The Dulos stamps of the Ottoman Empire (1865-1882) are fascinating classic stamps; they are exotic, quite beautiful and of great interest for their “overprints.”
They have been the subject of intensive philatelic investigation, particularly in the first half of the twentieth century.[1] The literature, however, has shown remarkably little interest in the people who created these stamps. The stamps have long been known as the “Duloz” stamps, not after the artist who designed them as one might assume, but instead after the individual who engraved them using a chemical process of his own invention, and even then his name is misspelled. “M. Duloz’s” full name and identity, moreover, were unknown in the philatelic world until 2011. The name of the artist who designed the stamps has been almost as obscure. He is not named in catalogs, important books on Turkish stamps or in the lengthy technical philatelic articles about the issue. In 1938, the leading expert on Turkish stamps, Adolph Passer, stated “The name of the designer is unknown.”[2] In fact, the artist had been mentioned in a popular Turkish magazine published in 1911. The artist’s first identification in the philatelic literature, however, was published by one of the present authors in 2001.[3]
The Dulos stamps
The Dulos stamps, the second design of stamps of the Ottoman Empire, were issued from 1865 to 1882. See Figure 1. The stamps have a colored background and a black “overprint”[4] (brownish shades on the postage dues). The background consists of a central oval, bordered in pearls, in which there is a star with rays above a crescent. The values, written in Arabic numerals, appear in circles in the four corners. Around the central oval there is a larger oval band filled with an intricate arabesque pattern of stylized plant stems and leaves. Larger stylized floral designs appear in the oval adjacent to the values. There are two different backgrounds, one for the lower values and another for the 5 and 25 piastres values. See Figures 2–3.[5] The overprint is placed over the oval band and contains Turkish words written in Arabic script. See Figure 4. These read, from top, right and left, “Devleti,” “Posta-i” and “Osmaniyye,” or “Post of the Ottoman State.” The bottom words are the denomination, e.g., “yirmi para” or “twenty paras.”[6]
During the period the stamps were produced, the background designs remained the same, but the colors were changed a number of times. In addition, the overprint was repeatedly changed but the words remained the same. Philatelists have identified five or six major overprint versions and several minor variants. [7]
The printing plates were origİnally engraved in Paris by a French engraver, chemist and inventor, Pierre Edelestand Stanislas Dulos, where the first two printings were made by the Poitevin firm.[8] Later printings were done in Constantinople. But who designed these classic stamps and was responsible for their beautiful calligraphy?
The Artist
This question was answered in 1911 by Tevfik Ebüzziya, a popular Turkish journalist, in a self-published periodical called Mecmua-i Ebüzziya or “Ebüzziya’s Magazine.”[9] In the issue for June 15, 1911, he published an article about a competition to design postage stamps titled “Osmanlı Posta Pulları” (Ottoman Postage Stamps). In the article he stated:
Our first postage stamps were issued during the Sultan Abdülaziz’s reign. At that time, since we were not as advanced in engraving and printing processes, the stamps were printed with the words “Posta-i Devleti Aliyye-i Osmaniyye” (The Great Ottoman State Post) inside a crescent on thin and transparent paper using the lithography printing process.
The Sultan did not like these stamps with designs which did not look much different from the designs on Ottoman coins. As the leading expert of his times in the art of calligraphy and engraving, Vahdeti Şevket Bey was called upon by the Sultan to create the plates for new stamps based on his own drawings which were sent to London to be presented to Vahdeti Şevket Bey.
Abdülaziz, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1861 to 1876, made a number of modernizations of the nation following Western advances, including constructing the first railroads and introducing postage stamps. His tughra (calligraphic monogram or seal) appears on the first issue of stamps of the Empire. He was interested in Western literature, composed music, and as we have seen here, was interested in stamp design and drew sketches for a new issue of stamps. Perhaps copies of these drawings still survive in government archives. Although Passer was not aware of who designed the Dulos stamps, he perceived that the Ottoman government was “probably dissatisfied” with the domestically lithographed tughra stamps in comparison to the “well-executed stamps of other countries.”[10] In having the stamps engraved and printed in Paris, Turkey followed the example of its neighbor Greece, which had its first stamps produced there.
