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7/25/2019 Iconicity Of Islamic Calligraphy
1/14
The
iconicity
of Islamic
calligraphy
in
Turkey
IRVIN
EMIL
SCHICK
Islamic
calligraphy
is
deeply polysemic.
At the
most
basic
level,
of
course,
it
mbodies
written
text,
and
as
such
expresses
symbolically
the
meaning?whether
literal
or
metaphorical,
denoted
or
connoted?of
that
text.
But
that
is
not
all.
As
a
highly
visual
art,
Islamic
calligraphy
sometimes
means
iconically;
and
as a
practice
that
is,
at
least
in
the Turkish
context,
intensely
imbricated
with
politics,
it
lso
means
indexically.
This
article
attempts
to
chart the
movement
of Islamic
calligraphy
among
these three
types
of
signs1
before,
during,
and
after
Turkey's
passage
from
empire
to
republic,
with
special emphasis
on
its
iconicity.
It
is
often said that
calligraphy
is
the
most
quintessential^
Islamic of all Islamic
arts,
and this
not
because
of
some
supposed
Islamic
iconophobia,
but
rather because of the intimate
relationship
between
theMuslim faith
and
the
written
text.2While
iconic
representation
is
usually
contrasted with
writing,
and the
two
are
thought
to
be direct
opposites,
written
text
can
sometimes
have
an
iconic?that
is,
pictorial?quality,
and
this is
especially
true
of
some
Islamic
calligraphy
(fig. 1).3A practice widespread among Sufis and Shi'ites,
though by
no
means
limited
to
them,
is
to
shape
calligraphy
into
figurative
images
ranging
from
mosques
and
everyday objects
like
ewers
and
oil
lamps,
to
animals
like
lions,
camels,
and
birds,
and
even
human
beings.4
Received
opinion
holds
that these
images
are mere
substitutes
for
"real"
pictures?surrogates
in
which
writing provides
the
artistswith
an
alibi,
an
accommodation of
sorts
to
the so-called "Islamic
prohibition
of
images."
But
form
often
deliberately
adds
a
new
layer
of
meaning
to
the
calligraphy,
and this
is
indeed the
principal
focus of this article.
Valerie Gonzalez has
distinguished
between works
of
pictorial
calligraphy
in
which the
image
dominates
the
text,
which
she calls the
"figural
or
representational
regime,"
and
those
in
which the
text
dominates
the
image,
which she calls the
"scriptural regime."
She
also
distinguishes
between those works of
pictorial
calligraphy
in
which
the
text
and
image
share
a
single
referent,
nd those
in
which their
referents
are
distinct.5
The
examples
I
discuss here
are
drawn from
each of
these
categories
and
will
demonstrate,
I
hope,
the
specific
"value-added"
iconicity
in
Islamic
calligraphy.
Writing
as icon
Let
me
begin
with
a
brief
discussion of
a
work
that
would
at
first
sight
appear
to
be
plain
text,
and
yet
is
perceived
and
treated
as
an
image. Figure
2
is
a
textual
representation
of
the so-called
"Seal
of
Prophethood,"
a
mark
between the
shoulders
of
the
Prophet
Muhammad
that is
taken
as
proof
of his
divine mission.6 What is
An
earlier
version
of this
paper
was
read
at
the
"Deus
(e)X
Historia"
conference
held
at MIT
on
April
26-28,
2007.
I
m
very
grateful
to
the
convenors,
Arindam
Dutta,
Mark
Jarzombek,
Caroline
Jones,
Erika
Naginski,
and Nasser
Rabbat,
for
their kind
invitation. I
would also
like
to
acknowledge
the
other
conference
participants,
as
well
as
the
audience,
for the
lively
discussion that
followed?and
particularly
Daniel
Bertrand
Monk,
for
his
perceptive
observation
that
the
changing
fortunes
of
Islamic
calligraphy
in
Turkey
have
endowed
itwith
an
indexical
quality.
1. As will no doubt be clear tomany readers, I m
referring
here
to
the
"second
trichotomy
of
signs"
proposed by
Charles Sanders
Peirce?namely symbol,
index,
and
icon.
See
The
Collected
Papers
of
Charles Sanders
Peirce,
ed.
Charles Hartshorne and
Paul
Weiss
(Cambridge,
Mass.:
Harvard
University
Press,
1931-1958),
vol.
2,
??
247-249.
I
should
note
that
I
m
not
being
doctrinaire in
using
this
terminology, though
I
do find
it
onvenient.
2.
I
explore
this
point
in
some
detail
in
"Text,"
in
Keywords
for
the
Study
of
Islam,
ed.
Jamal J.
Elias
(Oxford:
Oneworld
Publications,
forthcoming).
3.
On
the
calligrapher
Mustafa
Rakim
Efendi
(1758-1826),
see
M.
Ugur
Derman,
Letters
in
Gold:
Ottoman
Calligraphy
from the
Sakip
Sabanci
Collection,
Istanbul,
trans.
Mohamed
Zakariya
(New
York:
The
Metropolitan
Museum
of
Art, 1998),
p.
98.
For
a
superb
example
of
his
work,
see
the back
cover
of the
present
issue.
4.
Such
calligraphic
pictures
have
been
studied
by
Malik
Aksel,
Turklerde
Dint
Resimler:
Yazi-Resim
(Istanbul:
Elif
Yaymlari,
1967).
Several
examples
appear
in
David
R.
Godine,
Islamic
Calligraphics
(London: The Merrion Press, 1976) and
Chaubey
Bisvesvar
Nath,
"Calligraphy,"
The
Journal
of
Indian
Art
and
Industry
16,
no.
124
(1913):31;
most
books
on
Islamic
calligraphy
also
contain
some.
I
have
analyzed
calligraphic
representations
of
the
human
body
from
a
Barthesian
viewpoint
in
"Writing
the
Body
in
Islam,"
Connect 3
(2001):44-54.
5.
Valerie
Gonzalez,
"The
Double
Ontology
of
Islamic
Calligraphy:
A
Word-Image
on
a
Folio
from the Museum
of
Raqqada
(Tunisia),"
in
M.
Ugur
Derman
65th
Birthday
Festschrift,
ed.
Irvin
C.
Schick
(Istanbul:
Sabanci
University,
2000),
pp.
313-340.
6.
On
the
calligrapher
Elhac
[al-hajj]
Mehmed
Fehmi
Efendi
(1860-1915),
see
M.
Ugur
Derman,
The Art of
Calligraphy
in
the
Islamic
Heritage,
trans.
Mohamed
Zakariya
and
Mohamed Asfour
(Istanbul:
IRCICA, 1998),
p.
241;
ibniilemin
Mahmud
Kemal
inal,
Son
Hattatlar
(Istanbul:
Maarif
Vekaleti, 1955),
pp.
92-93.
7/25/2019 Iconicity Of Islamic Calligraphy
2/14
212
RES
53/54 SPRING/AUTUMN 2008
V
Figure
1.
