Page 68 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

sultan Kansu el-Gavri, was part of his booty. 54 The people think of wealth and power as the greatest fate,
Artists and books continued to arrive at the court, both But in this world a spell of good health is the best state.
voluntarily and involuntarily. Süleyman's campaigns to Iraq, What men call sovereignty is worldly strife and constant war;
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Iran, and Hungary resulted in similar enrichment of the nak- Worship of God is the highest throne, the happiest estate.
ka§hane and palace collections, the most notable example There has yet to be a critical study of the sultan's poetry.
being the library of Matthias Corvinus taken to Istanbul after Several copies of Süleyman's poems were produced by
the conquest of Budapest in 1526. 55 The conglomeration of court artists, and there is also a volume written in his own
such diverse traditions resulted in a burst of creativity that hand (24). It shows a rapid and efficient execution of talik,
was felt in all the arts, and its most profound impact was with corrections, insertions, and deletions added to the text,
upon the production of literary manuscripts. indicating that this was a draft version that he later gave to
The nakkachane produced exquisite volumes, copying the the copyists. Two of the most elaborate versions were tran-
works of such famous classical poets as Nevai, Nizami, Arifi, scribed by Mehmed §erif, an artist from Tabriz who special-
Hafiz, Sadi, Jami, and Firdausi, as well as those composed by ized in copying the poems of the sultans, including those
contemporary or near-contemporary writers, such as Fuzuli, written by Mehmed II, Bayezid II, and Selim I. 57
Ulvi, Hamdi, Musa Abdi, and Fethullah Arif, known as Arifi. One of Mehmed §erif's transcriptions, dated 1565/1566,
The most carefully executed volumes were copies of the Di- has a superb binding richly stamped with two tones of gold
van-i Muhibbi, the collected poems of Süleyman composed and decorated with saz scrolls and cloud bands. The text is
both in Persian and Turkish. Süleyman's odes (gazels) reveal a written diagonally with illuminated triangular panels fitted
rare combination of lyricism and mysticism as well as humil- into the upper and lower corners. Each folio is elaborately
ity and sincerity, as exemplified by his most frequently decorated with gold marginal drawings that represent natur-
quoted verses: alistic sprays of tulips, roses, carnations, narcissi, irises, and
hyacinths in addition to date palms, cypresses, and blossom-
Halk içinde muteber bir nesne yok devlet gibi
Olinaya devlet cihanda bir nefes sihhat gibi. ing fruit trees and bouquets of flowers in vases.
Saltanat dedikleri ancak cihan kavgasidir; The headings for the two sections that contain the Turkish
Olmaya baht-ü saadet, dünyada vahdet gibi. and Persian poems (25) have delicate marginal drawings with

25. Illuminated serlevha from the Divan-i Muhibbi transcribed by Mehmed
§crif in 1565/1566 (Istanbul, Topkapi Sarayí Müzesi, R. 738 miik.,
ibis. 39b-40a)

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