Style In Islamic Art

Style in Islamic Art – 1500-1700 A.D.

Ottoman style

Interior view of Süleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey © Peter M. Wilson/Axiom

A distinctive Ottoman style in the decorative arts had developed by the 1550s, when the Ottoman empire was at the height of its power and prosperity. The Ottomans promoted themselves as the defenders of Islam, and this explains why their public art includes a rich variety of ornamental designs but no human figures. Plant- and flower-based patterns were the most common, while calligraphic and linear geometric designs were mostly restricted to architectural decoration. This style flourished until about 1700.

Garden flowers

A novel and distinctive feature of Ottoman art is the use of recognisable garden flowers – tulips, roses, hyacinths, carnations and others. Previously, floral motifs had been highly stylised and arranged in formalised patterns. By contrast, the flowers on this vase were painted almost as if they were growing from the ground and swaying in a spring breeze. On the velvet, though, they were arranged in flat, entirely artificial patterns.

Big cats

A popular Ottoman decorative motif was a group of three spots arranged in a triangle. Another was a pair of wavy lines. For centuries these patterns had been used across Asia to represent leopard spots and tiger stripes, as seen on live animals or on the skins that served as clothing or rugs. Since animal and human figures were not common in Ottoman art, the spots and stripes became purely decorative patterns. They were often used in combination, or mixed with other designs.

Floral fantasies

The Ottomans continued the Islamic tradition of using plant-based decoration that was only vaguely connected with reality. One type of spiralling scrollwork is set with enormous composite flowers, smaller rosettes and long, serrated ‘saz’ leaves. This is often called the ‘saz’ style. The leaves are the most distinctively Ottoman element, but the Ottomans themselves associated them with China. Here the leaves are interwoven with another ‘Chinese’ motif, an elongated cloud band.

Safavid style

Courtyard of Masjid-i Shah, Isfahan, Iran © Oliver Salway

The Safavid style developed in Iran from 1500, when the country was re-united under the dynasty of this name. Unlike their Ottoman neighbours, the Safavids had no qualms about depicting human beings in all forms of art. These figures became an unusually prominent feature of the Safavid style, but floral scrollwork was also important. When the capital moved to Isfahan about 1600, both underwent a change in style. The Safavid state collapsed in 1722.

Early Safavid figures

The human figure became an important element soon after the Safavids establised their rule in 1500. Depictions of elegant young men and women, often shown in outdoor settings, adorned many objects, from clothing to the bindings of manuscripts. The men usually wear the distinctive Safavid headgear. This was a felt hat with a very tall, thin extension at the crown, which projected like a baton above the turban that was wrapped round it.

The Isfahan style

When the court moved to Isfahan around 1600, the figures in Safavid art changed to reflect the influence of Riza ‘Abbasi, a leading court artist of the period. The slim, erect figures of the early Safavid period were replaced by stouter figures, often with an S-shaped posture. The felt hat with a projecting ‘baton’ also disappeared, to be replaced by looser turbans and fur hats with the brim turned up.

Floral fantasies

Like the Ottomans, the Safavids inherited a tradition of symmetrical scrollwork designs set with fantastic blossoms. They used them with impressive skill. On the Ardabil carpet, two designs of this type, one laid over the other, cover the vast, dark-blue field of the carpet. A simpler example is offered by the central design on the blue silk hanging. The flowerheads in the borders show the new floral motifs that were imported from India after 1600.

Style in Islamic Art (750-1250 AD)

Abbasid Style

Panel of stucco decoration from the Caliphal Palace, Samarra, Iraq © Samarra Archaeological Survey, 1989

The Abbasid style emerged in Iraq between 750 and 850, when the Abbasid dynasty was at the height of its power. The Abbasid caliphs constructed huge and lavishly decorated palaces at Baghdad and Samarra and stimulated the production of many forms of luxury art. Under their patronage, art began to move away from its pre-Islamic roots, and the new techniques and more abstract styles adopted at this time had a long-lasting influence on the Islamic art of later centuries.

Kufic script

This page is from a manuscript of

Page from a Qur’an Middle East 800-1000

the Qur’an, the divine revelation on which Islam is based. In making beautiful copies of the Qur’an, calligraphers used refined forms of the Arabic script governed by a strict system of proportions. This page is in the ‘plump’ Kufic style, the earliest

form of Arabic calligraphy. The Kufic style became characteristic of Abbasid art and was used for inscriptions on buildings and objects. The bowl shown here is inscribed with blessings on its owner.

Vine leaves

Ivory vessel Egypt or Syria 750-850

The vine and other fruit-bearing plants had long been used to suggest fertility and prosperity in the art of the Middle East. They continued to be popular in Abbasid art. The ivory container is carved with a network of vine scrolls, very similar to those used in Roman art. The fragment of stucco once decorated a wall in an Abbasid palace in Iraq. It also represents a vine leaf, but here the motif resembles those found in the art of ancient Iran.

Lustre bowl Iraq, probably Basra About 900

Life at court

Following an ancient Iranian tradition, the figures on lustre bowls from Abbasid Iraq usually depict life at court. Here the seated prince holds a wine glass, while the stag motif may have been taken from a larger hunt scene. These designs were not meant to imitate life. Similar designs appeared on more prestigious dishes of silver or gold, and the background of dots imitates the texture of an engraved metal surface.

Spanish Umayyad style

Interior of the Great Mosque, Córdoba, Spain © P.Scholey/Robert Harding Picture Library Ltd

The Umayyad dynasty seized power in Spain in the 750s and broke away from the Abbasid empire. As a result, a local style of art developed, especially after 929 when a later ruler declared himself caliph. The Umayyads employed many Roman and Byzantine forms, probably to distinguish themselves from their Abbasid rivals, but they shared with the Abbasids the use of Arabic inscriptions and stylised leaf motifs. They died out after 1031, but the Umayyad style remained influential in Spain and Morocco.

