Abdurrahman Hilmi
d. 1805 · Istanbul
Abdurrahman Hilmi was an Ottoman calligrapher of Istanbul in the late eighteenth century. He trained with Eğrikapılı Mehmed Rasim, one of the chief masters of thuluth and naskh in his day, and he spent most of his working life at the Hagia Sophia school, where he wrote and taught. Writers on Ottoman calligraphy describe his hand as firm and controlled, and remember him as a man of upright character. A meşk, a practice sheet of letter combinations in thuluth, survives in the Sakıp Sabancı Museum in Istanbul; its small cartouche names him as one of the students of Mehmed Rasim. He died in 1220 AH, which is 1805, and was buried in Üsküdar on the Asian side of the city, near the grave of Sheikh Hamdullah, the founder of the Ottoman school. Little else about his life, his birth or his own students has been published in the sources available.
Achievements
- Studied under Eğrikapılı Mehmed Rasim, one of the leading Ottoman masters of thuluth and naskh.
- Spent most of his life at the Hagia Sophia school in Istanbul, writing and training students.
- Known for the firmness of his writing.
- Buried in Üsküdar near Sheikh Hamdullah; a signed meşk by him is in the Sakıp Sabancı Museum.
Taught by: Eğrikapılı Mehmed Rasim
His work
c. 1800–1805 · Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Only one work by him, a signed practice sheet in the Sakıp Sabancı Museum, is on Wikimedia Commons.
Write in the tradition this hand shaped.
Write in this tradition now →Living calligraphers you can buy from — signed originals on paper, from AED 550: Anwar Alhulwani (Thuluth) · Ahmed Alhawary (Jali Thuluth, Naskh) · Rasha Kasim (Kufi) — or every Thuluth piece the store makes: Thuluth collection.
Sources
- teacher Mehmed Rasim, Hagia Sophia school, firm hand, death 1220/1805, burial near Sheikh Hamdullah en.wikipedia.org
- same facts in Arabic ar.wikipedia.org
- Hilmi listed among Mehmed Rasim's students en.wikipedia.org
- signed meşk, Sakıp Sabancı Museum; signature read: مشقه الفقير عبد الرحمن من تلاميذ محمد [راسم] commons.wikimedia.org
Written by the MASHQ studio · last updated 2026-10-05. Further reading, the standard references in English: Sheila S. Blair, Islamic Calligraphy (Edinburgh University Press, 2006) · Annemarie Schimmel, Calligraphy and Islamic Culture (New York University Press, 1984) · Yasin Hamid Safadi, Islamic Calligraphy (Thames and Hudson, 1978).