Calligraphist Afif İbrahim Efendi

Abstract

Calligraphist Afif İbrahim Efendi is one of the calligraphers that put his stamp on the Ottoman Calligraphy history. Even if he didn’t have a special place among popular caligraphists he had limited number of works that reach the present day and this indicates that he wrote well. Afif Efendi took his calligraphy lessons from Hüseyin Habl. He was ordinarily a public servant. In this case probably calligraphy was not his real job. But his interest in calligraphy can be seen obviously from his list of heritage (muhallefat). How many of the writings in his collection has reached the present day? Because Afif İbrahim Efendi had the richest calligraphy collection that has been in the archives till today. It is obvious that he keenly collected the calligraphies of Hafız Osman and Şeyh Hamdullah who were leading experts in the calligraphy history. He also had a good book collection according to his period. Therefore apparently he was a precious culture and art expert.