He was probably ofGreek origin inAmaseia and carried off when he was very young into slavery. Made into aeunuch, he was converted to Islam as Abu’l-Majd Jamal al-Din Yaqut, better known as Yaqut al-Musta‘simi because he servedCaliph al-Musta‘sim, the lastAbbasid caliph.[4]
He was a slave in the court of al-Musta'sim and went on to become a calligrapher in the Royal Court. He spent most of his life in Baghdad.[5] He studied with the female scholar and calligrapher, Shuhda Bint Al-‘Ibari, who was herself a student in the direct line ofIbn al-Bawwab.[6] During the Mongol invasion of Baghdad (1258), he took refuge in the minaret of a mosque so he could finish his calligraphy practice, while the city was being ransacked. His career, however, flourished under Mongol patronage.[7] Yaqut inspired an elegant depiction of the Mongol rulerAbaqa's name on the Mongol coinage and continued to serve under the Ilkhan RinchindorjGaykhatu in theIlkhanate.[8]
He refined and codified six basic calligraphic styles of theArabic script.[9]Naskh script was said to have been revealed and taught to the scribe in a vision. He improved onIbn Muqla's style by replacing the straight cut reed pen with an oblique cut, which resulted in a more elegant script.[10] He developedYakuti, a handwriting named after him, described as athuluth of "a particularly elegant and beautiful type."[1]
He taught many students, both Arab and non-Arab. His most celebrated students areAhmad al-Suhrawardi and Yahya al-Sufi.[11]
He became a much-celebrated calligrapher across the Arab-speaking world. His school became the model followed by Persian and Ottoman calligraphers for centuries. In the second half of the 13th century, he gained the honorific,quiblat al-kuttab [cynosure of the calligraphers].[12]
His output was prolific. Although, he is said to have copied theQur'an more than a thousand times,[13] problems with attributing his work, may have contributed to exaggerated estimates.[14] Other sources suggest that he produced 364 copies of the Q'ran.[15]
Two pages from the manuscript of "Divan shu’r al-Hadira" (The collected verses of Al-Hadira).Naskh andthuluth script.Freer Gallery of Art
Two pages from the manuscript of the 'Spiritual Words from Greek Philosophy with Sayings of the Philosophers Accompanied with their Portraits' (Al-Kalimat al-Ruhaniyya min al-Hikam al-Yunaniyya fi Kalimat al-Hukama’ wa Ashkalihim). Naskh script. Painting by Mahmud b. Abi'l-Mahasin Al-Qashi.Aga Khan Museum
Calligraphic album (Muraqqa) with arabic aphorisms intawqi script. They were probably originally part of a manuscript and were later cut and arranged in their present form in Iran sometime in the 17th century, when the illumination was added. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art
^Houtsma, M. Th (1987).E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913–1936, Volume 1. BRILL. p. 1154.ISBN9789004082656.YAKUT al-MUSTA'SIMI, Djamal al-DIn Auu 'l-Madjd ... some say he was a Greek from Amasia; he was probably carried off on a razzia while still very young. He was a eunuch.
^Osborn, J.T.,Letters of Light: Arabic Script in Calligraphy, Print, and Digital Design, Harvard University Press, 2017, [E-book edition], n.p.
^Robinson, G.,The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World, Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 268; Bloom, J. and Blair, S.S.,Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 442
^Bloom, J. and Blair, S.S.,Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 442; "Yaqut al-Musta'simi" [Biography],Islamic Arts,Islamic Arts Online (in English):Archived 2019-08-21 at theWayback Machine
^Kolbas, Judith. The Mongols in Iran: Chingiz Khan to Uljaytu 1220–1309. London and New York: Routledge, 2006, 245
^Sözen, Metin; İlhan Akşit (1987).The evolution of Turkish art and architecture. Haşet Kitabevi.
^Bloom, J. and Blair, S.S.,Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 442; Sajoo, A.B.,A Companion to Muslim Cultures, I.B.Tauris, 2011, p. 148
^Sajoo, A.B.,A Companion to Muslim Cultures, I.B.Tauris, 2011, p. 148; Bloom, J. and Blair, S.S.,Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 442
^Türk ve İslâm Eserleri Müzesi,The Art of the Qurʼan: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 2016, p. 80
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