| Yaqut al-Musta'simi ياقوت المستعصمي | |
| Birth Date: | Amaseia (modern-day Amasya, Turkey) |
| Death Date: | 1298 |
| Known For: | Islamic calligraphy |
| Patrons: | Al-Musta'sim |
Yaqut al-Musta'simi (Arabic: ياقوت المستعصمي) (died 1298) was a well-known calligrapher[1] [2] and secretary of the last Abbasid caliph.
He was probably of Greek origin in Amaseia and carried off when he was very young into slavery. Made into a eunuch, he was converted to Islam as Abu’l-Majd Jamal al-Din Yaqut, better known as Yaqut al-Musta‘simi because he served Caliph al-Musta‘sim, the last Abbasid caliph.[3]
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.[4] He studied with the female scholar and calligrapher, Shuhda Bint Al-‘Ibari, who was herself a student in the direct line of Ibn al-Bawwab.[5] 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.[6]
He refined and codified six basic calligraphic styles of the Arabic script.[7] Naskh script was said to have been revealed and taught to the scribe in a vision. He improved on Ibn Muqla's style by replacing the straight cut reed pen with an oblique cut, which resulted in a more elegant script.[8] He developed Yakuti, a handwriting named after him, described as a thuluth of "a particularly elegant and beautiful type."[9]
He taught many students, both Arab and non-Arab. His most celebrated students are Ahmad al-Suhrawardi and Yahya al-Sufi.[10]
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].[11]
His output was prolific. Although, he is said to have copied the Qur'an more than a thousand times,[12] problems with attributing his work, may have contributed to exaggerated estimates.[13] Other sources suggest that he produced 364 copies of the Q'ran.[14]