Mustafa Rakim
Efendi,
calligraphic
picture
of
a
stork,
1223
a.h.
(1808
ce).
The
text
reads:
"In
the
name
of
God,
most
gracious,
most
merciful,
and
in
him.
. .
." The
sentence
is
incomplete,
but
usually
goes
on
to
say
"is
succor/'
Reproduced
fromMalik
Aksel,
Turklerde
Dint
Resimler:
Yazi-Resim
(Istanbul:
Elif
Yayinlari,
1967),
p.
77.
significant about the panel is the lower inscription, in
Turkish,
which
says,
inter lia:
The
benefit
of this
holy
seal
to
thosewho visit it ill be
as
follows:
To
thosewho look
at
it
n
the
morning, having
performed
their ritual
blutions,
it
ill lastuntil the
evening.
And
to
thosewho
look
at
it
t
the
beginning
of
the
month,
until the end
of
the
month. And
to
those
who
look
at
it
t
the
beginning
of the
year,
until the end of the
year.
And for
those
who look
at
it
hile
on
a
journey,
may
their
journey
be blessed.
And
those
who die
in
the
year
during
which
they
have looked
at
it
hall
die with faith.
At
the end
of the
text,
after the
signature,
are
the
customary
prayers,
including
asking
for
God's
forgiveness
for the
calligrapher,
for his
parents,
and "for all those
who look
at
it."
It
is
significant
that the verb
"to
read"
does
not
occur
once,
anywhere
on
the
panel.
Instead,
theword
nazar
(to
look)
recurs
time
and
again.
This
emphasis
on
looking
strongly
suggests
that the
panel
was
not
only regarded
as
written
text,
as
well
as
a
devotional
object,
but also
as
an
image.
After
all,
one
reads
text,
but
one
looks
at
an
image.
Indeed,
this
hypothesis
would
seem
to
be
borne
out
by
the occasional
practice
of
supplementing calligraphy
with
captions.
Beginning
in
the
eighteenth
century,
it
became
common
in
ttoman
devotional
manuscripts
to
include
a
section
in
which
a
series of
holy
names
(startingwith Allah and Muhammad, and often ending
with
the
Seven
Sleepers
and
their
dog)
would
be
placed
within
large
medallions,
one name
per
medallion
per
page.7
The
fact
that
these
medallions
are
literally
hors
texte
already
endows them with
a
certain
pictorial
quality,
but
there
is
more
to
it
than that.
In
many
cases,
the medallions
appear
below
(or
are
sandwiched
between)
a
caption
that
does
nothing
but
state
the
obvious.
For
example,
if
he
name
"Muhammad"
appears
in
the central
medallion,
then
the
accompanying
caption
might
say
something
like:
"This
is
the
name
of
His
Excellency
Muhammad,
may prayers
to
God
and
peace
be
upon
Him." If
he
name
in
the medallion
is
"Abu
Bakr,"
then the
caption
might
say:
"This is the name
of
His
Excellency
Abu
Bakr,
may
God be
pleased
with
him." This is
a
common
pattern
and
begs
the
question
of
why
the
captions
were
added
in
the first
place.
After
all,
if
ne can
read the
caption,
then
surely
one can
also
read
the
central medallion.
The
answer
to
the
puzzle
is that
the
caption
refers
in
fact
to
two
distinct
objects.
When
it
says:
"This,"
it
is
referring
to
the medallion below
it;
nd
when
it
says
"is
the
name
of
Muhammad,"
it
is
referring
to
the
proper
name
of the
Prophet.
In
other
words,
the medallion
is
not
identical
to
the
name,
it
is
an
image
of the
name.
It
is, infact,
an
icon. Indeed, inmany such books, virtually
identical
captions
accompany
pictures
in
the
ordinary
sense
of
theword?for
example,
images
of
holy
relics
such
as
the mantle of the
Prophet
or
his
footprint.
As
the
word for
"picture,"
resm,
is
very
similar
to
the
word for
"name," ism,
the
captions
both
look
and
sound almost
exactly
alike.
The
captioned
medallions
in
devotional books
are
related
to
the
genre
known
as
hilye-i
?er?fe
or
hilye-i
saadet,
invented
by
theOttoman
calligrapher
Hafiz
Osman
in
the
late seventeenth
century.8
These
are
word
portraits
of the
Prophet
Muhammad,
describing,
within
an
eminently recognizable
composition,
his
physical
and
7.
For
nice
examples,
see
Edwin
Binney
3rd,
Turkish Treasures
from
the
Collection of
Edwin
Binney
3rd
(Portland,
Ore.: Portland
Art
Museum,
1979),
pp.
139-140
(this
manuscript
is
now
at
the
Sackler
Museum,
Harvard
University);
Nabil
F.
Safwat,
Golden
Pages:
Qur'ans
and Other
Manuscripts
from
the Collection of
Ghassan
I.
Shaker
(Oxford:
Oxford
University
Press, 2000),
pp.
226-230,
268-275.
8.
On the
hi
lye,
see
Derman,
Letters
in
Gold
(note
3),
pp.
34-37;
M.
Ugur
Derman,
Turk
Hat
Sanatmm
}aheserleri
([Ankara]:
Kultur
Bakanhgi
Yaymlan,
1982),
plates
18, 19,
42,
47,
and
49;
FarukTaskale
and
Huseyin
Gunduz,
Hilye-i
?er?fe
in
Calligraphic
Art:
Characteristics
of the
Prophet
Muhammed
(Istanbul:
Antik
A.
?.
Kultur
Yaymlan,
2006).
On the
calligrapher
Hafiz
Osman
Efendi
(1642-1698),
see
Derman,
Letters
in
Gold
(ibid),
pp.
72-74;
Derman,
The
Art
of
Calligraphy
(note
6),
p.
221.
7/25/2019 Iconicity Of Islamic Calligraphy
3/14
Schick: The
iconicity
f
Islamic
calligraphy
in
Turkey
213
Figure2. ElhacMehmed Fehmi Efendi, alligraphic panel titled"Form
of the Seal of
Prophethood
of
Muhammad
the
Chosen
One,"
1309
a.h.
(1891-1892
ce).
Author's collection.
moral
attributes
(fig.
3).
With
slight
variations,
the central
medallion contains the
following
text:
[It
is
related]
from
Ali
(may
God be
pleased
with
him)
that
when
he
described
the
attributes f the
Prophet (may
prayers
to
God and
peace
be
upon
him),
he said:
He
was
not too
tall,
norwas
he
too
short,
he
was
of
medium
height
amongst
the
nation. His
hair
was
not
short
nd
curly,
nor
was
it
lank,
it ould
hang
down inwaves. His facewas not
overly
plump,
norwas
it
fleshy,
et
it
as
somewhat
circular.
His
complexion
was
rosy
white.
His
eyes
were
large
nd
black,
and
his
eyelashes
were
long.
He
was
large-boned
and
broad-shouldered.
His
torso
was
hairless
except
for thin
line that
stretcheddown his
chest
to
his
belly.
His
hands
and feet
were
rather
large.
