Istanbul_ The Collected Traveler_ An Inspired Companion Guide - Barrie Kerper [26]
The Ottoman Empire was governed by a highly efficient centralized system, at whose core was Topkapı Palace, the administrative and educational seat of the state. Attached to the palace were diverse imperial societies of artists and craftsmen collectively called the Ehl-i Hiref (Community of the Talented). These societies included men whose backgrounds were as varied as the lands the sultan ruled, their talents ranging from calligraphy to boot-making. The artists entered the imperial societies as apprentices and advanced to the rank of master, and the most outstanding finally rose to head their corps. They were assigned daily wages commensurate with their status, level of accomplishment, and range of responsibilities, and were paid four times a year. Their wages were carefully recorded in quarterly registers.
The registers preserved in the archives of Topkapı Palace reflect the scope of the Ehl-i Hiref. The earliest document, drawn up in 1526, lists forty societies with over six hundred members; by the seventeenth century the number of societies had increased and their membership had risen to some two thousand. In addition to the artists employed in the imperial societies, Istanbul, like all the major centers of the empire, had diverse guilds of artisans which supplied both domestic and foreign needs.
The Ehl-i Hiref attracted the most talented and promising artists; its members were the elite and were stylistically by far the most influential of the Empire’s artists. Artists from Herat, Tabriz, Cairo, and Damascus worked alongside those hailing from Circassia, Georgia, Bosnia, and even from Austria and Hungary, collaborating with the local masters. They produced splendid works of art that represented a unique blend of Islamic, European, and Turkish traditions. And because the Empire was as centralized artistically as it was politically, the artistic themes and designs produced for the court soon spread to all corners of the sultan’s lands and influenced the artists of neighboring countries as well. The heterogeneous nature of the imperial societies and the scrutinizing, personal patronage of the sultan fructified a cultural blossoming which affected all the arts.
Süleyman, known to Turks as Kanuni (Lawgiver) in honor of his numerous legislative acts, and as “The Magnificent” in Europe, in deference to his military conquests and the wealth of his court, was also a magnanimous patron. He himself was trained as a goldsmith, following the tradition of the Ottoman house that every sultan have a practical trade, and he wrote poetry under the pseudonym Muhibbi (Lover or Affectionate Friend), composing odes in Persian and Turkish.
The sultan personally inspected the works of the artists and rewarded them for outstanding performances. Palace documents pertaining to the list of gifts received by the artists during religious holidays record cash awards as well as kaftans made of luxurious fabrics. For instance, a document datable to 1535 indicates that Süleyman gave over 225,450 akçes (silver coins) plus 34 garments to some 150 court artists; several masters received up to 3,000 akçes, a generous five months’ salary for men making less than 20 akçes a day.
The most innovative artists belonged to the nakkaşhane, the imperial painting studio where hundreds of religious and secular manuscripts were produced. The primary duty of this society was to decorate the volumes commissioned for the sultan’s libraries, that is, to illuminate and illustrate them. The nakkaşhane artists not only created original styles and themes that characterized the decorative vocabulary of the age; they also established the genre of historical painting that documented contemporary events and personages. They reinterpreted existing themes, experimented with new ideas, and formulated