Page 43 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

semicircular units as well as on the same triangular section
with four compartments found in the 1552 tugra. These areas
are filled with floral scrolls and blossoming fruit trees painted
in pink, red, blue, and green. The remaining portions have
either red and blue floral motifs, or triple gold dots overlaid
with blue rumis, similar to the design used in the beyze. The
long arm on the right contains black and blue cloud bands.
The format and decoration of Süleyman's imperial tugras
were copied in those made for his son and heir, Selim II. One
of the outstanding examples from Selim's reign (5) appears
on a mülkname that assigns the income from several districts
in Thrace to a village in the same region. The document
drawn in 1569 in Istanbul is written in gold, blue, and black
on polished and gold-speckled paper. Its tugra has a sere sim-
ilar to the ones described earlier except here it is further en-
hanced by triple red dots. The büyük beyze with blue and
gold spiral scrolls accentuated with red, and the upper por-
tion of the kücük beyze with naturalistic red and blue carna-
tions, also follow the decoration of Süleyman's tugras. Al-
though the lower portion of the kücük beyze is filled with a
similar rumi braid, the motifs in this example are painted
blue, red, and gold. The tug section shows a further variation:
gold is used as the background in the three upper and three
middle semicircular units as well as in the lower triangular
compartments, which are filled with black and red cloud
bands with an occasional blossom. The remaining areas re-
veal sprays of blue hatayis with red carnations that project
from the voids above the tug. This type of projection was also
seen in at least one tugra dating from the 1550s and became
more popular in the ensuing years.
Unfortunately the artists who executed the tugras on these
fermans cannot be identified. There is no record of a tugrakec
Kufê?
5. Illuminated tugra of Sultan Selim II from a ferman, dated 1569 (Istanbul, who worked during Süleyman's reign and the nakka§hane
Türk ve Islam Eserleri Müzesi, 4125) documents do not offer clues on the painters who might have
illuminated them. Since the same impeccable technique and
combination of stylized and naturalistic motifs are found in
illuminated manuscripts signed by Kara Memi (see 14 and
26), this artist must have worked on a number of tugras dat-
ing between the 1540s and 1560s, including the oversize
demonstration piece. Kara Memi, who originated the natural-
istic genre with delicate sprays of tulips and carnations, estab-
lished a prototype for future illuminators of tugras and possi-
bly even supervised an atelier in which other men were
closed by green leaves growing at their tips. The gold scroll, trained to follow in his steps.
one of the best renditions of the saz style, is composed of ha- Kara Memi's distinctive style appears on several other doc-
tayis also sprouting buds and leaves intermingled with large uments, including a bound volume that contains the deed of
feathery leaves overlaid with sprays of pink and blue flowers. endowment pertaining to the architectural complex commis-
The lower half of the kücük beyze has a more complex de- sioned by Hürrem Sultan in the Aksaray district of Istanbul.
sign, a double scroll of gold and black rumis interspersed The deed was established to support the mosque, imaret, and
with blue cloud bands with touches of pink. The upper por- medrese built for her by Sinan in 1538/1539. The Vakfiye of
tion contains four sprays of blue and red carnations with gold Hürrem Sultan was prepared in 1540, signed in the presence
leaves and stems. of witnesses, and validated by Süleyman's tugra. The volume
The tug employs gold in the two upper and three lower opens with an illuminated double serlevha (title page) in

42