Seyyid Kasim Gubari
d. 1625 · Diyarbakır & Istanbul
Seyyid Kasim, a descendant of the Prophet from Diyarbakır in south-eastern Anatolia, was an Ottoman calligrapher and poet. His birth date is not known. He is called Gubari after ghubar, the 'dust' script used for the tiniest writing: the story goes that he wrote the whole of Surat al-Ikhlas on one grain of rice. English Wikipedia says he was first known as a poet and turned to calligraphy later. His great commission was the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, the Blue Mosque, finished in 1616: the sources the Turkish encyclopaedia (TDV) cites, starting with Müstakimzade's Tuhfe-i hattatin, name him as the writer of the inscriptions inside the building, and English Wikipedia credits him with most of the calligraphy in the dome. The mosque's painted decoration has been renewed several times since, so the letters seen today are restorations on his design. TDV gives his death as 1034 AH (1624-25); English Wikipedia gives 1615/1616 and says he was buried near the tomb of Abu Ayyub in Eyüp.
Achievements
- Wrote the large inscriptions inside the Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque in Istanbul, completed in 1616.
- Earned the name Gubari from a legend that he wrote Surat al-Ikhlas on a single grain of rice in the tiny ghubar script.
His work
His known work is the inscription programme of the Blue Mosque, whose painted letters have been renewed in later restorations, so no photograph shows his own hand for certain; no signed panel by him was found on Commons.
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 'Gubârî' (script): Seyyid Kasım wrote the jali inscriptions of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, Ikhlas on a grain of rice, d. 1034/1624-25 islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
- TDV 'Sultan Ahmed Camii': inscriptions inside by Seyyid Kasım Gubari per Müstakimzade; painted decoration renewed in restorations islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
- English Wikipedia: Diyarbakır, seyyid, rice-grain legend, poet first, dome of the Blue Mosque, d. 1615/16, buried near Eyüp en.wikipedia.org
- Turkish Wikipedia (translation of the English article) tr.wikipedia.org
- Arabic Wikipedia: Diyarbakır, Blue Mosque inscriptions ar.wikipedia.org
- Wikidata: 1550-1625 (birth year unsourced) 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).