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[continued]

‘During [Ibrahim Mirza’s]* nine years [at Mashad in Khurasan],* 1556 to 1565, he commissioned a splendid copy of the Haft Aurang (Seven Thrones), a mystical poem by the Herat poet Jami,** with full-page miniatures....’

***

*[Square brackets per ms]

**[[Redbook9:113][19910415:0840]{[Islamic Art –] The Word (2) [continued (19)]}[15th April 1991];

[Redbook9:169][19910421:1410pp]{[Islamic Art –] Visual Arts [continued –] Late arts of the book (1) [continued (4)]}[21st April 1991]]

***– ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts 3:459]

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[continued]

‘A lyrical spirit fills these miniatures* in a perfect balance between the natural world and the human actors, above all in the “Khusrau’s First Sight of Shirin” by Sultan Muhammed, perhaps his last work, the “Majnun attended by the Wild Beasts in the Desert” by Aqa Miraq, and the anonymous “Flight of Muhammed through the Heavens”.

‘About 1545[ce] Tahmasp began to turn away from the visual arts under a puritanical urge, and his artists had to seek other patrons.’

**

*(1539-1543[ce])

** – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts 3:459]

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[continued]

‘A Diwan of Hafiz, dedicated to Sam* Mirza, must date from his youth, probably from c[irca]1533-5[ce]; it shows the ability of the Sultan Muhammed to control large groups of figures with expressive gestures in rhythmic patterns in keeping **with the poet’s Sufi intention.’

***

*[sic]

**NB

*** – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts 3:459]

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‘Typical of Tabriz is [Sultan Muhammed’s]* “Golden Age of Gayumars”** depicted against a fantastically rich background of luxuriant vegetation and brilliant rocky peaks among which the wild animals move in harmony with the fur-clad men, thus corresponding to the near-contemporary reference by Dust Muhammed (1544[ce]) to the skill of Sultan Muhammed in drawing “people clothed in leopard skins, such that the hearts of the boldest of painters were dismayed”. This whole enterprise implies the organisation of a large workshop of highly qualified masters.

‘In general human figures now dominate the landscape, with their graceful forms and subtle relationships.’

***

*[Square brackets per ms]

**(a book illustration)

{c[irca]1544[ce]}

*** – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts 3:] 459

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*‘The most favoured of the arts were those of the book.** Shah Tahmasp, even before his accession in 1524,*** took personal interest in these arts and was himself both calligrapher and painter.’

****

Far from turning out weaker as I wondered whether it might,** calligraphy (with the other book arts) appears to reach its zenith around 2048G~ degree.*** ****Now, of course, I can’t understand why I should have expected anything else: it seems entirely logical that Islam’s artistic flowering at G~ should express itself in. and in association with, the arts in which its roots are concentrated at M~ – those of the written word.

#

*cf [[Redbook9:169][19910421:1410pp]{[Islamic Art –] Visual Arts [continued –] Late arts of the book (1) [continued (4)]}[21st April 1991],] 169

**ref [[Redbook9:134][19910420:0953i]{Art Cycles (2 [continued])}[20th April 1991],] 134

***{[2048]G~1536}

****[But]

# – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts 3:458]

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[continued]

The key* may lie in the opening words of the E[ncyclopaedia] of V[isual] A[rts] Chapter:** ‘There is under Islam no distinction between sacred and secular....’*** and the continuing emphasis on the unity of Islamdom**** over and beyond all its age-old military-political strife. If Islamdom really is conceptually a political and cultural unity from 622CE until now, then all wars between Muslims may properly be perceived as civil wars in a way which is much more arbitrary when applied to European international wars.#

Of course, this is to give Muslim orthodoxy the benefit of a great deal of doubt; but the way in which the culture continues #* despite changes of ruling class does tend to support this interpretation.

Mind you, Christian European culture shows continuity too....

*[to interpreting &/or identifying Islamic cultural cycles, presumably]

**[Chapter 24 (in Volume III), ‘Islamic Art’]

***[ – ibid Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts 3:424]

ref [[Redbook9:150][19910421:1410b]{[Islamic Art –] Visual Arts [continued –] [Artistic Unity]}[21st April 1991],] 150

****[]

#ref [[Redbook9:129][19910420:0953]{Scales}[20th April 1991],] 129

#*ref [last previous ts journal entry,] 174

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[continued]

‘Iran: The Safavid period (1502-1730).

It is a paradox that the rapid conquest of Iran by Shah Ismail Safavi, 1502-14, should appear as a great national revival, for the army of the religious leader was drawn almost entirely from the Turkoman tribes of Anatolia and Azarbayjan and the ruling elite remained Turkish-speaking and with strong tribal affiliations at least until the accession of Shah Abbas I in 1587. In the cultural field the rise of the new dynasty did not make for an immediate break:* both in letters and in art there was a steady development in the centres previously dominated by the Aqqoyunlu in the West and South and by the last Timurids in the east. The wholesale adoption of the Shia faith** tended towards isolation of the country from their [sic] neighbours, the Ottoman Turks to the west and the Uzbeks to the north, both strong supporters of Orthodox Sunni beliefs.’

