Ottoman Palace Research Articles

Treasures of Knowledge: An Inventory of the Ottoman Palace Library (1502/3–1503/4), edited by Gülru Necipoğlu, Cemal Kafadar, and Cornell H. Fleischer

Treasures of Knowledge: An Inventory of the Ottoman Palace Library (1502/3–1503/4), edited by Gülru Necipoğlu, Cemal Kafadar, and Cornell H. Fleischer

Feast and Novruz Gifts İn The Ottoman Palace Reconstruction and Number 950 Book

Topkapı Sarayı’nda düzenlenen Bayram törenleri diğer merasimlerde olduğu gibi teşrifat usulleri çerçevesinde gerçekleştirilir devletin ihtişamını yansıtırdı. Çalışmamızda, III. Mustafa ve I. Abdülhamid dönemi Ramazan Bayramı törenleri ile III. Selim dönemi Nevruz kutlamaları hakkında bilgi veren Teşrifat defteri kullanılmak suretiyle devlet ricalinin bayramlaşması üzerinde durulmuştur. Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi, Topkapı Sarayı Fon’unda bulunan (TS. MA., d.) 950 numaralı defter özellikle 1771, 1788 tarihlerinde sunulan hediyelerin mahiyeti ile ilgili bilgi vermekte, dönemin maddi kültürü hakkında değerlendirme yapmaya olanak sağlamaktadır.

HATİCE SULTAN (NEŞETÂBÂD) SARAYI GRAVÜRÜ ÖRNEKLEMİNDE DEĞİŞEN İSTANBUL KÜLTÜRÜ

The fact that the Ottoman Empire was an exotic and mysterious Eastern country has been an important issue that has great meaning for Western orientalist engraving artists. The natural landscape, topographic image, mosques, palaces, daily life and the Bosphorus of Istanbul which is the capital of the Empire, were important elements that lived in the engravings of many painters. After going to Europe, many of these painters turned their paintings into an album with the technique of Engraving. These albums have survived to the present day as a historical document introducing the socio-cultural life of the Ottoman Empire. 18. in the century, Sultan III. During Selim's period, there were serious changes and transformations in the cultural sense. During this period, the Ottoman palace opened its doors to Western artists, and a culture that developed under the influence of the West began to gain a place, especially in Istanbul. In this article, after briefly mentioning the history of Engraving art, information is given about the life of the Orientalist Painter Melling, who grew up under the influence of the Renaissance period in Europe and turned his face to the East. After mentioning the artist's work as a painter and architect in Istanbul, his relationship with Hatice Sultan, the sister of Sultan Selim III, and the dimensions of this relationship were evaluated. It is aimed to examine the change and transformation of the palace and the socio-cultural structure of the period through the Neşetabad Palace engraving made by Melling.

BİR OSMANLI SARAY HALISININ KOMPOZİSYON BAKIMINDAN TEZHİP SANATI BAĞLAMINDA İNCELENMESİ

Carpet art; It is an important representative of Traditional Turkish Arts with examples worth examining in terms of motif and composition. In the classical development process of Turkish carpets in the 16th century, palace rugs are a remarkable group in terms of technique and pattern. These examples are important because they reflect the general understanding of art of the period. Different samples of palace rugs have survived in various museums and private collections. Ottoman Palace Rugs, which have distinctive features of classical period art, show similarities with the art of illumination in terms of motif and composition arrangement. In this study, Palace Rugs were evaluated over a carpet sample in terms of the motif composition they contain. The example of the palace carpet examined is the carpet found in the Victoria and Albert Museum today. Registered in the museum with the inventory number 491-1899, the carpet is dated to the second half of the 16th century. Detailed drawings of the motif composition it contains were made based on the images of the carpet. In this study, the pattern scheme of the palace carpet was analyzed within the framework of the processing steps and rules in the art of illumination. Thus; As it is known, it is aimed to emphasize the common aspects of the motifs seen in palace rugs with the art of illumination. The motif placement template, pattern scheme and composition order of the examined carpet was presented by drawing. The pattern composition of the examined carpet and the motifs on it were evaluated within the framework of the rules in the decoration.