Roman forms

The ‘composite’ capital, with acanthus leaves carved in the round, seems completely Roman. But the Arabic inscription along the top edge, carved in the Kufic style, shows it is from Umayyad Spain. The second capital is more obviously Islamic. The overall shape is still Roman, but most of the surfaces were left flat. They were then undercut with a continuous network of plant motifs. This became the typically Umayyad form of capital.

Courtly magnificence

The Umayyads followed the Byzantine rulers in commissioning exquisite ivory caskets for their palaces. But the political and religious subjects the Byzantines depicted could not be used in an Islamic state. So the Umayyads created their own designs, based on life at court. On this casket princes sip wine and listen to music. They are surrounded by paired animals set in roundels, a motif that also appeared on the silk textiles of the time.

Script and scrollwork

Ivory caskets from Umayyad Spain often have an Arabic inscription around the edge of the lid telling us who they were made for. The elegant script is a later form of the Kufic style – taller, more slender and with leaf-like flourishes. On this casket, the remaining surfaces are covered with a symmetrical pattern of leafy scrolls, also found on a bigger scale on the walls of Umayyad palaces. The leaves are pierced with small holes, perhaps for small chips of gemstone.

Façade of al-Aqmar Mosque, Cairo, Egypt © Prof. Nasser Rabbat

Fatimid style

In 969 the Fatimids conquered Egypt and founded Cairo as their capital. They commissioned many of the luxury arts favoured by their Abbasid rivals in Iraq, such as lustre ceramics and carved rock crystals. But Abbasid power had now faded, so it was easy for the Fatimids to outdo them. Their art shows a well-integrated, more clearly ‘Islamic’ style, without obvious links to the earlier Roman and Iranian art. Fatimid rule ended in 1171.

Balanced design

This outstanding example of Fatimid rock crystal has paper-thin walls and an elegant shape. The decoration is arranged with great care, so that carved and plain surfaces are in balance. The main motif is a bird of prey attacking a gazelle, probably meant as a symbol of power. Neither this design nor the free-flowing pattern of leafy scrolls show any direct connection with nature. They were copied from other prestigious art forms.

The human figure

The human figures in Fatimid art are often drawn with great decorative skill. On this fine lustre-painted bowl, details have been scratched through the lustre to prevent the design becoming too heavy. The man has standard features, with joined-up eyebrows and eyes drawn with a line extending to the temples, but he holds a lamp and is clearly a priest of the Coptic church. The cypress tree seems to suggest a monastery garden, a common theme in Arabic poetry.

Warding off evil

This is an extremely rare ivory and wood panel from Fatimid Egypt. The intricate pattern was made by using many small pieces of ivory veneer into a wooden base. The six-pointed star in the centre is much simpler than later geometric motifs from Egypt. It represents the ‘seal of Solomon’, which was believed to ward off bad luck.

Style in Islamic Art (1250 – 1500 A.D)

Chinese motifs became common in Islamic art after the 1250s. This tile from a Mongol palace in north-west Iran is a very early example. It is decorated with a Chinese dragon and has Chinese lotus flowers in the frieze above. To the Mongols, like the Chinese, the dragon was a symbol of political authority, but for the Iranians it was an evil monster to be hunted down by heroes. Chinese dragons soon appeared in this role in Iranian painting.

Iranian traditions

This tile is from the same palace as the one with the dragon, but the motif is Iranian. Because the first Ilkhanid rulers were not Muslim they could not use Islam to justify their power. They therefore relied on the much older tradition of royal rule enshrined in the Iranian national epic, The Book of Kings. This tile shows an episode from The Book of Kings in which King Bahram Gur goes hunting with his favourite slave girl.

Elegant calligraphy

After the Ilkhanid rulers of Iran finally converted to Islam in 1295, they began to commission copies of the Qur’an of an unprecedented size and magnificence. The script employed followed the rules of Arabic calligraphy developed by the great reformer Yaqut, who died in Baghdad in 1298. Manuscripts of this type continued to be produced over the course of the 1300s. In this example, the main text was written in a large, elegant style designed to convey the meaning without the slightest ambiguity.

Mamluk style

Mamluk minarets in Cairo, Egypt © Travel Library/Robert Harding Picture Library Ltd

The Mamluk style developed in Egypt and Syria after 1250, and it survived there long after the fall of the last Mamluk sultan in 1517. Large, bold inscriptions featured throughout this period, but the human and animal figures became smaller and less common as time passed. The complex geometric patterns and Chinese-style lotus scrolls also appeared in Ilkhanid art, but the use of badges of rank on buildings and objects was unique to Mamluk art.

Bold inscriptions

Large, boldly written inscriptions in Arabic dominate the decoration of many luxury objects from the Mamluk period. Quotations from the Qur’an are often found on items made for religious settings, but other texts were used when an item was made for a palace rather than a mosque. The text on this candlestick records the name of the man for whom it was made. It is repeated once on the base and once on the socket.

Badges of office

Badges of office were used by high-ranking officers in the Mamluk army, who were proud to have had held posts in the sultan’s household. The enamelled decoration of these two glass mosque lamps includes such emblems. One shows a sword and belonged to the sultan’s sword-bearer. The other shows a napkin and belonged to the master of the sultan’s wardrobe.

Complex geometry

Geometric patterns became more complex in Mamluk art. On the sides of the minbar, or mosque pulpit, are triangular panels made of hundreds of small pieces of wood and ivory. They are arranged in a pattern of straight lines that probably represents the rays of the sun. Complex geometry also underlies the three-dimensional pattern you can see above the door. It consists of rows of small niches and is called ‘muqarnas’.

