Ottoman illumination

Turkish or Ottoman illumination covers non-figurative painted or drawn decorative art in books or on sheets in muraqqa or albums, as opposed to the figurative images of the Ottoman miniature. In Turkish it is called “tezhip”, an Arabic word which means “ornamenting with gold”. It was a part of the Ottoman Book Arts together with the Ottoman miniature (taswir), calligraphy (hat), Islamic calligraphy, bookbinding (cilt) and paper marbling (ebru). In the Ottoman Empire, illuminated and illustrated manuscripts were commissioned by the Sultan or the administrators of the court. In Topkapi Palace, these manuscripts were created by the artists working in Nakkashane, the atelier of the miniature and illumination artists. Both religious and non-religious books could be illuminated. Also sheets for albums levha consisted of illuminated calligraphy (hat) of tughra, religious texts, verses from poems or proverbs, and purely decorative drawings.

The illuminations were made either surrounding the text as a frame or within the text in triangle or rectangle forms. There could be a few carpet pages in the book with ornamental compositions covering the whole page without any accompanying text. The motifs consisted of Rumi, Saz Yolu, Penc, Hatai, roses, Leaf Motifs, Palm Leaves, naturalistic flowers, Munhani (gradient colored curve motifs), Dragons, Simurg (Phoenix) Çintamani (Tama motif in Japanese and Chinese book arts).

In the 15th century, Ahmed b. Hacı Mahmut el-Aksarayi was a famous illumination artist who created a unique style in the book Divan-ı Ahmedi in 1437, with multi-colored floral patterns.

In the beginning of the 16th century, Hasan b. Abdullah's works was original for their color harmony. In the second half of the century, Bayram b. Dervish, Nakkaş Kara Mehmed Çelebi (Karamemi) illuminated books about literature and history. Karamemi brought up an innovation to the tradition with his naturalistic floral ornamentations.

17th century illumination art was different from the previous examples due to more use of colors. Hâfiz Osman (1642–1698), invented the calligraphic format of the hilye, or text describing the appearance of Muhammad, which were kept in albums or framed like pictures for hanging on walls. The economic and social crisis effected cultural life and fewer manuscripts were produced in this period compared to the past.

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Wikipedia