KİTAB-I MUKADDES’İN TÜRKÇEYE ÇEVİRİ SÜRECİ VE ALİ UFKİ BEY’İN ÇEVİRİSİNİN ÖNEMİ

Kitab-ı Mukaddes’in bir bütün olarak Türkçeye çevirisi, Leh asıllı, sonradan Müslüman olmuş, uzun yıllar Osmanlı sarayında görev yapmış Ali Ufki Bey tarafından 1664/1666 yılında İstanbul’da yapılmıştır. Dönemin Hollanda elçisi Levinus Warner, bu çeviri sürecini İstanbul’da takip etmiş ve çeviri metinlerini kontrol edilerek basılması için Hollanda’ya göndermiştir. Ancak çevirinin basımı, yaşanan bazı olumsuzluklar nedeniyle 1827 yılında Paris’te yapılmıştır. Daha sonraki yıllarda Ali Ufki Bey’in çevirisi, dönemin dil özellikleri dikkate alınarak bazı değişiklik ve düzeltmelerle 1878, 1885, 1886, 1901, 1941 ve 2001 yıllarında defalarca basılmıştır. Yani günümüzde kullanılan Kitab-ı Mukaddes’in Türkçe çevirisi, temelde Ali Ufki Bey’in çevirisine dayanmaktadır. Bu nedenle Ali Ufki Bey’in çevirisi ve bu çevirinin günümüze ulaşma sürecinin takibi oldukça önemlidir. Çünkü Kitab-ı Mukaddes’in Türkçeye çevrilmesi ve günümüze ulaştırılması Protestan Hristiyanların ve Kitab-ı Mukaddes Şirketi’nin katkıları ile gerçekleşmiş ve Türklere yönelik Hristiyan misyonerliğinde Ali Ufki Bey’in çevirisi temel kaynak olarak sürekli kullanılmış ve kullanılmaktadır.

Animal skeletal remains recovered from the Harem (Concubine’s) Hospital and the black eunuchs’ ward at the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, Turkey

Animal skeletal remains were discovered in the entrance of the gasilhane (a place where the deceased were washed and prepared for burial) of the Harem (Concubine’s) Hospital and the Black Eunuchs’ ward during the renovations in the Harem of the Topkapı Palace (Istanbul, Turkey) in 2015. The bones/specimens found in the hospital (the Concubine’s hospital) were the post-consumption remains of the sheep (Ovis aries) and chicken (Gallus sp.) while the bones found in the Black Eunuchs’ ward belonged to sheep (Ovis aries), rats (Rattus sp.) and cat (Felis catus). These remains constitute the first zooarchaeological evidence of the meat products of the Ottoman Palace cuisine that appeared as sheep and chicken livestock purchases in the logbooks of the palace kitchen known as “Matbah-ı Amire“. The bones with extensive butchery marks revealed boiling process-related impressions and were considered the post-consumption leftovers found in the Gasilhane section of the Harem hospital, which had outside access only through the Meyyit gate.