Nasrid style

Court of the Lions, Alhambra, Spain © C.Gascoigne/Robert Harding Picture Library Ltd

The Nasrid style of around 1300 to 1450 was the last form of Islamic art to flourish in Spain. Very little art with figurative images is known from this period. Instead, Nasrid art is characterised by the rich decorative schemes found at the Alhambra, the Nasrid palace in Granada, and on a variety of objects. They combine the classic forms of Islamic ornament: linear geometric motifs, abstract plant-based patterns and Arabic calligraphy.

Abstract plant forms

The capital in the first image was made around 1370, but its shape is derived from that of the capital shown in the second image, which was made 400 years earlier. Although the general shape has continued, the overall effect is quite different. This is because the plant forms, such as the acanthus leaves around the base, have been turned into abstract motifs that have no apparent connection with the natural world.

Geometry and colour

In Nasrid art, the interlace patterns based on linear geometry are often relatively simple, and strong contrasts in colour make them easy to understand. Here, the designer has added variety and interest by filling the compartments with motifs of different kinds, including smaller, more complex interlace designs.

Ilkhanid style

The Ilkhanid style flourished in Iran. It was formed from three traditions, Chinese, Iranian and Islamic, under rulers descended from the Mongol conqueror Chingiz Khan. Chinese porcelain and silks were imported in large numbers, and local traditions such as lustre tilework flourished. At first, non-royal patrons commissioned the religious art, but once the Ilkhanids themselves became Muslim, in 1295, they too took on this role. The last Ilkhanid ruler died in 1353.

Chinese motifs

Under the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal dynasties, carpet weaving was transformed from a minor craft based on patterns passed down from generation to generation into a statewide industry with patterns created in court workshops. In this period, carpets were fabricated in greater quantity than ever before. They were traded to Europe and the Far East where, too precious to be placed on the ground, they were used to cover furniture or hung on walls. Within the Islamic world, especially fine specimens were collected in royal households.

In Iran, the carpet and textile industriesformed part of Shah Abbas’ 1587–1629) program for restructuring the economy and attracting European merchants to the country. He transferred silk merchants and weavers to the new capital of Isfahan and signed trade treaties with Spain, England, and France. Of the scores of carpets exported abroad at this time, the “Polonaise” type was the most popular; over 300 of them are in foreign collections, and many bear the coat of arms of the family that commissioned them. Vase and garden carpets were among the other common types. In each of these,vegetal motifsreplace thefiguralones of the previous century.

They were traded to Europe and the Far East where, too precious to be placed on the ground, they were used to cover furniture or hung on walls. Within the Islamic world, especially fine specimens were collected in royal households.

In Ottoman Turkey, weaving patterns and techniques changed in the early sixteenth century after conquests in Persia and Egypt. Anatolia had been known for carpets with stylized animal and geometric designs, but with these new cultural contacts, carpets designed around a central medallion and with flowingsaz-style vegetation came into vogue. Similar motifs also appeared on book covers, textiles, and in manuscript borders. The style of these Ottoman court rugs, first produced in Istanbul, then spread to other weaving centers in Cairo and Ushak,but never fully overtook the various regional carpet traditions. Caucasian and Armenian carpets retained their customary geometric patterns, and kilims (or flat-weaves) remained popular.

Carpet, Mughal, period of Shah Jahan (1628–58) India Wool on silk foundation.

Before the time of Akbar (r. 1556–1605), it seems that few carpets were produced in India—perhaps because of the climate—but his court historians record royal workshops in the capitals of Fatehpur Sikri, Lahore, and Agra. Early Mughal rugs closely resemble those from contemporary Persia, and in particular those produced in Herat. Later in the seventeenth century, patterns changed as European engravings and illustrated books circulated at the court, and a Mughal idiom, distinct from the Persian manner of depicting flora, developed. With the work of European traders, Indian carpets traveled to the West and as far east as China and Japan, and were avidly collected in England and Portugal.

Many carpets now have no record of date or place of origin. Early scholars devised one dating system based on carpets that appeared in Italian and Flemish paintings, and some rugs are now known by the name of the artist in whose paintings they appear, such as Lotto and Holbein. More recent studies focus on the technical aspects of carpet production, such as material, dyes, and weaving structure, finding these to be important clues in determining where a particular carpet was made. While patterns were popular over wide geographical areas or were sent from court workshops to provincial production centers, each region had a characteristic style of weaving that remained the same over time. In Persia, for instance, an asymmetrical knot was most often used, and in Turkey a symmetrical one. Egyptian carpets are always fully wool, and Indian ones are recognized by their distinctive red hue.

Prayer rug, 18th century; Mughal Probably Kashmir, India Wool pile on cotton and silk foundation. Paradise in Islam is described as a walled garden filled with flowers and cypress trees. Depictions of paradise in Islamic art often include a colorful garden of flowers sheltered by an arched gateway symbolic of the entrance to heaven. This artistic metaphor appears on textiles, architectural tile panels, and other objects, but is an especially appropriate decorative motif for prayer rugs. It is a visual reminder of the pleasures of paradise awaiting the faithful who pray. Flowers burst forth from a single vase in the field of this carpet and fill a curved niche defined by flanking cypress trees and floral spandrels. The extremely fine weave of this pashmina wool prayer rug, with approximately 700 knots per square inch, gives it a luxurious, velvetlike appearance. This mille-fleurs type of prayer rug was produced in Mughal India and later copied by weavers in southern Persia.

