Hamid Aytaçحامد الآمدي

The last Ottoman master — and the first of the revival. When Turkey's 1928 alphabet reform ended official Arabic script overnight, Hamid kept a tiny sign-shop in Istanbul and simply refused to stop. For five decades every serious student in the world found their way to that shop: the certificate chains of nearly all living classical calligraphers pass through him. He wrote mosque domes, Qur'ans and thousands of panels, bridging the empire and the internet age in one lifetime.

Key works: Şişli Mosque inscriptions; countless ijaza chains of today's masters.

Images of his works are under copyright review — shown when cleared.