The Chambers for the Aghas of Dârüssaâde and Enderun at the New Palace in Edirne

Osmanlı hanedan üyelerinin yaşadığı saray; Harem, Enderun ve Bîrun olmak üzere üç ayrı teşkilât ile yönetilmekteydi. Sarayın harem bölümünün başında bulunan dârüssaâde ağası aynı zamanda; bütün harem ağalarının, Sarây-ı Cedîd ve Sarây-ı Atîk teberdarları ve kozbekçilerinin, Haremeyn-i şerîfeyn görevlilerinin, selâtin ve vüzerâ evkafı ile dârüssaâde ağaları ve mensupları evkafı görevlilerinin amiriydi. Sarayın bir diğer teşkilatı olan Enderun teşkilatı ise derece ve hizmet itibariyle; büyük ve küçük odalar; doğancı koğuşu; seferli koğuşu, kiler odası, hazine odası ve has oda olmak üzere farklı odalardan müteşekkildi. Bu çalışma, sarayın harem ve Enderun teşkilâtına mensup ağalarının Edirne Yeni Saray’daki yaşam alanlarının tasvirini, R. Osman’ın Edirne Sarayı üzerine yapmış olduğu eseri, Saray’da 1217 Zilhicce (H.)/20 Nisan 1803 (M.) tarihinde yapılan keşif sırasında çizilmiş olan plan ve 1171 (H.) /1757-58 (M.) yılında ağalara ait yaşam alanlarında yapılan tamirata ilişkin tutulan kayıtlara dayanarak yapmaktadır. Bu bağlamda, çalışma Osmanlı Saray mimarisi araştırmalarına katkı sunmayı amaçlamaktadır. Adı geçen ağaların yaşam alanlarının tasvirini yapmanın en önemli zorluğu Edirne’deki Saray’ın günümüze ulaşmamış olmasıdır. Böyle bir durum fiziki bir gözlem yapmayı olanaksız kılmaktadır. Ancak farklı dönemlerde yapılan veya yapılması planlanan tamiratlara ilişkin tutulan kayıtlar bu zorluğu aşma bakımından oldukça fazla bilgi ihtiva etmektedir. Bu bağlamda bu çalışma ele aldığı kayıtlar ile yeni mekânların varlığını ortaya koymaktadır. Bununla birlikte bu konuda yapılacak olan çalışmalara da katkı sağlamaktadır.

Gülru Necipo?lu, Cemal Kafadar, and Cornell H. Fleischer, eds. Treasures of Knowledge: an Inventory of the Ottoman Palace Library (1502/3–1503/4)

Reviewed by: Treasures of Knowledge: an Inventory of the Ottoman Palace Library (1502/3–1503/4), ed. by Gülru Necipoğlu, Cemal Kafadar, and Cornell H. Fleischer Konrad Hirschler Gülru Necipoğlu, Cemal Kafadar, and Cornell H. Fleischer, eds. Treasures of Knowledge: an Inventory of the Ottoman Palace Library (1502/3–1503/4), 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2019. Vol 1: xiv+1080 pp. Vol. 2: viii+242 pp. 181 pp. facs. pls. Cloth, $164. ISBN: 978-9004402485. In the early sixteenth century, Sultan Bayezid II ordered al-ʿAtufi, the librarian of his book collection in the Topkapı Palace’s treasury, to prepare an inventory. The resulting register lists over 7,000 titles, and it is the only large-scale inventory of an Ottoman palace library that we possess today. The importance of this inventory, especially for the fields of the history of ideas and library studies, has been known for a long time. It is preserved in Budapest (we do not know how it came to be there) and Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall probably already saw it in the early nineteenth century. It comes as no surprise that the great doyen of Ottoman library studies, İsmail Erünsal, introduced it to modern scholarship. Yet, apart from an article by Miklós Maróth in 2003 it has failed to elicit sustained interest. After years of preparation we now have the book that finally gives the inventory its rightful place. Together with more than twenty colleagues, Gülru Necipoğlu, Cemal Kafadar, and Cornell Fleischer have worked for years to bring this collaborative project to fruition. The result is, to cut a long story short, a wonderful book that is a must-read for anyone interested in Ottoman studies or the history of ideas or libraries. The massive first volume of more than 1,000 pages consists of a series of essays on various aspects of the inventory, the library and its contents. The second volume has the facsimile and transliteration of this “Book of the Books” as the librarian called his inventory. Quite appropriately, this book on the “Book of the Books” is a work of beautiful craftsmanship with numerous high-quality illustrations of individual manuscripts that once sat on the shelves of the library of Bayezid II. [End Page 244] The first volume starts with a series of six essays of a general nature prior to twenty-two essays that discuss specific thematic sections of the inventory. Gülru Necipoğlu starts the general section with a formidably wide-ranging essay that opens up numerous fascinating angles to analyze this inventory. Making transregional comparisons and drawing on codicological evidence as well as her intimate knowledge of the palace’s history, Necipoğlu argues that this library was not just a storehouse and has to be seen as an active place of intellectual engagement. The library’s astonishingly diverse holdings reflect an imperial cosmopolitanism that was encyclopaedic in scope before cultural exchanges with the East diminished and before the process of Ottomanization set in under Sultan Süleyman I. The dominance of post-Mongol manuscripts from the eastern Islamic lands mirrors interconnected regional and transregional courtly-scholarly networks that were to diminish in the subsequent decades. She also shows that the inventory was used to record subsequent acquisitions but that the pristine condition of the inventory means that further documents must have been kept to register movements of books such as loans. Cemal Kafadar uses the inventory to build a much wider argument in order to restore a more complex and fine-grained image of Beyazid II. He does so by following the prince’s career from Amasya, the leading cultural and political center of Bilad al-Rum, to the throne. The inventory appears here as a post-expansion project after the sultan had cut his teeth and now turned to the order of the realm where education clearly featured highly. Kafadar devotes a second section to ʿAtufi and his organizational practices in the catalogue, showing the care that went into it and the problems the librarian faced when dealing, for instance, with multiple-text and composite manuscripts. An appendix backs up this section and discusses individual manuscripts...

