HUM 596 /SISME 590 /ART H 509 Spring 2001 University of Washington
Professor Selim S. Kuru Denny Hall M25
543-0697
selims@u.washington.edu
Office hours: Wednesday 10:30-12:30
Download the Syllabus
Imperial Reflections
Ottoman Culture
Islamic Studies typically
downplays the significance of the Ottoman cultural legacy. It presents
Ottoman prose and poetry as derivatives of Persian and Arabic traditions and
hence only rarely accepts them as appropriate topics of study in their own
right. The most obvious and interesting question about the factors that led
to the persistence of these cultural forms for hundreds of years is hardly
ever addressed adequately or directly. In recent years, there has been a slow
movement towards understanding the place in Islamic Art History of Ottoman
architecture (civil and religious) and manuscript production, and several
valuable studies have been published in these fields. Focusing
on the Ottoman state sponsored artistic production in the Ottoman Empire,
these studies unveil a vibrant and changing portrait of meanings embedded in
artistic and textual production, while they question the representation and
legitimization of state power through patronage. This
seminar will build on these questions of
representation and legitimization. Its main purpose is a critical review
of the scholarly works on Ottoman art and art history in order to
contextualize the Ottoman cultural production. This course is a part of a three-course seminar series, Envisioning
Ottoman Empire. It follows, “Empires and Culture” taught by Professor
Stein in Autumn 2000, and “State and Society in the Ottoman Empire” taught by
Professor Kasaba in Winter 2001. Students enrolled in this course are not
required to take the other two courses in the series. Note that the class will meet in Parrington Hall, Commons on April 18 and
in Thomson 317 on May 23 to hear lectures by Shirine Hammadeh and Serpil Bagcı, respectively. Requirements
Since this
seminar relies on different backgrounds of students, in order to subject the
selected readings to a critical approach, students are expected to attend the
class regularly, and do the required readings. While reading, the main
question in mind should be the specific contribution of the particular
reading material to your perception of Ottoman Culture. On the other hand, you should be able to
delineate the basic arguments of the works you read. There are,
basically three sorts of reading materials.
Published books and articles, parts from unpublished dissertations,
and translations from contemporary authors. Published or unpublished
scholarly works reflect the developments in the field of Ottoman art and
history, while selections from Ottoman authors’ works, hopefully, will give
us clues about their understanding of culture, and cultural artifacts
surrounding them. Readings (University Bookstore): Suraiya Faroqhi,
Subjects of the Sultan: Culture and Daily life in the Ottoman Empire
(NY: I. B. Tauris 2000) Gülru Necipoğlu, Architecture,
Ceremonial and Power: Topkapı Palace in the
Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (Cambridge, MA: MIT 1991).
Reading Pack (RAM Copy Center, 4144 University Way): HUM596 two volumes Response papers and Presentations
Each student
will turn in six response papers out of ten weeks. Which weeks you want to
write reports in are up to you. Please make sure that you write the required
number of papers. Papers should be at least two, at most four, typed, double
space pages in Times font (12pt).
While writing your responses, consider these basic questions: -
what are the main arguments presented in the studies? -
how do the authors engage their sources? -
what kind of an academic tradition do they rely on? -
how does it relate to your own discipline? Every week there
will be one to two presenters. They will
prepare a four to six page analysis of the readings of the week, including
some of the suggested readings if listed. These papers will be sent to the
class e-mail list beforehand. These
papers should present questions for class discussion. Students will
visit Khalili Collection at the Protland Art Museum (Closing on April 8), and
write an evaluation of the exhibit in three to six pages. These papers are
due for April 18. Response papers
are due at the beginning of each class.
I expect each week’s presenters to post their papers on Tuesday by
5:00pm to the class-e-mail list. Grading and Credits
Art History
students should write all required response papers and a fifteen to
twenty-page research paper for five credits. Undergraduate students will write
descriptive response papers, plus a research paper of ten to fifteen pages.