When
he
walked,
he
would
lean forward
s
if
going
down
a
slope.
When
he looked
at
someone,
he would
turn
his
entire
body
towards him.
Between
his
two
shoulders
was
the
Seal
of
Prophethood,
and he
was
the last f the
prophets.
That these
panels
were
intended
as
portraits
is
clear
not
only
from the
descriptive
text
above,
but also from
the
fact
that the
components
of
the
panel
were
named
(from
top
to
bottom):
a?makam
(head
station),
obek (belly),
kusak
(belt),
and etek
(skirt).
Now,
the Arabic
word
hilyah
refers
to
the features
or
appearance
of
a
person,
and theOttoman
compounds
hilye-i
serife
(noble
hi
lye)
and
hilye-i
saadet
(felicitous
hilye)
denote the features
or
appearance
of the
Prophet
Muhammad. Tim
Stanley
has
suggested
thatwhile the
hilye
may
have
arisen
as
the
Muslim
counterpart
of the
Orthodox Christian
icon,
in
view
of
the fact that
a
figural
representation
of the
Prophet
would have
been frowned
upon
in
the
Sunni
tradition,
it
as
most
likely
inspired by
the
celebrated
poem
of the
sixteenth-century
Ottoman
poet
HakanT
Mehmed
Bey
known
as
Hilye-i
Hakan?
(the
hilye
of
HakanT).9
This latter
as
in
turn
based
on
9.
Tim
Stanley,
"From Text
to
Art Form in
the
Ottoman
Hilye,"
to
appear
in
Studies in
Islamic
Art
and
Architecture
in
Honor
ofFiliz
gagman
(forthcoming).
See also his
"Sublimated Icons:
The
Hilye-i
?erife
as an
Image
of the
Prophet,"
paper
read
at
the
21 st
Spring
7/25/2019 Iconicity Of Islamic Calligraphy
4/14
214
RES 53/54 SPRING/AUTUMN
2008
Figure
3.
Hafiz
Osman
Efendi,
Hilye-i
$ertfe
(Word-Portrait
of
the
Prophet),
1109 A.H.
(1697-1698
ce)
Topkapi
Palace
Museum
Library,
.Y.1430.
Photograph
courtesy
of Faruk
Taskale.
a
possibly
spurious
tradition,
according
to
which the
Prophet
is
reported
to
have said:
Whoever
sees
my
hi
lye
after
me
is
s
though
he
has
seen
me.
And whoever
is
true to
me,
God
will
spare
him the fire
of
Hell,
and he will
not
experience
the trials f the
grave,
and
he
will
not
be driven
naked
on
the
Day
of
Judgment.10
If
afiz
Osman did indeed
draw his
inspiration
from
the
Hilye-i
Hakani,
then he created
his
hilye panels
primarily as objects of contemplation: "whoever sees my
hilye/'
were
thewords
reportedly spoken
by
the
Prophet,
not
"whoever reads
my
hilye."
Once
again,
then,
the
hilye
is
meant not
so
much
to
be
read,
as
to
be
seen.
As
such,
it is
n
image,
albeit
one
made
up
of
plain
text.
(It
has been
noted,
incidentally,
that the
composition
of the
hilye
bears
some
resemblance
to
the
ground
plan
of
an
Ottoman
mosque;11
whether
or
not
this
was
intentional,
and,
if
o,
what that
might
mean,
remains
to
be
determined.)
Peircean
iconicity
Figure
1
is
unmistakably
a
picture,
and
figures
2
and
3
are
essentially plain
inscriptions
that
present
themselves
as
images.
In
none
of these
examples,
however,
does the
form of
the
writing
echo
its
meaning.
Thus,
for
example,
the
stork
by
Mustafa Rakim
illustrated
in
figure
1
spells
out
the formula:
"In
the
name
of
God,
most
gracious,
most
merciful" with
which Muslim
believers
begin
every
task,
and
which
obviously
has
nothing
whatsoever
to
do
with storks.On the other
hand,
there
is
another
well-known
calligraphic
stork,
this
one
designed
by
an
Ottoman
calligrapher
named
Abdulgani
in
1763,
where
the
text
forming
the bird
is
a
couplet
about
a
certain
dervish known inhis day as "Seyyid Hasan Leylek
Dede."12
Here,
"Hasan"
was
the dervish's
given
name,
"Seyyid"
is
a
title
denoting
the fact that he
was
a
direct
descendent
of the
Prophet,
and
"Dede" indicates
his
rankwithin the
dervish order
to
which he
belonged.
As
for
"Leylek,"
it is
Turkish
for "stork" and
was a
nickname
that he
reportedly
earned
because he
was
very
tall and
lanky.
The
poem
that
composes
the
image
celebrates
the devotion
of this dervish
to
his
master,
the thirteenth
century
patron
of the order
of
whirling
dervishes
Mawlana
Jalaluddin
Rumi. What
is
most
important
here
is
that the
text
and the
image
are
related
at
a
very
basic
level. The
text
speaks
of
a
dervish
known
by
the
nickname "the Stork," and it isalso
shaped
likea stork.
In
the words
of
Gonzalez,
in
this
example,
text
and
image
share
a
single
referent.
Symposium
of
Byzantine
Studies
on
"The
Byzantine
Eye:
Word
and
Perception/'
University
of
Birmingham,
March
21-24,1987.
On
the
poet
Hakani
Mehmed
Bey
(d.
1606),
see
E.
J.
.
Gibb,
A
History
of
Ottoman
Poetry
(London:
Luzac &
Co.,
1900-1909),
vol.
3,
pp.
193-198,
where
the
name
is
transcribed
Khaqanv,
Bursali Mehmed
Tahir
Bey,
Osmanh
Muellifleri,
ed.
A.
Fikri
Yavuz
and
ismail
Ozen
(Istanbul:
Meral
Yaymevi,
1972?-1975),
vol.
2,
pp.
171-172.
10.
[Hakam
Mehmed
Bey], Hilye-i
Hakani
([Istanbul:
Tabhane-i
Amire],
1264
a.h.
[1848 ce]), p.
12.
11.
Stanley,
"From Text to Art Form"
(see
note
9)
in
which
a
suggestion
to
this
effect
by
Gulru
Necipoglu
is
acknowledged.
12.
See
A.
Suheyl
Unver,
Leylek
Dede /Dede Stork
(Istanbul:
ismail
Akgun
Matbaasi,
1958);
?ahabettin
Uzluk,
Mevlevilikte
Resim,
Resimde Mevleviler
(Ankara:
Turkiye
Is
Bankasi Kultur
Yaymlan,
1957),
pp.
67-68.
Unfortunately,
these
two
publications
give
radically
different
information about
the work and
the artist. The stork
has been
reproduced
numerous
times
and
appears
in
several
books,
for
example
in
Aksel,
Turklerde
Dint
Resimler
(see
note
4), p.
78.
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:
^^^^
i
Figure
5a.