Şevket Vahdeti
Mehmet Şevket Vahdeti Bey – “Bey” is a title roughly equivalent to “gentleman”; “Mehmet,” sometimes “Mehmed,” is a variant of “Mohammed” – was born in Constantinople. His birth year is uncertain; most record it as 1249/1833, but one important source says that it was the last Islamic month of 1249, which would equate to April/May 1834. [11] He became one of the most famous hattatlar or calligraphers of his time. A photograph of Vahdeti is shown as Figure 5. [12] İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal İnal devoted a chapter to Vahdeti in his “Son Hattatlar” or “The Last Calligraphers,” a comprehensive collection of biographies of important Turkish calligraphers.[13] More recently, Vahdeti was included in “Osmanlı Hat Sanatı Tarihi” or “History of Ottoman Calligraphy.”[14] The following is based primarily on İnal’s biography.
Vahdeti’s father was Hacı Nuri Efendi, an Ottoman government official in Anatolia, who died when Vahdeti was only 13. Vahdeti reportedly taught himself to read and write. He first studied calligraphy as an apprentice under Sâlîh Ferdi Efendi, completing his studies in 1262/1846. He continued his studies under Mustafa İzzet Efendi, a famous calligrapher and military judge. When he was 14, he obtained a position at the Divan-ı Hümayun (the Imperial Council) and later worked at the Mühimme Kalemi (Recorder’s Office), one of the important offices of the Imperial Council. He continued the study of calligraphy under Osman Recai Efendi, a teacher at the Hagia Sophia, obtaining a diploma in 1277/1861.
Vahdeti achieved fame by writing a decree appointing Süleyman Şevket Pasha to Vizier in which every line was written in a different color of gold. The decree was written in the Celî Divanî style. “Calligraphers excelling in this script were members of an elite cadre within the Ottoman bureaucracy.”[15] Şevket Pasha praised his ability to the Grand Vizier Reşid Pasha of the Sultan’s council who promoted Vahdeti to the position of head clerk at the Imperial Council. Vahdeti could write at a master level in 18 calligraphic styles.
Besides calligraphy, Vahdeti was skilled in painting and engraving. The Sultan Abdülaziz sent him a large piece of emerald on which he engraved the sultan’s tughra and a long inscription in the form of a crescent. When in Paris, he presented the Emperor Louis Napoleon and Empress Eugénie with cufflinks on which he had engraved their names in calligraphic monograms. He was also an accomplished musician, playing a 72–string Qanun, a zither or harp of the Near East.
Vahdeti married the daughter of İsazade Sadüdin Efendi, a mullah and relative of Ebussuud Efendi, the head of religious affairs. Unfortunately, her name is not provided by İnal. Vahdeti, however, led the life of a young artist, pursuing alcohol and women. His grandson, Mehmed Süud, better known as Süüdülmevlevî, also a calligrapher as well as a poet [16], told the following story about him:
[Vahdeti] enjoyed the pleasures of life a lot and one night, when he was at Rızapaşa Yokuşu [a street in Constantinople], he visited a brothel and after a while he thought that the locals intended to storm the place (which was assumed to be a sinful place) and heard them shouting “a man with beard has entered the house” and when he heard this, he took out his knife in his pocket and cut his beard off in a hurry and when he saw these people approaching the house he left through the back door. Because there was no place to escape to, he jumped into a large empty barrel standing in front of the shop of a water seller next to this house. The barrel fell over, and it was a cold night and the ground was icy and the barrel rolled over to the end of the hill and hit a wall and the barrel broke apart.
He was wounded and bruised. When his family asked what had happened to his beard at a friend’s house, he replied, “The candle hit my face, and my beard disappeared in that instant.” His face was wrapped in a piece of cloth. As he did not have the courage to go to the office without a beard, he claimed to be sick and stayed at home for days until his beard started to grow long again. After his beard reached a certain length, he found it appropriate to leave his house and returned to work at the office.[17]
Although this story may well be embellished, Vahdeti’s excesses were real and took their toll, giving him cirrhosis of the liver and a distended abdomen, a condition known as ascites. He died on April 13, 1871 (22 Muharram, the first Islamic month of 1288) at the age of only 37. He is buried in an ornate tomb at the Ebussuud Medresesi (Moslem Theological School) in Istanbul with an epigraph he engraved himself in the Celi Sülüs style.[18]
Several calligraphic works by Vahdeti are shown here. Figure 6 is a Levha or calligraphic Panel signed by Vahdeti and dated 1270/1853-54. [19] Vahdeti thus would have been about 20 years old when he created this work. Figure 7 is a similar panel with a decorative border dated 1281/1864-65. [20] Figure 8 is an undated calligraphic panel in Thuluth and Naskh scripts. [21]
Thuluth (Sülüs in Turkish) is a beautiful and elegant script with letters slightly sloping, developed in the 10th-11th centuries and used over the years for religious texts and monumental inscriptions on mosques.[22] The Thuluth script, along with the Naskh, were particularly favored by the Ottomans.[23] The calligraphy on the 1865 Dulos stamps appears to be in the Thuluth style.
