Europe and the Ottoman Empire: Cultural Encounters Through the Centuries

HIST 437-537

Europe and the Ottoman Empire: Cultural Encounters through the Centuries

Fall 2008Tuesday and Thursday 14.00-15:15 (SCI Z33)

Instructor. Günsel Renda (professor of art history)

Office hours. Tuesday 13.00-14.00 Thursday 11:00-12:00

The course will discuss the interactions between the Ottoman world and Europe through the centuries. The Ottoman political presence in Europe since the 15th century and its impact on European culture will be the main theme defining ‘the image of the Turk’ in Europe shifting with different political alliances and different economic interests. The second part of the course will cover the changes in the Ottoman interest in the west starting in the 17th century and the introduction of westernisms in technology, social life and the arts in the Ottoman Empire in view of political and economic relations. These interactions will be illustrated by works of literature,music and fine arts both in Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Visual material will be used in the lectures.

Course requirements:

Mid-term: 35%

One major paper due at the end of the semester 20%

Final exam: 40%

Attendance 5%: Maximum attendance is recommended as the course is illustrated with visual material.

Certain reading assignments and brief discussion sessions will be announced when necessary.

Week I: Sept. 16-18

Introduction

Week II: Sept. 23-25

Ottoman Empire and Europe in the 15th century: Mehmed II and the Renaissance.

Week III: Oct. 7-9

Politics, Arts and Science in the 15th century in Europe. The Ottoman image in Europe

Week IV:Oct. 14-16

The expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. Europe in the 16th c century.

Week V: Oct. 21-23

Suleyman the Magnificent and political alliances.New diplomatic and trade relations. The image of the Turk in literature and the arts in Europe.

Week VI: Oct. 30

Ottoman interest in European science and technology in 16th century Europe. Cultural elements borrowed by the Ottomans.

Week VII: Nov. 4-6

17th century in Europe and the Ottoman Empire. The increase in diplomatic relations resulting in further cultural contacts .

Week VIII: Nov. 11-13

European interest in the Ottoman Empire and the production of illustrated history books with a new Turkish image appearing in European literature, music and the arts.

Week IX: Nov.18-20

The Ottoman interest in European science and culture. Use of Western sources and their impact on Ottoman literature and the arts.

Week X: Nov. 25-27

Reviews and mid-term

Week XI: Dec. 2-4

18th century: A new era in European and Ottoman history. Further increase in diplomatic and commercial relations. Visits of Ottoman delegations to European capitals and their impact on European art and culture.

Week XII: Dec.16-18

Westernisation in the Ottoman Empire in technology and culture. Westernising elements in architecture and the arts. European artists in the Ottoman Empire and their impact on the cultural sphere.

Week XIII: Dec. 23-25

Further reforms in the beginning of the 19th century. The impact of institutionalized westernization on Ottoman art and culture.

Week XIV: Dec. 30

Impact of Ottoman art and culture in Europe. The birth of Orientalism in European art and architecture.

Week XV: Jan.6-8

Conclusions and Review

Main reading sources (will be distributed)

İnalcık, H. “Mutual Political and Cultural ınfluences between Europe and the Ottomans”, Ottoman Civilization, Ed. H. İnalcık, G. Renda . Ministry of Culture and Tourism 1st. ed. 2002, 2nd. Ed. 2004. 1048-1089.

Renda, G., “Europe and the Ottomans. Interactions in Art”, Ottoman Civilization( the above book), 1090-1121.

.

Further reading. (Certain chapters will be indicated when necessary)

Coles, P., The Ottoman Impact on Europe, New York, 1968

Germaner, S. İnankur, Z., The Orientalists’ Istanbul, İstanbul 2002

Jardine, L., Brotton, J., Global Interests. Renaissance Art between East and West, New York, 2000

Göçek, F.M., East Encounters West. France and the Ottoman Empire in the Eighteenth Century, New York-Oxford, 1987.

Hegyl, K., Zmanyi, V., The Ottoman Empire in Europe, Budapest, 1986.

