Mehmed Şevki Efendi
1829–1887 · Istanbul
The perfectionist's perfectionist. Calligraphers say Naskh reached its absolute final form in his hand — 'even if all masters returned, they could not improve a letter of Şevki's'. He wrote twenty-five Qur'ans and hundreds of hilyas with a modest day job as a war-ministry clerk, refusing fame, correcting students with silent pencil dots. The Şevki mektebi (school) he founded is still the standard chain for Naskh instruction from Istanbul to Damascus to Cairo.
Key works: 25 Qur'ans; the Şevki Naskh model followed worldwide.
Achievements
- His thuluth-naskh manner, the 'Şevki school', is still treated as the final stage of these scripts (TDV).
- Copied twenty-five Qur'ans, among them Sakıp Sabancı Museum no. 57 (1862).
- Taught calligraphy at the princes' school of Yıldız Palace from 1877.
- Taught ruq'ah at the school for military clerks (Menşe-i Küttâb-ı Askerî) from 1875.
- Received his diploma at twelve (1841) and chose to stay with his first teacher rather than move to Kazasker Mustafa İzzet.
- Wrote the jali thuluth inscription of the Pertevniyal Valide Sultan fountain, Karagümrük (1862).
Taught by: Mehmed Hulûsi Efendi
Taught: Filibeli Hacı Ârif Efendi, Hâfız Fehmî Efendi, Pazarcıklı Mehmed Hulûsi Efendi, Ziyâeddin Efendi, Ferid Bey, Mehmed Said Bey
His work
1863 · Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
1862 · Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
19th century · Khalili Collections, London
Photo: Khalili Collections, Wikimedia Commons (Khalili Collection Islamic Art mss 0239.15.jpg), CC BY-SA 3.0 igo (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo)
19th century · photograph 2015
Photo: Yasser elashry, Wikimedia Commons (3 55d8770fe53a250ae492a985 copy.jpg), CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
Write in the tradition this hand shaped.
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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, 'MEHMED ŞEVKİ EFENDİ': life, posts, Şevki school, Qur'ans, students, death 13 Şaban 1304/7 May 1887 islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
- English Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
- Turkish Wikipedia: students, charity tr.wikipedia.org
- Arabic Wikipedia: Arabic name form, 1245–1304 AH, uncle's death 1291/1874 ar.wikipedia.org
- Persian Wikipedia: short entry 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).