Page 48 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

binding was removed in the seventeenth century and re- Muhibbi illuminated by Kara Memi in 1566, and an album of
placed by a gem-encrusted gold cover; recently this too was calligraphy compiled around 1560 (see 26 and 49b). The
removed. The volume now has a modern binding made by same composition and color scheme were used on tile panels,
using older stamps. The rebinding of the manuscript a cen- such as those in the Mausoleum of Hürrem Sultan, built after
tury after it was produced indicates the importance given to her death in 1558; on the facade of the Sünnet Odasi in the
the work that was transcribed by Ahmed Karahisari, a giant Topkapi Palace, obviously removed from a building decorated
in the history of calligraphy. in the mid-sixteenth century; on the portico of Rüstem Papa's
The artist, whose given name was Ahmed §emseddin, was mosque constructed in 1561; and the chamber built in 15747
born in 1469(?) in the town of Karahisar (now called Afyon- 1575 by Murad III in the Harem (see 210). The design was
karahisar), which he appended to his name. Known not only also adopted by weavers and employed on kaftans and prayer
as §emseddin (the star of religion) but also as §emstil-hat rugs. Kara Memi, who had tremendous impact on the deco-
(the star of calligraphy), Ahmed Karahisari was a brilliant rative arts of the age, was sufficiently esteemed to have been
calligrapher who broke from the traditions of the past and entrusted with the task of decorating this important Koran.
the schools of Yakut and Hamdullah. Karahisari's mastery of the art of calligraphy is clearly dem-
Karahisari began his career studying the aklam-i sitte of onstrated in the serlevha: gold stilus appears immediately
Yakut with Asadullah Kirmani, a famous calligrapher from above and below the text, which is rendered in black nesih;
Kirman; it is not known whether he went to Kirman to work the illuminated panels at the top and bottom contain white
with the master or if Asadullah had moved to Anatolia. The tevkii on a gold ground. The remaining folios, written in ne-
date of Karahisari's arrival in Istanbul is also not known, but sih, use white stilus for the chapter headings while the prayer
he was probably an established master by the time Süleyman added at the conclusion of the text is once again rendered in
ascended the throne. Karahisari worked primarily for Süley- gold stilus. The last four pages of the manuscript contain ad-
man, producing Korans, collections of prayers, and albums of ditional prayers, which may date from the seventeenth cen-
calligraphic exercises. He also worked on architectural in- tury, when the manuscript was rebound.
scriptions, the most famous examples being the circular The structure of this binding (9b) combines gem-encrusted
panels around the mihrab (see fig. 12) and the large frieze gold panels with a type of brocaded silk called seraser over a
encircling the dome of the Süleymaniye Mosque, which ap- pasteboard core. This fabric, woven with silver and/or gold
pear to have been his last works, since he died in 1556. threads, was generally reserved for imperial kaftans and fur-
Critics of calligraphy, who frequently compare his style nishings (see 119 and 156). The core is covered on the exte-
with that of Hamdullah, state that although Hamdullah out- rior and interior with silver seraser; the exterior is decorated
ranked him in the perfection of forming individual letters and with gold plaques that constitute the central medallion, axial
devising line lengths, Karahisari was unequaled in his overall pendants, corner quadrants, thin bands defining the frame,
compositions of the pages and was the greatest calligrapher of and the cartouches of the frame. These plaques, secured to
the celi style of writing. Like other Ottoman calligraphers, he the core with gold nails, were produced from molds and rep-
preferred stilus and nesih, but also practiced the other scripts. resent floral scrolls rendered in high relief with ring matting
The artistry of Karahisari does not lie in his performance of applied to the sunken grounds. The flowers are embellished
the established styles but in his unique compositions, applied with ruby and turquoise centers set into plain collars; four
both to Korans and to individual folios bound into albums. pearls appear around the large ruby in the central medallions.
The double serlevha at the beginning of his Koran dated The technique of execution and style of decoration recall two
1546/1547 contains one of the most magnificent illumina- other works dating from the second half of the seventeenth
tions created during Süleyman's reign (9a); the layout and century: a mirror and a clock, the latter signed by an artist
decorative panels surrounding the text show the hand of a named §ahin, who may have also produced this binding. 31
master painter who combined both traditional and innovative Karahisari's most exciting works appear in a collection of
themes. The artist, identified as Kara Memi, not only relied religious texts that includes the Enam Suresi (the chapter en-
on the established repertoire of rumis, hatayi scrolls, and titled Cattle) from the Koran, selections from the Hadis (Tra-
cloud bands, but also represented naturalistic flora that revo- ditions), and the famous Kaside-i Burda (Ode to the Prophet's
lutionized the decorative vocabulary of the age. mantle). His signature appears in the middle of the manu-
The most striking examples of the naturalistic genre appear script as well as at the end, where he mentioned that he was
in the two pairs of oval panels flanking the text, each repre-
senting a luxuriant spray of polychrome blossoms growing
from a cluster of leaves placed on a deep blue ground. This
particular theme, which made its appearance in the 1540s, overleaf
transcribed
a Koran
by
from
Ahmed
was reemployed on a number of other manuscripts, including 9a. Illuminated serlevha (Istanbul, Topkapi Sarayí Müzesi, Y.Y. 999,
Karahisari
in
1546/1547
the Suleymanname of Arifi dated 1558, 30 a copy of the Divan-i fols. lb-2a)
47