Mehmed Şefik Bey who is the Ottoman Traveler Penman, a student of es-Seyyid Kadıasker Mustafa İzzet Efendi

Mehmed (Muhammed) Şefik Bey (d.1880) was the most loved and succesfull student of Kazasker (Kadıasker) Mustafa Izzet Efendi, a most famous of all calligraphers musicians in 19th century of Istanbul. Mehmed Şefik Bey after acquiring his licence (ijazat) from his master to practice and teach the art of Islamic callgraphy, out of his love and respect he did part from his master and carried on practising calligraphy (meshk) under guidance and advice of his much loved master until his death and helped him producing his materpeices commisioned by Sultan Abdulmejid. His master also admired his talent and helped him to move to be a calligraphy teacher at the special Ottoman state colleges called Andarun inside the royal palace in Istanbul.Mehmed Şefik Bey worked as a part of the team, made up of his master Mustafa Izzet Efendi and his close friend and famous calligrapher Abdulfettah Efendi. They as a team produced many great and unpresidented calligraphic masterpieces at the portal of Istanbul University and Great Mosque of Bursa (1857-1860) as well as in many mosque buildings suponsored by Ottoman Sultan Abdulmajid and Abdulaziz. Mehmed Şefik Bey always wished to produce as beautiful and grand masterpieces (like his master did) and went through great strugle and sacrifices to achieve this. In this article, we will look into how he managed to achieve his ambition through his famous calligraphies in İstanbul, Great Mosque of Bursa and Kubbetu's-Sakhra in city of al-Quds (province of Ottoman Empire then). We will also discuss the issues around how his fortune changed following the death of his master in 1876 and how he was treated badly by his employers against his loyalty, as well as calligraphy art circles of Istanbul not caring about his artworks being reproduced through removing his signature, and not taking the necessary steps to stop his grave (located in the cemetry of Yahya Efendi Dargah in Istanbul) from being dismantled and lost.