Calligraphy artworks on Üsküdar historical mosques and calligraphers of 16th century

In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire had a rich foundation at the field of art and culture as well as its political power. The Ottoman State which was the most glorious empire of Islamic civilization was an important example for the Western world with its fair, tolerant on lands under its hegemony, as well as its eximious architecture and sense of its art. The most beautiful artistic examples of such a unique richness in Istanbul which was the long-standing capital of the Ottoman State and due to the long-standing reign of the Ottoman Empire, many mosques with its outstanding structures were built in the city. Mosques, fountains, tombstones, building facades had been decorated with calligraphy. Istanbul was also the capital city of the world in the field of calligraphy for centuries. The art of calligraphy has a special and spiritual value in Islamic culture due to the fact that it is both the Quran art and value of the holy book Quran. Therefore, sections or verses (of Quran) have been carefully embroidered in architectural structures. The most important ones of such places are mosques. Therefore, these values are predicated while the research topic titled 'Calligraphy artworks on Üsküdar Historical Mosques and Calligraphers of 16th Century' in Üsküdar, Istanbul is determined. A total of 18 mosques were identified during the study period. However, 12 mosques were examined and 15 calligraphers were determined in order to evaluate in terms of script. In other mosques, artworks that could be evaluated in terms of script could not be found and they were not listed. Total 67 artworks were found including epigraph, sheet, surface hand-drawn applications and lafzatullah, ism-i nebî, Çehâr yâr-ı güzîn and hasaneyn sheets which were called as mosque team. They are in Selman Ağa, Gülfem Hatun, Mihrimah Sultan, Çakırcı Hasan Paşa (Doğancılar), Solak Sinan, Valide-i Atik, Murat Reis, Şemsi Ahmet Paşa (Kuşkonmaz), Debbağlar (Tabaklar), Kurban (Kurbağı) Nasuh, Imrahor (Mirahur) and Aziz Mahmut Hüdâi Mosques. There are no calligraphers' signatures on some of sheets, epigraphs and surface hand-drawn applications examined. The calligraphers of some epigraphs and sheets could not be found because they had no calligraphers' signatures and had not been included in the resources. The calligraphy art elements handled in the context of this thesis have qualification of one each document reflecting to the future from the past in terms of ornamentation history. These documents will ensure to follow and evaluate situation of the art of script occurred step by step during different centuries, as its result, turned into a regular structure in the future years.