Ottoman tughra

Maryam Ekhtiar defines the Ottoman tughra as the sultan's calligraphic insignia: not his signature, since it is not written by his hand, but something like a logo representing his authority. It crowned official documents such as firmans in scroll form, endowment deeds and correspondence, as well as coins and other objects. The earliest tughras were plain; by the early sixteenth century and the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520–66) they had become highly elaborate. ¹

Süleyman's tughra at The Met (Istanbul, about 1555–60) follows the classic four-part form: three loops to the left, a plume of three upright shafts at the top, two horizontal arms to the right that merge, and at the bottom an intertwined inscription usually giving the sultan's name, his father's name and a wish that his reign endure. Each sultan after Orhan had his own tughra of these four elements, and a document bearing it was meant to convey authority. ² This one reads, "Süleyman, son of Selim Khan, ever victorious." ²

Tughras were not easily read or copied, so court artists, the tughrakeş, worked with an illuminator to draw them on important documents and adorn them with scrolls, in the chancery of the Topkapı Palace where firmans were written in divani. ² Beyond the Ottoman lands, the author notes a variant of tughra in bow-and-arrow forms on a mosque inscription in Bengal dated 905 AH/1500 CE. ³