Page 55 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

13. Illuminated serlevha from a Koran transcribed by Yakut
el-Mustasimi in 1282/1283 and illuminated mid-sixteenth century (Istanbul,
Topkapi Sarayi Miizesi, E.H. 227, fols. lb-2a)

text of Sayrafi's Koran was cut out and pasted onto new man's grand vezir twice (1544-1553 and 1555-1561) and
sheets. Each line was enclosed by a contour band and the was married to the sultan's daughter, Mihrimah. Both Rüs-
field decorated with floral scrolls; chapter headings and dou- tem and Mihrimah were enthusiastic patrons of the arts, par-
ble folios with the text at the beginning and end were illumi- ticularly of architecture, commissioning Sinan to build for
nated. Illuminated folios with additional Koranic verses were them several complexes. Blamed for the execution of §ehzade
appended to the front and back. Mustafa, Rüstem was expelled in 1553 but reinstated two
A notation on the flyleaf in the front of the book provides years later. He appears to have commissioned the decoration
a most unusual documentation on the artists who refurbished of Sayrafi's Koran immediately after his reappointment and
the volume and the person who commissioned the decora- employed the best artists of the court to celebrate his return
tion. It states that the Koran transcribed by Abdullah Sayrafi to favor and to demonstrate his restored power.
in 1344/1345 was illuminated by Kara Mehmed Çelebi in The illuminations of the appended folios as well as those of
1554/1555 and bound by Mehmed Çelebi in 1555/1556; the opening and closing verses reveal great finesse. The conclud-
appended folios, chapter headings, and verse indicators in the ing pair of text folios (14) are enclosed by a wide blue and
margins were written by Hasan "veled-i (son of) Ahmed el- gold frame with hatayi scrolls filling its reciprocal arches.
Karahisari" in 1556/1557; and the volume, prepared for the Chapter headings are written in gold sülüs and placed against
treasury of Rüstem Pa§a, was delivered by Hüseyin Çelebi, a blue ground densely covered with gold scrolls bearing poly-
the head of his household. chrome florals or gold rumis. The colophon, which appears
The patron of the work, Rüstem Pa§a, served as Süley- on the lower left, follows the same format. This portion, writ-

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