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Tag Archives: Suleiman the Magnificent

An Older Orient

18 Sunday Sep 2016

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Fashion, Orientalism

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Chinoiserie, Conquest of Constantinople, Kublai Khan, Marco Polo, Mehmed II, Orientalism, Suleiman the Magnificent, Turquerie

gentile_bellini_003

Mehmed II, the Conqueror by Gentile Bellini (National Gallery, London)

emperorsuleiman-1

Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent by Titian, c. 1530 (Wikipedia)

An Older Orient

  • the Silk Road
  • the Spice Trade
  • Mehmed II the Conqueror
  • Marco Polo
  • portraits

The West has an older Orient, older than the paintings of 19th-century artists, lured by East, but depicing a Eurocentric Orient, a colonized Orient.

Our older Orient is, for instance, Marco Polo’s Orient, the Orient of merchants. It is as traders that Europeans, the West, first interacted with the East. That Orient would lead to the age of discovery and, eventually, to colonialism. However, that Orient, the Far East, mesmerized Venetian merchant Marco Polo (1254 – 8-9 January  1324) who travelled the silk road (114 BCE – 1450s CE), a pathway that had been used for more than a thousand years and which Marco Polo probably improved.The silk road took Marco Polo to China. He met Kublai Khan (23 September  1215 – 18 February 1294), the Conqueror who established the Yuan Dynasty and was the first Emperor of China. In this case, the conqueror was Kublai Khan, the East, not Marco Polo. Marco Polo served Kublai Khan for twenty years.

Consequently, had a European artist made a portrait of Kublai Khan, it would have been the portrait of a conqueror as is the portrait of Mehmed II the Conqueror or Mehmet II (30 March 1432 – 3 May 1481) made by Gentile Bellini (c. 1429 – 23 February 1507) in 1480 and featured at the top of this post. Mehmed II conquered Constantinople, the current Istanbul, in 1453 vastly expanding the Muslim world to include Eastern Europe. In 1479, Venice summoned Gentile Bellini, a portraitist of the School of Venice, to travel to Constantinople and make a portrait Sultan Mehmed II, or Mehmet II.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/gentile-bellini-the-sultan-mehmet-ii

The Wikipedia entry on Gentile Bellini describes Gentile as one the “founders of the Orientalist tradition in Western painting.”

“In 1479 he was sent to Constantinople by the Venetian government when the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II requested an artist; he returned the next year. Thereafter a number of his subjects were set in the East, and he is one of the founders of the Orientalist tradition in Western painting. His portrait of the Sultan was also copied in paintings and prints and became known all over Europe.”
(See Gentile Bellini, Wikipedia.)

Here, it would appear the term Orientalism is used upside down. But it could be that the term Orientalism is pluralistic. One knows the meaning of the word because of the context in which it is used. Mehmed II was a Conqueror, not the conquered. If one had to attach tags to the portrait featured at the very top of this post, terms such as portraiture, Italian, and the school of Venice may well precede Orientalism. But Gentile Bellini’s famous portrait is nevertheless the portrait of a very powerful Ottoman Sultan, one of the most powerful Ottoman Sultans in history. The word  “Orientalism” may be patronizing when applied to the 19th-century genre depicting the colonized and powerless East, but in cannot be when the content is the portrait of a Conqueror.

However, this portrait can be linked to the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, when England, France, and a collapsing Imperial Russia patronizingly partitioned the Ottoman Empire, which it expected to defeat and defeated. In 1922, during the Turkish War of Independence (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923), the Sultan was sent into exile and two years later the Caliph was removed. The Ottoman Empire had lasted 700 years, from the 13th century until the 20th, but it did not defeat the Byzantine Empire until 29 May 1453. It had survived the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire (4 September 476),  but it had broken with the Western Church in 1054 CE (See Fall of the Roman Empire, Wikipedia and Defeat and dissolution Fall of the Ottoman Empire, Wikipedia.)

The Byzantine Empire had followed the Roman Empire, but Constantinople had been called Byzantium until the Christian Church as an institution was founded in 325 CE, at the First Council of Nicaea, by Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. After the Great Schism of 1054 CE, it became the Holy See of Orthodox Christianity. (See Fall of the Roman Empire, Wikipedia.)

