Ottoman calligraphy
The Ottoman calligraphy is a regional development of the traditional Islamic calligraphy in the Ottoman Empire and is an important part of the culture of the Ottoman Empire . In the course of the expansion of the empire from the 15th century, calligraphy was promoted by the sultans in specialized court clerks. Like other arts and handicrafts cultivated in the Ottoman court manufactories, it served purely artistic purposes as well as the self-assurance and representation of the growing Ottoman Empire, which began in the middle of the 15th century with the conquest of Constantinople (1453) , the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate , established itself as a world power and dominant power in the Islamic world in the military and cultural confrontation with the Persian Empire and Western Europe during the Renaissance and later epochs.
Origins
According to the strict interpretation of the Islamic prohibition of images , the visual representation of people or animals is not allowed. Since the codification of the Koran by ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān in the year 651 AD / AH 19 and the reforms of the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān , Islamic art has focused particularly on decorative writing and ornament. Ibn Muqla , who lived in the 10th century, and his student Ibn al-Bawwab are considered the founders of Islamic calligraphy .
Among the six classical writing styles of Arabic calligraphy developed by Ibn Muqla, the artistic Thuluth and the chancellery fonts Taliq and Diwani were particularly common in the Ottoman Empire . The fonts were not only used in book art, but also as decorative ornaments in architecture or to adorn ceramics or metalwork. A stylized form of the Kufi script can often be found in the “pseudo-Kufic” main borders of Anatolian knotted carpets of the 16th century. The custom of using a pattern or ornament, once invented, to decorate a wide variety of materials is generally characteristic of Islamic art, including that of the Ottoman Empire.
Well-known calligraphers
Well-known Ottoman calligraphers were Şeyh Hamdullah , Ahmed Karahisari and Hâfız Osman . From the time of Mehmed II on, calligraphers were differentiated according to their function. The chancellery scribes ( munşi ) mainly used the chancellery scripts Taliq and Diwani , the artistic scribes, who owe the most famous works of Ottoman calligraphy, used the circular scripts Naschī , Muhaqqaq and the derived Raiḥān, Sülüs , and Reqa .
Tools
The paper used for calligraphy was traditionally coated with vegetable starch (" ahar ") in an adhesive resin, to which dyes were sometimes added to cover the surface with a non-absorbent primer. The paper was then smoothed using an egg-shaped straightener (usually made of glass). Paper pretreated in this way was also imported from Europe, preferably from Venice, but then mostly smoothed again to a high gloss until the surface looked similar to parchment . The classic nibs were made of reed, which was cut according to the planned calligraphy script. The cutting took place on a cutting mat (“ makta ”). These often artistically designed documents are sometimes referred to as a pen holder, the Turkish word means "something on which something is cut". The knives had handcrafted handles made of wood or ivory, the cutting pads made of bone, mother-of-pearl or ivory. Handcrafted in large numbers, writing sets consisting of scissors, knives and cutting pads were given away as gifts of honor in artistically designed containers.
Products
Koran manuscripts
Calligraphers who specialized in copying the Koran received the highest respect, since copying the Koran is one of the most meritorious pious exercises. Hâfız Osman, the greatest Ottoman calligrapher of the 17th century, is one of the most famous calligraphers in whose workshops lavishly decorated and illuminated copies of the Koran were made. Even after the conquest of the Mamluk Empire, the tradition of copying the Koran in the Ottoman Empire remained committed to the canons of the Persian schools, for example from Tabriz. The calligraphers in the area of the former Mamluk Empire were able to maintain their independent tradition in the Syro-Egyptian style of the 13th and 14th centuries well into the 16th century. This is characterized by stronger, monumentally proportioned versions of the Naschī , Muhaqqaq , Sülüs and Reqa .
Hilye-i Serif
Based on the calligraphy of Hâfız Osman, the Ottoman form of Hilye-i Şerif developed , which emphasizes the beauty of Muhammad's appearance and character and presents it in a visually appealing form. Such calligraphic works were often framed and hung as wall decorations in houses, mosques and shrines . As ornamental handwriting, they represented an aesthetically pleasing symbolic representation of the prophet without violating the controversial ban on images within Islam .