Osmanlı ile Karamanlı Arasında Bir Kadın: İlaldı Hatun

İlaldı Hatun, Osmanlı hükümdarı I. Mehmed'in kızıdır. Osmanlı sarayında doğup büyüdükten sonra Karamanoğlu İbrahim Bey'le evlenmiştir. Başka bir deyişle Osmanlı sarayından Karamanlı sarayına gelin gitmiştir. Evliliğin temel nedeni siyasidir. Beylikler arasındaki evlilikler hem ittifakı hem de güçlü olana tabi olmayı ifade ederdi. Buna rağmen anlaşmazlıklar da olabilirdi. İlaldı Hatun, savaşla barış arasında gidip gelen bir kadının öyküsüdür. Zira Karamanoğlu İbrahim Bey ile II. Murad arasındaki savaşlardan sonra arabulucu olmuştur. İlaldı Hatun'un bir diğer özelliği ise onun bir hayırsever olmasıdır. Zira gelirler bıraktığı bir vakıf kurarak hafızların yetiştirilmesini sağlamıştır. 19. yüzyıla kadar vakfın var olduğu anlaşılsa da önemini kaybetmesi nedeniyle ortadan kalktığı düşünülmektedir. Ancak kurduğu vakfın kayıtlarda geçmesi bile aşağıda değinileceği üzere tarihi açıdan birçok bilinmezi açığa çıkarmaktadır.

Kırk Vezir Hikâyeleri Minyatürleri Üzerine Bir Inceleme

This article aims to introduce two illustrated copies of an Ottoman manuscript under the title Stories of Forty Viziers. One of these copies is now registered in the Istanbul University Library [IU T. 7415]. It has twelve miniatures and no colophone. The other copy is among the Turkish Manuscripts of Uppsala University’s Carolina Rediviva Library [UUL Vet. 38]. The colophone date is 1586-1587 (H.995) and it has seventeen miniatures. Stories of Forty Viziers was one of the books read in the Ottoman Palace. Although there are studies on the text and copies of the book in the field of Turkish literature, there is no study about the iconographies of the miniatures in them. The miniatures in the two copies of Stories of Forty Viziers are in Ottoman Classical Painting Style. The undated Istanbul manuscript [IU T. 7415] could be estimated to the 1580s and the colophon date of the Uppsala copy of the manuscript of 1586-1587 is already in the culmination of the classical painting style which is the period of Ottoman Sultan Murad III (1574-1595).The painters of the two copies had clearly worked in the way of Nakkash Osman who was the leading painter of Ottoman classical painting. The miniatures of Stories of Forty Viziers represent the Otttoman advice letters iconography and with the exception of two, all the other miniatures are unique iconographically. One of two is about the combat between the prophet Moses and Giant Og and the other is from Ottoman Sinbad-nama. In the miniatures the stories depict the struggle between characters representing wisdom (forty viziers) and deception (wife). Additionally the miniatures about Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, Ishraqi Philosopher Suhrawardi al-Maqtul and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) represent new images and new iconographies.