So Gentile Bellini, was an Orientalist of a different orientation. When he was in Turkey and Greece, he could not resist sketching Turks and other Muslims, but he was not depicting colonized individuals. Other members of the Venetian School also painted the Orient.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?school=13208&page=1
http://www.gardnermuseum.org/FILE/2156.jpg?w=800&h=750

A Janissary by Gentile Bellini, 1479-1480 (British Museum)
A Janissary by Gentile Bellini, 1479-1480 (British Museum)
Turkish Woman by Gentile Bellini 1479-1480 (British Museum)
Turkish Woman by Gentile Bellini 1479-1480 (British Museum)

Merchants, Discoverers, and Conquerors

Marco Polo

In a sense Marco Polo resembles our 19th-century Orientalists. Marco Polo documented his Orient by narrating his travels. He was fascinated by the lands he travelled, the people he met, and the animals he saw, animals unknown in Europe. He therefore told his  story to Rustichello da Pisa who became the co-author, or amanuensis, of The Travels of Marco Polo (c. 1300), also entitled Il Milione and Le Livre des merveilles du monde. Marco Polo’s Il Milione was written in Medieval French. Rustichello and Marco were prisoners in Genoa when Marco narrated his story, which means that Le Livre des merveilles du monde is an example of prison literature.

Venetian Fra Mauro and Christopher Columbus

The Travels of Marco Polo was a bestseller. The book inspired cartographer Fra Mauro, a Benedictine monk who died in 1464. More importantly, Italian navigator Christopher Columbus (31 October 1450 and 30 October 1451 in Genoa – died on 20 May 1506 in Valladolid) found a Latin copy of Il Milione which he annotated. Marco Polo was a merchant, so, as mentioned above, trade was the first way East and West interacted.

Vasco da Gama: Colonialism

Matters would change. Marco Polo’s book may also have influenced Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), who departed Lisbon on 8 July 1497 and was the first European to reach India by sea linking the Atlantic Ocean (the West) and the Indian Ocean (the East). Once again, trade was the motive: the spice trade. Portugal wanted to  undermine the Republic of Venice whose merchants  could travel safely by land to purchase the spices of the Orient. Vasco da Gama was appointed Viceroy of India in 1524, by the king of Portugal.

Vasco da Gama committed acts of cruelty. For instance, he locked 400 Muslim pilgrims, including 50 women and their babies, and, after their ship was looted, he had his prisoners burned to death. This incident is named the Pilgrim ship incident. (See Vasco da Gama, Wikipedia.)

See also http://esmeraldashipwreck.com/history/

The Crusades

  • tapestries, the mille-fleurs (thousand flowers) motif
  • carpets
cluny-dame_a_la_licorne-detail_16

La Dame à la licorne, Mille-fleurs motif (Musée national du Moyen-Âge, Paris) (Wikipedia)

Beginning in the 11th century, Crusaders were influenced by the magnificent carpets of the Orient many of which contained silver and gold and displayed the mille-fleurs motif, which was a favourite.

The last Crusade was the conquest of the Constantinople, in 1453, but the Crusades began in the 11th century. Oriental motifs had therefore entered Europe quite early in the Middle Ages. The Apocalypse Tapestry, which consisted of large number of panels, 90, was made between 1377–1382, by Jean Bondol and Nicholas Bataille. It is undeniably astonishing. Several panels were damaged or destroyed, but those that survived are housed in the Château d’Angers, France. The more famous Lady and the Unicorn (La Dame à la licorne), which we have discussed, a long time ago, is housed in the Musée national du Moyen Âge, the former Cluny Museum, in Paris. But the following contains relevant information.

http://www.thecultureconcept.com/the-lady-and-the-unicorn-and-millefleurs-style-tapestries

A tapestry resembling the Dame à la licorne, The Hunt of the Unicorn (seven panels), made in Liège, is housed in the Cloister (The Metropolitan Museum of Art).

The Apocalypse Tapestry and the Dame à la licorne (six panels) were both made in Europe, Flanders to be precise. Jean Bondol was from Bruges.

Louis XIV, the French King, could have his tapestries and carpets made at the Gobelins Manufactory. A second factory, the Savonnerie Manufactory, a former soap factory (savon) was also established in the 17th century. The Savonnerie was established in 1615 by Pierre DuPont who had just returned from the Levant. The Savonnerie was incorporated with the Gobelins Manufactory in 1825. (See Savonnerie Manufactory, Wikipedia.)

