The art of manuscript illumination, known as tezhip in Turkish and Arabic, includes gilding and painted-decorating the pages of a manuscript, calligraphic panels, calligraphic collage, and even the tughras. It is used not only for gold gilding but also for earth based dyes. The illumination done only with gold is called halkari. The artist of tezhip is called a müzehhib while the illuminated work is called müzehheb. It has been customary to illuminate all sorts of manuscripts and especially the books of poetry to be presented to the sultan, leading statesmen or dignitaries. Yet, the first and the last pages of Korans and the titles of the chapters are the most frequently illuminated. Sometimes illumination is done even between couplets in a book of poetry, edges and corners of pages, between lines of an already illuminated manuscript. The flower or star motifs used in place of periods at the end of the verses of Koran are also applied in tezhip technique. These motifs assume different names based on their forms: geometric shapes are called “mücevher nokta (bejeweled period),” six pointed ones are called “şeşhane nokta (six pointed period),” five pointed ones resembling flowers with five petals are called “pençberg (cinquefoil),” three pointed ones are called “seberg (trefoil)”. The rosette motifs, used for designating where to rest while chanting or where to prostrate, are amongst the main motifs of illumination. These also have varieties such as waqf (pious foundation), sejde (prostration), hizib (a chapter of Koran), aşir (ten verses of Koran), sura (a chapter of Koran) and juz (20 pages of Koran). The most important materials of illumination are the dyes and gold. In the old days, the earth based dyes with pastel colors were used mainly. Today ready chemical dyes are used. The gold dye is prepared by grinding the gold leaves and then blending it with gelatine. The design to be applied is transferred onto the paper by pouncing. Symmetrical designs are transferred in quarters while free designs are transferred at once. Once the gilding and painting are completed, the gold gilt parts are polished by using gold-shell. Such illuminations are called pesend (approbation) while the design is decorated with other dyes alongside gold are called painted halkari. A type of gilding is called zerefşan (gold sprinkling), which involves rubbing the brush dipped into gold against a wire mesh, and thus sprinkling it on to the surface.