Kilim, 1774 Ladik, Turkey Wool, metal thread. This type of prayer rug, with a stepped mihrab niche supported by columns and a lamp or flowers suspended from the center, was created in the town of Gördes. In the late seventeenth century, other weaving centers took up production of this design as well; in Ladik, where the tradition continued through the eighteenth century, they were most often completed in red, blue, yellow, and green, the borders had stemmed tulips, and columns became even more tapered. An inscription on this carpet dates it to 1774.

Medallion rug with a field of flowers, 17th century; Safavid Probably Kirman, Iran Wool pile on cotton, wool, and silk foundation. Roses, hyacinths, narcissi, campanula, irises, carnations, and lilies are among the many types of flowers that blossom in the field and borders of this carpet, which is generally attributed to the seventeenth-century production of Kirman, Iran. The flora are arranged symmetrically in pattern and color around a central octagonal medallion and four quarter medallions in the corners. The art of illumination, especially that of book covers, might have provided the inspiration for the central and corner medallion design, which was woven into so many Persian carpets. The decorative theme of the medallion has Central Asian roots and was known in the Timurid period, but its popularity greatly increased during the rule of the Safavids and beyond.

Medallion Ushak carpet, first half of 17th century; Ottoman Western Anatolia, Ushak region Wool, about 90 symmetrical knots per square inch. Medallion Ushak carpets usually have a red or blue field decorated with a floral trellis or leaf tendrils, central medallions and a border containing palmettes on a floral and leaf scroll, and pseudo-kufic characters. In this example (partially restored), a typical white-ground field pattern is combined with the Medallion Ushak to form a new category of Ottoman carpet. Its spots-and-stripes pattern appears frequently in Ottoman art from the sixteenth century on tiles, paintings, bookbindings, and particularly on textiles and garments. The design may be a blending of an ancient tradition in which tribal elements have been adjusted to courtly taste. Unlike other white-ground categories, this field pattern never appears in European paintings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

"Polonaise" carpet, early 17th century; Safavid Iran Silk, gold and silver thread. When, in 1878, a carpet similar to this one was exhibited in Paris, it was assumed that the coats of arms woven into the rug were Polish and that the rug was made in Poland. It was later recognized that this group, distinguished by a silk pile and metallic brocading, was Persian, made during and after the reign of Shah cAbbas I, beginning around the end of the sixteenth or early seventeenth century. The name, however, persisted, and more than 200 examples still bear the name. Many pairs of the type, as here, also survive. The type of design on this carpet has its roots in earlier Iranian carpets, but the rich silk pile, highlighted with gold and silver brocading, and muted but lively colors, signaled a change from the past. The tightly controlled overall pattern of compartments formed by overlapping cartouches in orange, yellow, red, green, and brown on a silver-and-gold brocaded ground is adorned by floral and leaf-vine systems with palmette motifs. Reports of European travelers mentioned the capital city of Isfahan as the center of Safavid court production. Probably many of the finest examples of Polonaise carpets were produced there for local patrons or on orders from the shah as special gifts or as commissions for export. The richness and elegance of the Polonaise carpets reflect the current taste of the wealthy Iranian court, and also the Baroque taste of Europe, where they were particularly admired.

The Emperor's Carpet (detail), mid-16th century Iran (probably Herat) Silk (warp and weft), wool (pile), asymmetrically knotted pile

The Emperor's Carpet (detail), mid-16th century

The Emperor’s Carpet belongs to a group of carpets thought to have been produced in the eastern Iranian city of Herat, in the province of Khorasan. This group is identified by a purple-red ground, a blue or green border with touches of yellow, an elaborate floral pattern, scrolls, arabesques, and in early pieces, animals. The Emperor’s Carpet is decorated with all of these identifying features. The natural and fabulous animals include pheasantlike birds, spotted stags, chi-lins, lions, dragons, and other beasts, some alone and some in combat. The exterior border contains a scrolled vine pattern with various animal heads appearing within arabesques, cloud bands, and flowers.

These features are a testament to the exchange between Persian and Chinese models, which is most evident in illuminated manuscripts of the Tabriz courtly style. The inner border contains poetic verses in Persian, comparing the royal Safavid realms to a meadow, the sky, flowers, and gems, ending with praise for the shah. Symbolically, the design on the carpet recalls a garden in springtime, with its allusions to the divine Garden of Paradise.

The complex design of intertwining and intricately layered vine scrolls has connections to similar designs produced in other media during the Safavid period. Textual evidence of this period suggests that a centralized artists’ workshop produced a distinctive style of imagery which then was applied to works such as carpets, textiles, paintings, manuscripts, and bookbindings. The carpet consists of four mirrored and repeating quadrants, suggesting that the weavers made use of a large and elaborate cartoon, which may have been produced in such a workshop setting.

The Emperor’s Carpet takes its name from its former owners, the Habsburg emperors. According to tradition, a pair of Safavid-period carpets was presented to Emperor Leopold I of Austria by Czar Peter the Great of Russia in 1698. Both carpets later entered the collection of the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. Eventually, one was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum and today is known as the Emperor’s Carpet.

This article invites the reader to enter and enjoy wealthy urban homes in Turkey, Egypt and Iran between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. This was a period of flourishing traditional culture and also of change. Decoration and furnishing of the home was increasingly influenced by ideas imported from Europe. This led to a lively fusion of styles, but the Middle Eastern household itself, the extended family and its dependants, remained essentially unchanged, with the traditional rela­tionships, daily routines and domestic celebrations continuing.

Embroidered wool patchwork hanging. Iran, Hesht, early 19th century

Family life took place in a domestic environment of material comfort secluded behind discreet facades. The distinctive features of an affluent domestic interior were textiles which provided household furnishing and clothing, functioned as symbols of power and social status and played a vital economic role in industry and trade. Delight in brilliant colour and an imaginative treatment of surface and texture are striking aspects of Middle Eastern textiles. These distinctive features also influenced architectural decoration, manuscript illumination and the ornament of ceramics, metalwork, leather and wood.

