Hâfiz Osmanحافظ عثمان

The refiner. He edited Sheikh Hamdullah's letterforms with a jeweller's patience until Ottoman Naskh reached its final clarity — the Qur'an editions copied from his hand were printed for centuries and set the visual standard most Muslims still read today. He invented the fixed hilya layout, teaching sultans on Sundays and orphans on Wednesdays. 'Hâfiz Osman wrote it' became, simply, the highest compliment a page could receive.

Key works: the canonical hilya layout; Qur'ans that became the printed standard.