On Wednesday 12th March the society enjoyed three outstanding lectures from Antonia Gatward Cevizli.
The breaching of the city walls by troops under Mehmed II in 1453 signaled the end of the once glorious Byzantine empire. Hagia Sophia, the principal church of the Eastern Christian world, became a mosque and Mehmed set about rebuilding the city as a centre of the Muslim faith.
An interesting fact in this area is that a ruler could only construct a mosque to carry his own name if he was a conqueror of other lands. Also the number of minarets on a mosque depended on who had commissioned the building. A ruler had the right to four minarets. Both Mehmed and his great grandson Suleiman whose army had reached the walls of Vienna in 1529 built their own named mosques.
Mehmed concentrated on strengthening the Muslim presence in the city by constructing the Grand Bazaar to encourage trade and to use the rents to cover the cost of the building and upkeep of the mosques.
Suleiman was a great patron of the arts. He became known as Suleiman the Magnificent (reigning from 1520-1566) for the splendour and learning of his court. During his reign the highest art form was deemed to be calligraphy (the Tughra or sultan’s seal/signature stands at the apex) but textiles, carpets and illustrated manuscripts were also being produced.
Not only did the ladies of the harem lead secluded lives but so did the sultans. This began to change in the 18th century with periods of reform (tanzimat) and by the late 19th century the unwieldy Ottoman Empire had become the ‘sick man of Europe’.
For the third lecture, Antonia looked at the quintessential Turkish tableware — Iznik. This stone paste pottery was produced as a response to a shortfall in the availability of Chinese blue and white porcelain in the late 15th century. Most of the Iznik ware can be
dated by the depth of colours achieved. The designs with flowers, usually tulips (known as the flower of God) carnations, roses and hyacinths have endured over the centuries. Although Sultan Ahmed who built the blue mosque (not a conqueror) almost caused the collapse of the industry when he demanded 20,000 blue and white tiles to cover the walls of his mosque at a knock down price. By the 19th century Iznik ware was again popular and much favoured by the Arts and Crafts movement although they thought its origin was Persia.
The day was a great success and Antonia was a superb lecturer.
Penny Davidson