Plaques

Plaques and plates are works of art that contain verses from the Quran, the hadiths of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and couplets by poets written in Arabic, Persian and Turkish that praise Prophet Muhammad. They can be intended for use in houses or offices - these tend to be small in size - or they can be intended specifically for use in mosques with larger characters and in different styles, including jali sulus, jali taliq, and jali divani.

These plaques sometimes contain only words of praise for Prophet Muhammad, but they mostly include short verses and hadiths that function as aphorisms. Many of the plaques written in the jali style are written with gold, instead of ink; the latter is known as the zarandud style. The best examples of these works were given by a master calligrapher called Sami Efendi, who was an expert in the jali style. These works contain verses that talk about Prophet Muhammad, his own aphorismic sayings, the "Qalima al- Tawheed", the "Qalima al- Shahada", the words "Allah" and "Muhammad", names of Prophet Muhammad, and the names of the members of his family (Ahl al- Bayt), as well as literary texts that contain expressions of love, loyalty and praise for him.