***

*(See [next ts journal entry,] 175)

**cf European Reformation, c[irca]15thC[entury]ff

*** – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts 3:] 458

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*All this* raises acutely – both for comparative arts and for comparative cultures – the question of why some cycles dissolve around G~-C and some ‘harden’ into a kind of paralysis of function. I suspect that the answer is to be found right back at what happened around C-M~.***

*{(re [[Redbook9:171][19910421:1410ss]{[Islamic Art –] Visual Arts [continued –] The Late Period [continued (3)]}[21st April 1991],] 171}

**[Presumably, [Redbook9:170][19910421:1410qq]{[Islamic Art –] Visual Arts [continued –] The Late Period}[21st April 1991]ff, to last previous ts journal entry]

***[&/or perhaps to the influence of neighbouring cultures on the culture which has reached the G~-C quarter?]

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*‘Very different has been the continuing vitality of the best-known in the West of all Turkish arts, that of the carpet, widely exported since the 15^th century [ce].’**

‘The strong coloring and vigorous sweeping designs seen in Ottoman textiles and ceramics witness to*** the confident spirit of their classic age, the 16^th and early 17^th century,**** when their Empire was at its height and they had assumed the leadership of the Muslim world.’

#

*{cf [[Redbook9:116][19910415:0840j]{[Islamic Art –] The Word (2) [continued (28)]}[15th April 1991],] 116}

**ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts 3: 457]

***[sic]

****2048G~1536[ce]

# – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts 3:] 458

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[continued]

‘After 1700[ce]* Western influence, mainly French, increasingly affected all Turkish art but especially architecture, and Baroque and later Rococo forms and decoration were favoured. As applied to such buildings as public fountains for drinking water, with taps not sprays, charming effects were achieved; but when this style extended to the Sultan’s palaces on the Bosphorous it became no more than a pastiche of the Western. So with painting the work of Levni (ob. 1732) ** illustrator and portraitist, a certain native vigor of folk origin still informs his costume studies; whereas the flower paintings in the Sunbulnama of 1736 (Topkapi Saray Library, Istanbul), charming as they are, are again pastiches of Western flower books, by Ismail, Ali and Husayn. Hitherto the Turkish school of miniature painting had represented a vigorous off shoot from the Persian school, to which it added fresh genres in extensive treatment of history, and the court ceremonies and processions of the late 16^th century. In these and some astronomical works the Turkish interest in the world as observed lent a vitality to a new sort of historical and topographical art which preceded the Mughal School of India. But this school faded in the early 17^th century.’***

****

*{2048GR~1664}

**(sic)

***{2048GR~1664[ce]}

**** – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts 3:] 457

[Paragraphing per ts]

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[continued]

‘The Sultan Ahmet Mosque [(1609-1617)]* is the last major work of the classic age....’

**

*[Square brackets per ms]

** – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts 3:] 457

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[continued]

‘Mehmet’s successor Bayazid II (1484-1512[ce]) built two great endowed complexes, one outside Istanbul of a hexagonal hospital, medical school, mosque, and lodging house for dervishes – in all providing for 167 persons; the second foundation was of schools of music, theology and cosmography attached to a mosque at Amasya built 1481-6[ce].[’]

*

* – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts 3: 454]

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I am a bit puzzled by all this.* It is, I think, fair to say that the Ottomans did not so much conquer Byzantium as encourage its collapse and occupy the vacuum. But that is not the whole answer.**

*[Ref last two previous ts journal entries, [Redbook9:170][19910421:1410qq]{[Islamic Art –] Visual Arts [continued –] The Late Period}[21st April 1991]&f]

**{See [[Redbook9:173][19910421:1410xx]{[Islamic Art –] Visual Arts [continued –] The Late Period [continued (8)]}[21st April 1991],] 173}

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‘At the same time there were other forces behind Ottoman culture which affected the visual arts, especially the power and prestige of the mystical orders, in particular of the Bekhtashi. Founded in the second half of the 13^th century,* this order spread rapidly among the nomads and peasants and became identified with the Janissary corps, the Imperial guard formed from Christian boys. The Bekhtashi founded tekkes or monastic houses and propagated a cult combining old Turkish shamanism with Shia and Sufi mysticism.

Another powerful cultural influence was from the Mevlevi** order of dervishes whose patron saint was Jalal ad-Din Rumi (1267-73[ce]).*** With its headquarters in Konya it propagated a more extreme form of mysticism especially among the intellectual and governing classes.

Further cohesion was brought to the urban societies by the Zariye or clubs of artists calling themselves ahi or “brotherhoods of virtue”, a kind of cooperative or guild with pooled income. They were formed of men of different trades and operated to preserve traditions of skill. Thus local methods of craftsmanship survived.’

****

#

*2048J~1280[ce]

**[See [Redbook9:122-123][19910415:0840w]{[Islamic Art –] Dance and Theatre [continued (4)]}[15th April 1991];

[Redbook9:121][19910415:0840u]{[Islamic Art –] Dance and Theatre [continued]}[15th April 1991]]

***{2048AJ~1152|J~1280[ce]}

[See [Redbook9:109-110][19910414:1104w]{[Islamic Art –] The Word (2) [continued (14)][Rumi]}[14th April 1991]]

**** – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts 3: 454]

[Paragraphing per ts]

#{Note the balance of M~#↑↑* & G~↑#**}

#**[See last previous ts journal entry]

#**[See above, this ts journal entry]

[& See next ts journal entry]

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