Ali Emiri Efendi

Hosted by Pera Museum (3rd floor) and Istanbul Research Institute, Ali Emîrî Efendi and his World exhibition is compartmentalized into three major sections. The first section is comprised of 49 fermans and berats, extending over 500 years, from Sultan Süleyman, the Magnificent, to Sultan Reşad. These 49 spectacular works of tuğra (imperial monogram), hat (calligraphy and tezhip (decoration) are being brought to light for the first time. The second section includes 31 kıt’as (rectangular calligraphic works) and levhas (large-scale panels) by the greatest masters of calligraphic art. Penned by Şeyh Hamdullah, Hâfız Osman, Yedikuleli Seyyid Abdullah, Şeyhülislâm Veliyüddin Efendi, İsmail Zühdi, Mahmud Celaleddin and Kadıasker Mustafa İzzet Efendi, these calligraphies reveal the quintessence of Ottoman aesthetics. The third and final section is a selection from the rare and precious books Ali Emîrî Efendi collected in a lifetime. This wide spectrum consists of 69 books, ranging from the Ottoman sultans’ collective poetry to medicine, from geography to history and Sufism. Discovered by Ali Emîrî Efendi in 1914, the sole copy of the legendary Dîvânu Lugâti’t-Türk, which was written by Mahmud of Kashgar in the 11th century, is revealed to the public for the first time in this exhibition.