Page 118 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

Precious Objects membership was of local origin; the largest group of outsiders
came from the Balkan provinces, particularly from Bosnia.
Although it is not possible to perceive the full scope of the There were also men from Russia, Albania, Walachia, Herze-
Hazine during Süleyman's reign, its contents must have been govina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Croatia. In addition to the
in keeping with the power and wealth of his empire. Both chief, a couple of others had arrived from Tabriz via Amasya;
Selim I and Süleyman were goldsmiths by training and there- there are also three Tabrizis whose names are recorded in a
fore gave particular attention to the promotion of this tradi- document listing the artists transported by Selim I after his
tion. Evliya Çelebi, himself a goldsmith and the son of a re- conquest of Tabriz. 14
nowned master, mentioned that Süleyman learned the Among the nine hakkakin (gemstone carvers) listed in
technique while residing in Trabzon (as did Selim I); the sul- 1526, one had joined the studio during the reign of Bayezid
tan supported the guild of the goldsmiths and endowed it II, three were added by Selim I, and five by Süleyman. The
with a fountain, mosque, bath, and compound with work- hakkakin included five masters and four apprentices; its head
shops arranged around a court. 12 was §irim or §irin Horasani (from Khorasan), who, similar to
The payroll registers of the Ehl-i Hiref dating from Süley- his colleagues in charge of the nakka^an and zergeran, had
man's reign indicate that a large group of men were involved come to Istanbul via Amasya. One half of the group were na-
with metalworking and jewelry. The artists belonged to di- tive artists and the remaining men were from the Balkans.
verse societies, the specific wares of which are at times diffi- One of them, a diamond cutter, came from Egypt and was
cult to identify. The Cemaat-i Zergeran (also called kuyumcu] registered during the reign of Selim I.
constituted the goldsmiths, silversmiths, and possibly also The list of zerni§ani (gold inlayers) also indicates that the
those who worked with zinc; the Cemaat-i Hakkakin were society was active under Bayezid II; it grew during the reigns
the gemstone carvers; the Cemaat-i Zerni§ani were the gold of Selim I, who added twelve men, and Süleyman, who
inlayers; and the Cemaat-i Sikkezan produced metal stamps added nine. The group, consisting of nine masters and thir-
for striking coins as well as assay marks on silver and gold teen apprentices, was headed by Ismail Tebrizi, and included
objects. In addition there were the kazgana (casters and kettle many local artists, a number of Circassians, and a few from
makers), who appear to have worked with copper alloys, the Balkans; there were also men from Georgia and Tabriz.
such as brass and bronze; the kündekari, woodworkers who The portion of the payroll register of 1545 pertaining to
also carved and cut ivory, mother-of-pearl, and tortoiseshell these societies has not yet come to light, but the document
and inlaid them on wooden objects; the küftci, who produced covering a twelve-month period between 1557 and 1558
gold wire from sheet metal and used it for inlays; and the shows that the goldsmiths and jewelers had been reduced to
ciknkci, who seem to have produced vessels by spinning them sixty-nine men. The society of goldsmiths was divided into
on a lathe. two corps, the Rumiyan and the Aceman, similar to that ob-
In the earliest payroll register of the Ehl-i Hiref drawn in served in the Cemaat-i Nakka^an. There were thirty-seven
1526, the section pertaining to the goldsmiths and jewelers men in the Rumiyan group, headed by Ahmed Gürci (Geor-
includes ninety artists, of whom fifty-eight belonged to the gian), who was listed in 1526 as having been brought from
society of goldsmiths, nine to the society of gemstone carvers, Georgia by Süleyman; seven members were in the Aceman
13
and twenty-two to the society of gold inlayers. There was corps, headed by Hüseyin, possibly the Hüseyin Horasani or
also onefoyeger (foil maker), which indicates that some gems Hüseyin Çerkes (Circassian) mentioned in 1526. The gem-
were placed on colored foils. A number of artisans were stone carvers were reduced in number to six members, as
themselves the sons of masters. Several were transferred from were the gold inlayers to fourteen. However, there was an in-
Edirne, indicating that the former capital was active in the dependent society for the stamp makers; it had five members.
production of gem-encrusted and gold-inlaid metalwork. All The last register drawn during the reign of Süleyman is
three societies were headed by men exiled from Tabriz, pre- dated 1566. It included thirty-nine goldsmiths, once again
sumably in 1501 when the Akkoyunlu Empire fell, and who separated into Rumiyan, which constituted ninety percent of
had been living in Amasya before joining the Istanbul studios, the society, with a small corps of Aceman. It also lists four
as had §ahkulu, the head of the nakka^an. gemstone carvers, eight gold inlayers, and seven stamp
The fifty-eight-member zergeran (goldsmiths) had thirty- makers.
four masters and twenty-four apprentices, three of whom There is a gap of thirty years in the payroll registers before
were listed as sikkezan (stamp makers), headed by Hoca Mer- the appearance of the next register, which is dated 1596. The
can Tebrizi, who had come via Amasya. This register, which membership in the Ehl-i Hiref had risen considerably, the
gives the backgrounds of the artists and the dates they en- goldsmiths alone numbering 110 men. As also observed in
tered the studio, indicates that six of the men had been em- the nakkachane's enrollment, the Ehl-i Hiref in these years
ployed by Bayezid II, seven by Selim I, and forty-five by Sü- employed the largest number of men in the history of the Ot-
leyman, who certainly enlarged the society. About half of the toman Empire. The goldsmiths, abolishing the separation into

117