Turquerie and Chinoiserie

Turquerie, a taste for all things reflecting the Ottoman Turks, was not popular in Europe until the 18th century, a late date if one considers that Francis I of France and Suleiman the Magnificent entered into an alliance, the Franco-Ottoman Alliance, in 1536. This entente would last until Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt. (See French Campaign in Egypt and Syria, Wikipedia). Similarly, Chinoiserie, an engouement, a craze, for all things Chinese, did not flourish until the 18th century.

800px-jean-etienne_liotard_-_a_woman_in_turkish_dress_-_google_art_project

Woman in Turkish Dress by Jean-Étienne Liotard, 18th century (Google Art Project)

le_jardin_chinois_detail_by_francois_boucher

Chinese Garden by François Boucher, 18th century (Wikipedia)

Conclusion

There is an older Orient. Edward Said’s may be patronizing, but Bellini’s portrait of Mehmed II depicts a Conqueror and it suggests immense wealth. See the jewels, the ornate frame and the little crowns. Merchants travelled to the East to purchase its spices, its coffee and its fabrics. There was so much beauty to the East and there was opulence and mystery. It could be that we do not study the Orient sufficiently, but will the Orient ever reveal itself?

The knowledge crusaders took from the East was mostly scientific: algebra, architecture, medical practices, not to mention Arabic numerals…

Love to everyone. ♥

Mozart‘s Rondo alla Turca, Sonata 11, K331 (330i)
Paul Barton (piano)

800px-marco_polo_il_milione_chapter_cxxiii_and_cxxiv

Il Milione (Polo & Rustichello)

© Micheline Walker
18 September 2016
WordPress

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The Last Crusades: the Ottoman Empire

12 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by michelinewalker in The Crusades, The Middle East, The Ottoman Empire

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Constantinople, Fall of the Byzantine Empire, Muslim conquests, Suleiman the Magnificent, The Late Crusades, The Middle East, The Ottoman Empire

Emperor Suleiman

Emperor Suleiman, by Titian (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Suleiman the Magnificent

“Süleiman I (Ottoman Turkish: سليمان اوّل) was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in the West as Süleiman the Magnificent (6 November 1494 – 7 September 1566) and in the East, as the Lawgiver (Turkish: Kanuni; Arabic: القانونى‎, al‐Qānūnī), for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system. Süleiman became a prominent monarch of 16th century Europe, presiding over the apex of the Ottoman Empire’s military, political and economic power. Süleiman personally led Ottoman armies to conquer the Christian strongholds of Belgrade, Rhodes, and most of Hungary before his conquests were checked at the Siege of Vienna in 1529. He annexed most of the Middle East in his conflict with the Safavids and large swathes of North Africa as far west as Algeria. Under his rule, the Ottoman fleet dominated the seas from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. At the helm of an expanding empire, Süleiman personally instituted legislative changes relating to society, education, taxation, and criminal law. His canonical law (or the Kanuns) fixed the form of the empire for centuries after his death. Not only was Süleiman a distinguished poet and goldsmith in his own right; he also became a great patron of culture, overseeing the golden age of the Ottoman Empire’s artistic, literary and architectural development. He spoke six languages: Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, Serbian, Chagatai (a dialect of Turkish language and related to Uighur), Persian and Urdu. In a break with Ottoman tradition, Süleiman married a harem girl, Roxelana, who became Hürrem Sultan; her intrigues as queen and power over the Sultan made her quite renowned. Their son, Selim II, succeeded Süleiman following his death in 1566 “after 46 years of rule.” (See Süleiman the Magnificent, Wikipedia.)

Tizian_123

Roxelana, Hürrem Sultan, by Titian (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As mentioned in the caption above, Süleiman married Roxelana (c. 1502 – 15 April 1558), a Christian girl from his harem who converted to Islam and became Hürrem Sultan. The couple had several sons. Süleiman ordered the strangling of the heir apparent, his son Mustaffa, and also ordered the murder of a second son, Şehzade Bayezid (1525 – 25 September 1561), and Bayezid’s sons. He was succeeded by his son Selim II.

