness and the ability to bridge the forbidden. It is ungrateful to choose the best calligrapher, but it will be concluded that Osman Bosnian stands out. This paper tried to show the potentials of the artistic analysis of calligraphy in the Mushafs copied in Ottoman Bosnia.