Page 62 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

half of the sixteenth century. The exterior, covered with black durable leather was made from the skins of sharks and rays;
sharkskin, is embroidered with gold and blue with certain it was first used in eastern Asia and then spread to the Otto-
elements defined in black (19). The central medallion with man world, whence it was transmitted to Europe. An item of
pendants and the corner quadrants have tulips, hyacinths, luxury, it was frequently dyed green and applied to the han-
and five-petaled blossoms rendered in blue on a gold ground; dles of imperial swords (to provide a good grip) and covered
the field and the wide border show scrolls bearing hatayis, containers of precious objects. Known as shagreen in English,
tulips, and hyacinths, embroidered in gold and blue on the the word was applied both to real sharkskin and to its imita-
black leather ground. The spine, devoid of decoration, ap- tions in which other skins were soaked and wrapped tightly
pears to have been restored. The fore-edge flap, however, is with seeds to simulate the granular texture found in the orig-
original and displays a series of lozenges composed of ser- inal. The word itself appears to be of Turkish origin, deriving
rated leaves with hatayi blossoms placed in the interstices. from sagn, which referred to the underpart of a horse from
The doublures, covered with reddish-brown leather, are deco- which a small piece of skin was taken to make the imitation
rated with gold-stamped medallions and spandrels containing sharkskin; the French pronounced it "chagrin" and the Eng-
saz scrolls, identical to the exterior covers of Karahisari's lish changed it to "shagreen," obviously influenced by its
1552/1553 album. green color.
The use of sharkskin on the exterior of the binding is un- Only a few examples of sixteenth-century Ottoman shark-
usual and deserves comment. This fine-grained and highly skin have come to light. These include the bookbinding de-
scribed above, a large rectangular box (see 140), and a tan-
kard. Since all three display the same technique of decoration
and choice of motifs, they must have been contemporary and
produced in one workshop. Further research in the storage
rooms of imperial collections may reveal other examples and
prove that the material was more widely used in the court
than previously assumed.
A second noteworthy aspect of this bookbinding is the
technique of its decoration. Embroidery was popularly used
to embellish such leather objects as boots, slippers, shoes,
containers, quivers, and bow cases. Items for the court were
made with colored silk and gold metallic threads, sometimes
wrapped around silk cores to give them additional strength.
Stitches resemble those employed on linen, velvet, and satin.
Other sixteenth-century examples of embroidered leather
bookbindings are not known to have survived; there exists,
however, a unique embroidered satin bookbinding made for
Mustafa Ali's Nusretname (Book of victories), which was com-
pleted in 1584. 37
Another group of bookbindings has been preserved in rela-
tively large number, though few are datable and their chro-
nology is yet to be determined. Fashioned in jade and en-
crusted with gold and gems, they reflect the taste for precious
and luxurious items that is observed in all imperial collec-
tions, whether Ottoman, Safavid, Romanov, or Habsburg.
Produced by the court goldsmiths and jewelers, these book-
38
bindings were made almost exclusively for Korans, the only
known exception being the one found on the Divan-i Muradi
made in 1588 by Mehmed, the head of the society of gold-
39
smiths. Although the payroll registers from the reign of Sü-
leyman list a large number of goldsmiths, gemstone cutters,
40
and inlayers, only Mehmed is known to have signed and
dated a few of his pieces.
One of the earliest and technically most interesting of all
the gold bindings in the Hazine of the Topkapi Palace has
19. Embroidered sharkskin binding from a Koran, second half sixteenth
century (Istanbul Université Kütüphanesi, A. 6570) been removed from its original Koran (20). The exterior con-

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