Artists like Vahdeti were trained not only in calligraphy, but also in painting the backgrounds on which their writing appears. For example, Figure 9 shows script on a delicate and ornate background made by Vahdeti. [24] Figure 10 is another decorative panel he created. [25] Vahdeti thus was well qualified to produce both the background and the calligraphic overprint on the Dulos stamps.
İnal lamented that Vahdeti “would have served the world of arts better with his many beautiful works,” which would not have been so limited in number “if he didn’t die at a very young age and lived longer, and didn’t damage his body drinking too much alcohol [and having] long nights of entertainment and other adventures of the heart.” [26]
Currency, stamps and stock certificates
İnal tells us that the Grand Vizier Reşid Pasha sent Vahdeti “twice to London and Paris to supervise the design and printing of [Ottoman] postage stamps, share certificates and banknotes.” [27] Unfortunately, he does not supply those dates. İnal added that a friend of his, Riza Saffet Bey (Mehmed Süud’s father), wrote in his memoirs that Vahdeti did the calligraphy on the five medjidies banknote.
We do know that Vahdeti was in Paris some time prior to August 18, 1864. A letter of that date, from William Lander, London Director of the Ottoman Bank, to Edward Gilbertson, Assistant Director-General of the bank in Istanbul, concerned the preparation of stock certificates for the bank. In 1864, the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul was preparing formal stock certificates reflecting ownership in the bank to replace provisional certificates. The new certificates were to be printed by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. in London. Vahdeti, then in Paris, was commissioned to translate the French and English text into Turkish for use on the certificates, “he being considered the caligraph No. 1 in the Turkish service.” [28] Turkish text written by Vahdeti for the stock certificates, in the Thuluth style, is shown in Figure 11.[29] Sometime before August 1864, an issue arose regarding the correctness of the Turkish text, by which time Vahdeti had left Paris.
On September 9 of that year, Lander wrote Gilbertson, in Constantinople, stating that he was sending the plates of the stock certificates and a banknote for them to complete the translation into (correct) Turkish and the engraving. The plates were then to be returned to London for final work and printing.[30] The banknote plate was for the five gold medjidies banknote, equal to 500 piastres, issued by the Ottoman Bank. See Figure 12. [31] Vahdeti is responsible for the calligraphy on that banknote. Although work began on that banknote in 1864, it was first issued in 1868. [32] Other evidence supports Vahdeti being in Paris in 1864. Westoby tells us that “Early in the year 1864 it was an open secret in Paris that a new series [of Turkish stamps] was being manufactured there …”[33] Since Vahdeti “oversaw” their printing, presumably he met and worked with the engraver, Pierre Dulos, in Paris, sometime in 1864.
Ebüzziya tells us that, while in London, Vahdeti received the Sultan’s proposals for the new stamps from which he prepared the fİnal designs. The Tughra stamps had been issued in 1863–1864 and the first Dulos stamps were issued on January 13, 1865. [34] Vahdeti thus may have been in London in 1864.
There is, in addition, some evidence that Vahdeti was in London or Paris in 1862 as well. The letters discussed above from August and September 1864 concerned the preparation of definitive stock certificates for Ottoman Bank shares. Those certificates were to replace provisional certificates, which had been issued when the bank was formed in late January 1863. The Turkish calligraphy on the provisional certificates is reproduced in a book on the bank’s archives and is nearly identical to that on the five gold medjidies banknote that Vahdeti designed.[35] See Figure 13, comparing the word “Devleti” on the provisional certificates with that on the banknotes.
It thus appears that the Ottoman Bank officials in London origİnally engaged Vahdeti to draw the calligraphy for the provisional share certificates, which must have occurred in 1862 since the certificates were issued in January 1863. If this is correct, presumably Vahdeti was then in London or Paris, since the bank found him not “accessible” when in Turkey. [36]
How secure is this attribution?
