Religion, Culture, and Economy: the case of modern Turkey[1]
See changes since presubmiission
Arnold Reisman[2]
Even-Zohar, Itamar.
–– 1994. ‘Culture Planning and the Market: Making and Maintaining Socio-Semiotic Entities’.Paper presented at the Dartmouth Colloquium, ‘The Making of Culture’ (DartmouthCollege, 22-27 July 1994).
ABSTRACT
For over four centuries, religion dictated what comprised culture in the Ottoman land we call Turkey. Then, culture was a non factor in the economy, but all that changed when Turkey became a secular republic in 1923. Initially and as a matter of government policy, Turkey’s performing and visual arts were westernized using central and west European talent and these reforms have gained a momentum of their own. Cultural offerings impact the tourist trade. Currently Turkey’s tourism revenues (per-capita) exceed the total GNP (per-capita) of most Islamic countries including that of oil exporting, archeologically endowed, and climatically comparable, Iran. The major factor in the difference is cultural tourism. International Music and opera festivals abound on both the European and Asian sides of Turkey’s land-mass and Istanbul is poised to become the cultural capital of Europe by 2010.
Introduction
Modern Turkey’s culture is an amalgam of the many civilizations that lived on, crossed over, and enriched its land. The Anatolian peninsula which comprises the great bulk of Turkey’s territory has been home to some of mankind’s earliest settlements dating back to 10,000 BC. Over the millennia Anatolia’s rich geography and varied climate have attracted numerous peoples and spawned many civilizations and empires. These peoples range from prehistoric man, the Hittites, Seljuks, Lydians, Phrygians, and Trojans, up to
and including the Ottomans. The Hittites and the Seljuks left artiacts documenting thriving arts cultures which included sculpture depicting animals and the human figure.
Sculptures at Nemrut mountain, (69–34 B.C.), Adıyaman, Turkey, Photo by Sezgin Aytuna
This paper is about a nation’s journey of cultural transformation, a process undertaken by the Republic of Turkey soon after gaining its independence in 1923. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938), Turkey’s acknowledged father, and first president, envisioned a process which is still ongoing. There is no certainty as to the conclusion of the journey but to date the progress has been monumental and mostly irreversible. Atatürk’s objective was the modernization and westernization of Turkey’s culture as it pertained to the country’s nation-building agenda. Provided are little known insights dealing with the visual arts and their impact - a vital and under-stressed aspect of European cultural imperialism that was willingly accepted and in fact invited into the young republic.
Religion and culture
When Islam spread across the region during the eighth and ninth centuries the art of sculpting went into hibernation and lay dormant for several centuries because the values and rules of the religion.
During most of the years of the Ottoman rule, depiction of the human figure in any form was frowned upon if not totally prohibited. There was no tradition of fine arts as they had developed in the West. As far as public sculpture is concerned, the first installations did not appear until after 1923, after the Ottomans’ demise in the wake of WWI and when, from the Empire’s ashes, the Republic of Turkey was founded. Many monuments depicting Turkey’s formation as a Republic and its founders were commissioned using German and Austrian sculptors. These statues were installed in the major cities such as Istanbul, Izmir and the country’s emerging capital Ankara. They also appeared in the country’s heartland regional (town) centers such as Konya and Isparta.
Fine arts
Painting, a fine art as it is known in the West, was introduced earlier than sculpture. More easily acceptable, it grew and developed as an art form.
During the nineteenth century, members of the aristocracy, diplomatic, and military hierarchy of Ottoman society began questioning the reasons for the Empire’s backwardness when compared to the West. The concept that to be at the same level of cultural, social, economic, scientific, and military development as the West it would be necessary to adopt its “ideas and technological abilities” gave rise to the Tanzimat Edict of 1839.[3]
This move toward westernization began with Sultan (1789 to 1807) Selim III and continued with Sultan (1808-1839) Mahmut II. Unlike previous attempts at westernization ,the modernization that ensued did not fixate on the military. The Tanzamit Edict opened the gates allowing representational art into society.[4] However, at first,the artists working in this new genre merely painted the court in all its finery. painted the court
Commander of the Ground Forces, Foreign Minister, Minister Responsible for all Matters Connected With Law and Religion, Head of the Suite of the Minister of Justice
Many artists who had been trained in illustration at the military academies went abroad to further their education and learn new techniques. The representational art that emerged were illustrations both in style and subject matter. Most paintings showed specific citizens who held positions in their communities and how they dressed. Other paintings depicted Ottoman officials in their uniforms, while others showed individuals within the context of landscapes. In terms of European art standards of the times, these works had a naiveté about them. However more significant change in the style and substance of painting began in the late nineteenth century when a handful of Turkish painters (in the western sense) emerged on the Ottoman fine arts scene. Among them were Osman Hamdi Bey (1842-1910) and Şeker Ahmet Paşa (1841-1907), Both men produced art that is still highly valued by art historians and by Ottomanists alike. Hamdi’s “Tortoise Trainer” and Şeker Paşa’s “Still Life” are good examples of their respective work.
