The Ottoman Renaissance Paradigm
The Ottoman Renaissance, which took place during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Bursa, Edirne and Istanbul, produced an extraordinary array of artworks in the form of monumental architecture, Iznik tiles, calligraphy and illustrated manuscripts. Notwithstanding the exceptional artistic production, Ottoman art and architecture have not received the same attention in historiography as, for instance, the celebrated Renaissance of Italy. Drawing upon notions of rebirth characteristic of renaissances more generally, this study seeks to situate early modern Ottoman art within a more global Renaissance context. The study recognises the cultural interaction and sharing of values across the Mediterranean basin that characterised the period yet examines Ottoman artistic expression through specifically Ottoman conceptions of rebirth. Ottoman ideas of rebirth although built on the classicism of Greece and Rome moved well beyond these legacies. Indeed, this work uniquely contends that the Ottomans were much more focused on their Eastern (Turkic, Timurid, Persian) and Islamic heritage than that of the classical world which features in the West. Additionally, both the ancient and recent past provided inspiration on which to build a cultural identity specific to the Ottoman experience. In order to fully understand the shared values of the early modern Mediterranean and critically engage in different interpretations of rebirth, the study explicitly compares the works of three Renaissance contemporaries: the Italian Giorgio Vasari and the Ottoman Mustafa Ali and Mimar Sinan.
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​Research shows that the unique geographic position of the sultans of the Ottoman court allowed the artists of the Ottoman Empire to capitalise on the inherited legacies of both the Islamic-Timurid-Turkic-Persian East and the Latin West. The result was a synthesis of Eastern and Western exemplars which ultimately produced a rebirth in the arts distinct from their early modern Italian and European counterparts. This work traces this Renaissance from its beginnings in 1413 through to its triumphant phase in the Süleymanic Age (1520-1575). In its examination of the empire's monumental architecture, decorative tiles, calligraphy and miniature paintings, the study contributes to current scholarship in the field which seeks to assess the Renaissance from a more complex, multi-focal and multinational perspective. Furthermore, it reinforces the idea that many renaissances arose concurrently in the Mediterranean basin in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
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​Within this general framework, the research represents an important contribution to scholarship and students of history in two important areas. First, this study has a broad chronological scope: while most existing studies and courses of "The Ottoman Renaissance" focus rather narrowly on either the reign of Sultan Mehmed II (d.1481) or Süleyman the Magnificent (d.1566), ongoing research at CORC covers the entire period from the early 15th century in 1413 to the end of the 16th century (1575), thereby presenting a much more coherent and comprehensive narrative than has been available now. Both undergraduate and post-graduate s students of history will greatly benefit from this approach. Second, the study is directly comparable to its contemporary European equivalent despite the fact that its primary cultural reference points as this study stresses is in the Timurid and Islamicate rather than the Greco-Roman past. Research demonstrates through a systematic comparison of Ottoman textual sources with the foundational writings of Giorgio Vasari, the first Renaissance author to elaborate a concept of Rinascita or "Rebirth" in describing the art and architecture of his own day. According to Vasari, Italian (and more specifically Florentine) art and architecture drew inspiration from the classical past through a systematic and dialectic process that progressed from imitazione (imitation) to adeguazione (adaptation) and finally perfezzione (perfection), culminating in the transcendent figure of Michelangelo, who successfully surpassed his antique models to create an entirely new standard of artistic expression for future generations. In a similar way, the research demonstrates that Ottoman art went through an analogous evolution - defined in a similarly self-conscious way - from numune (a model), to tecdid (restoration or renewal), and finally ihtira (originality), which attained zuhÅ«rat (perfection) in order to a'zam (surpass) the past.
(Excerpt from The Ottoman Renaissance by Metin Mustafa, PhD, B.Ed.)
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“This book is distinctive for the directness with which it addresses its subject. While earlier of Ottoman art and architecture have gestured toward connections with the Renaissance, these connections are presented here in a lucid and systematic way that will engender considerable discussion, inviting a general re-evaluation of what we mean by ‘The Renaissance’.”
Giancarlo Casale, Professor of Early Modern History of the Mediterranean, University of Minnesota and author of The Ottoman Age of Exploration.
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