Page 42 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

4. Illumniated tugra of sultan Suleyman c 155-1560 (New York, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 38.149.1)

elaborate compound blossoms and twisting feathery leaves beyze—combining spiral scrolls, braids, and floral sprays ren-
embellished with floral motifs intersecting and overlapping dered in the saz style, traditional mode, and naturalistic
one another. genre—were employed in many of the tugras made for Süley-
The lower half of the kücük beyze contains a braid com- man as well as for his followers. Gold applied to the back-
posed of black and gold rumis with red or blue triple dots ground for the sere and to alternating units of the tug also
sprinkled in the interstices. The upper half of the same sec- reappears in imperial tugras until the middle of the seven-
tion reveals six bunches of blue, red, and yellow carnations, teenth century. 26
tulips, hatayis, and other blossoms growing from clusters of The standard established by the tugra on the document
leaves. The gold units of the tug have either floral scrolls or dated 1552 enables us to date similar examples removed from
sprays of blossoms; one bears cloud bands flanking a flower. the fermans, including the one in the Metropolitan Museum
The remaining compartments of the tug are embellished with of Art (4), which must have been produced in the late 1550s.
red carnations, blue blossoms, and cloud bands. Cloud bands The büyük beyze here has a more intricate design, its super-
also fill the arm extending to the right. imposed blue and gold scrolls painted with ultimate refine-
The designs and themes filling the three units of the ment. The blue scroll contains hatayis with tiny red buds en-

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