Page 99 - 2021 April 1, ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs, Christie's London

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A MONUMENTAL CALLIGRAPHIC IZNIK TILE
OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA 1565
Forming part of a large inscription panel, the white ground decorated in cobalt- Denny mentions one exception to this standard – the mosque constructed
blue, bole-red and turquoise, with a flowing nasta'liq inscription surrounded by outside the Istanbul walls in 1590 by Takieci Ibrahim Aga, a businessman
arabesque flourishes, one side with two cobalt-ground spandrels decorated whose name indicates that he made his fortune in the hat business.
with red arabesque, intact Surmounting the mihrab is a panel of Iznik tiles that form a cartouche
12¡ x 21¬in. (31.4 x 55cm.) containing a Qur’anic inscription in blue nasta’liq on white ground. He states
£150,000-200,000 US$220,000-280,000 that it would certainly have raised eyebrows at the time (Denny, op.cit.,
€180,000-230,000 p.130). It is not a singular example however - two panels of Iznik tiles also
decorated with similar nasta’liq inscriptions are in the Hünkâr mahfili, the
PROVENANCE: mosque of Selim II (published in Denny, op.cit., pp.98-99, pl.52b). Like ours
Boghos Ispenian family collection, since at least early 1930s
the inscriptions on those panels are also embellished with small foliate
INSCRIPTIONS: flourishes. Although rare, religious objects are also known with nasta’liq
ya raziq al-‘ibad, ‘O the provider for [your] servants’ inscriptions. An Iznik mosque lamp in the Gezira Museum in Cairo bears
a pious inscription in nasta’liq (inv.no.64/275; published Nurhan Atasoy
This magnificent Iznik tile is striking for its monumental size, clarity of colour
and Julian Raby, Iznik, the Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, p.262,
and for the elegant and free use of the nasta’liq inscription that decorates
no.568).
it. It would originally have adjoined another in order to form a complete
cartouche containing a verse from the Qur’an. This pair would then have The only known companion piece to this tile is in the collection of the
abutted as many other pairs of related tiles as was necessary to cover the Benaki Museum in Athens (illustrated here but also published in A. Ballian
perimeter of the room that they adorned. and M. Moraitou (eds.), Benaki Museum. A Guide to the Museum of Islamic
Art, Athens, 2006, p.156, fig.210). The Benaki tile was bought by the Greek
The use of nasta’liq script on this tile is notable. Although predominantly
collector Anthony Benaki from Boghos Ispenian, the Cairo-based Armenian
associated with the Persian world, nasta’liq was also used in the Ottoman
antiquities dealer, in 1930. Our tile has exactly the same early provenance,
empire for monumental inscriptions, though largely in a secular context.
indicating that these two spectacular tiles from the same original
The Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, as well as many public monuments, are
commission remained together until at least the early 20th century.
decorated with many inscriptions in the script often carved into stone. More
often than not however nasta’liq was reserved for poetic inscriptions rather
than religious ones as we have on this tile. Walter Denny writes that the
inscriptions on Iznik tiles that grace the mosques and religious buildings
of Ottoman sovereigns and their highest court officials followed one strict
standard of propriety for public religious inscriptions – the use of stately
‘monumental thuluth’ (celli sülus) script (Walter Denny, Gardens of Paradise,
Istanbul, 1998, p.130). Indeed Iznik tiles with thuluth inscriptions have
appeared at auction, see for instance two sold at Christie’s, Paris, 8-9 June
2016, lots 169 and 170 or more recently, one sold in these Rooms, 25 June
2020, lot 132.
Iznik tile, inv.no.ΓΕ 99 © 2021, Benaki Museum of Islamic Art
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