Mehmed Emin Tokadi
1664–1745 · Tokat & Istanbul
Mehmed Emin was born in Tokat in 1075/1664 to a tailor, Hasan Efendi, a dervish of the Naqshbandi sheikh Aziz Mahmud Urmevi. In 1110/1698 he went to Istanbul and lodged at the Piri Pasha madrasa in Zeyrek. There he studied the religious sciences and learned thuluth and naskh from the court master Yedikuleli Seyyid Abdullah Efendi, who gave him an ijaza; Müstakimzade adds that he was a master of ta'liq and the other scripts too. His fine hand brought him work as a clerk in the chancery. From 1702 he spent years in Mecca and Medina, joined the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi order under Ahmad Yekdest Juryani, and worked as secretary to the governor Kımıl Mehmed Bey. Back in Istanbul he became the most important Mujaddidi sheikh of the city, and in 1743 head of the Emir Buhari lodge. He died on 12 September 1745 and lies in the Piri Pasha (Soğukkuyu) mosque cemetery in Zeyrek, under a ta'liq epitaph by Katibzade Mehmed Refi.
Achievements
- Received an ijaza in thuluth and naskh from Yedikuleli Seyyid Abdullah Efendi; Müstakimzade's Tuhfe-i hattatin calls him a master of ta'liq and other scripts as well.
- Leading figure of the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi order in 18th-century Istanbul; head of the Emir Buhari lodge in Ayvansaray from 1743.
- His murid Müstakimzade, the historian of Ottoman calligraphers, translated Imam Rabbani's Maktubat into Turkish at his request.
Taught by: Yedikuleli Seyyid Abdullah Efendi
Taught: Müstakimzade Süleyman Sadeddin
His work
No photograph of a signed work in his hand was found on Commons; he is known first as a Sufi sheikh.
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
- TDV (H. İ. Şimşek, 2003): born 1075/1664 Tokat, Istanbul 1110/1698, ijaza in thuluth/naskh from Yedikuleli Seyyid Abdullah, master of ta'liq (Müstakimzade, Tuhfe p. 400), Mecca, Mujaddidi order, Emir Buhari lodge 1743, d. 15 Shaban 1158/12 Sept 1745, epitaph by Katibzade Refi islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
- English Wikipedia: 1664-1745, Sufi and calligrapher, grave at Piri Mehmed Pasha mosque en.wikipedia.org
- Turkish Wikipedia: life, Edirne, Mecca, tomb tr.wikipedia.org
- Arabic Wikipedia (translation of the English article) ar.wikipedia.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).