“Tortoise Trainer” painting is on display at the Pera Museum in İstanbul
Still Life, Şeker Ahmet Ali Paşa
Oil on Canvas, 89x130cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Ankara
Sculpture, however, took longer to enter the Ottoman world. The average citizen had a difficult time accepting it. Perhaps two- dimensional art such as painting was not a threat as was sculpture. The representation of the human figure, prohibited by Islam, was not “real” when it was a flat figure on a canvas. However a sculpture, a three dimensional work showing depth and accuracy, was more than most people could tolerate. Sculpture was too great a departure from Islamic tradition and they were not ready to accept it. And public sculpture such as monuments was out of the question.
During the Tanzimat period, several attempts were made to create public monuments. An Italian sculptor Gaspare Fossati (1809-1883) was commissioned to design a monument with the entire text of Gülhane Hatt-ı Şerifi[5] engraved on it. It was to be placed in Bayezid Square, close to the entrance of the Istanbul Dar-ül Fünun (house of knowledge), a fledgling state university which eventually became the University of Istanbul. The project was never realized[6] because of religious considerations. Another Tanzimat era monument was designed by Artin Bilezikçi, a Turkish architect educated in Paris, and was exhibited in the 1855 World Exposition in Paris, but this, too, was not accepted by the public for the same reasons.
Western Classical Music during the Ottoman Empire
According to musicologist Kathryn Woodard[7] who explored the music of Asia, a mostly unknown entity in Western countries,[8] “Western music made its way to Turkey, as a substitute ….for the Janissary music that Europeans had come to associate with the Ottoman Empire.[9] This turn of events was the result of Sultan Mahmud II’s (1785-1839) decision in 1826 to abolish the Janissary corps after decades of previous attempts by his predecessors to reform the Ottoman army met with little success. Mahmud’s goal was to form a new army along European lines and as part of the break from the past he substituted a European military band to replace the music of the Janissary corps.”
Woodard states “because of his military career and training in music, Giuseppe, (1788-1856) brother of the opera composer Gaetano, [Donizetti]” was invited to Istanbul to help with the musical aspects of the military’s reforms. Donizetti composed marches and directed the army’s first regimental band. The Mahmudiye for Sultan (1730–54), Mahmud I was composed in 1829 soon after Giuseppe’s arrival, and the Mecidiye was dedicated to Sultan Abdülmecid Mahmud’s successor in 1839. “Donizetti also formed and directed an Imperial orchestra that performed at the Ottoman palace …for the Sultan’s European guests. In 1836 he assisted in establishing the Imperial Music School (Muzika-i Hümayun Mektebi) for the training of the palace musicians,” and invited other Europeans to teach there. Instruction was also provided to some of the female residents of the harem and the “harem had its own orchestra that performed at court functions.”