Researching the history of 150-year-old stamps is a difficult endeavor. Information typically is scarce, scattered among obscure publications and often unclear or outright conflicting. Add to this the habit of philatelists to repeat as gospel statements they find in earlier publications without confirmation, and one can appreciate the treacherous nature of such research. Here, we have several additional problems. One, that little attention has been given in philatelic literature to the artists who created the stamps. Two, that much of the critical information here is in Turkish (some even in Arabic script), a language and script that the principal author cannot read. And three, there is no information on what, if anything, may lie in Turkish government archives.
The attribution to Vahdeti primarily rests on the statement by Ebüzziya that “Vahdeti Şevket Bey was called upon by the Sultan to create the plates for new stamps based on his own drawings which were sent to London to be presented to Vahdeti Şevket Bey.” Although we know that Dulos, and not Vahdeti, actually “create[d] the plates” for the stamps, we should not focus too much on the literal words; there is independent evidence that Vahdeti worked on currency and stamps in Paris and possibly London.
So, who was Tevfik Ebüzziya? Ebüzziya (1849-1913) was the “most important Ottoman publisher in the late nineteenth century.” He was a true renaissance man: intellectual, playwright, calligrapher, magazine and book publisher and author of a great variety of works, including an Ottoman dictionary, grammar studies, and a Jewish history as well as editor of the first modern literary anthology in Turkey. [37]
This leads us to ask where did Ebüzziya get his information? After all, he was writing in 1911 about events occurring some 45 years earlier. Ordinarily we might despair of ever finding an answer to such a question, but here we fortunately are presented with the likely answer. İnal tells us in a footnote that Tevfik Ebüzziya was the cousin of Mehmed Süud, who was Vahdeti’s grandson and the source of İnal’s tale of Vahdeti’s wild night out.[38] Moreover, Ebüzziya and Süud may have had an additional connection as they were both calligraphers. Ebüzziya thus had several connections who could have supplied him with information about Vahdeti.
İnal provides additional facts tying Vahdeti to the stamps, not mentioned by Ebüzziya – that Vahdeti went twice to both London and Paris to work on stamps, currency and stock certificates. As we have seen, independent evidence corroborates that Vahdeti was in Paris in 1864 and in London or Paris in 1862 working on stock certificates and currency, activities then closely connected with the production of stamps. [39]
There are a few additional pieces of evidence that should be mentioned to be complete, although they add little. There are a series of essays which resemble the Dulos stamps and have an overprint that appears identical to that on the 1865 stamps, which Passer believed were by the same designer and engraver. [40] See Figure 14. The center of the oval, with the star and crescent, is very close to the Dulos stamps. In contrast with the background of the Dulos stamps, however, which is hand drawn, these essays have intricate engine-turned designs in the oval band and leafy designs in the corners. However, the machine-made background is nothing like the Dulos stamps, nothing that Vahdeti could have produced himself and certainly nothing that could have been produced then in Turkey. Such sophisticated machine work may have been a product of the Poitevin firm in Paris as Yardley suggested. [41] The fact that the overprint is that of the 1865 stamps indicates these date from the same time and raises the possibility that the Poitevin firm might have played some part in designing the Dulos stamps also.[42]
Besides these enigmatic essays, we are left only with a mere wisp. Passer tells us that a stamp catalog Nicolaidès published in Paris in 1912 stated that “the designs (modèle) of the stamps had been prepared by the Turkish Ministry of Finance.” [43] Because Passer felt the stamps had a “distinct oriental character,” he found this statement “credible.” Elsewhere, however, Passer inconsistently stated that “the designer, engraver, and printer” had all been “employed in Paris.”[44] Yardley criticized Nicolaidès’ use of the word “modèle” and found his discussion of the Dulos stamps’ history “remarkable for the omission of reference to the parts played by M. Duloz and the firm of Poitevin.”[45] The evidence supports that Vahdeti designed the stamps and there is nothing to indicate that he was connected with the Ministry of Finance or that the ministry had anything to do with designing the stamps.
Finally, we should consider whether there is evidence in the stamps themselves that bears on our question.