This rich interior life is strikingly demonstrated by the Middle Eastern collections of the National Museums of Scotland. This valuable resource includes many objects illus­trating the arts of ceramics and glass, metalwork. painting and lacquer, textiles, dress and jewelry, from the ninth to the twentieth century. The collections began modestly in 1858 with the acquisition of dress and jewelry from Egypt and developed rapidly during the Directorship of Major General Sir Robert Murdoch Smith KCMG (1885-1900) who came to the Museum after a career as Director of the Persian Telegraph Service (1865- 1888) and as pioneer scholar of Iranian art. Through his expert knowledge and contacts the Museum acquired a fine collection of Iranian art, notably of the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Since his day the geographical range of the collections has expanded to include Arabia, Egypt, North Africa, Syria, Turkey, Central Asia and India.

The objects are displayed in a permanent exhibition, ‘Within the Middle East’, in the Koyal Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh. They are presented through an imaginative interpretation of furnishing, clothing and ornament in a Middle Eastern household. These themes are further traced and explored in this book, which focuses 011 three major cities of the Middle East, looking at domestic and social patterns of life and the material culture that expressed them. Certain patterns are also traced through the closely related cultures of India, where the rituals of birth, growing up and adulthood are joyfully celebrated in painting.

THE CITY

Cups filled with sherbet of every hue

Shone as rifts in a cloud where the sun gleams through.

There were goblets of purest crystal filled

With wine and sweet odours with art distilled.

The golden cloth blazed like the sunlight; a whole

Cluster of stars was each silver bowl.

These tantalizing verses are from one of the most famous and poignant epics of classical Iranian literature, Yusuf and Zulaikha. Written by the poet Jami in 1483, this epic poem has a theme common to Jewish, Christian and Islamic moral and literary culture. The Hebrew slave Joseph and the wife of the Egyptian official Potiphar, whose story is first told in the Old Testament book of Genesis, reappear in the Qur’an as Yusuf and Zulaikha. The poets of the Middle East developed this Qur’anic version into a tragic love story which combined both earthly passion and spiritual redemption. The poet’s sumptuous images locate the characters of Yusuf and Zulaikha in an environment of consider­able material comfort. Even in a rather stilted Victorian English trans­lation the lines quoted above evoke a social life where luxurious interior decoration, crystal and silver were as important as food and drink. They occur in the most frequently interpreted episode where Zulaikha introduces Yusuf at a party she has given to her women friends in an attempt to justify her obsession. Their reactions to his beauty are dramatic and varied. Some faint, while others cut their hands instead of the oranges provided for their refreshment.

..(some text and an illustration has been removed owing to the nature of the content)..

Illustrations of this story are revealing documents of material culture, furnishings, clothes, accessories and ornaments,worked in the delicate art of painted papier mache favoured for accessories such as pen, mirror and comb cases, and jewel and trinket boxes in middle-class and upper-class Iranian households. The scene is a well-tended garden lined with cypress trees where flowering plants cluster around an ornamental pool. Zulaikha is seated on a carpet under an open kiosk draped with a textile awning. She and her friends are elegantly dressed in layers of closely-fitting garments in fabrics patterned with stripes and small repeated flowers, which were the urban fashions of late seventeenth-century Iran. Hair trained in tendrils is covered with fur-trimmed hats, diadems and shawls.

During the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, the period surveyed in this study, the Middle East was relatively tranquil. Most of its cities came under the continuous administration of the Ottoman Turkish Empire (1299-1924), which at its most powerful reached from Central Europe through Turkey and Iraq to the Arabian Gulf, penetrating the Crimea and the coasts of the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa en route. Iran, apart from an interval of civil and military chaos in the mid-eighteenth century, was under the rulers of the Safavid (1501-1722) and Qajar (1786-1924) dynasties at this time.

There are great geographical variations in the Middle East, from the mountains of central Turkey and Iran to the lush greenery of Iran’s Caspian shore. The Mediterranean coastal strip from Turkey to the North African coast is agricultural land; much of the Arabian peninsula is desert. Cities grew up where there was access to food, water, trans­port and communication. Once established, these cities developed a rich social and cultural environment.

Cairo, street and mosque near the citadel. Count Atnadeo Preziosi,C1850

Istanbul has been occupied since its foundation in the seventh century BC as the modest Greek trading colony of Byzantium. The site commands rhe traditional trade routes between Europe. North Africa, the Black Sea. India and China and is of incom­parable strategic importance. It grew rich from the trade in silks, spices and precious stones, and fed its citizens from the food-supplies which poured in from the fertile hinterland of Southern Europe. Cairo is equally remarkable for its continuity of occu­pation which can be traced from the Pharaonic settlements of Memphis and Giza through successive Greek, Roman, medieval, Ottoman and contemporary develop­ments. Like Istanbul, it is located strategically on a great waterway, the river Nile, through which it controls access to Upper Egypt and the Sudan: its food supplies are from the fertile regions of the Nile Delta.

The Maidan-i Shah (Royal Square) at Isfahan. Eugene-Napoleon Flandin, 1841

Iran’s urban settlement pattern is more diffuse than that of Turkey or Egypt as, apart from the enclosed area of the Caspian Sea in the north and the Gulf in the south, the country is arid and lacks a source of water for use as a means of transport. Consequently Iran’s major cities were generally situated on overland routes. Isfahan has a record of occupation since the late seventh century. It is located in a wide and fertile valley on the Zayandehrud River. In this it is fortunate, as the supply of water has always been a problem in Iran, and here depended mainly on access to underground sources tapped through an ingenious system of irrigation channels. Water and food were equally impor­tant considerations in the transfer of the capital to the northern city of Tehran in 1786, which long enjoyed a reputation for the quality of its fruit and vegetable gardens and had access to water from the springs and channels of Mount Demavend.