The Crusades

You may recall that US President Barack Obama mentioned the Crusades at a Breakfast. This reference has been looked upon as both appropriate and inappropriate. I will leave you to judge. By clicking on the link below, one may access a short video and listen to President Obama’s brief address.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-breakfast-prayer/2015/02/08/c82e0f7a-ae3b-11e4-abe8-e1ef60ca26de_story.html

All the Crusades opposed Christendom and Islam, but President Obama was probably referring to the early Crusades. Christians entered what we now consider the Middle East. “Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade with the stated goal of restoring Christian access to holy places in and near Jerusalem.” (See Crusades, Wikipedia.) Moreover, Christians wanted to contain Muslim conquests (Wikipedia).

The Very Last Crusades: the Ottoman Empire

Fall of the Byzantine Empire, 1453
Constantinople

The fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Empire is the Muslim conquest that ushered in the Renaissance. However, we seldom associate the Crusades with the Ottoman dynasty. Crusaders lost Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire on 29 May 1453. (See The Fall of Constantinople, Wikipedia.) It had been Byzantium and inhabited by Greek colonists from 657 BCE until 330 CE. It acquired its current name, Istanbul, in 1930. (See Byzantium, Wikipedia.)

Fall of the Ottoman Empire, 1922
Istanbul

The Sultanate was abolished on 1 November 1922. The last Sultan was Mehmed VI, of the House of Osman. (See Abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate, Wikipedia.) Osman, the last of the line born under the Ottoman Empire, died in 2009.

Fall of the Ottoman Caliphate, 1924

The Ottoman Caliphate was constitutionally abolished on 3 March 1924. (See Defeat and Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, 1908 – 1922, Wikipedia). The Ottoman Empire was defeated during World War I, but it also fell to Turkey during the Turkish War of Independence. After the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate, Caliph Abdülmecid II was exiled to Paris, France, where he died at his house, Boulevard Suchet, Paris XVI, on 23 August 1944. He was buried in Medina, Saudi Arabia. Mehmed VI was buried in Damascus, Syria, “at the courtyard of the Tekke of Süleiman the Magnificent” (see the caption below the photograph showing his departure from Constantinople).

Sultanvahideddin

Sultan Vahideddin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Sultan Vahideddin (Mehmed VI) departing from the backdoor of the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul. A few days after this picture was taken, the Sultan was deposed and exiled (along with his son) on a British warship to Malta (17 November 1922), then to San Remo, Italy, where he eventually died in 1926. His body was buried in Damascus, Syria, at the courtyard of the Tekke of Sultan Süleiman the Magnificent. Turkey was declared a Republic on 29 October 1923, and the new Head of State became President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.”

The above is also a quotation. The links are mine. (See Abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate, Wikipedia.)

640px-Biruni-russian

Abdülmecid II (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Abdülmecid II was the last caliph of Islam and a member of the Ottoman dynasty.

AbdulmecidII

Photo of Abdülmecid II in Paris (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Conclusion

The Ottoman Empire (1453 -1924) lasted five-hundred years and the territory it occupied was located west of the Middle-East. In the late 14th century Sigismund of Luxemburg (14 February 1368 – 9 December 1437), Holy Roman Empire, King of Hungary and King of Croatia, went on a Crusade. He was defeated at the Battle of Nicopolis on 25 September 1396. In 1443-1444, the Ottoman Empire crushed the Kingdom of Hungary, the Serbian Despotate and the Principality of Wallachia during the Crusade of Varna. In fact, in the late Middle Ages, the Ottoman Empire defeated every Crusade. Last to fall would be Constantinople. Therefore, for nearly 500 years, part of the Muslim world was located in what we know as Europe and the Crusades lasted until the end of the Medieval era.

The genocidal wars that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union reflect ethnic discrimination in Eastern Europe. It is probably rooted in the very last Crusades.

This post is a very brief and derivative follow-up to my recent posts. Muslims visited the court of France. Molière wrote “turqueries” (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme) and all things oriental, the Middle East, became fashionable.

RELATED ARTICLE

  • Les Indes galantes & le Bourgeois gentilhomme: “turqueries” (30 September 2012)

Sources and Resources

  • Christopher Tyerman, God’s War: a New History of the Crusades (London: Penguin, Allan Lane, 2006).
  • List of Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Wikipedia
  • The University of Sherbrooke (QC) Canada: The Crusades
hb_38_149_1

Tughra (Official Signature) of Sultan Süleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–66), ca. 1555–60, Turkey, Istanbul, Islamic (Photo credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY)

Ottoman Sufi Music 

EmperorSuleiman© Micheline Walker
12 February 2015
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