The Dulos stamps have a very general similarity in their design to the early stamps of France and Greece, created in Paris by French artists. Those stamps had a central circular image of a mythical symbol – Ceres and Hermes, respectively – surrounded by pearls. The Dulos stamps use an oval in which appears the country’s symbol of star and crescent, also surrounded by pearls. Could this similarity be evidence the stamps were in fact designed by French artists? Perhaps, but this just as well could have resulted from Sultan Abdülaziz or Vahdeti using those stamps as models.
There is one other aspect of the stamps we should consider. They incorporate arabesque patterns and stylized floral designs that do not particularly resemble Vahdeti’s known works. Those instead contain representational images of flowers. Abstract floral designs, however, are traditional Turkish patterns which Vahdeti would have been well familiar with. [46]
Conclusion
Şevket Vahdeti, one of the greatest Turkish calligraphers of his time, was responsible for the design and calligraphy of the 1865 Dulos stamps, based on sketches by Sultan Abdülaziz. [47] Vahdeti’s design was used by Pierre Dulos, master engraver, to create the plates for production of those stamps. Vahdeti should be accorded the recognition he has long deserved for creating one of the most beautiful and exotic issues of the classic period of stamps.
Note on dates
Dates in the sources used are in the Islamic or Hijri calendar. That calendar contains 12 lunar months totaling 354 days. As a result, the start of the Hijri year drifts throughout the western or Gregorian calendar. On line date converters permit rapid calculation of the corresponding dates, but sometimes are one day off.[48] Islamic years usually overlap western years. For example, Islamic year 1249 corresponds to May 21, 1833 to May 10, 1834. Sources often cite dates with both years such as “1249/1833,” which we use here. Whether the western year is correct in such instances, however, depends on whether the author knew the specific day (or at least month) of the event and made a correct calculation. Since we do not know if that was done, we cannot be certain if the western year is correct in such cases. Where there is only an Islamic year, we cite the date as “1249/1833-34.”
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Richard Rose (ONEPS), Dr. Andreas Birken, Baasil Wilder (National Postal Museum) and Mustafa Er.
[1] Important studies of the Dulos stamps include Adolf Passer, The Stamps of Turkey (London: The Royal Philatelic Society 1938), pp. 23-75; R.B. Yardley, “Notes on the Adhesive Postage and Postage Due Stamps of Turkey of the Duloz Type, Particularly of the 10 Paras, the 5 Piastres, and the 25 Piastres Denominations,” The London Philatelist, serialized beginning Vol. 41, p. 199 (Sept. 1932) and ending Vol. 42, p. 273 (Dec. 1933); R.B. Yardley, “Notes on the Adhesive Postage and Postage Due Stamps of Turkey of the Duloz Type, a Correction,” The London Philatelist, Vol. 45 (Feb. 1936), p. 31; Col. C.E. Wilson & Col. O.K. Tancock, “The Overprints on the Issues of Turkey 1865-76,” The London Philatelist, Vol. 40, p. 194 (Sept. 1931) & p. 249 (Nov. 1931); Arthur Linz, “The Stamps of Turkey, Reviewed in 1954,” The London Philatelist, Vol. 63, pp. 79, 97 & 126 (May-July 1954). Earlier studies are noted and summarized in Yardley, supra, Vol. 41, pp. 201-204. For more recent studies, see Willy Pijnenburg, “The ISFILA Specialized Turkish Stamp Catalogue, Part 2 (2008)/Some Notes on the Duloz/Dulos Emissions 1865-1868,” OPAL (London: Oriental Philatelic Association of London 2015), Vol. 231, p. 22; [Max Plantinga], The Duloz Issues of Turkey 1865-1887 formed by Max Plantinga, F.R.P.S.L. (Geneva: David Feldman SA 2009); and Ziya Ağaoğulları & Bülent Papuçcoğlu, İsfila, Spesiyalize Türk Pullari Kataloğu/Specialized Turkish Stamps Catalogue, Bölüm II/Part II, Ayyıldızlı Pullar (Duloz)/Star & Crescent (Duloz) Stamps (İstanbul: İsfila A.Ş. 2008) (“İsfila Duloz Catalogue”).
[2] Passer, supra, p. 23.
[3] Kaan Ertem, “About Ser-Sikkeken Abdülfettah Efendi: Designer of the Tughra Stamps,” OPAL No. 202, pp. 46-56 (2001), online (with minor changes) at http://www.sariucak.com/articles/toughradesigner.html (accessed Mar. 1, 2014). Ertem authored an expanded version in Türkiye Filateli Dernekleri Federasyonu, Türk Pulculuğu, no. 33 (Sept. 2008), pp. 44-51.
