Ahmet Kutluhan

Ahmet Kutluhan was born in Kastamonu in 1975. He graduated from the Faculty of Theology at Marmara University in 1997. In 1996, he started working as a mufti in Istanbul during his study at Marmara University. In 1997, he became an imam in the Büyükçekmece, Gürpınar Mosque. In 2000, he was transferred to Şişli Halil Paşa Mosque.

Kutluhan started learning rik’a script when he was a high school student. During studying, he pursued his calligraphy work, and completed rik’a script. In 1992, he learned sülüs and nesih scripts from the master Hasan Çelebi. In 1998, Kutluhan obtained his professional license from Davud Bektaş in a ceremony, which was organized by Prof. Dr. Ekmelettin İhsanoğlu, at IRCICA. Kutluhan continued learning celi divani and tali’k scripts from Prof. Ali Alparslan. After the death of Prof. Alparslan, Kutluhan has continued learning tali’k script from Hasan Çelebi. Kutluhan has participated more than 30 group exhibitions. In 2005, he had his first solo exhibition with illumination artists Güher Erk, Dilek Selamet and Murat Selamet in the Kadıköy Seven Art Gallery. He has written much calligraphy for various mosques such as Kastamonu Tosya Özboyu village mosque, Gaziantep Ibrahim Akın mosque, Izmit Akarca mosque, Zeytinburnu Sümer mosque, Şişli Ayazağa Şerife Bacı mosque (on the wooden doors), Turkmenistan Mary Baş mosque. Kutluhan currently continues to work as an imam, and writes calligraphy at his workshop in Istanbul. He also teaches calligraphy at the Üsküdar Foundation of History and Nature. 

Reference: hattatahmet.com, kalemguzeli.org, istanbulunustalari.com, İstanbul’un Ustaları (Istanbul: İstanbul 2010 Avrupa Kültür Başkenti, 2010), p. 89.