Hamdullah underwent a period of reclusion during which time he claimed that a prophet taught him the new scripts in a vision.Schimmel, A. Rivolta, B., "Islamic Calligraphy", Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 50, no. 1, 1992, p. 21 He ultimately recodified and refined the nashk style of calligraphy, originally developed by Yaqut al-Musta'simi. Hamdullah's scripts were more elegant, balanced and legible. From 1500, the majority of Q'rans adopted Hamdallah's new style, which became known as the Ottoman style or "Seyh's manner'. For this, he is often considered to be the "father of Ottoman calligraphy".Türk ve İslâm Eserleri Müzesi, The Art of the Qurʼan: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 2016, p. 82 His many students spread his style throughout the Ottoman Empire.Ülker, M. فن الخط التركي بين الماضي والحاضر, (in Turkish and English), Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür, n.d., .p. 71 His style endured for 150 years, making him one of the greatest Ottoman calligraphers of all time.M. Uğur Derman, Letters in Gold: Ottoman Calligraphy from the Sakıp Sabancı Collection, Istanbul, N.Y., Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998, p. 19 As much as two centuries later, students of calligraphy such as Hâfiz Osman continued to copy his works assiduously as part of their training.Osborn, J.R., Letters of Light: Arabic Script in Calligraphy, Print, and Digital Design, Harvard University Press, 2017, [E-book edition], n.p.
