Culture of the Ottoman Empire: Encyclopedia II - Culture of the Ottoman Empire - The Arts

Culture of the Ottoman Empire - The Arts

Culture of the Ottoman Empire - Poetry

Compared to Arabian and Persian literature translations, the poetical literature of the Ottoman Turks has been, with only a few exceptions, almost entirely neglected by Western scholars. Poetry has been cultivated in Turkey with greater assiduity than any other branch of literature. Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall, in his 1836 classic work, Die Geschichte der osmanischen Dichtkunst, gives translated extracts from two thousand two hundred Ottoman poets. Comparatively few of these Ottoman versifiers are regarded as really great poets. Perhaps Aşık Paşa is not very far behind his great prototype, Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, the author of the Mesnevi. The ghazals of Baki, in elegance of diction and depth of feeling, rival those of Hafez; and the romances of Lami'i yield not one whit in loveliness to the works of Jami or Nizami. The reason we do not count Ottoman poetry or poets among really great poets is that most of the works were not translated to European languages.

Culture of the Ottoman Empire - Music

Quite a few Ottoman Sultans themselves were musicians. Two musical cultures developed in the Ottoman society due to geographic and cultural differences between the Palace and the various regions.

In Istanbul, in the Palace, the Byzantine Orthodox Chants, Islamic instruments, Farsi Poems transformed into the what is called today, the Turkish Classical Music. Turkish Classical Music, is a form of music, which has specific rythmic rules that the song writer needs to abide, and these are called the "Makam". Kurdili Hicazkar [1], Rast etc.. are types of these Makams. A complex orchestra can be used for the background music, or it can be sung solo. Typical instruments are a combination of both Eastern and Western instruments: Oud, Davoul, Kanun, Piano, Violin... There are some adaptations of Western Music to the Turkish Makams as well such as a Waltz by Dede Efendi.

In the provinces, several different kinds of Folk music were created.The most dominant regions with their distinguished musical styles are : Balkan-Thracian Turkus, North-Eastern Turkus(Laz), Aegean Turkus, Central Anatolian Turkus, Eastern Anatolian Turkus, and Caucasian Turkus. Istanbul does not have any Turkus, because it has the Turkish Classical Music.

These regions are quite distinguished from one another by the rythm, the vocals and the instruments. The vocals involve the local dialect or accent, and usually 2-3 basic instruments are used. For example, the Northeastern Turkish Music use the Kemenche, and Davouls; the Eastern Anatolian Turkus use the Saz. The Balkan-Thracian Turkus use the Zurna, Davoul and Darbuka.

Culture of the Ottoman Empire - Calligraphy

The Diwani script is a cursive style of Arabic calligraphy developed during the reign of the early Ottoman Turks (16th and early 17th centuries). It was invented by Housam Roumi and reached its height of popularity under Süleyman I the Magnificent (1520–66). As decorative as it was communicative, Diwani was distinguished by the complexity of the line within the letter and the close juxtaposition of the letters within the word.

See also

• Arabic calligraphy
• Islamic art

See external links:

• calligraphy
• manuscript illumination from the Turkish Ministry of Culture.

Culture of the Ottoman Empire - Decorative

See external links:

• miniature painting
• portrait painting

See external links:

• textiles

Among the Ottoman Turks the art of carpet weaving have environmental, sociological, economic, and religious reasons, which all of these effected the daily life and the decorative structures of the carpets. Turks used the carpets not just on the floors but also walls and doorways. This protected them from the temprature fluctuations between day and night, and through out the seasons.

Hereke Carpets have very important place among world carpets. They are the best and finest silk rugs in the world. Carpets with Hereke designes look like magnificent cloths with fine weaving. There is an authentic Hereke designs and later carpet designers have influenced with the royal tastes and compositions. The first examples, found during the Seljuk period, were established in Usak, Gordes, Cairo, Bursa and Istanbul in 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. The Hereke factory, built through Ottoman industrial policy in 19th century, started to work on textiles, but later carpet weaving took the dominance.

Other significant designes include "Palace", "Yoruk" and "Turkmenian" carpets. They generally have the same functional characteristics, but differ in their styles. Stylised designs dominate "Yoruk" and "Turkmenian", whereas naturalism is prevalent in Palace due to the technological possibilities which gives way to more complex designs and motifs.

Culture of the Ottoman Empire - Architecture

Culture of the Ottoman Empire - Performance

Istanbul 1908 - Bulgarians

Istanbul 1908 - Epirotes

Istanbul 1908 - Greeks

Competing—successfully—with the women of the harem for the affection of the Ottoman noble were young males in various functions, chief among whom were the entertainers, known as köçeks. They traveled in troupes and were skilled in music, dancing, and erotic pleasures. The average troupe—named after its leader—would have about thirty dancers, though some had several hundred. When not on stage, köçeks would work in coffee-houses and taverns, where they would serve drinks, flirt, and be available for trysts with the clientele.

They were highly sought after by all nobles of all ranks, including the Sultan. Köçeks wore elegant and gaudy costumes, had long curly hair, and were immortalized in books discussing their qualities and ranking them by nationality, such as the Huban-nameh of Enderunlu Fazil.

Meddah or story teller was a single person show that played in front of a small group of audience like a coffee shop audience. The play is generally about a single topic which the meddah (story teller) plays different personalities within the story. Depending on the person the meddah is impersonating in the story, he used an umbrella, or an hancercife to signal the change of personality. The control of voice is the most important skill in this type of show. There is no time limitation on the shows. A good meddah has the skill to adjust the story depending on the interaction getting from the audience.

The stories are mostly conflicts between different parts of the society. Meddah were generally travelling artists that moved from one big city to another. The main path that used was the towns on the spice road. The dynamics of the tradition is supposedly goes back to the Homer's time. The methods of meddahs were same as the methods of that times artists who told the stories of Greek epics Iliad and Odyssey from one town to another, even though the stories were changed to Ferhat ile Şirin or Leyla ile Mecnun. Among the reportuars of the meddah also include true stories, that was modified depending the audience, artist and political situation.

The Istanbul meddahs were known integrate musical instruments to their stories. That was pointed as a difference to the east anatolian Dengbejin.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Arts", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki