FABRICS USED IN OTTOMAN TIME

In the Ottoman period, from the 15th century onwards, the city of Bursa became the trade and industrial center of raw silk imported from Iran. Since the silk trade provided great income to the treasury, it was developed under state control; Cocoon production started in Bursa in 1587 and cocoon farming was encouraged.

The gold and silver wire used in weaving was drawn in the state simkeshane, the fabrics were stamped and allowed to be put up for sale. In order to prevent the waste of precious metals, fabrics such as seraser and zerbaft were woven in a certain amount on the looms of the palace. The stylistic integrity of Ottoman art was repeated in patterns and compositions, as the fabric patterns suitable for the fashion of the period were designed in the palace muralist.

The city of Bursa has been known mostly for velvet and knitwear, while Istanbul has been known for its kemha and seraser fabrics since the second half of the 16th century. It is a kind of velvet in terms of the tactile touch technique. Generally, the floor is woven with velvet, the pattern is woven with silver flap, or vice versa, the flap is woven with pattern velvet on the floor. In addition to the fabrics used in the making of upholstery and caftans, pillow faces with narrow edges and niches, especially bordered pillowcases, were very popular. Valuable fabrics were used as treasure troves in the Ottoman Palace; robes and cloth were sent as gifts to high-ranking civil servants, foreign rulers and ambassadors. The main kaftan fabrics made of precious materials are kemha, seraser and zerbaft. The warp and weft of Kemha are silk, the reinforcing wefts forming the pattern are silk and silver or gold clasps. Seraser's warp is silk and its weft is silver or gold wire.

Zerbaft, which is the most valuable among Ottoman fabrics, is a type of brocade with some motifs woven with gold wire.

Since the 17th century, the quality of weaving decreased, and the use of precious metals was prohibited when the economic situation began to deteriorate. During the reign of Selim III, fabric art was tried to be revived in the workshop, which was established around the Üsküdar Ayazma Mosque in 1758, albeit for a short time. The Selimiye and Savaî fabrics, which were widely used in women's clothing of the period, are ribbed and with scattered small patterns. The pillow faces and upholstery of Üsküdar and Bilecik are in the ornament style called Turkish Rococo.

An Overview of Turkish Embroidery in the Ottoman Empire Period:

Some documents, written sources, miniatures made by local and foreign artists, engravings, watercolor paintings, oil paintings, photographs and depictions on some tombstones, as well as the engravings that have survived to the present, tell us about the centers where the engravings of this period were made, their place in society, their importance, function and plastic values. provides information. To give an example: "Metal Thread Pullers in the Basilica Cistern" drawn by Allom in the 19th century shows that this cistern was also used in yarn production after the Shimkeşhane. The drawings of Nicolay de Nicolas enlighten us on the 16th century women's clothing and the plaits they knit. A similar situation exists for Van Mour, Liotard, Levni, market painters, Ruhi Arel and Osman Hamdi. These painters like clothing, household goods, etc. visualized such processes. Embroidered pillows and sofa cover in Van Mour's work "Girls Playing", embroidered satin pillows in "Woman Who Plays Lute", and the embroidered dress of the figure with the Bukhara throwing cloak technique, as well as the existence of dival work. Levni's miniatures, on the other hand, display different types with embroidered ends and belts, as well as embroidered clothes. Ruhi Arel's paintings "Girl Embroidering on a Hoop" and "Girl Embroidering on a Frame", dated 1910, 1911, enlighten us on technical application, while Osman Hamdi's painting of his wife, who is pictured wearing three skirts decorated with embroidered cord fastening lace, is important visuals on embroidered clothes. forms.

Written sources and engravings, miniatures, paintings, etc. Apart from examples such as these, a group of interesting engravings are also found on the tombstones. These examples, designed in the form of either a headdress crowning the witness or a pushide covering the sarcophagus, include the fez palmette motifs crowning the sarcophagus, which is thought to belong to Fatma Hanım, the daughter of Kuyucu Murat Pasha in the Konya Mevlana Lodge from the 16th century, and Safiye Hanım's paintings in the Istanbul Sokollu Tomb. It brings to mind that the embroidered bands called kasbasti with the fez earring motifs crowning the sarcophagus may have also been used to decorate the fez.

Another headdress that can be dated to the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, found in Eyüpsultan Sıbyan Mektebi Graveyard, supports the view that the cover prepared as a turban was not only designed to protect the turban from dust, but also to adorn high cylindrical cones. All these pieces enrich the subject and composition repertoire of kasbasti and kavuk covers that have survived to the present day, as well as enlighten us in terms of aesthetics.

As for the depictions of the pushi, the sarcophagus decorated with peonies with inventory number 967 in Konya İnce Minare Museum, the sarcophagus decorated with rosette flowers with inventory number 5818, as well as the İbrahim Bey sarcophagus dated 1001 (1592 A.D.) decorated with chintemani motifs from the Istanbul Ferhat Pasha Tomb; The sarcophagi of Cafer Pasha's son and a lady named Hatice Binti Mehmed in the Cafer Pasha Tomb in Eyüpsultan, Istanbul, show that pushchairs decorated with floral ornaments and cintemani motifs were made in the 17th century. Both these fragments and the 17th century Mehmed Bey sarcophagus in Eyüpsultan Primary School Graveyard and the nameless sarcophagus in Mihrişah Sultan Imaret Graveyard point to the 17th century size of the ornaments made with chintemani motifs. All these examples are valuable in terms of both the subjects chosen in the pushides, their exhibiting the compositional variations of the pushides, and the fact that no pushides have reached the present day from the Classical Period.