Elhac Mehmed Nazif
Bey,
calligraphic
panel
on
the
virtues
of theBasmala, 1319 a.h. (1901-2 ce). Author's collection.
Interestingly,
orks of Islamic
calligraphy
that
are
iconic in
this
particular
sense
are
not
limited
to
figurative
pictures
such
as
those of birds and animals.
There
are,
once
again,
examples
of
plain
text
in
which
iconicity
is
present,
albeit
in
an
extremely
subtle
way.
Figure
a
shows
magnificent
iece
of
calligraphy
y
Elhac
Mehmed Nazif
Bey,18
composed
of
a
short
poem
in
urkish
extolling
the
virtues
of the formula
"In
the
name
of
God,
most
gracious,
most
merciful,"
known
in
abbreviated form
as
the Basmala
or
Bismillah.
This
formula is
very
important,
in that
by reciting
it, he
believer invokes the
name
of God
upon
undertaking
any
task.
Indeed,
there
is
a
saying
attributed
to
the
Prophet,
to
the effect that
any
action
not
initiated
by reciting
this
formula
is
doomed
to
fail.19 he
poem
is
f
no
great
literary
alue,
and reads
as
follows:
Figure
5b. Detail from he
panel
in
Figure
5a.
As
soon
as
Sultan Bismillah
raises
his
flag
The
angels
become the
pillars
of
the
court
of Bismillah
Interpret
ts
equator
as
the
Sirat-i
Mustakfm
The short
route
of
Bismillah leads towardsGod
Before
discussing
the
calligraphy,
let
me
note
that the
phrase
al-$irat
al-Mustaqrm,
or
"the
straight path,"
appears
in
the
very
first
chapter
of the
Qur'an,
and
is
taken
to
mean
the
true
faith,
that
is,
Islam.
In
addition,
however, Sufis believed that there is bridge by this
18. On
the
calligrapher
lhac
[al-hajj]
Mehmed Nazif
Bey
(1846-1913),
and
on
this
panel
in
particular,
see
Derman,
The
Art
of
Calligraphy
(note
6),
pp.
242-243;
also
see
Derman,
Letters
in
Gold
(note
3),
p.
152.
19.
See,
for
example,
Jalal
at-Dm Abu al-Fadl
'Abd
al-Rahman ibn
Abf Bakr
al-SuyutT,
al-Jami'
al-saghlr
min
hadlth al-bashlr
al-nadhlr,
kaf:
233.
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Turkey
217
name that every person is required to cross afterdeath; it
is
"thinner than
a
hair and
more
trenchant than
a
sword,"
in
the
words
of the
poets,
and
those who fail
to
reach the
other side fall
down
into
the eternal fires of Hell.
Those
who
can
cross
the
bridge,
on
the
other
hand,
reach the
side
of
God.
In
the
poem,
a
visual
analogy
is drawn
between
the
bridge
of
$irat
and the
words
Bismillah,
as
I
will
now
attempt
to
explain.
Figure
5b
shows
a
close-up
of thewords Bismillah
in
the first
line of the
poem.
Here,
bismi,
or
"in
the
name,"
is
shaded
horizontally,
and
Allah,
the
proper
name
of
God,
vertically.
Together,
these
two
words read bismillahi
and
mean
"In
the
name
of
God,"
the
beginning
of
the
Basmala formula. The
poem
plays
on the
lengthened
arc
in
thewords bismi.
In
an
ordinary
text,
these
words
would
be
written
with
a
short
arc;
however,
calligraphers
traditionally
lengthened
the
arc
when
writing
this
particular
formula. Such
lengthened
Basmalas
are
very
common
and
are
termed oklu Besmele
(Basmala
with
arrow)
in
Turkish.
With
its
lengthened
arc,
which
the
poet
qualifies
as
an
"equator,"
the
formula is likened
to
the
bridge
of
$irat,
which,
going
from
right
to
left,
leads
straight
to
Allah.
So
we
have
here
a
bit of
visual
iconicity.
The
formula
Bismillah
leads
the believer
to
God,
and
it
actually
looks
like the very bridge over which the believer is to reach
God
in
the
afterlife.
Moreover,
in
the last
linewhere
the
poem
refers
to
the
Basmala
as
a
"short route"
that
leads
to
God,
the
calligrapher
has shortened
the
arc,
so
that
once
again
the form of
the
writing
echoes the
meaning
of
the
text
itself.
Another
example
of
visual
iconicity
in
Islamic
calligraphy
appears
in
Figure
6a,
a
panel
by
the
great
Ottoman
calligrapher
Mehmed
?efik
Bey.20
Why
it
is in
the form
of
a
pear,
I
do
not
know.21
What
I
want
to
stress
is
a
bit
more
subtle.
The
text
says:
"Mercy
Ali, Fatima,
Hasan,
Husayn,"
that
is,
it
ddresses itself
to
Islam's
equivalent of the "Holy Family": the Prophet's daughter
Fatima,
his son-in-law
AM,
and
his
two
grandsons
Hasan
and
Husayn.
(In
fact,
the
name
of the
Prophet
himself
is
also hidden
in
the
composition,
as
theword
aman,
mercy,
is
numerologically equivalent
to
the
name
Muhammad.)
In
Figure
6b,
the first letter f
the
name
AN,
the
Arabic
'ayn,
is
shaded
vertically,
and the
first
letter
f
the
name
Fatima,
fa,
horizontally.
What
is
interesting
is that the
name
of the first
letter
f
Ali
is
a
homonym
of the
Arabic
word for
"eye."
Furthermore,
there
is,
in
both Arabic and
Turkish,
the
expression
"to
be
in
someone's
eye,"
which
means
to
be
loved,
to
be
esteemed,
to
be
valued.
So
by
placing
Fatima
into the
'ayn/eye
of
Ali,
this
inscription
is
in
fact
giving
the
message
that the
Prophet's
daughter
was
greatly
beloved
and
esteemed
by
her
spouse,
the
Caliph
Ali.
Visually,
the
calligraphic composition
makes
Fatima
"the
apple
of Ali's
eye"?an expression
that has
the
same
meaning
in
Turkish
(Ali'nin
goz
bebegi)
as
it
oes
in
English.
A
clever visual
pun,
then,
that
was
imitated
by
several
later
calligraphers,
and another nice
instance
of
visual
iconicity.
Many
more
examples
could be
given
in
support
of
the claim
that
compositions
made
up
of
Arabic
letters
can
be iconic
in
both the
general
and the Peircean
sense. These examples are perhaps not "typical" of
Islamic
calligraphy,
but
they
do
represent
a
subset
of
some
significance
and show
the
degree
of semiotic
sophistication
that the
art
sometimes
reached,
particularly
in
ttoman
Turkey.
The
Republican
rupture
As
Umberto Eco
has
noted,
icons
are
culturally
coded.22
For
readers of
the
present
article who
are
not
Islamicists,
I
suspect
this fact
has
been
driven
home
all
the
more
clearly by
the
myriad
references
to
which
I
have
alluded
in
order to
expose
the
iconicity
of
the
calligraphies; without those references, thesewould
just
have
been
plain
inscriptions?or,
worse,
indecipherable
scribbles.
