When I first became interested in Ottoman history, there were still a few people around who had been born in the Ottoman Empire & many more who were born just after its political collapse, but who were nonetheless deeply steeped in its culture. I avidly sought out their company & listened to their stories. It was a beautiful culture, cosmopolitan & elegant – characteristics which continue to adorn its inheritors. In hidden corners, its refined beauty & cosmopolitan elegance still lives on. 

In 2019 I met Mohamed Zakariya at a party, where we spent most of the evening secluded in the kitchen discussing Ottoman poetry. He was particularly interested in interpreting a beautiful sixteenth century Ottoman distich, for which he was creating a calligraphic design. Amazed to meet someone so deeply steeped in Ottoman culture in Washington DC, I was honored and happy to develop a friendship with him. Eventually he invited me to try my hand at calligraphy, making the very convincing argument that it would enrich my interest in Ottoman manuscripts and Ottoman culture more broadly. Since then, I have been taking regular lessons with him in a number of scripts. At the same time, Mohamed Zakariya introduced me to a whole world of Ottoman arts and a vibrant artistic community in Istanbul. 

Eventually, through mutual calligraphy contacts, I met Omer Faruk. We quickly found that we shared many interests in common, in particular the intersection of art and spirituality. Out of our joint explorations of Ottoman mosques, Sufi lodges, cemeteries, as well as Istanbul’s artistic life, grew the idea for the Meetings with Masters program. The name conveniently encompasses and brings together the masters of spirituality with the masters of the arts, which is at the heart of the program.

Istanbul has been emerging as a global cultural and spiritual center. Both Omer Faruk and I had served as guides to many visitors from the US and Europe, who were attracted to Istanbul’s history and energetic spiritual and cultural life. Especially students and admirers of Ottoman-Islamic arts (calligraphy, ebru, illumination, geometric patterns, miniature painting, etc.), which have been growing in popularity in Europe and North America, were drawn to Istanbul, the center of it all. 

The time was ripe for a structured program, which would introduce students and admirers of the Ottoman arts to their natural setting. The real key to understanding these arts, we believe, is experiencing them in their natural context, which is Ottoman Istanbul. The Ottoman language of art was not divided into compartments. For instance, calligraphy and its architectural setting were designed together; or to put in another way, the architecture meant nothing without its calligraphic and geometric adornment, as that was a key part of the message. The same could be said about calligraphy’s relation to the various book arts, such as bookbinding, ebru and illumination. These artistic forms advanced with the same deliberate speed in the direction of beauty. Ottomans did not distinguish between words and art. Both were seen as the process of communicating and clarifying a unified overarching spiritual message.