Leyla Saz (1850-1936), or Leyla Hanimefendi was one of the most prominent musicians educated in the harem. “Her memoirs provide a unique glimpse at the musical life of the nineteenth-century Ottoman palace.” “Saz is recognized as one of the foremost composers of Ottoman classical songs, or şarkı, of the nineteenth century. She also composed marches in the European style.”[10] In her memoirs Saz described how Turkish and Western music existed side by side in the palace:
“The orchestra for Western music and the brass band practiced together twice weekly and the orchestra for Turkish music only once.… Western music was taught with notes and Turkish music without them; as had always been the custom, Turkish music was learned by ear alone.”[11]
By the middle of the 19th century performances of Western music were no longer restricted to the Ottoman palace. The elite were introduced to music from Europe by traveling opera companies and performances by solo virtuosos such as Franz Liszt (1811-1886) who visited Istanbul in 1847. Many performances were offered as a matter of public relations by foreign embassies. “Italian operas were particularly popular at this time, and full productions of Verdi’s [1813 -1901] IL Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera, and Rigoletto were performed at the Naum Theatre soon after their European premieres.”[12] At least four European operas had an Ottoman setting or motif.[13]
Opera and the Ottomans
European ambassadors to the Sultanate frequently mentioned “opera” in their conversations at embassy and palace functions and Ottoman ambassadors to European countries filed reports in which operas were detailed. As interest in all things Western grew so did interest in opera. “The first musical play to be staged at the palace was during the reign of Murat III (1574-1595). Sultan Selim III (1761-1808), who was also a composer, invited a foreign company to stage an opera at Topkapi Palace in 1797.” [14] ‘Ernani’ by Giuseppe Verdi was performed by an Italian company in the Beyoglu section of European Istanbul in 1846.
Gaetano Donizetti’s “Belisario” was the first opera to be translated into Turkish, and was performed in 1840 “at the first theatre built by the Italian architect Bosco.” In 1844, that theater was transferred to Tütüncüoglu Michael Naum Efendi who provided theater performances to the citizens of Istanbul for 26 years. The first opera performed at the Naum Efendi Theatre was Gaetano Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia” in 1844. The theatre burned down in 1846, and Naum Efendi built a new one where Tokatliyan Ishani stands today.
Because of the second fire at Michael Naum’s theatre on June 5, 1870 and the Empire’s continual years of political turmoil, opera became less important. until it vanished from the entertainment scene. For 38 years, from 1885 to 1923, “Turkish polyphonic music and opera were unable to develop and lay dormant.”[15]
Discussion
The rejection of Ottoman culture, and the quest for its replacement was an integral part of the republican ideology starting in 1923. To be sure a few German and Austrian sculptors were invited to design monuments to the Republic within a year of its founding. However full implementation of the reforms was not possible as local talent was insufficient for doing that until a window of opportunity presented itself in 1933. The creation of educational and cultural institutions based on Western models and the role and influence of foreign experts who were invited to Turkey to develop and run educational and cultural institutions is one of the most significant phenomena of Westernizing policies in the cultural field.[16] Developments in Germany on the eve of the Second World War gave the Turkish government this opportunity.
In 1933, the Nazis’ plans to rid themselves of Jews beginning with intellectuals with Jewish roots or spouses became a windfall for Atatürk’s determination to modernize Turkey. A select group of Germans and later Austrians with a record of leading-edge contributions to their respective disciplines were invited,[17] with the Reichstag’s understanding, to transform Turkey’s system of higher education and the new Turkish state’s entire infrastructure.[18] This arrangement, occurring before the activation of death camps, served the Nazis’ aim of making their universities, professions, humanities, and their arts Judenrein, cleansed of Jewish influence and free from intelligentsia opposed to fascism. Because the Turks needed the help, Germany could use this situation as an exploitable chit on issues of Turkey’s neutrality during wartime.[19] Thus, the national self-serving policies of two disparate governments served humanity’s ends during the darkest years of the 20th century.
The invitation saved the lives of over 190 eminent intellectuals,[20] their families, and some staff members. Paul Hindemith(1895 –1963), Carl Ebert (1887-1980), Eduard Zuckmayer (1890-1972), Ernst Praetorius (1880-1946), Licco Amar (1891-1959), and over a score of musicologists and performing artists were among them. Carl Ebert and Paul Hindemith were responsible for bringing classical music and western theater including opera to Turkey. Ebert was responsible for the institutionalization of opera in Ankara and Istanbul. While his story as theatrical producer, popular opera director, entrepreneur, innovator, educator, and manager is fairly well documented, his role of institutionalizing opera in Turkey is dimly lit and largely unknown by western historians.
Because of the Nazi racist laws, the vast majority of the émigrés had their German passports taken away while in Turkey, making them what the Turks deemed as Haymatloz or stateless. Transcending Turkey’s development, this short term diaspora was also of monumental consequence to the global history and philosophy of science, the arts and the humanities. Yet this story has been barely noticed by western historians for over 70 years.[21]