Impressions Of Ottoman Culture İn Europe : 1453-1699 Kitabı

Nurhan Atasoy, the grand dame of Ottoman history and chronicler of its artistic wonders, may well spark another revolution with her new work, Impressions of Ottoman Culture in Europe: 1453–1699. Meticulously researched and adorned with lavish illustrations, the book documents the seminal influence of Ottoman visual tastes on the Western mind during the centuries of Ottoman expansion. One only has to think of how well the world recognizes the Roman or British or Chinese empires’ signature aesthetics to realize what a lacuna she has addressed: the cultural impact of a vast empire at the world’s center in a critical era as the Renaissance brewed across its borders. Co-authored with fellow Turk and Islamic art expert Lale Uluç, the book’s publication at this juncture shows that Atasoy has kept her impeccable sense of timing. Turkey is everywhere in the headlines, and the question “whither Turkey—East or West” preoccupies much of the globe. Absurd though it may sound to claim that a coffee-table book can spur any kind of cultural revolution, Atasoy’s first such effort, Iznik, did just that when the English version came out in 1989. A definitive study of the finest Ottoman ceramics, the book was as large and dazzling as its subject. Under the Sultans’ patronage, the town of Iznik (ancient Nicea) produced its uniquely luminous pottery between 1480 and 1650. From there came the famous tile work in the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi harem, along with fabulously ornate mosque lamps, dishes, ewers, jugs, mugs, and the like. At the time of publication, most Turks knew about the topic, as did some foreign experts—and virtually no one else. Any Turk who grew up abroad—as I did—remembers that, in those days, Turkish carpets and Turkish delight were virtually the only salient cultural facts known about the country. Atasoy’s study, co-authored with renowned art historian Julian Raby, changed all that. To this day you can find the book in virtually every relevant museum bookshop worldwide and in most regular bookshops with a sizable décor section. In Turkey, Atasoy is a rare public figure whose work is admired by both secular and Islamic tendencies. The revolution she sparked went a lot deeper than popularizing a neglected genre of pottery. She triggered a renewed pride in Turks for their unappreciated cultural past. There’s a clue to it in Iznik where she explains why so few examples of the finest pieces remain extant: the Sultans loved their homegrown wares but didn’t value them as precious artworks. They tossed them away profligately while they jealously preserved the imported Chinese variety—which, they felt, the rest of the world valued more. That attitude, a species of cultural inferiority complex, increased as the Ottomans declined and then as Mustafa Kemal’s republic faced stolidly westward, putting the past behind it. That grand imperial past was one that neither former Ottoman colonies nor Soviet Russia nor the West felt inclined to commemorate. Isolated by the Cold War, their former glories marginalized, Turks brooded over their history in solitude. As Iznik went global, it pointed a way out of the cultural ghetto, and Turks began to feel some reflected confidence in their heritage: here, finally, was some recognition of their cultural contributions. “It was a lucky moment in some ways,” says Atasoy. “The Eastern bloc was crumbling and everyone was looking over border walls and reclaiming their past in new ways. The Ottoman imprint, from Europe to India, the patterns, the design sense, the architecture, lay in everyone’s historical consciousness, just below the surface. They just hadn’t focused on it. It was politically incorrect in many countries for a long time. Suddenly, you could feel the world growing more curious about Turkey.” Now comes her new book, at a time when millions of tourists are exposed to Istanbul’s silhouettes, as exported Turkish soap operas show glimpses of a national aesthetic, and as designers like Rifat Ozbek an