Ottoman Floral Borders for Calligraphy with Azma Salman

Explore the beautiful Ottoman floral borders for ornamenting calligraphy, in this course supported by the Bagri Foundation.

Azma Salman will begin with elements and design principles for illuminating the borders of Islamic texts in the style of the Ottoman period. The Ottoman empire which for six centuries lay at the crossroads of Western and Eastern worlds (c.1300 – 1922), was a cradle of rich artistic exchanges which led to the blossoming of exquisite art forms and aesthetics. The style mixes geometric and floral motifs to create a continuous winding concentric pattern. Students will learn to design their own borders and to paint them using traditional painting techniques.

This course is part of the Bagri Foundation Open Programme at The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts which aims to expand the Asian arts courses at The School.

Azma Salman

Azma Salman is a visiting faculty member at the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan and has been teaching traditional Islamic art for the last seven years. She specialises in tezhib or illumination – an art form that is used to ornament verses of the Quran. She has been a regular visitor to Turkey where she continues to receive training in illumination from three present day masters: Ayten Tiryaki, Nilofer Kurfez and Emel Turkman. She holds a Masters of Arts in Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts from The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, London and a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the National College of Arts, Lahore.