Qurans and Islamic Calligraphies in the Khalili Collection of Ottoman Art
Sajid Rizvi
Few of the objects in the vast holdings of Dr Nasser David Khalili have the relevance and resonance of the Islamic calligraphy masterpieces -- deeds and edicts, mosque ornaments, Qurans and other sacred texts. Calligraphy is one artistic tradition that is still embraced across boundaries by artists and craftsmen. It is regarded as the starting point for abstraction in both figurative and non-figurative context and the sum total of perfection
Reproduced rom Eastern Art Report Vol IV No 3
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Without going into whether we need to experience any or all of the past epochs again, it is possible to argue that there may not be another Renaissance in Europe, a second golden age of Meiji artistic excellence in Japan, a new dawn for Persian or Peruvian art or for post-Impressionism. In the Islamic world, a similar inimitability or rather finite quality is ascribed to the arts of miniature and manuscript painting, and of calligraphy, as they existed right up to the beginning of this century.
Such assessments and value judgements are moot, of course, and unpardonably dismissive of achievements 'afterwards', i.e. in the better part of this century. But those who maintain that history may not be repeated in any of the instances cited above do have an argument. The point about objects being created once, never to be replicated again, is that conditions under which they are made do also change, and almost always irreversibly. So, for example, even if we had today the master calligraphers from the Turkish royal courts in Istanbul, we would probably not know what to do with them. Like the thousands of contemporary calligraphers forced to move on by the advent of computerised nastaliq typesetting, we would have the master scribes joining the queues of the jobless.
This may be the time, then, to sit back and rejoice at what we are left with -- luxuriously calligraphed pieces of paper, some ordinary bureaucratic documents, other responsible for changing maps, personal fates and histories of peoples, and sacred texts. Nearly all of them created with exemplary and indeed almost inimitable attention to aesthetic perfection.
Dr Nasser David Khalili has amassed large quantities of Qurans and calligraphies in the 20 years that he has been collecting Islamic art. The latest travelling exhibition to feature a minuscule portion of his vast holdings, at the Brunei Gallery in London, focuses broadly on Ottoman art but offers also rare glimpses of the virtually unsurpassed mastery of calligraphy in the Arabic/Osmanli/Persian script. Empire of the Sultans: Ottoman Art in the Collection of Nasser D Khalili (to 31 October 1996) brings together just about everything from arms and armour to the crafts in the realm -- the second largest empire ever created on European soil after the Roman empire. The London showing, however, is smaller than the one held last year in Geneva, since the Brunei Gallery could not accommodate some of the larger items exhibited earlier. This is just as well, since the resulting installation allows a visitor to concentrate on the calligraphic gems in the selection.
Showing sacred Islamic texts in a European public venue requires daring. Highlighting their virtues in the present political climate, and when thousands of comparable and rarer manuscripts have been burnt in Bosnia amidst a deafening silence from virtually all sides, warrants singular confidence. Dr Khalili seems to have both. The exhibition celebrates the apogée of Ottoman -- but mainly Turkish -- artistic accomplishment in the same manner that a previous show of Khalili's Japanese collection paid tribute to Meiji master craftsmen.
Although calligraphy originally had a religious role, in that it could present sacred texts in the most appealing manner possible, just as musical recitation of Quranic texts was meant to enthral the faithful and draw those yet to embrace Islam, the demands of the Ottoman empire led to further refinements and division of responsibilities. In the capital, Istanbul, that gave rise to professionals who worked only on the documents of state or those who confined themselves to commissions for Quranic manuscripts or architectural inscriptions. The royal edicts were elaborate calligraphic affairs, as were marriage documents and deeds. No new construction -- including the tombstone -- was considered complete unless it bore calligraphy in some form.
The Khalili collection includes calligraphies, as well as the tools of the trade, including a 19th-century desk-set (pen rest, scissors and knife) decorated with enamelled gold and encrusted with diamonds. Of the architectural examples, foremost are inscriptions on four tiles made from a stencil used in the restoration of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem during the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent.
The sultan assumed the spiritual mantle for his Muslim subjects and each successive ruler commissioned elaborately decorated texts of the Quran. According to Islamic tradition, religious learning was the most important aspect of scholarship and visual presentation of the Quran -- the fount of all knowledge -- was always of great importance. The Khalili Collection has the largest number of fine Quranic manuscripts in private hands anywhere in the world, including a group that spans the entire Ottoman period, illustrating every stage in the development of Ottoman illumination. This exhibition features some exceptional examples, including an early Ottoman Quran of circa 1470 produced in Istanbul and copied for Mercan Agha, Chief of the White Eunuchs at the court of Mehmed II. Mercan Agha was a person of stature, owning a market and other property in Istanbul as well as land given him by the sultan.
A Quran dating from circa 1850 is a perfect example of mid-19th-century Ottoman illumination, combining classical Ottoman motifs, Acanthus scrolls and pomegranate medallions with European influences. One of the all-time favourites has to be a miniature version made around 1500-1550 on brownish laid water. Roughly octagonal in shape and no more than 6.3 cm across, the book seems to have been carried in the battlefield, as was the custom, on an Ottoman standard.
As the embodiment of secular power, the sultan controlled all aspects of the empire's administration. The exhibition features numerous fermans (edicts), each emblazoned with the tughra of the ruling sultan. Other manuscripts include books for the sultans' personal use, among them a superb example originally from the library of Suleyman. Produced in 1520, the year of his accession, the manuscript has two Suleymanic tughras in blue and gold, apparently added upon its accession to the library. The title page is illuminated and carries the dedication: "For the Library of our lord Sultan Suleyman Khan son of Sultan Selim Khan, may God make their kingdom strong through the ages." Another example of the decorative skills of 16th century Ottoman artists is a pair of boards from a binding, depicting two dragons entwined in foliage. Dating from around 1530-40, they are drawn in black ink on gold illuminated paper and are in the style of Shahquli from Tabriz, Iranian Azerbaijan, who was the head of Suleyman's palace studio.
Any discussion of art created under royal patronage raises more questions than it answers, and Ottoman art is no exception. But patterns of patronage have altered little since those early times, as contemporary artists working in the calligraphic tradition know only too well. What has changed over the years, however, is the function of calligraphy. Gone are the days when ateliers hummed with the activity of master scribes and apprentices busy with official, religious and literary 'editions.' Architectural uses survive, but these two have been adapted for computerisation and laser-aided cutting of stone, wood and other material. With a few exceptions, calligraphy, in a creative sense, is more and more the basis for abstraction and exploration -- in art, in fashion and in design.
However, these uses of calligraphy may not be as novel as they seem. Late in the 15th century, newly converted artisans of Iran and present-day Daghestan were using calligraphic patterns, as in the remarkable War Mask in the Khalili collection, in about the same way as contemporary artists like Ali Omar Ermes, Nja Mahdaoui, Ahmed Mustafa and Hossein Zenderoudi and employ arabesques to achieve compositions. One notable difference was that the armourers were perhaps semiliterate, while most (but not all) contemporary calligraphers are pushing the horizons of their intercultural and interdisciplinary experience. In doing so they are guaranteeing that artistic exploration of possibilities in Islamic calligraphy is far from exhausted.
Catalogue: The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, Empire of the Sultans: Ottoman Art from the Collection of Nasser D Khalili, written by Professor J Michael Rogers and edited by Dr Julian Raby, and published jointly by the Musée d'art et d'histoire, Geneva (venue for the opening exhibition in 1995) and the Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions (price £25). Essays examine the political history of the Ottomans and aspects of the collection.
