Description
This page from Walters manuscript W.672 bears the name of the celebrated Ottoman calligrapher Seyh Hamdullah (Hamd Allah al-Amasi, died 926 AH/AD 1520). The colophon may be translated into English as follows: This was written by Hamdu Llah, [who is] known as the sheikh's son, [while] praising God--exalted is he--and praying for his messenger Muhammad and his family, the pure ones, all of them, and praying for their safety. [This was] at the time of his hoariness as his hair glistened white and his head trembled and he was close to the state of decrepitude, being 80 and some odd years old. May God have mercy on those who act equitably and forgive and those who consider [things] closely and pray, because mankind was made to abide in deficiency and here am I, characterized by forgetfulness and disobedience.
Provenance
Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Inscriptions
[Transliteration] katabahu Hamdu Llāhi al-ma'rūfu /1/ bi-ibni al-shaykhi Hāmidan li-Llāhi ta'ālá wa-musalliyan /2/ 'alá nabīyihi Muhmammadin wa-ālihi al-tāhirīna /3/ ajma'īna /4/ wa-musalliman fī awāni shaybihi ma'a ishti'āl sha'rihi wa-irti'āsh ra'sihi qaribun mina ardhali (?) al-'ummá [sic] huwa (?) ibn (?) bida'in (?) wa-thamānina min 'umrihi /5/ wa-rahima Allāhu man ansafa fa-'afā wa-nazara fa-da'ā li-anna al-insāna hull (?) bi-al-niqsān fa-hā anā al-mawsūf bi-al-nisyāni wa-al-'isyāni /6/; [Translation] This was written by Hamdu Llāh, [who is] known as the sheikh's son, [while] praising God--exalted is he--and praying for his messenger Muhammad and his family, the pure ones, all of them, and praying for their safety. [This was] at the time of his hoariness as his hair glistened white and his head trembled and he was close to the state of decrepitude, being 80 and some odd years old. May God have mercy on those who act equitably and forgive and those who consider [things] closely and pray, because mankind was made to abide in deficiency and here am I, characterized by forgetfulness and disobedience
Credit
Acquired by Henry Walters