Tughra
The Ottoman tughra developed as the official, originally handwritten signature of the Ottoman sultans. It gave validity to the imperial letters, like a seal, and certified them. The tughras on it were - depending on the preference of the sultan and his time as well as the importance of the occasion and the addressee - simply executed or written with precious colors or painted and magnificently illuminated.
Vakıfname
Particularly valuable registers of religious foundations ("vakıfname") were usually produced in book form and emphasized the piety and social status of the donors.
Calligraphy in architecture
Calligraphic ornaments were widely used in Ottoman architecture . The Ottomans inherited from the previous Seldschukendynastie example to see a rich repertoire of architectural inscriptions in the porch of the Green Mosque in Bursa , in the transition from Seljuk to the early Ottoman period in the early 15th century by Sultan Mehmed I. was built. Further examples can be found on the inner facade of the great gate to the first courtyard of the Topkapı Palace , the Bab-i Humayun , built around 1465 under Mehmed II , as well as on the marble mosaics of the facade of the palace treasury and the Beyazıt mosque Bayezids II in Istanbul. In the course of the 16th century, inscriptions, mostly quotations from the Koran , were usually placed inside buildings. The most famous calligraphies in the interior of a mosque are the calligraphic Koranic inscriptions by Seyyid Kasim Gubari in the Sultan Ahmed Mosque , the interior of the Great Mosque of Bursa , which is decorated with monumental calligraphy , or the name plates in the main dome of the Hagia Sofia , which were made in the 19th century were made by Mustafa İzzet.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Çiğdem Kafescioğlu: The visual arts, in: Suraiya N. Faroqhi, Kate Fleet: The Cambridge History of Turkey, Vol. 2 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 2013, ISBN 978-0-521-62094-9 , pp. 457-547 .
- ^ JM Rogers: The chain of calligraphers. In: Empire of the Sultans. Ottoman art from the collection of Nasser D. Khalili . Azimuth Editions / The Noor Foundation, London 1995, ISBN 2-8306-0120-3 , pp. 230-251 .
- ^ JM Rogers: Two master calligraphers of the 16th century. In: Empire of the Sultans. Ottoman art from the collection of Nasser D. Khalili . Azimuth Editions / The Noor Foundation, London 1995, ISBN 2-8306-0120-3 , pp. 50 .
- ^ JM Rogers: The chain of calligraphers. In: Empire of the Sultans. Ottoman art from the collection of Nasser D. Khalili . Azimuth Editions / The Noor Foundation, London 1995, ISBN 2-8306-0120-3 , pp. 230 .
- ↑ JM Rogers: Kur'ans from Egypt. In: Empire of the Sultans. Ottoman art from the collection of Nasser D. Khalili . Azimuth Editions / The Noor Foundation, London 1995, ISBN 2-8306-0120-3 , pp. 62 .
- ↑ JM Rogers: Hilyes. In: Empire of the Sultans. Ottoman art from the collection of Nasser D. Khalili . Azimuth Editions / The Noor Foundation, London 1995, ISBN 2-8306-0120-3 , pp. 252-257 .
- ↑ Annemarie Schimmel : The signs of God: the religious world of Islam , CH Beck, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-39754-9 ( Google Books )
- ^ Ernst Kühnel: Islamic script art . Reprint edition. Akademische Druck- Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1986, ISBN 3-201-01304-8 , p. 83 .
- ^ JM Rogers: Religious endowments. In: Empire of the Sultans. Ottoman art from the collection of Nasser D. Khalili . Azimuth Editions / The Noor Foundation, London 1995, ISBN 2-8306-0120-3 , pp. 82-91 .
- ^ JM Rogers: Calligraphy in an architectural setting. In: Empire of the Sultans. Ottoman art from the collection of Nasser D. Khalili . Azimuth Editions / The Noor Foundation, London 1995, ISBN 2-8306-0120-3 , pp. 26-35 .