Hasan Çelebi
1937–2025 · Istanbul
Hasan Çelebi was born in 1937 in İnciköy, a village of Oltu in Erzurum province. He learned the Qur'an from his uncle and moved to Istanbul in 1954 to study Arabic and the religious sciences; he served as a muezzin and imam until he retired in 1987. In 1963–64 he took lessons for four months from Halim Özyazıcı, and after Özyazıcı's death became Hamid Aytaç's student, staying with him until Aytaç died in 1982. Aytaç gave him an icazet in thuluth and naskh, and Kemal Batanay one in ta'liq and riq'a. During the 1974 restoration of the Sultanahmet Mosque he corrected the side-dome inscriptions, and from 1987 he spent a year writing the inscriptions of the Quba and Qiblatayn mosques in Medina. He taught from 1976, students coming to him from many countries, and from 1992 sat on the jury of IRCICA's competitions. He died in Istanbul on 24 February 2025.
Achievements
- Corrected the side-dome inscriptions and the Asmā' al-Husnā roundels of the Sultanahmet Mosque during its 1974 restoration.
- Spent a year writing the dome, belt and other inscriptions of the Quba and Qiblatayn mosques in Medina (from 1987).
- Held his first solo exhibition at IRCICA, Istanbul, in 1982.
- Sat on the jury of IRCICA's international calligraphy competitions from 1992.
- Named a Living Human Treasure in Turkey in 2010.
- Received the Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Award (2011) and the Necip Fazıl Honour Award (2024).
Taught by: Mustafa Halim Özyazıcı, Hamid Aytaç, Kemal Batanay
Taught: Mohamed Zakariya, Davut Bektaş, Nuria Garcia Masip, Hilal Kazan, Fatima al-Baqali, Ubayda al-Banki, Soraya Syed
His work
Died in 2025: the works are still protected by copyright, so we show them only with the permission of those who hold the rights.
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
- Anadolu Agency (2025): died 24 Feb 2025 in Istanbul aged 88; born 1937 Erzurum; teachers Aytaç and Batanay; Living Human Treasure 2010; Presidential award; works incl. Great Çamlıca Mosque, Sultanahmet aa.com.tr
- Timeturk obituary: born İnci village, Oltu; icazets; list of mosque works incl. Medina restoration, Johannesburg, Almaty, Pforzheim timeturk.com
- Turkish Wikipedia: birth 1 Dec 1937 İnciköy; career; icazets 1975/1981; Sultanahmet 1974; Medina; IRCICA jury from 1992; awards; burial Karacaahmet tr.wikipedia.org
- Arabic Wikipedia: Arabic name; Okyay connection; icazets 1391/1971 and 1400/1980; students; death 25 Sha'ban 1446 ar.wikipedia.org
- English Wikipedia: dates, Zakariya and Soraya Syed as students en.wikipedia.org
- Wikidata item wikidata.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).