Another interesting example is the witness dated 1218 (1803 AD) in the corner of Eyüpsultan Zal Mahmud Paşa Mosque Graveyard. There is a saeban design on this tombstone, which belongs to Ali Baş.

During the Ottoman Empire, embroideries were made in two environments, the palace and the non-palace (home, bazaar, army, lodge, school). From the poorest house in the city to the mansion, to the palace; from the village house, which is a narrow circle, to the bazaar, which provides a transition between the circles; The palace where local and foreign masters work, which is a wider environment than the cells of some sect members, spreading from the bazaar, from the city, to the region and between the regions; This branch of art, which was applied in a wide area from the palace to the members of the army, had a wide base. Thus, the palace, the house, and the bazaar interacted and complemented each other like the links of an intricately equivalent chain. The art of embroidery was practiced as a branch of art in which everyone, not a certain group, benefited and felt aesthetic pleasure.

The palace books and some documents found in the palace give some clues about the embroidery made around the palace. In the palace notebooks, which contain information from the 15th century, the workshops that make tents are mentioned. It is mentioned that two tent-adorning (nakshduzan) masters set out on an expedition.

A document from the 17th century contains the following information.

"Tent shabbs ordered to operate are seven sentences. Each of them is five widths. It is thirty-five widths. It was not good to have ten women embroidering mutemede women. I gave a few money to some women. I gave it to people. And while some women were embroidering, they brought the saying that it is fine work, we do not have the power to embroider. Even those who do can not work more than one dirham a day, four hundred fifty dirhams and five hundred dirhams of yarn go to each tent shepherd. and it was wasted in a contemptuous manner. The edict belongs to my sultan of state." It is understood from this edict that the master (big) ladies did not want to embroider the seven quilt faces, each of which is five-dimensional, because it was too troublesome, and some ladies who bought it to be embroidered worked one dirham a day in their unfinished embroidery.

In the Classical Period, the traditional way was followed in the teaching of embroidery, which was carried out in the form of non-formal education at home, and the elders taught the techniques they knew to the young. Meanwhile, there were craftsmen who went from house to house and taught embroidery techniques. The function of these women, called "familiar women", continued in the Westernization Period as well.

16-18. It has been recorded that the Westerners gave importance to Turkish embroidery masters between the centuries. It is known that the embroiderers, called "bulya" by the Hungarians, went from the castle to the castle and embroidered, and Hungarian nobles gave their wives embroidered "bulyas".

18-19. The sample cloths, which are the products of technical education carried out in the centuries, enlighten us about the applied techniques and the chosen motifs. Among these pieces, which are both technical and pattern catalogues, two examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and examples in private collections in our country are valuable.

The embroidery education, which was continued in the form of non-formal education in the 19th century, gained new dimensions and became institutionalized at the same time as the girls' art schools. In the houses where amateur work was prioritized, professional works that would benefit the home economy were also carried out.

It also contributed to the country's economy through the bazaar, which was the scene of information, taste and skill exchanges, which flourished either through the master-apprentice relationship or in different circles and inter-communal relations where the products purchased from the houses were marketed, showing developments on a local, national and international platform. The tradesmen and craftsmen, the guilds to which they were affiliated, the organization in the bazaar, provided the flow, and the state controlled them with narh registers and regulations. The master, who showed himself with his technique, knowledge and skill in the bazaar, could rise to the palace workshops.

The palace, which provided mutual transition between all circles, had a broader vision. The palace workshops, where local and foreign masters and artists worked, were operated with the support of the monarchs. The most talented artists of the bazaar, masters with the highest level of technical skills were working in these workshops. Members of the army also contributed to these workshops, where mainly ceremonial items were produced.

On the other hand, women and girls living in the palace harem, who were brought up or hosted, participated in these activities amateurishly. Especially advanced pasha etc. such as the daughters and wives of the officials, received a certain education in the palace and carried the palace customs and traditions to the places they went. A similar situation was in question for the bazaar. The bazaar, which brought the innovations he followed in the palace, in other words, the dynamic of fashion to the home, and served as a kind of porter, was the source of both the house and the palace. It was the army that brought the palace lifestyle to the outside, and in this context, exhibited its embroidered ceremonial clothes, accessories, tents and zukaks in the widest vision on national and international platforms. Both ceremonies, expeditions and pilgrimage ceremonies were of paramount importance in this context. The sultans and members of the Turkish army were dazzled by the zukaks placed around the tents set up in every period of Ottoman history and the war weapons that took the form of accessories with their clothes. They are dervish lodges and lodges in a center where embroidery is done. Among the embroideries made in many cells, a group of Mevlevi examples point to non-profane production in this branch of art. Religious embroideries, which are often seen in tombs and Surre Processions and watched with awe, are an expression of faith, as well as love and respect for God and the elders of religion.