Cut-out calligraphy

Cut-out calligraphy

Turkey, 19th century

Cut-out white paper pasted on light green paper. Sight: 16 x 21.5 cm The cut-out forms in "thuluth" script, the expression: "Ya haci bektas veli" in Osmanle, which is the name and invocation to a Muslim mystic, a saint, descendant of Musa Kazim, the seventh imam of a Shiite branch. He is revered by Sufis for his esoteric (spiritual), rational, progressive and humanistic understanding of Islam. The Alevi and Bektashi brotherhoods believe that Haji Bektash's way is the way of ʿAli ibn Abu Talib', as Ali was the source of Bektash's teachings. He lived and taught in Anatolia, in the Sultanate of Rum, and exerted an important influence on the Turkish nomads of Asia Minor. A cut-out calligraphy, Turkey, 19th century