It
is
this
culturally
coded
nature
of icons
that
I
wish
to
underscore,
as I
now
move
from
the
Ottoman
Empire
to
the
Republic
of
Turkey,
that
is,
to
the nation
state
that
emerged
from
the
ashes of
the
Ottoman
Empire
and
set
its
eyes
firmly
n
the
path
of
westernization.
This
path
deliberately
severed
Turkey's
historical
connections
with its
imperial
predecessor
and
thereby
altered
the
20.
On
the
calligrapher
ehmed
?efik
Bey
(1820-1880),
see
Derman,
Letters
in
Gold
(note
3),
p.
122;
Derman,
The Art of
Calligraphy
note
),
pp.
233-234
21.1
should
point
out
that
?efik
Bey
wrote
several
pear-shaped
panels;
perhaps
he
just
iked
hefruit?or
ther
examples
signed
by
him,
see
Heath
Lowry,
"Calligraphy?Husn-i
Hat" in
Tulips,
Arabesques
&
Turbans: Decorative
Arts
from
the
Ottoman
Empire,
ed.
Yanni
Petsopoulos
(New
York:
Abbeville
Press,
1982),
p.
179;
Hiiseyin
Gunduz
and
FarukTaskale,
Dancing
Letters:
A
Selection of
Turkish
Calligraphic
Art
(Istanbul:
Antik
A.
?.
Kultur
Yaymlan,
2000),
p.
83.
A
lovely
decoupage
version
(this
one
signed
by
the cut-out
artist
but
not
by
?efik
ey
himself)
s in
Rogers,
mpire
f
the
ultans
note
13),
p.
266.
22.
Umberto
Eco,
A
Theory
of
Semiotics
(Bloomington:
Indiana
University
Press,
1979),
pp.
191-217.
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Figure
6a.
Mehmed
?efik
Bey,
calligraphic
panel
with the
names
"Mercy
Ali, Fatima,
Hasan,
Husayn,"
1292
a.h.
(1875
ce).
Author's
collection.
Figure
6b.
Detail from he
panel
in
Figure
6a.
cultural matrix inwhich the icons Ihave been describing
had
operated.
Soon
after the
Republic
was
proclaimed
in
1923,
the
new
regime
convened
a
commission
to
study
a
vexing
question
that had
generated
considerable
controversy
over
the
preceding
decades,
namely
the
issue of
abolishing
Arabic
script
and
adopting
Latin
script
in its
stead.
The
revealing
cartoon
in
figure
7
was
published
in
1926,
as
the debates continued.
The
caption
says:
"Off
with
you
Go
join
the
ruins
of the
Monarchy "
Since the
original
image
is
in
black
and
white,
it is
impossible
to
determine whether
the
shading
on
the face of the
man
on
the
right
was
meant to
indicate that he
is
blushing,or?more
likely?if
this
was a racist
reference
to the Arab
("darkie"
in
colloquial
Turkish)
origins
of
Arabic
script.
Certainly
his handlebar mustache
was
meant to connote
unfashionable,
"oriental"
grooming,
as
opposed
to
the
new
clean-shaven,
Western
look of the
time.
In
1928,
the
government
officially
announced that
Latin
script
would henceforth be used
in
the
Republic
of
Turkey;
indeed,
publishing
Turkish works
in
Arabic
script
was
actually
criminalized.
A cartoon
published
that
very
year
in
the
daily
Ak?am,23
was
subtitled "h/cref"?the
Turkish
pronunciation
of the Arabic word
hijrah,
which denotes the
Prophet's
migration
from
Mecca
to
Madina in the year 622. Irreverentlymaking light f this
momentous
occurrence
in
Islamic
history?the
very
event
that
became the
starting
point
of the
new
Islamic
calendar?the
cartoon
shows
an
anthropomorphic
Arabic
letter
wearing
the fez?another
rejected
relic of
the
Ottoman
past?leading
a
long
procession
of Arabic
letters,
leaving
modern
Turkey
for
an
undetermined,
presumably
eastbound,
destination.
Another
cartoon
published
in
1928
in
the
daily Cumhuriyet,24
then the
semi-official
mouthpiece
of
the
Kemalist
administration,
appeared
the
day
before the
obligation
to
use
Latin
script
went
into
effect,
and
depicted
a
very
angular
car
speeding
past
a
very
cursive
camel
sporting
the Arabic
letter al, the first letter f the Turkish word forcamel,
deve.
It
as
situated
atop
the
following
text:
The differencebetween
Arabic
letters,
hich
we are
burying
today,
nd theTurkish letters hat
we
shall
start
using
tomorrow,
is
s
big
as
thatbetween
a
camel
and
a car.
Just
as
the
camel,
which
comes
fromthe deserts of
Arabia,
is
the
symbol
of
primitivity,
ackwardness,
and
sluggishness,
23. This
cartoon
has been
reproduced
in
Cuneyd Emiroglu [pseud,
of
Kadir
Misiroglu],
islam
Yazisma Dair
(Istanbul:
Sebil
Yaymevi,
1977),
p.
71.
24.
Both the
cartoon
and the
accompanying
text
are
reproduced
in
ibid.,
p.
46.
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Figure
7.
Cartoon
published
in
1926
in the
humor
magazine
Akbaba.
Reproduced
from
Cuneyd
Emiroglu [pseud,
of
Kadir
Misiroglu],
islam
Yazisma
Dair
(Istanbul:
Sebil
Yaymevi,
1977),
p.
21.
so
is
the
car,
which
we
have taken
from
the
West,
the
emblem
of
progress,
civilization,
and
speed...
.The camel
brought
pilgrims
to
the Kaba
in
rder for them
to
fulfill heir
obligation
to
perform
the
ha]].
The
car
will
bring
our
nation,
which
is
thirsting
or
progress
and
advancement,
to
the
Kaba
of
civilization.
One
might
think
that this
absolutely
remarkable
statement,
which
so
unselfconsciously
seeks
to
replace
Islam
by
a
new,
secular
religion
of
progress
centered
in
the
West,
was an
aberration?little
more
than
enthusiastic
hyperbole
understandable,
perhaps,
in
the climate of
revolutionary
fervor that followed the
establishment
of the
Republic
of
Turkey.
Yet
a
book
cover
designed
and
published
as
recently
as
2006
depicts
an
hourglass
in
which the
passage
of time is
expressed
not
as
the flow of
sand,
but
as
the
morphing
of the
Arabic
letters
in
the
upper
chamber into Latin
letters
in
the lower
one 25 This is
as
eloquent
a
representation
of
the
meaning
of Arabic
script
in
modern
Turkey
as
one
could
imagine:
Arabic
letters
signify
the
past,
the
Orient,
backwardness,
sessility, political
reaction.
Little
wonder,
then,
hat he
1928
photograph
y
Jean
einberg
(fig.