Perhaps the most dynamic resource of the great cities was their populations, formed ofboth long-established and immigrant communities. A cosmopolitan society evolved. The advance of Islam as the dominant religion of the Middle East from the seventh century onwards imposed .1 shared cultural identity to which significant Jewish and Christian cultures contributed professional and commercial skills. Arabic, the liturgical language of Islam, functioned as a lingua franca also among communities whose native tongues were of Persian, Turkish, Armenian. Slav and Berber origin.

Screen-printed poster. Religions inscription in three styles of Arabic calligraphy. Egypt, Ahmed Moustafa, 1987

One of the continuing problems of cities concerned the accommodation of their inhabitants. Public requirements demanded administrative and religious buildings, communication networks, commercial areas, water and bathing facilities, while there was a need for private housing at all levels. Although the cities were notable for their cosmopolitan populations. Islamic law influenced attitudes towards private property. Islam emphasizes an individual’s position both within the community of Muslim believers and within the family as the basic unit of social life. The Qitr’oii gives precise instructions on family relationships and obligations, and property and inheritance rights. By implication, especially in an urban context, every family has a right to live enclosed within its own house. This leads to a clear separation between public and private space. Public life takes place in the streets, the service and commercial sectors, while private life looks inwards to courtyards and rooms within walls. The two areas are articulated but not necessarily integrated.

Istanbul, entrance to the Golden Horn. Count Amadco Preziosi,1853

This division in the functions of space varies, depending on the topographical and historical circumstances of individual cities. Streets and buildings hail to follow the contours of the land available. Very rarely was it possible to plan and construct anew. The Ottoman Turks inherited the remains of Byzantine Constantinople which were in a ruinous state. There were desolate open spaces, neglected houses and gardens, and the walled jumble of randomly assembled pavilions, reception halls, chapels and private apartments of the former imperial palace at the south-east end of the city. Muslim dynasties which followed the Arab conquest of Egypt had to manage the ever-increasing layers of their predecessors’ building programmes. In Iran, conversion of the provincial town of Tehran into a capital city required constant repairs and extensions to existing structures as well as new building projects. Eventually, ambitious programmes of the 1850S-70S, which introduced European-influenced elements of planning and architec­ture, resulted in a blend of conservatism and innovation in building in all three capitals. Many of the old maze-like traditional quarters were swept away while others survived to be renovated in appearance rather than function.

Iran, Semnan, City gate of 1884 AD ( (1302 H) decorated with a tilework panel showing Rustam fighting the White Div.

Yet it is possible to identify the development of the main zones which serviced the basic needs of the city. The structures built for defence and protection formed a distinc­tive physical boundary. Traditionally, fortified citadels and massive walls were built which either sealed off sections of the city or encircled it. Istanbul’s strategic position was strengthened by the series of walls of late Roman and Byzantine origin which linked the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmora to protect the city on the landward side. Another chain of walls extended round the extreme south-eastern point containing the first of the city’s seven hills, the site of the old Byzantine imperial palace and the complex of Topkapi Saray, the Ottoman seat of government, court and royal household. Various attempts were made to provide Cairo with an effective defence system. The most spectacular and effective was the scheme which Sultan Salah-al-Din (Saladin) planned and completed between 1171 and 1182. It included the two main settlements of the city within a walled enclosure commanded by the citadel on the high ground between the Nile and the Muqattam Hills. Successive plans of Tehran show how the city developed radially from an irregular polygonal shape within a retaining moat and wall complete with watch- towers and six gates constructed during the sixteenth century. By the reign of Fath All Shah Qajar (1797-1834) these structures had been repaired many times and the gate­houses were embellished with hero Rustam locked in combat with the White Div, a speckled grotesque creature.

Top: Istanbul view of the courts of Topaki Saray. Gaspard Fossati, 1852 – Bottom: Tehran buildings of the Gulestan palace inside the walls of the Arg. Mahmoud Saba, 1864.

Portrait of Fath All Shah (1797-1834) in oils on canvas. Abdullah Khan, early 19th century

Closely linked to defence systems were complexes devoted to the household of the ruler, his family and entourage, and the offices of the state administration. These were compa­rable to small cities. Such a mingling of private and public functions resulted in an often haphazard architectural programme as build­ings were added and adapted. Often complexes were built on existing foundations, as it was reasonable to continue using an ideal site. The most splendid example of this is the Topkapi Saray in Istanbul built 011 Byzantine founda­tions south of the great cathedral of Saint Sophia. According to the Greek chronicler Kritovoulos, Sultan Mehmet II gave orders in 1459 for the erection of a palace on the point of old Byzantium which stretches out into the sea – a palace that should outshine all and be more marvellous than preceding palaces in looks, size, cost and gracefulness. The Sultan’s creation eventually covered an enormous area within a high wall, planned as a series of four linked courts, two devoted to public and administrative functions and two to private audiences and domestic life, concealed by forti­fied gates and entrances, to which access was progressively limited. His successors added to this structure. Eventually the four courts supported a rambling assortment of administra­tive buildings, kitchen and stable quarters, schools, libraries, mosques, pavilions and private apartments set in agreeable gardens.