[4] It has been pointed out that the printed script is not technically an “overprint” in the philatelic sense of printing added to pre-existing stamps, since it is an integral part of the stamps themselves. See Wilson & Tancock, supra, p. 195.
[5] These beautiful images were prepared by Andreas Birken for his “The Truth about the Duloz Type,” OPAL No. 180 (Apr. 1993), pp. 4-7, and are reproduced here by permission.
[6] Passer, supra, p. 46.
[7] Id., Plates 13-14; İsfila Dulos Catalogue, supra, pp. iii-xx.
[8] See Farley P. Katz, “Dulos, not Duloz: Pierre Edelestand Stanislas Dulos (1820-1874),” The Levant, Vol. 6, no. 3 (Sept. 2011), p. 37, reprinted with revisions, OPAL, No. 229 (May 2012), p. 22, reprinted with further revisions, Collectors Club Philatelist, Vol. 94, no. 2 (Mar.-April 2015), p. 99.
[9] Tevfik Ebüzziya, Mecmua-i Ebüzziya, no. 100 (Thursday, 18 Cemaziyelahir 1329), pp. 692-696. Cemaziyelahir is the Turkish name for the sixth Islamic month, Jumada II. Online date converters produce June 16, 1911, a Friday. However, since we know the journal was published on a Thursday, we can confirm the date was June 15, 1911. See Note on Dates, at end.
[10] Passer, supra, pp. 23, 51.
[11] Mahmud Kemal İnal, Son Hattatlar(Istanbul: Maarif Basımevi 1955), p. 434 stated that Vahdeti was born in the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar 1249. See Note on Dates, at end.
[12] From K. Faik, (Musavver) Nevsal-i Asır / Sahib ve Naşiri(Istanbul: Asır Matbaası, 1315 [1899]), Plate 46, available online at http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003599291 (accessed Mar. 1, 2014).
[13] İnal, Son Hattatlar(Istanbul: Maarif Basımevi, 1955), pp. 434-441.
[14] Ali Alparslan, Osmanlı Hat Sanatı Tarihi (Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2012), pp. 80, 139, 195, excerpts online at http://www.islamicmanuscripts.info/reference/books/Alparslan-2007/Alparslan-2007-070-085.pdf and http://www.islamicmanuscripts.info/reference/books/Alparslan-2007/Alparslan-2007-190-215.pdf (accessed Mar. 3, 2014).
[15] Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, “Leaf of divani calligraphy, dated 1075 a.h./1644 a.d.”, online at http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1986.216.1 (accessed Feb. 25, 2015).
[16] On Mehmed Suud (2 Rajab 1299 (May 20, 1882) - 1367 /1948), see his biography at Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı - İslam Araştırmaları Merkezi (Turkish Department of Religious Affairs Foundation - Center for Islamic Studies) online at http://www.tdvia.org/dia/ayrmetin.php?idno=370579 (accessed Feb. 28, 2015).
[17] İnal, supra, p. 440 n.2, translation by Mustafa Er.
[18] See Şinasi Acar, Ünlü Hattatların Mezarları (İstanbul: Gözen Kitap ve Yayınevi, 2004), pp. 88-89, online at http://isamveri.org/pdfdkrn/l3/DKM130788.pdf (accessed Feb. 25, 2015).
[19] Christie’s sale, “Arts of Islam”, South Kensington (Oct. 5, 2012), Lot 645.
[20] Alif Art Antikacılık A.Ş., Müzayede: Cenap Yazansoy Hat Koleksiyonu (Auction: Cenap Yazansoy Calligraphy Collection) (Istanbul Mar. 8, 2015), No. 48, p. 57, online at http://lebrizimages.com/img/glrs/0369/web/muz0873/html/muz0873.html#4 (accessed Mar. 1, 2015).
[21] Alif Art Antikacılık A.Ş., Müzayede: Osmanlı ve Karma Sanat Eserleri (Auction: Ottoman and European Works of Art) (Istanbul Feb. 19, 2012) (catalog), p. 54, no. 87, online at http://lebrizimages.com/img/glrs/0369/web/muz0648/html/files/assets/seo/p54.html (accessed Feb. 25, 2015).