TO OBSERVE, TO RECORD, TO DEPICT: MEMORIALIZING THE CIRCUMCISION OF AN OTTOMAN PRINCE, C. 1582–C. 1600

ABSTRACTA circumcision celebration in the summer of 1582, organized by the Ottoman ruler Murād III (r. 1574–1595) for his son Meḥmed, is one of the most extensively recorded events in early modern Ottoman history. Contemporary and near‐contemporary testimonies include archival sources, odes, event‐based narratives, illustrated accounts, passages in regnal and universal histories, and several descriptions by European observers. The celebration occurred amid tensions fueled by ongoing warfare, rising prices, elite factionalism, and apocalyptic anxieties. It also coincided with a time of exceptional cultural productivity at the Ottoman palace and among the Ottoman literati. This article discusses the celebration's treatment in event‐based narratives, illustrated accounts, and regnal and universal histories from the period, to emphasize the multiplicity of approaches to the writing and recording of history. Ottoman works of a historical nature defy easy categorizations such as official history or court history; they also blur compartmentalized notions of history, art history, and literature that emerged in the nineteenth century. Ottoman historical writing, like any other historical tradition, was closer to a meeting ground, where authors and patrons gathered and competed, than a common ground where consent and hegemony were supposedly produced. Authorial agency was crucial in creating demand, fostering competition, and building reputation; moreover, authors and patrons had to negotiate a multiplicity of languages, linguistic registers, styles, and techniques, some of which had been bequeathed by past generations, whereas others had been invented or reinvented recently.

BİR TASARIMIN İZİNDE: YENİ BULGULAR IŞIĞINDA RAIMONDO D’ARONCO’NUN İLK İSTANBUL PROJESİ DERSAADET ZİRAAT VE SANAYİ SERGİ-İ UMUMİSİ

ON THE TRAIL OF A DESIGN: THE FIRST ISTANBUL PROJECT OF RAIMONDO D'ARONCO IN THE LIGHT OF NEW FINDINGS – ISTANBUL AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION There are a limited number of studies of architecture or art history on Istanbul Agricultural and Industrial Exposition (Dersaadet Ziraat ve Sanayi Sergi-i Umumisi), which set out to be the second in the Ottoman history of expositions but was cancelled due to the great earthquake of Istanbul in 1894. Held in 1893, the exhibition gained an architect like Raimondo D'Aronco for Ottoman architecture and served as a significant attempt in cultural history with efforts to revitalize economic and social life during the reign of Abdulhamid II and its projected architectural construct modeled after the international Western expositions. Only a few drawings from the exposition project have survived. However, relevant official documents in the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives help fill in the gaps. Among these documents, reports penned by D'Aronco on the exposition project are quite important. These reports, and especially a drawing of the exposition layout in the Dolmabahce Palace Archives, complete the surviving visual data. On the other hand, the documents help us understand the bureaucracy of architecture at the time as they reveal the architectural approach of D'Aronco as well as attitudes of the Ministry of Forestry, Mines and Agriculture and the Ottoman Palace, which organized the exposition. More importantly, they shed light on elements like the managing team of the architectural design process, construction technology, materials and stylistic tendencies in the late 19th century. Moreover, this study introduces new data on the project model of Annibale Rigotti, assistant architect of the exposition, which was reported in local and foreign press of the period but did not survive. Photographs of the model taken during their period, preserved in archives of the architect's family, show significant findings on the latest phase of exposition design in terms of architectural concept and style. This study aims at examining the background of the design process based on opinions and discoveries written by D'Aronco, interinstitutional correspondence as well as national and international press of the period and introducing contributions of Rigotti in the project.

