Marinos Sariyannis (ed.

)
This volume includes 83 essays which were originally delivered as
papers at the 20th CIÉPO Symposium. The Symposium was held
in Rethymno, Crete, Greece, between 27 June and 1 July 2012,
New Trends
and was organised by the Department of History and Archaeology
of the University of Crete and the Institute for Mediterranean in Ottoman Studies
Studies of the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas
(IMS/FORTH), in collaboration with the Region of Crete, Regional
Unit of Rethymno, and the Municipality of Rethymno.

The essays cover a wide array of subjects, and are organised in

six thematic sections: Economy and Finances; Institutions and
Elites; The Ottoman Provinces; Inside a Wider World; Culture
and Ideology; Fine Arts, Architecture, and Archaeology.
Papers presented

New Trends
in Ottoman Studies
at the 20th CIÉPO Symposium
Rethymno, 27 June – 1 July 2012

Editor-in-chief:
Marinos Sariyannis
Editors:
Gülsün Aksoy-Aivali, Marina Demetriadou,
Yannis Spyropoulos, Katerina Stathi, Yorgos Vidras

Consulting editors:
Antonis Anastasopoulos, Elias Kolovos Cover photo:
Giorgos Benakis
(knocker, 10, P. Koronaiou Str.,
Back cover photo: Rethymno)
Joshua M. White
University of Crete – Department of History and Archaeology Back cover photo:
Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas – Institute for Mediterranean Studies Joshua M. White
ISBN 978-960-93-6188-0
New Trends
in Ottoman Studies
Papers presented at the 20th CIÉPO Symposium
Rethymno, 27 June – 1 July 2012

Editor-in-chief:
Marinos Sariyannis
Editors:
Gülsün Aksoy-Aivali, Marina Demetriadou,
Yannis Spyropoulos, Katerina Stathi, Yorgos Vidras
Consulting editors:
Antonis Anastasopoulos, Elias Kolovos

University of Crete – Department of History and Archaeology

Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas –
Institute for Mediterranean Studies
Rethymno 2014
 Form and image:
hybrid receptions of Ottoman
culture on the metalwork produced
in the Balkans (14 th- 18 th c.)

Suat Alp*

The aim of this study is to explore the Balkans as an artistic acculturation zone,
an area for the patterns used by artists/ateliers in the Balkans in relation to their
aesthetic perception and social adaptation.
Once Ottoman sovereignty in the Balkans was established, opportunities for
trade flourished thanks to the unified administrative structure in the region.
Already existing in the fifteenth century, workshops continued to develop up to
the eighteenth century, showing a clear increase in the quantity and quality of
their production. This growth was fostered by different factors, the multicultu-
ral relations of the region and collective co-operation being the main reasons
for this development in production.
The stock of motifs found on these artefacts, as well as the time of their
production, show close associations with the first Ottoman court style, known
as the Baba Nakkaş style.1 The mediating links are maybe those workshops,
artists, and vessels that from the mid-fifteenth century onwards had close con-

* Hacettepe University, Ankara, Assistant Prof. Dr. Suat ALP, Hacettepe University Faculty
of Letters, Department of Art History, salp@hacettepe.edu.tr
1 The style of the arabesques, the so-called “Baba Nakkaş Style”, was the first decorative
court-style initiated during the reign of Sultan Mehmed II and further developed un-
der his son Sultan Bayezid II. Particularly the curved, almost prehensile, forked-leaf ara-
besques are characteristic. The style that dominated the arts of the period is suggested to
have been created by Baba Nakkaş, the first of a series of court artists who dominated the
Ottoman decorative arts. This style, combines arabesques with Chinese-inspired flowers
in compact circular patterns. Baba Nakkaş style did not only appear on decorated man-
uscripts but was also disseminated to the decorative program of other arts of the period,
such as woodwork, ceramics, metalwork etc.

