Draft: this lesson was written with AI help and has not yet been read by a human editor.
1 What your class asks
This lesson asks you to name the knowledge and skills you gain in visual arts and how they apply in careers and other studies, and to research the pathways and the education that careers in visual arts need. The museum offers one craft: how a calligrapher was trained and licensed, and who practises the art today according to UNESCO. Pathways in Ontario and your own research are for your class. 1
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- B3.1 identify types of knowledge and skills acquired in visual arts […], and describe how they could be applied in a variety of careers and in various areas of study
- B3.2 identify, on the basis of research, a variety of secondary and postsecondary pathways and careers related to visual arts […] and the education required for these careers
2 The lesson
What does the learner practise, and what skill does it build?
List the steps of training in the record. Next to each, write the skill you think it builds, and ask where else that skill is used.
What does the path from learner to practitioner look like?
Draw the path the records describe. Then draw a path you found in your own research, and mark where they differ.
Go deeper
A calligraphy lesson was called meşk, "practice". The master wrote a model line, and the pupil copied it and showed it to him. If the master found a fault, he wrote the corrected letter or word beneath the line. If he approved the line, he set beneath it a mark of effort made from the letters sîn, ayn and yâ, or he wrote âferin, "well done" 2. Training had two stages: the letters one by one, then joined words. The first ended with a formula saying the letters were complete, the second with lines of verse 2. Imitation was the way in. A calligrapher entered his master's manner by copying an old master's piece exactly and saying so in his signature. Once he was secure, he wrote in his own manner 3.
How do we know?
The account of the lesson comes from the entry on calligraphers (Hattat) in the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, written by M. Uğur Derman, and the point about imitation from his entry on the art (Hat) 2 3. The record says the two entries read for it name no guild for calligraphers, so the guild part of the record waits for a source that names one 2. For who practises the art now, it turns to UNESCO, which listed Arabic calligraphy in 2021. UNESCO describes the practice as passed on through formal and informal education and apprenticeship, and practised by professional calligraphers, artists, designers, teachers and artisans, men and women alike 4.
Think about it
The old training asked a pupil to copy an old master's piece exactly before he wrote in his own manner. Is copying a master a good way to find your own style, and what is the strongest objection to your answer?
Into the museum
- The calligrapher: training and licence, workplaces, pay, and the practice today.
- Sami Efendi: one calligrapher's teachers and licences, year by year.
- Hasan Riza Efendi: schooled in the imperial band, and later a teacher of calligraphy.
Try this
Read the record of Calligrapher. Write the steps of training in order, and beside them the career or study area where each skill could be used.
3 Carry it further
Where this lesson leads in the museum.
4 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does Calligrapher (khattat) have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
Meşk: learning by copying and correcting. In the calligrapher's training, teaching is called meşk. The master writes a model line, the pupil copies it and shows it to him, and the master writes the corrected letter beneath any fault. Training has two stages, the letters one by one and then joined words. It usually begins in youth, but some began after fifty. What can a student learn by copying, correcting and copying again?
In your own words: what does Calligrapher (khattat) have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
Who practises Arabic calligraphy today. UNESCO placed Arabic calligraphy on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021. It describes the practice as transmitted through formal and informal education and through apprenticeship, and practised by professional calligraphers, artists, designers, teachers and artisans, men and women alike. Among its contemporary forms it names writing with markers and paint, and lettering on walls. Which of these paths could you follow?
I can now