Hattat İsmail Zihni Pasha: Life And Death Of An Ottoman Statesman And An Inventor

Abstract

İsmail was born in 1739 to a middle-class family in Istanbul; his father was an artisan. Reaching puberty, he was accepted to the Galata Palace School. He evidently underwent a vigorous education embodying martial arts, military sciences, and calligraphy. During his training, he attained proficiency in a number of calligraphic styles used in the Ottoman chancellery, which proved to be his golden opportunity for entering the scribal bureaucracy at the palace.