)
depicting
the founder
and first
president
of the
Republic
of
Turkey,
Mustafa
Kemal
Ataturk,
teaching
citizens Latin
script
became
one
of
the
most
celebrated
and
widely
recognized
icons of
the
young
nation-state.
Calligraphy today
So what
happened,
one
might
wonder,
to the art of
calligraphy,
so
rich
and
widely practiced
during
the
Ottoman
period
and
so
laden with
layers
and
layers
of
meaning,
after
Turkey
adopted
Latin
script?26
It is
live
25.
The
cover
in
question
appeared
on
the second
edition of
Recep
?enturk,
islam
Dunyasmda
Modern
lesme
ve
Toplumbilim:
Turkiye
ve
Misir
Ornegi
(Istanbul:
iz
Yaymcilik,
2006).
The title
translates
as
"Modernization
and
Sociology
in
theMuslim
World: The
Case
of
Turkey
nd
Egypt/'
26. A
questiort
that
might
pose
itself is
whether
or
not
Latin
script
has
to
any
degree replaced
Arabic
script
as
a
medium for
beautifully
written
religious
(and
other
public)
texts.
Though
a
small
number of
calligraphers?notably
Emin
Barm,
Savas
?evik,
and
Etem
?aliskan
(the
first
two
of
whom
were
classically
trained
in
Arabic-script
calligraphy
as
well)?have
done
considerable work
along
these
lines,
overall
Arabic
script
remains
the
medium
of
choice.
On this
point,
I
wrote
some
time
ago:
"The
holy
mission
with
which
Arabic
writing
is
...
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Figure
8.
Jean
einberg,
Mustafa
Kemal
Ataturk
teaching
Latin
script,
1928.
Reproduced
from
Jean
Weinberg,
Gazi'nin
Eseri
(Istanbul:
Published
by
the
photographer,
1933),
unpaginated.
and
well
today,
ut
it
as
had
to
go
through good
deal
of trials and
tribulations
over
the
decades,
and its
meaning
now can
be
very
different
from
its
meaning
a
century
ago.
To
be
sure,
there
always
existed
in
the
Republic
of
Turkey
a counter-culture, and a counter-elite to go with
it,
hat
continued
to
value
calligraphy
as
well
as
other
arts
inherited from
the
Ottoman
period.
They
patronized
those
calligraphers
who
did
not
abandon
their
craft,
published
books
and
articles,
and
assembled
large
and
precious
collections
of
original
works.
But
to
do
so
without
being
stigmatized
as
political
reactionaries and
enemies of
modernity, they
had
to
cloak their
passion
in
the
appropriate
garb.
Thus
emerged
the idea
that
in
this
modern age, calligraphy isnot to be read, but rather to
be
enjoyed
as
a
form of abstract
art.
The
painter
Nurullah
Berk,
who
was
born
in
1906 and therefore
surely
knew
well
how
to
read Arabic
script,
said that
artists such
as
Kandinsky,
Klee,
Hartung,
and
Miro
had "extracted
new
linear
forms and
compositions
fromArabic
letters"
and thus
that
"calligraphy,
which
was a
most
influential
art
form
in
theMuslim
East,
has been embellished
by
European
artistswith
various
and
rich
examples
of
abstract
expression."
He
concluded
that
"[i]t
is
no
longer
necessary
to
read and
understand
these
inscriptions.
Writing
has become
picture,
and
what
concerns
us
charged
has
in
turn
endowed
it
ith
a
special
status in
Islamic
culture:
the
script
that
preserves
the word
of
God
is
perceived
as
a
Godly
script.
In
this
regard,
the
identification
of
Arabic
script
with
the
religion
of Islam
is
profound
and
perhaps
unequalled....
By
symbolizing
Islam,
Arabic
writing
becomes
a
metonym
for
the divine
order,
for the
connection between
God and
His creation."
Schick,
"Writing
the
Body
in
Islam"
(see
note
4).
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221
in them is theirmelodic and musical lines, the plastic
appearance
of
their
compositions/'27
An
apparently
apocryphal
story
also
began
to
circulate around
that
time,
according
to
which,
upon
seeing
a
work of
Islamic
calligraphy,
Picasso had
exclaimed:
"This iswhat
I
have
sought
to
achieve
my
entire life.
his is
true
modern
art."
The
publisher
?evket
Rado,
a
conservative intellectual
who
accumulated
the
largest
private
collection
of
Ottoman
calligraphy
in
the
world,
quoted
this
statement in
his
book,
and
wrote:
It
has
now
become clear
that
the
art
of
Islamic
calligraphy,
which
was
for
long
time
regarded
as
merely
the
craft
f
beautiful
writing,
is in
fact
magical pictorial
art
that
was
born
more
than
a
thousand
years ago
and
evolved
in
totally
mystical
context.
Today,
western
critics
view
it...
as
an
art
of abstract
painting
that
must
be
taken
seriously.28
In
all these
statements
by
authoritative Turkish
artists
and
critics,
the
role of
time
is
extremely
noteworthy. They
all
say,
essentially,
that
calligraphy
used
to
be
writing,
but
now
is
abstraction,
that
it
used
to
be
read,
but
now
is
only
to
be
contemplated
visually.
What
they
did
thereby
is
to
exaggerate
the
pictorial quality
of
calligraphy,
but
entirely
deny
its
iconicity,
that
is,
its
role
as
sign.
Or
perhaps
to
redefine
it
s
the indicator/index
of
an
Eastern
creative
genius
that had
discovered
abstract
art
before
Europe
had done so?the East as more Western than the
West itself.
Over
time,
this
attitude has
changed.
The cultural
moment to
which
it is
customary
to
refer
s
"the
postmodern
turn"
in
Europe
and North America
has
taken
different
forms
in
societies
outside
the
Western
metropoles,
but
they
have
certainly
all shared
many
common
elements:
a
loss of
confidence
in
the
metanarrative of
modernism;
cultural
atomization;
proliferating
experimentation
and
bricolage
with
non-mainstream
cultures;
an
inward
turn
inspired
by
communalism, nativism,
and
spirituality;
and
a
growing
interest
in
detemporalized history
as
part
of
an
eternal
present.
In
this
context,
calligraphy
was
suddenly
driven
back
into
prominence,
but,
in
the
absence
of
a
single
dominant culture, it ame to be infusedwith widely
different
meanings by
different cultural
communities.
On
the
one
hand,
collecting
Ottoman
antiques,
and
calligraphy
in
particular,
became
a
class
signifier
for
the
newly
affluent
strata
that
emerged
as
a
result of
the
laissez-faire
policies
of the
1980s
and
1990s.
The
core
of
the
economically
and
culturally
dominant class
had
been
slowly
shifting
throughout
the second half
of the
twentieth
century,
as
remnants
of
the
late
Ottoman
and
early republican
elite,
concentrated
mainly
in
the
largest
cities
(particularly
Istanbul),
were
gradually
swept
aside
by provincial
upstarts.
