C/H/12. Turkish Culture Ï The Use of Calligraphy in Ottoman Art and its Cultural Importance:

This essay will explore the cultural, religious and political importance of the creation of Turkish Ottoman Calligraphy. Islamic Calligraphy originates out of Sufism, which is the Islamic sect of mystics. This calligraphy is based on the arabesque form of art, which is a geometric form of art that represents the Islamic way of life, because these forms are infinite; extend beyond the visible world; therefore representative of the infinite, the uncentralized, and the nature of the creation of God. The key factor in Islamic art is that there is no iconography, no representations of God or of the prophets, because this is against the word of Allah. This was taken a step further with calligraphy, where the word of Allah is represented in this beautiful art form; whereby the words of the Qur'an are written in such a way to create pictures of animals, wall scripts and flowers. Calligraphy is an ultimate form of the individual's personal relationship with God and based in Islamic mysticism. Mysticism was a response in Islam to the mainstream scholars who where focused on rules rather than the relationship between the God and the individual. Sheikh Hamdullah broke the rules and the yoke of the Arabic centre of art through creating a new form that was designed through mystical experience. This indicated the Turkish Ottoman's a new Islamic power outside the yoke of the Arabic powers.