Mustafa Râkım
1758–1826 · Istanbul
The revolutionary of the large scripts. Râkım took the monumental Thuluth Jali — until then a stiff, enlarged page script — and rebuilt its anatomy for walls: deeper curves, dramatic stacking, breathing space measured for the eye at twenty metres. He redesigned the imperial tughra into the balanced form every later sultan used. On the mosques of Istanbul his panels still read as if written this morning. Modern Jali composition is, in essence, his invention.
Key works: Nusretiye Mosque inscriptions; the reformed tughra; Fatih tomb panels.
Achievements
- From about 1819 set the rules of his own jali thuluth, taking letter proportions from Hâfız Osman's thuluth.
- Gave the imperial tughra the form used after him, in tughras for Selim III, Mustafa IV and Mahmud II.
- Wrote the 41 m band of Surat al-Naba inside the Nusretiye Mosque; its template is in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts (TİEM 2509).
- Wrote the 43 m band of the Nakşidil Sultan tomb in Fatih; the template is also in TİEM (no. 2510).
- Taught calligraphy to Sultan Mahmud II and was put in charge of the imperial coin legends and tughra.
- Rose through judicial ranks to Anatolian kazasker in 1823.
Taught by: İsmail Zühdi (Yeni İsmail Zühdi, İsmail Zühdi the Second), Derviş Ali III
Taught: Sultan Mahmud II, Mehmed Hâşim Efendi, Mehmed Şâkir Recâi Efendi
His work
1791 · Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum, Istanbul (2732)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
1809–1826 · Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
early 19th century · Eyüp, Istanbul (photograph 2016)
Photo: Nidayi, Wikimedia Commons (Mustafa Rakım Efendi İmzalı Bir Mezar Taşı.jpg), CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
1791 · Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts (inv. 2732), Istanbul
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
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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 İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 'RÂKIM EFENDİ, Mustafa' (Süleyman Berk, 2007): life, teachers, students, works and locations, dates 1758–1826 islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
- Turkish Wikipedia: life, painting, students, works list tr.wikipedia.org
- English Wikipedia: summary, birth 1757 en.wikipedia.org
- Arabic Wikipedia: Arabic name form; gives Konya as birthplace (conflict) ar.wikipedia.org
- Persian Wikipedia: short entry, 1757–1825 fa.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).