For the research paper topics, please schedule a meeting with me before the
fourth week of the quarter. WEEKLY SCHEDULE
March 28 Introduction ¨
Introductions ¨
The Syllabus ¨
Discussion Leaders ¨
Khalili Collection Exhibition in Portland April 4 Islam, Ottomans, and
their art: Definitions and Descriptions
Oleg Grabar, The
formation of Islamic Art, 2nd edition (New Haven : Yale University Press, 1987): 1-18, 203-213
Kafadar,
“Ottomans and Europeans,” in T. Brady Jr., H. A. Oberman, J. D. Tracy, Handbook
of European History 1400-1600 v.1 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994):589-635 S. Blair and J. Bloom, The Art and Architecture of
Islam 1250-1800 (NY: Yale University 1994): 133-148, 213-250. Fatma Müge Göçek, “The Social Construction of an Empire: Ottoman State under Süleyman the Magnificent,” Süleyman the Second and His Time (Istanbul: The Isis Press 1993): 93-108. [skim] Suraiya Faroqhi, Subjects of the Sultan: Culture and Daily life
in the Ottoman Empire (NY: I. B. Tauris 2000) [SOS]: 1-60. Suggested readings Michael Levey, The World of Ottoman Art, (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons
1975). Halil Inalcik, The Ottoman Empire; the classical age, 1300-1600, translated by Norman
Itzkowitz and Colin Imber (London,
Weidenfeld & Nicolson [1973]):1-163. Donald Quataert, The
Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2000):
1-12, 140-171. April 11 Canons and Kanuns:
Transformations of the Empire
Cemal Kafadar, “The myth of the Golden Age:
Ottoman Historical Consciousness in the Post-Süleymanic Era,” Suleyman the Second and His Time (Istanbul: The Isis
Press 1993): 37-48. Cornell Fleischer, “From Sehzade Korkud to Mustafa
Ali: Cultural Origins of the Ottoman Nasihatname,” in H. Lowry, S. Hatto, IIIrd
Congress on the Socil and Economic History of Turkey (Istanbul: The Isis
Press 1990): 67-77. Gülru Necipoğlu, “A kânûn for the State, a Canon for the Arts: Conceptualizing the Classical Synthesis
of Ottoman Art and Architecture,” in G. Veinstein, Soliman le magnifique
et son temps (Paris: Ecoles du Louvre, 1992): 194-216. Selim Kuru, “Introduction” in unpublished
doctoral dissertation, “A Sixtent-century Scholar Deli Birader and his ‘Dafiu’l-gumum
ve rafiu’l-humum’” (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, May 2000): 22-30
[read], 1-22, 154-168 [skim]. Mustafa Ali, Counsel for Sultans translated by Andreas Tietze
(Wien 1979): 7-40. Klaus Kreiser, “Public Monuments in Turkey and
Egypt, 1840-1916,” Muqarnas 14 (1997):103-117. [skim: concentrate
on the ideas related to cultural change and its discontents]. Sureyya Faroqhi, SOS : 61-101;
101-122[skim]; 225-287[skim]. Suggested Reading Halil Inalcik, The Ottoman Empire; the classical age, 1300-1600, translated by Norman
Itzkowitz and Colin Imber (London,
Weidenfeld & Nicolson [1973]):165-203. April 18 Lecture in
Parrington Commons Shirine Hamadeh, Fellow, American
Research Institute in Turkey, Court and City: The Patronage of Culture in
18th-Century
Istanbul. Shirine
Hammadeh, “The city’s pleasures:
Architectural Sensibility in the Eighteenth-century Istanbul” unpublished
doctoral dissertation (Cambridge, MA: MIT February 1999): 25-54, 163-212. Günsel Renda, “Traditional
Turkish Painting and the Beginnings of Western Trends,” in Selman Pınar, A History of Turkish Painting, (Istanbul
1987):18-86. [In ArtH RESERVE] Ülkü Bates, “Ottoman
Architecture,” in Turkish art edited by Esin Atil (Washington :
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1980):
(In ArtH RESERVE) Ariel
Salzmann, “The Age of Tulips: Confluence
and Conflict in Early Modern Consumer Culture (1550-1730)” in D. Quataert Consumption