Lewis, B., The Muslim Discovery of Europe, New York, 1982.

Shaw, S. Shaw, E., History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey , vol. II, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997

St. Clair,A.N., The Image of the Turk in Europe, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1973.

The Sultans Portrait. Picturing the House of Ottoman, ( Necipoğlu, G., Raby, J., Majer, H.G., Meyer zur Capellen, Çağman, J, Bağcı, S., Mahir, B., İrepoğlu, G., Renda, G.), İstanbul, 2000.

The OTTOMAN EMPİRE

** The Ottoman Empire was founded by Osman, a local Turkish prince in western Anatolia whose principality expanded and united Anatolia under Turkish rule. The Turks came to Anatolia at the end of the 11th century, when the Seljuks took the land from the Byzantines and established a state. Having disintegrated into principalities at the at the end of the 13th century, the Ottomans who were one of those principalities in western Anatolia emerged as the leading power, and in 1299 or 1301 the Ottoman Empire was founded by Osman Gazi, the first Ottoman sultan. His father Ertuğrul Gazi had settled in Söğüt pn the north-western frontier of Seljukid lands when Anatolia was under Mongol-İlkhanid domination. The Byzantine provincial commanders had weakened. They were supported by dervishes andtown dwellers. They made İznik their first capital but having conquered Bursa in 1326, Orhan, Osman’s successor declared Bursa, a great silk trading center as the new capital and endowed several buildings, mosques, schools, baths, etc. Taking advantage of struggles for throne in the Byzantine court and the weakness of Byzantine provincial commanders, the Ottomans quickly expanded in Anatolia and the Thrace. They were able to acquire political unity in the Balkans by allowing non muslim population to live in peace and security. ** The conquest of Edirne which was to become the third Ottoman capital, also facilitated the expansion into the Balkans with the battle of Kosovo in 1389 marking a turning point. The absence of political unity or of a single power in the Balkans had made it easier for them. Edirne also flourished with palaces, mosques, and bridges especially during the reign of Murad I and Murad II at the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century.

In this earlier period of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottomans structured their administrative and military systems. They established a standing army, called the janissaries, recruited among the Christian subjects. You see here in a 16th century miniature you see the court official counting the money to be given to the recruit who are dressed in red costumes carrying their personal stuff in the foreground while parents are gathered on the right. These recruited children were educated and trained in the imperial palace schools to hold some of the best official positions in the Ottoman state. This system, called the devshirme, was effective in creating central power because the devshirme origin janissaries and administrators eliminated the possible threat that might have come from influential muslim Turkish elite against the sultans absolute rule. One other feature in the Ottoman system was the timar system, a tax revenue allotted by the peasants to a military or administrative officials for their services. The ottomans created military-administrative units called sancaks or districts literally meaning standards after the flags given to their governors. Groups of sancaks were beylerbeyis and were first established in Rumelia under Murad I followed by beylerbeyi of Anatolia. Young princes were sent to provinces to govern under the supervision of their lalas. The state was never parted among the sons so only one prince remained to govern. Yıldırım Bayezıd ( Bayezıd I) united Anatolia and Rumelia but was defeated by Timur in Ankara in 1402. The ottomans quickly recovered during the reign of Mehmed I (1413-1421) and followed by Murad II Mehmed II’s father.

