Calligraphy and sacred arts
The written word in the Rifāʿī tradition
Rifāʿī lodges were hung with panels naming God, the Prophet and the Pîr, and some of the great Ottoman calligraphers were dervishes of the path. Every work here is shown with its collection and credit.
I. Calligraphers of the path
Muhammad Abdulaziz al-Rifāʿī — Hattat Aziz Efendi
A master of thuluth, naskh and jalī thuluth who taught in Istanbul and Cairo. IRCICA states that he belonged to the Rifāʿī order, which is why he signed his works “Sheikh”. He was a student of Kenan Rifâî, and wrote two of his master's poems as large panels for the tombs of Sünbül Efendi and Merkez Efendi.
İsmâil Dede Efendi
A dervish of the Üsküdar Âsitâne who wrote verse panels in naskh, placed at the heads of five wooden cenotaphs in its tomb.
Mahmud Cemaleddin Efendi
Calligrapher of a panel invoking the Pîr, known from a photograph in the Ali Saim Ülgen Archive (below).
II. “Yâ Hazret-i Pîr es-Seyyid Ahmed er-Rıfâî”
A panel calling on the Pîr — “O revered Pîr, Sayyid Ahmad al-Rifāʿī” — of the kind that hung in Rifāʿī lodges. The panel itself is known through a photograph in the archive of the architect and restorer Ali Saim Ülgen, shown in the 2013 exhibition Modern Türkiye'nin Osmanlı Mirasını Keşfi.
III. The Üsküdar Âsitâne
The central Rifāʿī lodge of Istanbul carried its own inscriptions: a verse inscription of 1145 (1732) over the main gate, now lost; Qur'an 29:57, “Every soul shall taste death,” in ta‘līq on the arch above the window by the tomb of Yusuf Rıza Efendi; and İsmâil Dede's naskh panels in the tomb. Its prayer-niche was furnished in the Rifāʿī manner, with the Pîr's double banner on the side walls. The lodge's ceremony was painted by Albert Aublet and by Fausto Zonaro.
IV. The panels at Merkez Efendi
Kenan Rifâî is buried in the courtyard of the Merkez Efendi mosque. In the same complex, at the head of Merkez Efendi's cenotaph, hangs — or hung in 2007 — a large panel of Kenan Rifâî's poem in the hand of his student Aziz Efendi; a companion panel was made for Sünbül Efendi.