Calligraphic Art in the Ottoman Period

Calligraphy should be considered the most honorable, holiest and most spiritual of Islamic art. With the advent of Islam in Hijaz, Muslims for the first time began to write their Holy Quran, and this, with the encouragement of the elders of the progressive religion, resulted in thousands of exquisite versions of the various scripts of the Holy Quran, which among Islamic nations, Iran and Ottoman (Turkey) have had the largest share in the development of this art.
Istanbul was the cradle for calligraphic art. The new forms of calligraphy that have been created with interest and support in Istanbul have expanded rapidly and well-liked in other parts of the world and have spread throughout our Muslim world in our day.
The Ottomans, with the establishment of special centers of calligraphy, as well as the training of great masters in the six hands calligraphy, have been able to recognize them as the masters of these scripts in Islamic art. At the same time, Ottoman calligraphers used Iranian scripts, which had different names than those common in Iran. The scripts such as Toqra, Roqʻa, Diwani and Diwani-ye Jeli are also the origins of Ottoman calligraphers that are still of interest in Turkey and in many Arab countries.
The present paper deals with the development process of this art and some of its schools as well.