**The conquest of İstanbul, then the Byzantine capital Constantinople, by Mehmed II in 1453 was a turning point in Ottoman history and the beginning of the imperial era. Mehmed II built a tower on the Bosphorous and the conquest itself took 54 days. The Ottoman fleet was carried on wheeled cradles over the hills in Galata into the Golden Horn behind the chained harbour and that is how the city was taken. (French miniature dating 1455 from the Bib. Nat. in Paris)For his victory Mehmed II earned the title Fatih andKayser-ı Rum. meaning the conqueror. He was a great statesman and a patron of the arts and he aimed to make İstanbul, the imperial capital, a city of international trade and a cultural center. ** An age of splendor was to follow in the city after the Byzantine downfall. He repopulated the new capital with peoples of diverse religions and ethnic backgrounds with the Venetians and Genoese already living there. Conscious of both the Islamic and Mediterranean heritages, the sultan was equally tolerant to all his subjects regardless of belief or provenance. He started rebuilding the city. He converted the church of Haghia Sophia into a mosque ensuring the survival of this building in good condition to our day. On the site of the then ruined church of the Holy Apostles and the mausoleum of Constantine, he endowed a building complex in his name the Fatih Külliye, consisting of the imperial mosque,a number of public buildings such as schools, bath, hostels and public kitchens around it. This lay the roots for the geometrically planned complexes built by Mehmed's successors. These complexes not only symbolize the might of the empire but also mirror the social welfare system of the Ottomans, based on the wakf, the religious foundations based on endowment. ** He started the construction of Topkapı palace on the Seraglio point which for centuries served as an administrative center as well as being the quarters of the imperial household. TopkapıPalace does not have a symmetrical plan nor does it have a monumental facade common in European palaces. Instead, it has a rather introverted and intimate form with inner courtyards, pools and pavillions of different sizes and function all enclosed within an outer wall. This is because the Ottoman sultans preferred to manifest their power in mosques and public buildings rather than palaces. The palace is a series of four courtyards entered through monumental gateways arranged in a hierarchial order starting from the service areas and public quarters and ending in the more private inner palace where the harem was.**. The imperial harem was reserved for the sultans women as well as being the private residence of the sultan.. Harem women selected from slave markets or among the prisoners of war they were educated and trained with care, some becoming the imperial concubines, most of them were married to the pages upon leaving the palace. **You see here various pavillions from the Topkapı palace and **the interior exquisitely decorated with tiles and painted decoration .

** (Ek..)Mehmed II patronized European artists as well. Gentile Bellini, artist to the doge of Venice was one of the artists invited to Mehmed 's court. (Bellini's well known portrait of the sultan in the Nat. Gall. in London) Florentine geographer Berlinghieri dedicated his Geographia to the sultan, a manuscript in the TopkapıMuseum.

His successor Bayezıd II also patronized several buildings in the capital and the provinces even asked for the services of Leonardo da Vinci for a bridge on the Golden horn. He continued his father's attitude of tolerance for other religions and proved this by the acceptance of the Jews persecuted in Spain in 1492 to the Ottoman lands.

In the sixteenth century the Ottoman Empire reached its furthest boundaries on three continents. It became a multi ethnic and multi-religious empire with Christians Jews and Muslims living in a peaceful relations allowing its non muslim subjects to form their own religious organisations and to administer their own affairs through them. ** The great number of churches and synagogues which have survived to our day in the capital city and the provinces is the proof for this religious tolerance. The only extra obligations of the non muslims was to pay cizye, a head tax according to the Islamic law for their recognised status (zimmis, the protected people) The social system was organized according to religious affiliation as millets (religious communities) There is no sign of forced conversion to Islam although there were large scale conversions in Bosnia and Albania.

In the beginning of the century sultan Selim I took a great amount of land in the east. He won a crushing victory in Iran against the Safavids, who were Shiites a different sect of İslam and were causing upheavels in Anatolia. **He put an end to the MamlukState in Syria and Egypt and the HolyCities in 1517 and took the title the Servant of the two holy cities, the caliph making Istanbul the seat of the Islamic caliphate, taking the title of the Sevant of the two Holy Cities. You see here a 16th centuy Italian map indicating Selim's victory in this area and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

