Şah Kulu is the most well known muzehhip in Ottoman history, and we honor his contributions to the art by naming our apprenticeship program after him. As a practitioner during the reign of Sultan Süleyman, he benefited from generous royal patronage, which helped tezhip and many other arts reach their peak. He was a master of many skills, and developed new styles and techniques in tezhip, ceramics, and book binding. One of the decorative styles that characterized the court arts which he and his student Kara Memi developed is called saz, an ancient Turkish word used to define an enchanted forest.

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Apprenticeship is defined as "the method or process of gaining knowledge of a trade, art, or profession from the instruction of a master”. In this case, Tezhip is the trade, art, profession and devotional act, and the master is Fatma Hoca. Students who completed the Introduction class together will remain in their Group and will be given a name in honor of one of the great masters.  The students in each group travel together on this path, supporting and learning from one another, creating community and camaraderie, moving from semester to semester to master the skills according to their Hoca's instruction.  Apprenticeships will continue until “permission to teach” in the form of a certificate is given by the master to the apprentice.