By
the
1990s,
these
new
multimillionaires
and
even
multibillionaires had reached
the
top
of the economic
ladder,
but
they
seemed to feel
a
certain
malaise?a need for
roots
and
even
legitimacy.
This
they
found
in
ttoman
antiques.
Photographs
of
such families
in
their
mansions,
surrounded
by
Ottoman
opulence
in
the
shadow
of
calligraphic panels
hit
the tabloid
press
daily
(fig.
9).
For
these
generally
conservative,
but for the
most
part
secular
collectors,
calligraphy
was
not
a
matter
of
religion
but of
heritage.
It
as
their
ticket
to
a
glorious
past,
not
unlike
wealthy
European
commoners
who
purchased
titles from
impoverished
aristocrats.
It
hould
come
as no
surprise
that
most
of
these
super-rich
collectors made
no
effort
to learn how to read theseworks; they simply basked
in
their
splendor.
Indeed,
calligraphic
genres
like the
imperial
edict
(ferman)
and
the
hilye
became
status
symbols
par
excellence,
because
their
distinctive
forms
made them
so
easy
to
recognize
without
the need
to
read them.
Today,
such works
can
fetch
several
tens
of
thousands
of
dollars
at
auction.
It
is
noteworthy
that
the children
of
these
first-generation
multimillionaires
seem
to
show
much less interest
in
antiques;
not
prey
to
the
sense
of
rootlessness
or
the
impostor
syndrome
apparently
felt
by
their
parents,
they
have
found
new
ways
to
achieve
"distinction" in
the
sense
proposed by
Bourdieu.29
In
particular,
the
modern
Turkish
art
market
has skyrocketed in recent years.
The
super-rich
were
not
the
only
modern
Turks
to
feel
the need for
forging
a new
identity
not
entirely
severed
from
the
Ottoman
past.
A
good
number of
contemporary
artists
that
handsomely
deserve the
qualification
of
29.
To
the
best of
my
knowledge,
this
process
has
not
yet
been
discussed
in
detail in
the
scholarly
literature.
My
spouse,
the
sociologist
Nilufer
isvan,
and
I
have been
engaged
in
a
long-term
research
project
whose
results
we
hope
eventually
to
publish.
27.
Cited
in
the
exhibition
catalogue
of
the
calligrapher
Emin Barm
at
istanbul
Devlet Giizel
Sanatlar
Akademisi,
May
25-June
15, 1978,
p.
4.
28.
Jevket
Rado,
Turk
Hattatlari
(istanbul:
Yayin
Matbaacilik
Ticaret
Limited
?ti.,
n.d.
[ca.
1982]),
p.
7.
Ugur
Derman
(private
communication)
confirmed
to me
that
Rado
told
him
at
the
time:
"What
can
I
do,
dear
Sir? To
have this
art
accepted
in
our
time,
we
have
no
other
choice/'
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Figure
9. From
the sublime
to
the
ridiculous,
two
examples
of
society
pages
from
he
early
1990s.
Left:
from the
magazine V,
the late
Sakip
Sabanci
at
home,
in
front
f
a
selection of
imperial
dicts fromhis
vast
collection
of
Ottoman
calligraphy;
the headline
reads:
"The
collection
the
world
is
talking
bout."
Right:
fromthe
magazine
Fame,
Aysegiil
Nadir
in
her
(leased
and
freshly
estored)
historical
mansion
on
the
Bosphorus,
striking
n
"Ottoman"
pose
for the tabloid
press;
Nadir's collection also included
numerous
imperial
dicts,
as
well
as rare
examples
ofOttoman marbled
paper
and other
precious antiques.
"postmodern"
began
to
integrate
Ottoman
motifs
into
their
works,
particularly calligraphy.
The
painter
Erol
Akyavaj
was
the first
o
do
so,
thus
achieving
infinitely
reater
commercial
success
than he had
done
throughout
his
career.
Ergin
Inan
and
Suleyman
Saim Tekcan are two other
prominent
artistswho use
calligraphy
in
theirwork.30 The
important point
to note
here
is
that their
use
of
calligraphy
would
never
be
mistaken forworks of
calligraphy
proper.
What
they
have
done
is
to
use
calligraphy
principally
as an
element of
texture?Nan Freeman
has
suggested,
extremely
aptly,
I
think,
that their
use
of
calligraphy
is
akin
to
the
use
of
newsprint
inCubist
painting.31
The text that
they
use is
inconsequential,
and
it is
not at
all unusual
for
them
to
write
an
inscription
backward,
if
he
graphic
composition
warrants
it.
In
their
hands,
calligraphy
has become
pure
sign.
But
not
icon: At
most,
it
has become
symbol.
At the
same
time,
Islamic
calligraphy
has also become
something
of
a
rallying
point
and
source
of
identity
30.
Examples
of
Akyavas's
work
appear
in
Erol
Akyavas:
Yasami
ve
Yapitlan,
ed. Beral Madra and Haldun
Dostoglu
(Istanbul:
Bilgi
Oniversitesi
Yaymlari,
2000);
for
inan,
see
Ferit
Edgu,
Ergin
inan
([istanbul]:
Ada
Yaymlan,
1988);
forTekcan,
see
Semra
Germaner,
Suleyman
Saim
Tekcan:
45
Years ofArts
[sic] (Istanbul:
Turkiye
is
Bankasi,
2006).
An
exhibition
was
held
recently
in
London,
focusing
on
similar works from elsewhere
in
the Middle
East.
Though
many
of the works
in
the show
were
wonderful,
the
complete
absence of
Turkish
artists
among
nearly eighty?ranging
from
Morocco
to
Iran
and
even
China
( )?is
nothing
short of
incomprehensible.
For
the
catalogue,
see
Venetia
Porter,
Word into
Art: Artists
of theModern
Middle
East
(London:
The British
Museum
Press,
2006).
31. Private communication.
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for religious youth inTurkey.32 Infact, calligraphy is
eminently
well suited
for such
a
role,
precisely
because
the
majority
of Turkish
citizens
today
cannot
read
it.
Thus,
Arabic
script
acts to
some
degree
as a
password
or
"secret handshake" that
performs
boundary
maintenance
on
the
community,
distinguishing
insiders
from outsiders.
One
of the effects
of this
new
role assumed
by
Islamic
calligraphy
in
Turkey
has been
the
emergence
of
a
new
orthodox
formalism?not
only
in
calligraphy,
but
also
in
some
of the allied
arts,
particularly
illumination
and
marbling.
The
neologism
"traditional
art"33 has
emerged
as an
unchallengeable
and
unquestionable
concept encompassing
these
diverse fields
and
endowing
them
with
an
inviolability
that borders
on
sacrality.
Attitudes toward these
arts
have become
a
test
of
political
correctness
and
even
moral
rectitude.
Underlying
this
new
orthodoxy
is
a
historicist,
indeed
Darwinian,
conception
of
art
according
to
which
styles
and
techniques
evolve
in
monolinear
progression,
and the survival of the fittest
is
accomplished through
compatibility
and
congruence
with the "soul of the
nation"?a
concept
that
is,
of
course,
never
defined.
