Page 225 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

thin band frames the piece, cutting off the elements along the spandrels at the top creating a mihrab niche. Although it is
edges, while another band is laid over the field, forming an not possible to determine whether the format was first de-
artificial border. Ruby-red pile is used for the background and vised by rug weavers or tile makers, Ottoman tiles depicting
for defining the details of the main motifs, which are ren- mihrab niches, at times with lamps hanging in the centers,
dered in gilded metal. date back to the fifteenth century, 95 while the earliest extant
Each ball contains a central roundel with a blossom, en- prayer rugs were made in the second half of the sixteenth
closed by two concentric crescents. The two flanking leaves century.
are joined at the base and embellished with sprays of flowers; The most refined court-style examples are small seccades,
those on alternating rows show a slightly different configura- or prayer rugs, that are distinguished by their wide borders
tion and terminate with rosebuds. The design, which com- that use both saz and naturalistic scrolls and have a central
bines formalized çintemani motifs with naturalistic elements field framed at the top by horseshoe, or "Bursa," arches. In a
and employs only red and gold, creates a bold and striking group of these rugs columns support the central niche; there
effect. are either single columns placed at the sides or additional
Incurving leaves or floral sprays flanking a central element double columns dividing the field into three. Six prayer rugs
was a popular theme, applied to book decoration, metalwork, are known to belong to this unusual group: four of them, in
textiles, rugs, ceramics, and tiles (see 53, 90, 158-162, 189, Kuwait (see 158), Budapest, 96 Cincinnati, 97 and East Berlin, 98
194, and 207). It was particularly favored on textiles and tiles have single columns flanking the niche; and two, in New
and used as an overall pattern with the motifs placed on al- York (see 159) and Bucharest, 99 have fields divided into
ternating axes. 94 three. A mosque lamp hangs from the center of the niche in
the Kuwait, Cincinnati, and New York rugs; sprays of natur-
alistic blossoms grow between the columns in the foreground
Rugs of those in New York and Bucharest. The columns on all
these seccades are similar: they have acanthuslike capitals
Although there has been extensive research devoted to the and decorated slender shafts that rise from hexagonal build-
study of Ottoman rugs, their dates and production centers are ings resting on arched pedestals. The architectural bases are
still debated. Without doubt the finest examples woven with unique to this group of prayer rugs. The New York seccade
silk warps and wefts and wool and cotton piles, using designs (and possibly the damaged one in Bucharest) has additional
created in the nakka^hane, were produced in the imperial hexagonal domed buildings in the panel above the niche. The
workshops in istanbul. Two other major centers, generally as- structures employed here and on the bases of the columns
sociated with all-wool examples, are Cairo and U§ak, both of are identical to the types used in the manuscripts dating from
which manufactured splendid rugs in the sixteenth century. the 1530s and 1540s.
Cities such as Bergama, Gôrdes, Karapmar, Konya, Kula, and The same format was used on rugs made as torah curtains
Milas are also thought to have been active during this period. for synagogues, the most well-known of which is in Wash-
Rugs produced in the imperial workshops employ saz ele- ington. 100 This example has a Hebrew inscription that states
ments in addition to naturalistic flora and use the asymmet- "this is the Gate of the Lord through which the righteous en-
rical knot, which is far more suitable for weaving intricate ter," indicating that the niche was not meant to be a mihrab
floriated designs than the symmetrical knot. Clues to the but an arched gateway to paradise. Two other torah curtains
chronological development of these rugs are provided by the woven in the style of prayer rugs are in Padua and Jerusa-
nakkachane designs as well as tile panels in dated or datable lem. 101 They were commissioned either by the synagogues or
buildings, which help to determine at least the termini a quo by wealthy patrons who presented them as gifts
for their composition. The decorative themes employed on to their temples.
rugs were fully established in the nakka§hane in the mid- A second group of prayer rugs contains only a horseshoe
sixteenth century and applied to all the imperial arts, includ- arch defining the niche and quarter medallions on the lower
ing tiles. two corners; the field is filled with a profusion of symmetri-
Tiles on the facade of the Sünnet Odasi (see fig. 21), pro- cally growing saz blossoms and leaves with sprays of flower-
duced at the height of the saz period in the 1550s, show the ing fruit-tree branches. Only three examples of this extraor-
finest application of the nakka§hane themes on ceramics. dinary type, in Vienna (see 160), Baltimore, 102 and the
103
Those in the Mosque of Rustern Pa§a and in the mausoleums McMullan Collection, are datable to the sixteenth century.
of Hurrern Sultan, Selim II, and Murad III (see figs. 23 and This group with the dense floral field shows the same border
25), indicate that the saz style, incorporated with naturalistic as the examples with columns.
elements, became a part of the tile makers repertoire by A related type with the same border, niche formation, and
1560. The rectangular panels in the porticoes of these struc- pair of quadrants in the lower corners has a single large floral
104
tures use the same format found on prayer rugs: a pair of element in the field. There are, in addition, similar prayer

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