[22] See Adam Gacek, Arabic Manuscripts: A Vademecum for Readers (Leyden: Brill 2009)
[23] See Nassar Mansour, Sacred Script: Muhaqqaq in Islamic Calligraphy (London & New York: LB. Tauris 2011), p. 187.
[24] Alif Art Antikacılık A. Ş., Jessie Eskenazi Benardete Koleksiyonu Müzayedesi (Auction, Jessie Eskenazi Benardete Collection) (Istanbul Mar. 6, 2011) (catalog), no. 19, online at http://www.alifart.com/pPages/pAlifart.aspx?pmID=15&lang=TR§ion=4&aucID=552&sanID=7689&katID=0&bhcp=1 (accessed Jan. 2, 2013).
[25] From Alparslan, supra, p. 80.
[26] İnal, supra, p. 440, translation by Mustafa Er.
[27] Id., p. 435.
[28] This letter is reproduced and transcribed in Edhem Eldem, A 135-Year-Old Treasure/Glimpses from the Past in the Ottoman Bank Archives (Istanbul: Osmanlı Bankası 1998), pp. 44-45.
[29] Id., p. 49.
[30] Id., p. 46.
[31] Proof of the 5-lira banknote from the First Emission. (Photo via Mehmet S. Tezcakin Photo Archive), Koray Erdoğan, Who was the hidden genius behind Ottoman banknotes?, Türkiye Today, online at https://www.turkiyetoday.com/culture/who-was-hidden-genius-behind-ottoman-banknotes-3201349 (accessed on September 20, 2026).
[32] See Mehmet Gaciroğlu, Devlet-i Aliyye-i Osmaniyye, Kağıt Para Kataloğu/Banknotes of the Ottoman Empire (n.p. 2011), p. 255 ff.
[33] W. A. S. Westoby, The Adhesive Postage Stamps of Europe (London: L. Upcott Gill 1900), Vol. II, p. 388.
[34] Passer, supra, p. 23.
[35] Eldem, supra, p. 48.
[36] Id., p. 44.
[37] See Özgür Türesay, “An Almanac for Ottoman Women,” in Duygu Köksal & Anastasia Falierou (eds.), A Social History of Late Ottoman Women: New Perspectives (Leiden & Boston: Brill 2013), pp. 225, 232-234.
[38] Mehmed Suud was “the son of the aunt of… Tevfik Bey.” İnal, supra, p. 441. İnal also implied that Ebüzziya and Suud had been raised together, but that is not possible.
[39] Bradbury Wilkinson, for example, produced banknotes, postage stamps and share certificates.
[40] Passer, supra, p. 62; İsfila Duloz Catalogue, supra, p. xxi; Yardley, supra, Vol. 41, p. 227.
[41] Yardley, supra, Vol. 41, pp. 271-272.
[42] There is a second series of essays which are included in the İsfila Duloz Catalogue (p. xxi), but which have little resemblance to the Duloz stamps and appear to be later productions.
[43] Passer, supra, p. 23. See N.S. Nicolaides, Timbres-Poste Timbres Locaux & Timbres Fiscaux de Turquie (Paris: N.S. Nicolaides 1912), p. 1, quoted in Yardley, supra, Vol. 42, pp. 277-278.
[44] Passer, supra, p. 62, emphasis supplied.
[45] Yardley, supra, Vol. 42, pp. 277-278.
[46] See, e.g., David J. Roxburgh, Turks, A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600-1600 (London: Royal Academy of Arts 2005), pp. 233, 239, 318, 342-343.
[47] As noted above, the calligraphic overprint on the stamps was changed a number of times beginning in 1867. There were reports that stamps of the 1865 issue had been stolen and were being sold in Paris under face. There also was a fire at the Turkish Post Office in Constantinople in 1868 that may have destroyed plates sent from Paris. See Yardley, supra, Vol. 41, pp. 200, 203 & Vol. 42, pp. 11-12. The initial changes may have been related to these events, but I have found nothing suggesting why later changes were made. In any event, there is no indication that Vahdeti was responsible for any of the changed overprints, several of which are plainly inferior to his work. The fİnal overprint in 1876, however, is a beautiful version with many tiny ornaments interspersed within the script and is worthy of Vahdeti, but he had been dead for five years by that time.
[48] See Hijri/Gregorian date converter at http://www.islamicfinder.org/dateConversion.php (accessed Feb. 23, 2015).