THE CONTRUBUTION OF AN IRANIAN LITERARY MAN TO THE IMPERIAL IMAGE OF THE MEHMED THE CONQUEROR: MAWLANA RIYAZI-I SAMARQANDI

<div><!--block-->It is well known that after the conquest of Istanbul, Mehmed the Conqueror’s pervasive reputation in Islamic realm, paved the way for the influx of many scholars, encomiasts and craftsman from Iran to Ottoman palace. Among them shāhnāma-writers or encomiasts such as Ma’ālī, Kāshifī, Hamīdī and Qabūlī, proved that they were prolific servants through their shāhnāmas and panegyrics. Although the less known Riyāzī-i Samarqandī, did not write a book like his contemporaries Ma’ālī and Kāshifī in shāhnāma genre, he tried to construct an image for his patron Mehmed the Conqueror by means of his Persian epistle. In this article, I will try to investigate an unknown encomiast of Mehmed the Conqueror and his attempts to construct an image for his generous patron. Cite this article as: Genç, Vural, “Fatih’in Emperyal İmajına Bir Acem’in Katkısı: Riyâzî-i Semerkandî e”, Turk J Hist sayı 69 (2019), s.37-50.</div>

OSMANLI SARAYINDA AŞURE YAPIMI VE DAĞITIMI (XVIII.-XIX. YÜZYILLAR)

OSMANLI SARAYINDA AŞURE YAPIMI VE DAĞITIMI (XVIII.-XIX. YÜZYILLAR)

A Venetian Artist at the Ottoman Court. An Encounter of Two Worlds

The visit (1479-1481) of Gentile Bellini to the Ottoman court is a precious and significant memory of a cross-cultural meeting of East and West. Bellini's stay in Constantinople is attested to mostly in Italian sources. It did, however, leave testimonies in works by the Ottoman palace school as well as by Bellini's workshop. These works warrant close reading to understand this encounter of two visual cultures. There is the Boston leaf (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, P15e8) of a seated scribe that has been interpreted as providing a model of an Ottoman artist as seen from an Italian perspective. The picture is an exception in Bellini's working method, as it is a miniature painting on parchment - a practice common at the Ottoman court. From the opposite viewpoint, there are portraits of Mehmed ii that clearly respond to the portraiture created in Bellini's workshop at the Ottoman court. In one of these, the Ottoman response picture depicts the Sultan smelling a rose, which is taken to be a subtle reference to the prophet. Such a departure from tradition, however, met also with resistance among the Venetian's Ottoman colleagues and did not survive the reign of Mehmed ii, as it was regarded by Mehmed's successor, Bayezid ii, as too liberal. The exchange between Bellini and Ottoman artists must be regarded as part of a program to fashion the new Ottoman court, as it emerged after the conquest of Constantinople, as a cosmopolitan place comparable to the Renaissance courts in the West.

CHIRICO AND METAPHISICAL ART

Chirico's grandfather was an interpreter in the Ottoman palace and his father worked as an engineer in the construction of the Ottoman railways. Giorgio de Chirico is defined as the magician or witch of the mysterious dream world and supernatural spaces in art history. Their works, which usually begin with "Enigma", are the subject of ambiguity and enigma. Chirico is claimed to be an atheist, but mystical tendencies are seen in his paintings, and the works that atheism is associated with are rarely seen. Spiritual reality and metaphysical discoveries are Chirico's greatest interests. He painted his inner world quests and experiences that could not be expressed in words. The philosophical point of view, while impressed by the philosophy of Nietche and Schopenhauer, was also interested in Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. Chirico appears to have seriously affected Surrealists. The purpose of this work is to examine the thought and artistic structure of Chirico, including the mystical and metaphysical concepts, and the metaphysical artwork that he reveals in his works. As a method, the literature on Chirico's concept of thought and art will be scanned and the metaphysical forms and symbols revealed in his paintings will be examined. Keywords: Enigma, Mystery, Mysticism, Metaphysics

On Academic Freedom and Elite Education in Historical Perspective: Medieval Christian Universities and Islamic Madrasas, Ottoman Palace Schools, French Grandes coles and 'Modern World Class Research Universities'

In this essay in comparative analysis five historically and culturally distinct cases of elite higher education are presented as imperfect realisations of the ideal of academic freedom – medieval universities, early Islamic madrasas, Ottoman palace schools, French grandes ecoles and “modern world class research universities”. Special attention is given to the complexities of the French system of higher education and research. It is seen as a bridge between older forms of elite higher education and the quest for international research excellence characterising the current age of mass higher education.

