Page 33 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

Fig. 8. (above) Drawing after a dragon made by §ahkulu, first quarter
sixteenth century (Istanbul, Topkapi Sarayí Müzesi, H. 2154, fol. 2a)
Fig. 9. (right) Flying peri attributed to $ahkulu, c. 1550 (Washington, Freer
Gallery of Art, 37.7)

painters rather than an actual building where all the artists new projects, received their assignments, showed their drafts
worked. There was, however, a nakka^hane building outside to the nakka§ba§i, and turned in their finished works to be
the Topkapi Palace in the eighteenth century, as illustrated in compiled into the volumes. Here they would have had access
the Surname-i Vehbi (Festival book of Vehbi), dated around to reference materials and consulted with the authors and
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1720. This painting shows a two-story structure situated on calligraphers.
the main road encircling the palace, presumably next to the As observed in the registers, there were a number of estab-
Alay Ko§ku, where the sultans viewed processions. lished families in which the profession was passed from
It is recorded that famous calligraphers such as §eyh Ham- father to son; there were as well many newcomers who ar-
dullah were given quarters in the palace and that Süleyman rived from such distant lands as Bosnia and Georgia. The art-
himself liked watching §ahkulu work. The sultan also or- ists represented different traditions and approaches to book
dered the construction of a special building to be used by Ari- decoration, their heterogeneous backgrounds resulting in a
fi's calligraphers and painters after reading and approving his phenomenally energetic output.
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text. * Lokman, the court historian who followed Arifi, men- The nakka§hane members were assigned a variety of tasks,
tions that the nakka§hane building was situated on the right including illuminating and illustrating diverse texts. They also
of the first courtyard of the palace, placing it approximately decorated the tugras (monograms) affixed to the sultan's fer-
in the same area as the one described by Evliya Çelebi, who mans; embellished the vakfiyes (endowment documents) that
states that the artists worked above the Arslanhane, a build- recorded the terms for religious, charitable, and social institu-
ing long since destroyed. It is possible that the structure rep- tions; worked on the illuminations of religious texts tran-
resented in the eighteenth-century manuscript replaced an scribed by contemporary or past calligraphers; illustrated liter-
older one dating from Süleyman's reign. ary and historical texts composed by living authors as well as
Since membership in the nakka§hane reached well over by classical poets; produced single paintings and drawings;
one hundred men at times, the structure was probably used and compiled albums for the imperial libraries. In addition
as the headquarters of the society with only a few resident they executed designs that were used as cartoons and trans-
artists, the majority of the men sharing studios with fellow ferred to other techniques, such as wall paintings, metalwork,
painters, working at home, or, as mentioned by Evliya Çelebi, textiles, rugs, tiles, and ceramic vessels. 14
in their own shops. The nakka§hane building must have The tugras (see 1-5), drawn by the tugrakec (executor of
functioned as a meeting place where the members discussed tugras), were beautifully adorned with both the traditional

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