Again, in Tehran also the administrative centre and the royal residence were enclosed within a single walled area popularly known as the Arg. Here, however, development was more random and diffuse than in Istanbul. The Arg shared its northern wall with that of the city’s ramparts while the buildings within which formed the Gules tan Palace, consisted mainly of independent units such as open sided audience chambers, courtyards and pavilions among luxuriant gardens watered b ornamental pools and channels. These amenities were the work of Fath Ali Shah who saw the palace as both a suitable framework for his own magnificence and an inviting refuge from the heat and dust of the outside world. Cairo’s citadel more resembled military stronghold. Within its extensive enclosure were housed a defence tower and the barracks of his royal guard as well as the palaces of the Sultan,his household and officials Between and around most city walls and royal complexes were the quarters where the needs of a city’s everyday life were served. Although their streets gave a superficially crowded and chaotic impression they did, in fact, operate to a logical modular plan Networks of main streets both provided routes for communication and divided the city into service and residential quarters. Streets within each quarter were often cramped and narrow, dirty and muddy in winter and dusty in summer. The basic requirements were housing for residents, which varied according to their status and wealth, a local mosque, synagogue or church in Jewish and Christian sections, shops and market and a public bath.

Definition was given to a city by the great religious and commercial complexes. These were built at strategic locations near the ruler’s palace, at the intersections of main roads and on high points such as the seven hills of Istanbul. The patrons of these public works were the rulers, their families and wealthy private citizens. Provision, construc­tion and maintenance were financed through the Islamic form of charitable bequest known as waqf. that is, revenue-generating property – rentable land, houses or shops – donated or bequeathed in perpetuity for the support of pious works which could range in scope from a mosque to a local drinking fountain. This aspect of Islam which combined religious and commercial enterprise was expressed in the proximity of mosque and bazaar. Istanbul and Tehran are particularly distinctive examples of the interdependence of such buildings.

Women shopping in the silk market of Istanbul. Count Amadeo Preziosi, 1853

Istanbul’s topography, dominated by the domes and minarets of the great imperial mosque complexes, illustrates waqf bequests on a grand scale. The mosques of Sultan Mehmet II (1451-81), Sultan Selim I 1512-20), Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (1520- 66) and his daughter Mihrimah command the fourth, fifth, third and sixth hills respec­tively. Such mosques were complemented by equally impressive buildings dedicated to religious, educational and charitable functions. Equal importance was given to the needs of commerce. Istanbul was notable for the range of services which it could offer to both residents and travellers. The main business district, located in the heart of the old city, consisted of a network of intersecting streets flanked by open markets. Hans or cara­vanserais offered accommodation for travelling merchants, storage for their goods, offices for the transaction of business and workshop space. The enclosed bedesten special­ized 111 the sale of luxuries and the shops of the (carsi sold an enormous range of house-hold goods. Outside the covered areas the open markets or bazaars dealt mainly in food. The close relationship between religious and commercial functions was emphasized as income from each han and bedesteni contributed to the maintenance of mosques.

Istanbul, the fountain at Tophane. William Page, 1829

Other important features of Istanbul’s infrastructure concerned water, transport and manufacture. The Ottoman Turks upgraded and extended the old Byzantine water system soon after their conquest of 1453. Water from the Belgrad Forest came to the city via a system of dams, reservoirs and aqueducts to be stored in water towers and enor­mous underground cisterns for distribution throughout the city. Although water was free, only the Topkapi Saray, important buildings and wealthy households had their own supplies, so donations of the beautiful public fountains around the city were note­worthy acts of charity. The main streets, which were paved, were used to transport goods and people but water transport was more effective. Merchant ships and passenger ferries regularly sailed along the shores of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus. While Istanbul’s unrivalled geographical and political position commanded all essential resources, the city was also a manufacturing centre in its own right. Specialist ateliers produced goods exclusively for the Topkapi Saray and other imperial establishments; state factories made arms and uniforms for the army and navy; clusters of workshops made wares for sale in the covered markets. The outlying suburbs furnished space for the less salubrious trades, such as the tanning and working of leather which dominated tin- quarter of Yedikule near the old Byzantine walls.

Document wallet of green silk velvet on leather embroidered in silver The owner's name JACOBUS BISANTIUS DE HOCH-PIED, probably a Dutch merchant, is concealed under the flap, dated 1697.

The integration of homes into this impres­sive infrastructure reflected social status. Broadly speaking social stratification was Vertical, with the rich living on the upper slopes of the city and the poor crowded in shabby wooden houses below. The shores of the upper Bosphorus were also lined with spacious wealthy homes within gardens. Individual character was often given to a residential quarter through the presence of some out­standing feature. The quarter of ‘Eyup at the bead of the Golden Horn is centred around the tomb of Eyiip Ensari, the standard bearer of the Prophet Muhammad who died during the first Arab siege of Constantinople in 674. Eyiip developed as a centre of pilgrimage, as a burial place for pious Muslims and as a wealthy residential area. Istanbul’s non-Muslim com­munities lived in segregated quarters. The most colourful and lively was Pera across the Golden Horn, where local Greeks lived together with the European diplomatic and commercial missions.

Tehran is more compact, located at the base of the foothills of the Elburz mountains domi­nated by the peak of Mount Demavend. which gives the city a vertical alignment both physically and socially. The administrative quarters of the Arg and neighbouring religious and commercial institutions were in the south of the city while the summer residences of the Shahs and their court occupied the north, extending beyond the city wall into the surrounding hills.

Unlike the Ottoman Sultans who resided permanently in Topkapi Saray. the Qajar Shahs migrated annually between the winter residence of the Gulestan Palace within the Arg and several summer establishments which varied from seasonal hunting lodges to formally planned buildings. Although the distances travelled were small by modern standards the migrations were cumbersome journeys involving the transportation of the Shah’s house­hold and officials with all their luggage in an assortment of carriages and carts, file Qajars continued to migrate even after Tehran was rebuilt in the 1860s, maintaining a senti­mental link with their nomadic tribal past and a practical desire to escape to the comforts of the cool northern hills in the heat of summer.