The examination of spices used in the Ottoman palace cuisine

The human being has a vital prescription to eat and drink as much as the day-to-day process. This vital point constitutes the foundation stone of gastronomic tourism. In our globalized world, nations that express or offer their own values have become more successful. Therefore, the culture of Turkish food and nutrition refers as the key of national culture. Therefore, it is very important to examine the characteristics of the Ottoman cuisine to introduce food culture. Traditionally Ottoman cuisine, soups, meat dishes, olive oil vegetables, salads and spices used in desserts are important. Nowadays, people want to learn not only the sense of hunger but also the history of gastronomy (all components depending on cultural and environmental influences). It gives us great opportunities when it is told and applied to the history of that cultural gastronomy. These opportunities are making economic difference by strengthening the functions of gastronomic tourism. Due to the literature obtained in the study, it is thought that the inclusion of the spices in the Ottoman cuisine destinations in Turkey, which has a high potential for gastronomy tourism, will support sustainable development. In the study, was given informations about the characteristics of the spices used in Ottoman cuisine.

ABOUT CHINA ART AND ITS TERMINOLOGY

The word china (faience) appearing firstly in the Ottoman Palace has revealed the new approach defining ceramic products turning into evani (pots and pans) and kasi (glazed tile) depending on the body characteristics and on the usage aim in Islamic World. In fact, this definition being only towards siliceous body has made china ceramics, which have found great approval in Anatolia, apparent among others and gave them a special and privileged position. That today the perception way and education of tile-making art in Turkish society is carried out in Traditional Arts, not in Ceramics departments, should be the continuation and outcome of the relevant approach. As time goes on, various domain experts using the word china have widened the meaning range of this word and gave it new meanings. While today all architecture is defined as ceramic tiles by art historians, ceramists generally use the term for siliceous clay and the china artisans use it for all architecture and usage goods ceramics made of this clay. Unfortunately, this terminology problem shows itself not only in the word china but also in many terms of this art. Another aspect of the problem is that the word china is peculiar to Anatolia and stated in various ways such as “tile”, “mural ceramics” and “faience” in foreign languages. In the declaration, the terminology of the tile-making will be examined in the example of the word china, and the contemporary usage and meaning attributions in different areas of science and art will be followed. The research will provide an apparent improvement on the way of forming the common ceramic tiles terminology and therefore offer opportunity for looking the event from wide historical angle and for being more objective in the future decisions. Keyword: Art of tile-making, terminology, architectural ceramics, Anatolian art

Early Modern Military Architecture in the Ottoman Empire

Strongholds with firearms remained significant in the Ottoman frontier from the fifteenth until the nineteenth century. The employment of firearms technology resulted in military strongholds at strategic passages. That Sultan Mehmed II employed large cannons effectively during the siege of Constantinople was reported by many eyewitnesses. Sultan personally inspected firearms, from the foundry and ballistic calculations, to topographic position and related administration. There existed various European experts and craftsmen in the Ottoman palace who also contributed to the Ottomans’ use of cannons. Fortifications in the third quarter of the fifteenth century were equipped with cannons and other firearms, and architecture as well was created according to the new technology. This article discusses how Kilid-ul Bahir and other fortifications arrived at their unique geometry in the fifteenth century by taking historical accounts and illustrations as documentary evidence. It shows that fifteenth-century Ottoman military architecture follows a clear path where logical translation from firearms technology to the architecture can be observed.