Islamic Art and the Ottoman

Empire

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 What was the Ottoman Empire?
The Ottoman Empire was a Turkish state founded in
the thirteenth century by Osman I, who then
expanded his territories, eventually dislodging
Byzantine rulers and taking over Constantinople in
1453. Constantinople, now called Istanbul, became
the capital of the Ottoman Empire, which by the
fifteenth century controlled large portions of North
Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. The
Ottoman Empire was one of the longest lasting
powers in history, only falling in 1922 when Turkey
became a republic.

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How was Hagia Sophia converted to a
mosque?
When the Ottoman Turks took control over the
former Byzantine Empire, the Hagia Sophia,
which had been built as a cathedral by Emperor
Justinian in the sixth century, was converted into
a mosque. The conversion of the Hagia Sophia
was an important symbol of power for the
conquering ruler, Sultan Mehmet II. Many of the
Byzantine mosaics were covered in plaster and
certain elements, such as the altar, were
removed.
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Hagia Sophia

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Hagia Sophia

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 Who was the Suleyman the
Magnificient?
Suleyman I, known as Suleyman the Magnificent (1494–1566),
ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until his death. He was
trained as a goldsmith and was a great patron of the arts.
Under his rule, ceramics, calligraphy, manuscript illumination,
metalworking, textiles, and architecture flourished. Suleyman
supported a royal painting society, the Naqashkhane, whose
styles greatly influenced other artists throughout the Ottoman
Empire. A good example of the Naqashkhane style is in their
design for the Sultan’s imperial signature, known as a tughra.
It features bold, sweeping lines and ornate organic decoration
done in ink and watercolor on paper. It incorporates both
abstract design and calligraphy, and includes the name of the
Sultan as well as the phrase “the eternally victorious.”

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Tughra of Suleyman the Magnificient

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 Who was Sinan the Great?
Sinan the Great (c. 1489–1588), whose full name was Koca
Mimar Sinan Aga, was arguably the most famous architect in
Islamic history, designing over three hundred buildings,
including the Mosque of Selim II, which is considered his
masterpiece. Also known as the Selimiye Mosque, the
Mosque of Selim II was built between 1569 and 1575 in
Edirne, Turkey. Sinan designed it when he was almost eighty
years old, and his goal was to surpass the great architecture of
the previous Byzantine Empire. He created a larger dome than
that of the Hagia Sophia from base to crown. The building’s
interior is a masterwork of mathematical proportion and
geometry, fusing an octagon with a dome-covered square,
with four half-domes in each corner.

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Edirne Selimiye

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Edirne Selimiye

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 What is Islamic tilework?
Islamic art has a long tradition of decorative tilework, which
was used to decorate the walls and other surfaces, both
interior and exterior, of important buildings such as mosques
and palaces. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were
considered to be a “Golden Age” of Islamic tilework. Tile
mosaics, in which glass or ceramic are organized into
decorative patterns and then plastered, was one very popular
technique. Another was known as dry cord tilework, also
known as cuerda seca, first popularized in Spain during
Umayyad rule. This process relies on large pieces of
multicolored tiles, rather than smaller, individually colored
fragments. Buildings such as the Imam Mosque to Isfahan,
Iran, are covered in intricately patterned tiles in astonishing
geometric and abstract forms.

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Imam Mosque in Isfahan

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Imam Mosque in Isfahan

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 What is a miniature painting?
Particularly popular in Persian, Ottoman, and
Mughal traditions, miniature paintings are small
works on paper, whether book illustrations or
separate paintings kept in albums (known as a
muraqqa.) Miniature paintings were not framed
and not displayed on walls, but were meant to
be held in one’s hands. Miniature painting
required years of training and apprenticeship to
create. One of the most important centers of
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miniature painting was the royal Herat School in
Afghanistan, where students were instructed on
painting and calligraphy. During the early
sixteenth century, the school was moved to
Tabriz, Iran. Miniature painters sat on the
ground with one knee bent to support the
painting board. Multiple layers of colors derived
from pigments were applied, including gold, and
then the painting was burnished.

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Ottoman Miniature

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Iranian Miniature (the court of Pir
Bbudaq, Shiraz, Iran in c.1455)

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 Who was Bihzad?
Kamal al-Din Bihzad, referred to simply as Bihzad, was
one of the most famous Persian manuscript painters
during the fifteenth century. He was born around 1450 in
the city of Herat, in modern-day Afghanistan. He worked
for royal courts under both Timurid and Safavid rule. (The
Timurid rulers descended from Genghis Khan, and were
succeeded by the Safavids as rulers of Iran.) Bihzad’s
paintings are characterized by vivid color, dynamic detail,
and warping perspective. His work notably includes
representations of figures, something more common in
Persian and Indian painting than other Islamic art.

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One of Bihzad’s most famous miniature paintings is
Seduction of Yusuf (c. 1488), a story included in both the
Bible and the Qur’an. In the story, Yusuf (Joseph) is
seduced by Zulaykha, the wife of Potiphar. According to
the Persian version of the tale, Zulaykha led Yusuf
through seven rooms of her palace, locking the door of
each room behind her. In the final room, she
propositioned Yusuf, but he was able to escape when the
doors were miraculously unlocked. In the painting,
zigzagging beige panels contain the actual Arabic text of
the story at the top, bottom, and in the middle of the
manuscript page. Zulaykha’s palace is made up of
intricately decorated, multicolored panels connected by
angled, polygonal staircases. This geometric, two-
dimensional painting gives the illusion of three-
dimensional space and is a masterpiece of Persian
manuscript painting.

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Seduction Yusuf (c.1488)
The painting, Seduction of Yusuf, was done by
Persian painter Bihzad. The lines in this painting
are subtle but straight. This painting has a
contrasting tone, all of the rooms have different
colors and patterns within them. The texture
seems to be smooth as if was painted on a
canvas or some sort of paper. One thing that
stuck out to me the most was the shape of the
picture; it is very geometric. Throughout the
picture there are squares, triangles, and
rectangles that basically build the whole
painting.

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