Studies and the History of the Ottoman Empire 1550-1922: An Introduction
(NY: SUNY 2000): Madeline
Zilfi, “’We don’t get along’: Women and Hul
Divorce in the Eighteenth Century,” in Madeline Zilfi, Women in the
Ottoman Empire: Middle Eastern Women in the Early Modern Era (Leiden:
Brill 1997): 264-296 Suggested Readings Review Necipoğlu, “A Kanun for the State…” Madeline Zilfi, “Goods in the mahalle: Distributional encounters in Eighteenth-century Istanbul,” in D. Quataert Consumption Studies and the History of the Ottoman Empire 1550-1922: An Introduction (NY: SUNY 2000):289-311. April 25 Reading the
Reflections: Interpreting ‘The Ottoman’
Walter Andrews, “Qasida,” Qasida poetry
in Islamic Asia and Africa edited by Stefan
Sperl and Christopher Shackle ; consultant to the editors, Nicholas Awde (Leiden ; New York : E.J. Brill, 1996). [will be
supplied later]. Gülru Necipoğlu, “The Süleymaniye Complex in Istanbul: An
Interpretation,” Muqarnas 3 (1985): 92-117. Derin Terzioğlu, “The Imperial
Circumcision Festival of 1582: An Interpretation,” Muqarnas 12 (1995):
84-100. Colin Imber, “Canon and
Apocrypha in Early Ottoman History,” in Studies in Ottoman History in
Honour of Professor V. L. Menage edited by C. Heywood and C. Imber
(Istanbul: The Isis Press): 117-137. Halil İnalcık, “How to Read
Ashik Pasha-zade’s History,” in Studies in Ottoman History in Honour of
Professor V. L. Menage edited by C. Heywood and C. Imber (Istanbul: The
Isis Press): 139-156. 157-163. Cemal Kafadar, “Osman Beg and
His Uncle: Murder in the Family?” in Studies in Ottoman History in Honour
of Professor V. L. Menage edited by C. Heywood and C. Imber (Istanbul:
The Isis Press): 157-163. Andreas Tietze, “The Poet as Critique of Society a 16th-Century
Ottoman Poem,” Turcica 9 (1977):120-160. [concentrate on the poem,
and delineate the poet’s idea of the Empire as a whole].
Suraiya Faroqhi, SOS:
185-203; 204-220 [skim] May 2 City as Sign of the Empire
Donald Presiozi, “The Mechanism
of Urban Meaning,” in The Ottoman City and its Parts (NY, 1991): 1-11 Çiğdem Kafesçioğlu, “The Ottoman Capital in the
Making: The Reconstruction of Constantinople in the Fifteenth Century,”
Unpublished doctoral dissertation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University October
1996): 1-85. Aptullah Kuran, “A Spatial
Study of Three Ottoman Capitals: Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul,” Muqarnas
13 (1996):114-131. Irene A. Bierman, “The
Ottomanization of Crete,” in The Ottoman City and its Parts (NY,
1991): 53-75. Evliya Çelebi, Narrative of
Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa translated by R. J. von Hammer
(London 1884): 74-83, 100-105. Suggested Reading
Gülru Necipoğlu, “The suburban
landscape of Sixteenth-century Istanbul as a Mirror of Classical Ottoman
Garden Culture,” in Attilio Petruccioli, Gardens in the Time of the Great
Muslim Empires (Leiden: Brill 1997):32-52 (images 53-71). May 9 Sultan’s Lair: Core of Cultural Sign
Gülru Necipoğlu, Architecture,
Ceremonial and Power: Topkapı
Palace in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (Cambridge, MA:
MIT 1991). Gülru Necipoğlu, “Framing the
Gaze in Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Palaces,” Ars Orientalis (1993):303-326,
images 327-342. May 16 Immortalizing Signature: Architect’s Burden
Donald Presiozi, “Power, Structure and
Architectural Function,” in The Ottoman City and its Parts (NY, 1991):
103-109. Robert Ousterhout, “Ethnic Identity
and Cultural Appropriation in Early Ottoman Architecture,” Muqarnas 12
(1995): 48-62. Metin and Zeynep Ahunbay, “Structural
Influence of Hagia Sophia on Ottoman Mosques Architecture,” in R. Mark, A. S.