870
 Form and image

nections with the Sultan’s court. Because of this situation, such workshops may
have mediated the Ottoman influences which continuously affected the Islamic
and Ottoman art since its beginnings and which later spread to the Balkans.
Researchers on the Balkans, who try to describe these floral motifs as Tur-
kish, Islamic, or Ottoman, whatever they might be called, agree that these
designs spread out all over the Balkans in the 16th century.
Silverwork production in the Balkans during the Ottoman period reflects
distinctive features of the production type, the style, and the ornamental reper-
toire used. The main factors that led to this were created and developed in the
social context and cultural structure characterizing the Ottoman Balkans.
The traditions which were based on past customs and rituals of communi-
ties of different ethnic origin and religion have lived on in the same social unity
under Ottoman rule in the Balkans. They directed the type and form of the pro-
duction, and the new political and communal organizational structure, com-
muned with the accumulation of the Ottoman sovereignty.
What is particularly interesting once again is the stylistic marriage between
Ottoman and western influences. Before the Ottomans, it was Byzantine art
from the East combined with Romanesque and Gothic motifs coming from
the West that had influenced the artists in the Balkans, but during the Ottoman
period, Turkish and Islamic motifs were also arriving from the East.
Floral compositions and motifs, specific to the decorative repertoire of the
Ottomans, did not directly and literally get into the repertoire of the silvers-
miths in the Balkans. As the Ottoman culture got on stage in social and political
terms, artistic taste got in a kind of orientation. The important part here is that
this taste has not been created, but has occurred on itself. Artists of the Balkans
combined the already existent motives with the new ones. But, while this kind
of ornaments had to be repeated by a formalistic, abstract and specified geo-
metric based construction, because of their own cultural influences, the Balkan
silversmiths used this style in a different way. Differently from the predicted
structural features, the artists created nearly a new style by using the motifs in
an order of their own, or just on their own, combined with the other motifs. The
most obvious examples of such floral motifs, which can be called motifs of the
“Ottoman type”, are seen in the 16th century.

871
 Suat ALP

From the information of extant works, archival records and historical data,
we can discover lots of workshops in major cities throughout the Balkans.2 An
important part of the workshops where the silverwork production activities
were carried out, took place within the churches and monasteries that, at the
same time, ordered the silverworks. It is known that these kinds of workshops,
which during the Ottoman period continued being functional, were located in
monasteries founded on big lands before the Ottoman era. It is not sure if they
were permanently under the organization of the church. But even if they were
not, it is sure that the labor force was sometimes coming from the monastery
itself.
As an example we could first deal with the Kosovo Metohije workshops. It
is known that Kosovo Metohije workshops produced lots of silver artefacts for
churches during the 16th century. Chalices, rhipidions, Gospel covers are some
of them. The most remarkable features of the works of the Kosovo-Metohije sil-
versmiths are, in the words of Balkan researchers, the “Turkish-Islamic” deco-
rative elements, but according to the approach argued in this study, these floral
compositions are “a result of the artistic taste of the Ottoman culture.” The most
important churches and monasteries of this period were in Dečani and Peć in
Kosovo. In the treasures of these monasteries one can find lots of silver artefacts
made by regional silversmiths.
According to regional data collected by Bojana Rodojković, the areas of
Peć, Prizren, Pristina and Novo Brdo were listed as places of the Kosovo-Meto-
hija region where such workshops were functional.3 There is the possibility
of production in other cities in the region too, and the presence of jewellery
is also known around there. However, the works being unsigned and unstam-
ped, led the researchers to categorize them according to their regional features.
According to a record dated to 1455, in the Kosovo-Metohije region there were
170 timars, 27 of them belonging to Christian spahis. The worth of the timars
ranged between 500 and 10.000 akce.4 Besides, the rich Christian spahis of the
region were sponsors to the goldsmiths. With their orders of gold and silver
artefacts, they gave rise to a high-level work of ornamentations of good qua-

2 Suat Alp, “Balkanlar’da Osmanlı Dönemi Maden Sanatı: XV.-XVIII. Yüzyıllar Arasında
Faaliyet Gösteren Gümüş İşi Atölyeleri”, Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi
25/2 (2008), 15-35.
3 Bojana Radojković, Srpsko zlatarstvo XVI i XVII Veka, Novi Sad 1966, 50-62.
4 Halil İnalcık, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu, Toplum ve Ekonomi, İstanbul 1996, 80.

872
 Form and image

lity. In this context the best example is the chalice in the Monastery of Decani
which was donated by Radivoj, a local Christian spahi.5 It can be identified as a
product of the Kosovo-Metohije region and it was directly ordered as a dona-
tion to the monastery by Radivoj.6 The work which is made in gothic style is of
high quality and covered with a floral composition probably influenced by the
Ottoman decorative repertoire.7
Another important workshop in the Balkans was Chiprowtsi.8 This work-
shop is especially interesting because of its labor factor. A dominant part of the
region was Catholic and the works of the workshop were requested from the
Orthodox churches and monasteries of the Balkans till Transylvania. As Ivan
Sotirov said, “Chiprowtsi was the most important workshop of the Balkans in
the 16th and 17th century.”9
Under the Ottoman rule the old silver mines were actively operated, the
mints and the silver workshops flourished and the Chiprowtsi folk was granted
many privileges and tax exemptions. Requests from all over the Balkans resul-
ted to an icreased demand that covered the total production of Chiprowtsi-
mined ore and silver, while Venice had a special pricing rate for the products
of Chiprowtsi. The latter was also Istanbul’s main provider of silver and lead
and the mining center of the Balkans. In this context, the commercial and han-
dicraft activities of Chiprowtsi advanced greatly in the 17th century, a period
which, in terms of economic development, became the city’s golden age. Many
of the goldsmiths and silversmiths who worked in such a cultural and eco-
nomic environment were also highly educated and thereby able to establish
important connections. Thus, the value of the works made by these artists, as
well as their demand, increased. Thanks to this development, the works of these
artists can be found at the biggest monastery treasures of the Balkans and at the
palaces of Moldavia and Wallachia.10