** His successor Süleyman the Magnificent in his very long reign of 46 years conquered lands in the west as far as Transylvania, Hungary reaching Vienna and dominated the Mediterranean with the Ottoman navy. It was an age of order, prosperity and artistic production for the empire. Here again from a 16th century map you see Süleyman sitting on his throne in the midst of Anatolia. In Turkish called Kanuni, the lawgiver, Süleyman, established a strongly centralized system of government control and fostered the development of a social order through laws. **There was the imperial Divan, the divanı- humayun acting as government and a high court of the complaints of the ruled. You see two miniatures from 16th century illustrated manuscript showing a divan meeting and those waiting in the courtyard of Topkapı palace. This council of viziers (after 1470) were chaired by the grand vizier but the sultan could follow the meeting through a window. In the provinces there were vassal states or principalities. In each there was a governor (bey) and a judge or magistrate(kadı) sent by the government. The sultans wished their subjects enjoy full protection and justice across the empire. ** Latest research has also brought to light several facts against the misunderstanding regarding the status of women among the ottomans. Polygamy was not widespread as there are several court records indicating lawsuits by women for divorce or inheritance. Several women endowed buildings and dealt with their administration. You see here two scenes with women complaining to the judge and to the sultan himself.

**Süleyman the Magnificent, was a poet in his own right, like many other sultans whose collection of poetry have survived to our day. Süleyman's letters to his wife Hürrem Roxelana(Ukranian in origin) are samples of poetry themselves. All arts flourished under Süleyman the magnificent. He patronized European and Turkish artists. His portraits circulated in Europe and the East. Tiziano and Melchior Lorichs of Flensburg, who can be considered Danish, painted the sultan.** The Turkish artists painted the European kings ruling at the time, François I the king of France and Charles V, the Habsburg king, because Süleyman played an important role in European politics of the time. He allied with François in military operations against the Habsburgs for mutual benefit. The Ottoman fleet under the command of Admiral Barbarossa allied with the French fleet was agreat threat to the Habsburgs in the Mediterranean as well. **The need for correct knowledge of geography and navigation resulted in the production of Ottoman sea charts, some of which were produced by Piri Reis, a captain in the imperial navy also known for his cartographical work, and especially by his map of the Atlantic Ocean showing the eastern shores of Central and South America. You see here the city of Venice and the city of Nice with the ottoman and French fleet. (This is the surviving half of a world map he prepared consulting a lost map of Columbus from 1498.)

**Süleyman commissioned many buildings in the capital city giving the city its Ottoman skyline. Sinan the renown architect of this period one of the great figures in world architecture, built several hundred buildings establishing the classical style in Ottoman architecture. He established water systems and built bridges and acquaducts. Of his buildings Süleymaniye complex built in 1557 in the sultans name and standing above the GoldenHorn dominated the Istanbul skyline as the symbol of this golden age.. In this mosque Sinan reinterpreted the structural scheme of the 15th century mosques by replacing big exterior support with inner and outer galleries This was to create the biggest dome of his age. (26,5 x 49,5) buttressed by 4 semidomes. **The Süleymaniye surpassed the Byzantine church Haghia Sophia in achieving uninterrupted central space in the interior. In the Haghia Sophia the dome was buttressed by barrel vaults carried by large piers . **Sinan's greatest achievement in mosque architecture is reflected in the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne.

**All of Sinan's buildings were decorated with tiles by the greatest artists of the time displaying . were decorated with tiles by the greatest artists of the time displaying the perfection achieved in this age in the arts. The mausolea built by for Süleyman and his wife Hürrem. ** ** In Süleyman's court designs set by the court ateliers, which were composed of artisans coming from all parts of the empire in the east and the west, marked the refinement in all forms of art. There was the institution of arts and craftsmen within the palace creating a unity in design dominating all decorative arts in the empire. This was due to the sultan's patronage as ell as to the talent and creativity of the artists. ** Tiles, ceramics carpets, jewelled metalwork and miniature painting reached the highest standards of workmanship. The dominance of naturalistic motifs in decorative arts became an Ottoman feature. **Carpets and jewelled metalwork. ** Production of illustrated historical texts in which Ottoman history was documented in great detail was an institutionalized activity in the court with the writer, illuminators, artists etc. having ranks in the court as other administrators. Sieges and army processions. official ceremonies and other activities from the livs of sultans such as hunts were depicted in these illustrated manuscripts.