Çakmak, Hagia
Sophia from the Age of Justinian to the Present : 179-194. Gülru Necipoğlu, “The life of an Imperial Monument: Hagia
Sophia after Byzantium,” in R. Mark, A. S. Çakmak, Hagia Sophia from the Age of
Justinian to the Present :195-225. Howard Crane, “The Ottoman
Sultan’s Mosques: Icons of Imperial Legitimacy,” in The Ottoman City and
its Parts (NY, 1991): 173-243.
Suraiya Faroqhi, SOS:
125-184. Mehmed Aga, Risâle-i Mi’mâriyye translated by
Howard Crane (Leiden: Brill 1987):1-15 [skim], 24-76 [skip poetic
digressions]. Suggested Readings
Gülru Necipoğlu, “Anatolia and the Ottoman
Legacy,” in M. Frishman, H. Khan, The Mosque: History, Architectural
Development & Regional Diversity (NY: Thames and Hudson 1994):
141-157.
Ülkü Bates, “Facades in
Ottoman Cairo,” in The Ottoman City and its Parts (NY, 1991): 129-172.
[skim the description of architecture, concentrate on center-periphery
interactions] May 23 Lecture in Thomson 317
Serpil Bagci, Hacettepe
University, Turkey, Visualizing Power: Illustrated Histories of the Ottoman Dynasty.
Christine
Woodhead, An Experiment in Official Historiography: The Post of Sehnameci in
the Ottoman Empire,c. 1555-1605,” :157-182. Eleanor G. Sims, “The Turks and
Illustrated Historical Texts,” in G. Feher, Fifth International Congress
of Turkish Art (Budapest: Akademiai Kiado 1978): 747-772. Serpil Bağcı, “From
Translated Word to Translated Image: The Illustrated Şehnâme-i Türkî Copies,” Muqarnas
:162-176 Esin Atıl, Süleymanname (New York, 1986):
11-53. [ART H Reserve] May
30 Patrons in the Mist: Ottomans and Patronage
Julian Raby, “A Sultan of
Paradox: Mehmed the Conqueror as a Patron of the Arts,” Oxford Art Journal
5:1 (1982): 3-8 Gülru Necipoğlu, “Süleymân the Magnificent
and the Representation of Power in the Context of Ottoman-Habsburg – Papal
Rivalry,” Suleyman the Second and
His Time (Istanbul: The Isis Press 1993): 163-194
Ülkü Bates, “Women as Patrons of Architecture in Turkey,” in L.
Beck, N. Keddie, Women in the Muslim World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
Univ. Press 1978): 245-60.
Çiğdem Kafesçioğlu, “In the Image of the Rum: Ottoman Architectural Patronage in Sixteenth-century Aleppo and Damascus,” Muqarnas 16 (1999):70-96 Lucienne Thy-Şenocak, “The Yeni
Valide Mosque Complex at Eminönü,” Muqarnas 15 (1998): 58-70. Amy Singer, “The Mülknames of Hürrem Sultan’s Waqf in Jerusalem,”
Muqarnas 14 (1997): 96-102. Ülkü Bates, “Two Ottoman
Documents on Architects in Egypt,” Muqarnas 3 (1985): 121-127. |