Tehran’s main religious building, located close to the south wall of the Arg, was the large mosque built in the time of Fath Ali Shah between 1808 and 1813. Extensions into neighbouring buildings through common walls and passages created a close relationship with the bazaar booths clustered around the mosque. Both Fath Ali Shah and Nasiruddin Shah (1848-96) extended the bazaar area, roofed its streets and alleys and constructed new shops and caravanserais. They also made efforts to improve the water supply which depended 011 an intricate system of water channels which were tilled from wells and underground sources in the mountains north of the city. Adjacent to the bazaar were the small workshops of metalsmiths and potters, while spreading further south and out with the limits of the city walls were extensive brick kilns which supplied the city’s main building material. Networks of streets radiated out from the complex of Arg, mosque and bazaar dividing the city into residential units intersected by narrow alleys. As in Istanbul the poorer inhabitants lived in crowded conditions while the wealthier citizens’ homes were situated to the north and cast.

Cities are never static. All three capitals had to cope with a constant stream of immi­grants who would either join communities already established in the city or camp in squatter settlements on the outskirts. This brought severe pressures on services and housing. Buildings were frequently at risk of lire and flood; they fell into decay or simply were no longer suited to their original purpose. There was continual building and rebuilding. Until the nineteenth century this constant change had proceeded at a measured pace, gradually modifying the shape of cities but retaining their traditional orientation. During the 1850-70S, however, ambitious construction programmes in all three capitals broke this traditional pattern through clearance of old quarters and relocation of each city’s working centre. Various factors contributed towards these programmes of modernization. By the late eighteenth century the Ottoman Sultans were actively seeking contacts with Europe and were recruiting technical, architectural and military expertise to develop and re-define the traditional institutions of the Empire.

Photograph of Nasirnddin Shall (1848-96) taken in 1873

The functions of the Topkapi Saray had gradually diminished as the administration moved out to ministries in the city. The royal residence was abandoned as it was consid­ered old-fashioned and inconvenient. Parts had already been destroyed in fires which had regularly swept through the city from the sixteenth century onwards. Sultan Mahmut II (1808-39) moved, in 1826. to a new palace at Besiktas on the Pera side of the Golden Horn, thus shifting the focus of the city to the north. These changes coin­cided with his destruction of the Janissery corps and the dissolution of their headquar­ters. He replaced them with regiments trained along modern lines and housed them in barracks located outside the land walls ofthe city, at Pera and at Haydarpa$a on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. His successors continued Ins policy of isolating the old city and separating the administration from the imperial household by building more palaces, such as the splendid Dolmabahve Palace, commissioned by Sultan Abdul Medjit I (1839- 61), completed in 1853, whose Italianate facade and terrace now dominate the shore at Beskitas. All these moves affected the residential pattern of the city. Wealthy citizens had always maintained summer houses (yalis) on the shores of the Bosphorus. By the late 1850s they had moved permanently to these homes, following the Ottoman court northwards.

Istanbul, entrance gate of the Dolmabache Palace

While these changes 111 Istanbul were inevitable they were encouraged through direct Ottoman contacts with Paris which had been transformed during the iXsos-6os into a city of grand boulevards linked by gardens and squares, under the direction ol Baron Haussmann. The Universal Exhibition held in 1867 enabled delegations from Turkey, Egypt and Iran to display both their industrial products and handicrafts, and to see Haussmann’s achievements for themselves. The Ottoman Sultan Abdul Aziz (1861- 76) the Khedive Ismail (1863-79) of Egypt and some Iranian officials visited the Exhibition and were guided around Pans. These experiences hastened plans for munic­ipal improvement in their homelands. In Istanbul the Pera quarter was subject to the most ambitious experiments in town planning and administration. By the late iX6os the old walls surrounding the quarter were pulled down and the Galata Bridge was built to link Pera to the old city. Broad streets and squares were constructed and lined with smart shops and apartments. In Cairo, the Khedive Ismail, who had already considered ideas for modern­izing parts of the city, completely changed them after his visit to Paris. He decided to build the spacious extensions of Ismailiyeh and Ezbekiyeh to the north and west of the old town and to move the business anil administra­tive sectors there.

Photograph of the Khedive Ismail taken in about 1870

It was Tehran which perhaps saw the most extreme and rapid transformation. The city, still confined within the much repaired sixteenth-century walls, was no longer able to function effectively. The population had increased to such an extent that settlement had sprawled beyond the city walls creating problems of security. A network of roads was needed to improve communication and transport, and the water supply system needed to be upgraded as the city was often flooded. Nasiruddin Shah’s decision to reconstruct Tehran was taken in December 1K67, a few months after the Paris Exhibition. He began by demolishing the old walls and by bringing the northern suburbs within the city to enlarge it to four times its original size. He enclosed tins area within a new set of octagonal walls complete with towers. .1 moat and twelve tile-decorated gates. In these architectural details lie favoured tradition.

Tehran,Lalezar Avenue. Mahmoud Saba, 1871

The immediate result of this expansion was to locate the administrative and business quar­ters firmly in the south of the city. The Arg continued to function as both winter residence and administrative centre, but the Gulestan Palace was transformed by Nasiruddin Shah through demolition of his predecessors’ buildings and construction of new reception and domestic units during the years 1867-92. He maintained the Qajar tradition of migrating to summer residences and commissioned several palaces in the northern hills. The square to the south of the Arg which gave access to the bazaar area was enlarged and improved. The most significant result of Nasiruddin Shah’s building programme was the development of north Tehran into spacious and fashionable suburbs. A network of broad streets leading from a magnificent new square linked the city to routes to the settlements outside the walls. Between these streets residential accommodation evolved dominated by the elegant houses and gardens of the rich.