As
a
result
of
what
we
might
call "aesthetic
Darwinism,"
the
entire
history
of each
so-called "traditional
art" is
viewed
teleologically,
a
single
mainstream
practice
is
recognized
as the correct one, and all practices that deviate from it
are
viewed
as
undesirable mutations
and
perversions
of
the national
essence
that
must
be snuffed
out,
so
that
the
art?and the nation?can
be
restored
to
the "correct"
course.
To
give
just
one
example:
It is
a
long-standing
practice
in
calligraphy
for
a
master to
give
the student
a
license
called
icazet
(Arabic:
ijazah)
upon
completing
the
standard
course
of
study.
This
practice
has
historically
been
scrupulously
enforced, and,
with
a
handful of
exceptions,
students who
had
not
yet
earned their
license
were
not
permitted
to
sign
their
work?in
other
32. On
June
23,
2007,
I
took
part
in
the
Symposium
on
the Arts
of
the
Book
organizedby
iSMEK,
highly
uccessful
rogram
f
art
education
and
vocational
training
associated with
the
municipality
of
Istanbul.
A
good
90
percent
of
the
audience
was
female,
and of
those,
easily
95
percent
were
veiled.
33.
Traditional
arts
are
generally
known
in
Turkish
as
geleneksel
sanatlar. There is
some
irony
in
this,
however:
The suffixes
sel/sal
(gelenek+sel
is
equivalent
to
tradition+al)
are
strongly
disliked
by
traditionalists,
who
view
them?and
not
entirely
without
justification?
as an
artificial
construct
of
Republican
linguistic
engineering.
On
the other
hand,
the Ottoman
adjective
an'anev?
is
obsolete
and
very
unlikely
to
replace
geleneksel.
The
term
gelenekli
sanatlar
("arts
with
traditions")
has
recently
been
proposed by Ugur
Derman,
and
has
gained
some
acceptance
within
the
arts
of
the book
community.
words, to function as professional calligraphers. In the
art
of
paper
marbling
(Turkish:
ebru;
Persian:
abr\),
however,
there
was never
such
a
practice.
At
least,
we
currently
dispose
of
no
historical
evidence
whatsoever
to
indicate that
master
marblers
might
have
once
granted
licenses
to
their
apprentices.
Be
that
as
it
may,
in
the
last
decade
or
two,
a
small number of Turkish
marblers
have invented
the tradition
of
granting
licenses for
marbling.34
This has
permitted
them
to
gain
a
doctrinal.
monopoly
of
sorts
over an
art
that
is
becoming
more
popular,
and hence less
centrally
controlled,
by
the
day.
There
is
even
a
web site
in
which,
by
clicking
on some
links,
one
can
hear the recorded
voice
of their
common
teacher,
the lateMustafa
Duzgunman, describing
his
methods and
recipes.35
The
context
makes
it
lear that
his
is
the
only legitimate
artistic
lineage,
as
far
as
they
are
concerned,
and forwhat
they
consider
legitimate
marblers,
his methods
and
recipes
and
they
alone
are
the
correct
ones.
Any experimentation
with
"nontraditional"
pigments,
sizes, mordants,
or
designs
is
viewed
not
only
as
beyond
the
pale
of Turkish
marbling,
but indeed
as
a
betrayal
of
it.
et
what constitutes
"traditional"
materials
and
techniques
derives
only
from
the
verbal
testimony
of
a
couple
of
twentieth-century
masters
of the
art,
and not
from
laboratory
work
and scientific
analysis
of
historical
examples. Inother words, this tradition?like all others,
of course?is
merely
a
modern
invention
that
projects
itself
into
time
immemorial.
Thus,
it
is
not
only
through
form
but also
through
practice
that
new
meanings
have
been
ascribed
to
calligraphy
and other
arts
of the
book
in
modern
Turkey.
Whether
a
status
symbol
for the
rich,
a source
of
identity
for
the
postmodern,
or a
test
of
orthodoxy
for
Islamists,
calligraphy
remains
a
problematic
icon
in
Turkey
today,
one
that
has
become
part
of
the
raging
"culture
wars."
The
daily Hurriyet
reported
on
September
21,
2005,
that,
as
a
bit of
"happening"
or
conceptual
art,
some
unidentified
persons
suddenly
unfurled a
large
banner in the
Karakoy
neighborhood
34.
For
examples
of
these
documents,
some
of
which
curiously
blend
traditionalist
verbiage
with
recent-vintage
nationalism,
see
Muin
Nursen
Eris,
Mustafa
Esat
Duzgunman
and
Ebru
(Istanbul:
istanbul
Buyuksehir
Belediyesi
Kultur
A.
?.
Yaymlan,
2007),
pp.
164-165,
176-177.
35.
The
URL
of
this
site,
maintained
by
the
marbler
Alparslan
Babaoglu,
is
http://www.gelenekselebru.com/.
There
is
also
an
English
version
of the
site,
but
it is
incomplete.
In
particular,
the
hyperpolemical
pages
entitled
Reddiye
(refutation)
in
the
Turkish
section remain
untranslated.
The
Turkish
section
even
includes
a
?ehadetname
(testimonial)
from
Duzgunman's
son
attesting
to
the
fact
that the
information
presented
therein is
faithful
to
his
father's
practices.
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of downtown Istanbul. On it ere two
pieces
of
calligraphy,
both
in
urkish.
One
said
gel keyfim
gel,
which
is
more
or
less
untranslatable but could
best be
described
as an
invocation
to
pleasure,
to
hedonism.
The other said bu
da
geger ya
HQ,
which
roughly
means
"Lord,
this
too
shall
pass."
Both,
in
other
words,
were
nonpolitical,
secular,
and
entirely
unthreatening
expressions
that
any average
Turk
might
have uttered
on
a
suitable
occasion.36
Alas,
people
in
the
street
below could
not
read them.
They interpreted
the
banner
as some
sort
of Islamist
battle
cry,
and much
anxiety
was
reportedly
experienced,
until the
municipality
ordered
it
removed?a
tragicomical
twist
in
the
saga
of Islamic
calligraphy
in
Turkey.
Indeed,
this
saga
shows the
art,
taken
in
toto,
to
have
had
a
powerfully
indexical
quality, particularly during
the
Republican
period.
Its
suppression,
reemergence,
redefinition,
and
reappropriation provide
clues
as
to
the
profound
sociocultural transformations that
have
taken
place
since
the
collapse
of the
Ottoman
Empire.
36.
When
I
presented
this
material
at
MIT,
Caroline
Jones
wondered
if
Lord,
this
too
shall
pass"
might
not
be intended
as a
response
to
the
invocation
to
pleasure
above it?that
is,
if it
might
not represent a conservative rejoinder to the hedonistic practices of
modern
society.
Though
I
agree
that
this
possibility
cannot
be ruled
out,
I
strongly
doubt
it,
s
the
phrase
bu
da
geger ya
HQ
does
not
have such
a
censorious
connotation
in
Turkish.