This manuscript is a diploma/certificate (ijāzah) granted to the Ottoman calligrapher Muḥammad Ḥilmī Afandī (Mehmet Hilmi Efendi) in 1219 AH / 1804-5 CE by four master calligraphers: Yāzījī-zādah, Ismāʿīl al-Zuhdī Kātib al-Sarāy al-Sulṭānī, Muḥammad Ḥasīb, and ʿAlī al-Waṣfī. The main text, consisting of a quotation attributed to the Prophet Muhammad and extolling the virtue of elegantly writing the doxological formula (basmalah), "in the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful," is executed in thuluth and naskh scripts.