5 Dečani Monastery is a major Serbian Orthodox monastery, situated in Metohija, 12 km

south from the town of Peć.
6 Radojković, Srpsko zlatarstvo, 152.
7 Eadem – Dusan Milovanovic, Masterpieces of Serbian goldsmiths’ work. 13th-18th century
Exhibition, London 1981, 50-51, fig. 83.
8 Chiprowtsi is a small town in north-western Bulgaria.
9 Ivan Sotirov, Čiprovska zlatarska škola : sredata na XVI – načaloto na XVIII vek, Sofia
1984, 144.
10 Ibid, 143-145.

873
 Suat ALP

The decorative repertoire on silverware during this period in the Balkans

was an artistic synthesis of this multicultural taste. The church was always the
organization model for the Christian population in the Balkans, directing and
organizing its cultural life, and inspiring its artistic activities. The church and
the monasteries always encouraged the artists and their works with their col-
lected donations. Monasteries also maintained their role as feudal lords in the
Ottoman period, despite the fact that lots of them lost their privileges. Besi-
des, the big ones were always traditionally honored with gifts by the Ottoman
sultans. According to Lilkova, monasteries became the most powerful orga-
nizations of the Balkan-Christian culture in the Ottoman period or, in other
words, this situation made them to upgrade their leading mission. They protec-
ted the holy relics and became a sanctuary for treasures of the Middle Ages, for
manuscripts and other liturgical materials.11
On the other hand, when we look into the court ateliers, we notice that the
court’s involvement, which caused the unity of Ottoman repertoire of decora-
tive arts, was mostly employed through the established institution of ehl-i hiref.
The sources testify to the fact that the foundation of the Institution of Court
Artisans was established during the reign of Mehmed II and it was organized
as an organic branch of the administrative system of the court during Bayezid
II’s reign.
The institution consisted of numerous societies of artists, responsible for
different occupations such as that of the illuminator, the binder, the goldsmith,
the jeweller, the locksmith, etc. The societies were also organized in themsel-
ves along groups of masters and apprentices, salaried official artists paid by
the court in quarterly wages recorded in registers. The reign of Sultan Süley-
man was the most populous period in the history of the ehl-i hiref, especially
when the centralized administration of the Ottoman state was most power-
ful. In those years, the workshops included artisans and apprentices of diffe-
rent origins such as Serbs, Franks, Persians, Georgians, Bulgarians, Hungarians,
Greeks, Croatians, Bosnians, Wallachians, and Albanians, who maintained the
multi-cultural interactions of the different Ottoman decorative traditions. In
addition to the salaried craftsmen working for the court, there were also other
artisans who practiced their occupations in the markets of the capital and in

11 Matakieva Teofana Lilkova, Church plate from the collections of the National Museum of
History, Sofia 1995, 6-7.

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 Form and image

other city centers, dealing with the demands of not only the urban clientele, but
from time to time, of the court. By examining the 16th century documents per-
taining to the ehl-i hiref, it becomes obvious that most of the artists were from
the Balkans.12
As a conclusion one can maintain that, in this process, artists from the Bal-
kans actively transfigured the Ottoman ornamental elements according to
their needs and perceptions. This process of “acculturation” can be described
in relation to the artistic, the aesthetic, as well as the regionally and socially
specified conditions of Rumeli. The decorative repertoire on silverware during
this period in the Balkans was an artistic synthesis of a multicultural taste. In
the framework of the Balkan metalwork production, we can determine diffe-
rent cultural and artistic zones of contact, also containing their own network
of associations. One can determine different types-levels of this acculturation
process. While it mainly occurs with the trends/tastes derived from the capital,
other patrons with their orders encouraged these choices as well, and finally
the ateliers and artists were the main actors who were applying this decorative
repertoire in their works. The stylistic features of these works are their reflec-
tion of the taste which got formed by the Ottoman decorative repertoire in the
Balkans.

12 Filiz Çağman, “Serzergeran Mehmed Usta ve Eserleri”, Kemal Çığ'a Armağan, İstanbul
1984, 51-87.

875