Kazasker Mustafa Izzet Efendi

Mustafa Izzet Efendi (1801–76) was an accomplished musician and Qur'an reciter who studied calligraphy with Yesarizade Mustafa Izzet, from whom he took the pen name Izzet, and served as chief judge (kazasker) of Anatolia. ^{2 3}

His most famous works are the eight roundels designed in 1859 to hang below the dome inside the congregational mosque converted from the great church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Written in gold thuluth jali on an ultramarine ground, they contain the names of God, Muhammad, the four caliphs, and Hasan and Husayn. The largest of their type, they measure eight metres across, with strokes some 35 cm wide that must have been enlarged by squaring. Smaller versions survive on pasteboard and wood, the gold letters on the wooden ones carved in relief to catch the light. ^{1 4}

Blair cites a calligraphic specimen by Shaykh Hamdallah published beside a close copy by Mustafa Izzet, the two scripts virtually identical — evidence that later calligraphers practised by copying Hamdallah's hand. The Khalili Collection holds two specimens by him dated 1288/1871–2 and 1291/1874–5. ^{5 6}