Name

Yāqūt al-Mustaʿṣimī

Original name

Yāqūt al-Mustaʿṣimī, Jamāl al-Dīn Abū al-Durr b. ʿAbd Allāh

Main activity

Calligrapher

Secondary activity

Librarian

Title

Qiblat al-Kuttāb

Name variations

Yāqūt-i Mustaʿṣimī"

Education place

Baghdad

Education institution

Caliphal Court

Activity place

Baghdad

Activity institution

Caliphal Court

Activity start date

Activity end date

1298

Place of birth

Amasia

Date of birth

1221

Place of death

Baghdad

Date of death

1298

Bibliographical references

Descriptive card

Yāqūt is the last big name as for Arabic calligraphers. He was student of ʿAlī b. Hilāl, better known as Ibn al-Bawwāb (d. 413/1022). Not only Yāqūt mastered all the scriptural styles proper of Ibn al-Bawwāb, but he also refined them, creating his own style: the "yāqūtī" style. Ibn Muqla (d. 329/941) used to write with a straight cut reed pen, which was eventually substituted by Yāqūt by an oblique cut which made calligraphy more elegant. His calligraphy had been taken as model especially by the Ottomans and the Persians during the thirteenth century; he was surnamed "qiblat al-kuttāb" (model of calligraphers). Yāqūt was a eunuch, taken as slave by the last ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Mustaʿṣim (from here his name "al-Mustaṣimī"), who took charge of his education. Yāqūt spent his whole life in Baghdād, under the ʿAbbāsids first and eventually under the Mongols. Some manuscripts seem to be attributable to him nowadays, although deep researches still need to be done, since a lot of contemporary Yāqūt's students were authorised to sign manuscripts with his signature, creating a big confusion for present studies: - Qur'ān dated 681/1282-3, parts 2 and 12, Topkapi Saray Library, Istanbul, EH227, EH226; - part 8, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, ms. 1452; - part 15, Nasser D. Khalili Collection, London; - Qurʾān, dated 688/1289, BnF, 6716, Paris; - and possibly Qurʾān, dated 693/1294, Topkapi Saray Library, Istanbul, EH74 and Āstān-i Ḳuds Library, Mas̲h̲had, Faḍāʾilī, p. 202.

Entry author

Olivier Salem