Page 181 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

joined the sultan during the 1529 siege of Vienna; 19 an Aus-
trian ambassador to the court in 1541 was so delighted with
his hilat that he had himself represented wearing it in his
memoirs. 20 Foreign dignitaries who visited the court as com-
mercial and diplomatic envoys from Venice, France, and Aus-
tria took back these splendid robes and preserved them as cu-
riosities in their collections. The tradition continued to the
closing years of the eighteenth century, an example of which
is the ceremonial kaftan presented in 1762 by Mustafa III to
an ambassador sent by Frederick the Great. 21
The sultans also presented artists with robes during bayram
celebrations, with only the deserving masters honored by
these prestigious items. A document drawn around 1535 lists
over thirty such garments distributed to the artisans; another
22
list, dated 1555-1556, mentions ten such pieces. Quantities
of robes must have been kept in the Hazine, ready to be
given out when the appropriate occasion arose.
Gifts exchanged included bolts of fabrics, tents, canopies,
rugs, and embroideries. Those given by the Safavid envoys
were particularly noteworthy, since they were frequently de-
scribed by the historians and illustrated in the manuscripts.
One of the earliest of these illustrations depicts the Iranians
presenting many textiles and rugs, during their reception by
2
Selim II in the 1581 §ahname-i Selim Han. ^ Süleyman also
received similar gifts from the Safavids on various occasions,
many of which are listed in the 1558 Suleymanname. A paint-
ing in this work (see 4la) includes a tent used by the sultan
when the Ottomans besieged Belgrade, which is very similar
to an Iranian example decorated with a hunting scene re-
24
corded as having once belonged to him. The Tarih-i Sultan Fig. 18. Ceremonial kaftan of Sultan Süleyman, mid-sixteenth century
Süleyman of 1579/1580 contains an illustration showing Ste- (Istanbul, Topkapi Sarayi Miizesi, 13/840)
phen Zápolya presenting a number of gold vessels in addition
to several bolts of fabric, some of which may have been pro-
duced in Iran or Italy.
Ottoman fabrics, on the other hand, were highly valued in
Europe, and were purchased in quantity to be fashioned into
imperial garments and ecclesiastical vestments or used as dec-
orative hangings and covers. The most prized chasubles were
made from brocaded silks produced in Bursa or Istanbul, and
carefully preserved in church treasuries. 25 The designs of Ot- use of the textiles as furnishings in the palace, particularly in
toman fabrics were greatly admired and frequently imitated the Divan-i Humayun and Arz Odasi. Fabrics were also em-
by Italian weavers, who produced silks and velvets with ogi- ployed as floor coverings (nihale) f spread on the ground dur-
val and vertical-stem patterns, fan-shaped carnations, tulips, ing ceremonial activities, or held up by officers during pa-
and saz leaves; 26 some of these must have been made for the rades to create barriers, as represented in manuscripts
palace, as there are a number of imperial kaftans sewn from produced in the 1580s and 1590s. 27 In addition, textiles were
Venetian velvets (fig. 18). In turn, the Ottoman weavers in- used for tents, banners, and tomb covers. 28 Some of the fur-
corporated certain Venetian elements, such as crowns, into nishings, including floor coverings, cushions, pillows, and
their decorative repertoire. bedspreads, were embroidered with silk and at times with
Textiles served diverse needs in the Ottoman world. Com- metallic threads.
pound satins and velvets were used as upholstery fabrics to In spite of the wealth of documentation for textile produc-
cover benches, large square floor cushions (minder), and tion in Bursa and Istanbul, reports of foreign travelers, large
smaller rectangular bolsters (yastik). A number of English repositories of kaftans in the Topkapi Palace, and fairly exten-
terms, such as divan, sofa, and ottoman, are derived from the sive collections of fabrics and garments in European treasur-

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