After publishing our book in 1981, I sent it to an important Italian Numismatist Prof. Dr.Paul Balog, asking for his comments and criticisms about our book, his reply from Rome on January 2, 1982.
1981 senesinde kitabımızı bastıktan sonra önemli bir İtalyan Numismat olan Prof. Dr. Paul Balog’a yolladım, kitabımız hakkında yorum ve tenkidlerini rica ettim, Roma’dan 2 Ocak 1982 senesindeki cevabı.
Long before the Romans founded Londinium on the North Shore of a large river flowing to the sea in one of their cold and foggy offshore islands, accurate scales were being used all around Anatolia for trading between ancient societies. Leviticus 19:35-37 states “You shall not pervert justice in measurement of length,weight or quantity. You shall have true scales, true weights, true measures, dry and liquid. You shall observe all my rules and laws and carry them out. I am the Lord.” The Koran XI:84-85 instructs “Oh my people, give measure and full weight in justice, and wrong not people in respect to their goods.”
The Suna and Inan Kirac Research Institute on Mediterranean Civilizations has assembled a museum full of scales and weights used from prehistory to the present around Anatolia, that broad plateau between the Black and the Mediterranean seas that we call modern Turkey. Having successfully published on their ceramics collection they induced Garo Kürkman to create a book on their scales and weights. His six pound, coffee table sized tome shows all 513 items of the collection in magnificent color. Further he shows many detail photos illustrating specific subjects. Moslems obey God’s command to create no graven images, but the sweeping script “Turgas of the Sultans, Municipal Assay Stamps and Marks provide visual evidence of a vibrant past and also great identification for your possible finds. He has included many conversions tables collected from such standard references as Kisch updating and correcting them citing data from the Kirac Collection.
The book starts with weights from the first quarter of the second millennium BC. It continues with Bronze weights used in Mesopotamia in the third century BC. There is extensive coverage of the Greek and Roman periods. The Byzantine period from the 5th – 13th century AD is covered with a number of scales from that period’ as well as weight conversion tables.
The book’s major strength is in its coverage of Dirhem weights. This weight system was derived from the Greek Drachma and this book covers its introduction and efforts toward standardization in Islamic societies. Weights from the reign of Mehmed II, 1464 AD through Mehmed V. 1909 AD are measured, explored, illustrated, correlated and tabled in the book.
In order to prevent fraud the Ottoman government made it compulsory that weights be inspected and stamped with sweeping stroked, assay marks that they call “Turgras.” Shown in the book are the Turgras of 40 Sultans, 30 towns and 20 Makers, which is a tremendous tool to provide provenance for your random weight.
And then the Metric System came to Anatolia. The book has a copy and translation of the first law promulgating the metric system in Ottoman lands. It has a poster showing the size and construction of all the metric weights and measures. Tables are provided to state and convert old measurements to this new system. It gives some comparative satisfaction that their world had all the problems of the West.
The book concludes with a photographic “Catalogue” of each of the items in the KMA (Mediterranean Civilisations Research Institute) collections and a glossary of the local and foreign terms used in the Ottoman Empire.
This is a magnificent book for both your library and your coffee table. 1000 pictures and tables make this a reference book on a world of scales that we in the West hardly know. The book’s purpose was to enlighten us, and it has certainly done that. It even identified my set of Anatolian weights that stumped everyone at the 2003 ISASC Convention. At $250.00 delivered from Istanbul, it is a bit pricey. At 25¢ a picture it is a bargain. On the used market Kürkman’s, “Ottoman Silver Marks” has appreciated 7% a year since issue.
It is to the credit of the Suna and Inan Kırac Foundation that it has made possible the publication of Garo Kürkman’s enlightened research on the history of Kütahya and its potters. John Carswell’s pioneering work in the 1970s and several recent catalogues have shed light on the variety of these ceramics. But this volume incorporates further information on earlier Turkish ceramics, as well as early Ottoman tilework, in both Islamic and Christian buildings. An exhaustive list of inscriptions and their translations, both in Ottoman Turkish and Armenian, alongside a comprehensive survey of potters’ marks, provides an unrivalled body of information.
The colourful decoration of Kütahya tiles and ceramic objects, so unlike the ornamental beauty of Iznik design, is truly enhanced by the layout of this handsome volume. Numerous pieces from Turkish collections have been included. They underline the great variety of shapes and designs, used in particular in the eighteenth century by Kütahya potters on such items as dishes, basins, ewers, candlesticks, moneyboxes, mugs and bottles, gourds and jugs. Less famous pieces, such as the lamp from the Gulbenkian Collection in Lisbon, have also been brought to light. So has the large collection of small cups, rescued from an eighteenth-century wreck discovered in the Sea of Marmara, between the island of Büyükada and the suburb of Kartal. Since 1987 these have been stored in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art in Istanbul. The illustrations of tiles, dated 1719, in the Surp Hagop monastery in Jerusalem, take up over twenty pages.
The traditional decoration of Christian manuscripts does partly explain the biblical illustrations on both tiles and dedicated dishes, though the naivety of most designs comes closer to those found on amulet scrolls, often with seventeenth-century dates. These scrolls were decorated with scenes from the Old and New Testaments, and with figures of saints and holy men. Other designs, some quite fantastic, have not to this day been explained. Jean Soustiel, in La Céramique Islamique (Fribourg, 1985), perceived the influence of Indian chintzes, but did not engage in further research. Fortunately, this has recently been achieved with the analysis of floral designs found on eighteenth-century palampores from the Coromandel coast of India. Some of these painted cottons were used as hangings in front of church altars.
In a brief first chapter Önder Bilgi introduces the reader to the region’s earliest ceramic production, and shows it to have started in the early Bronze Age, continuing through the Hittite period and the Phrygian Iron Age, on through Hellenistic and Roman times and ending with the Byzantine era.
Besides the historical background of the town of Kütahya itself, an impressive survey of documents by Garo Kürkman has produced a fascinating list of potters, mainly working in Kütahya, from the Tabrizi fiteenth-century tile-maker Muhammed Mecnun (who signed his work in the Yesil Cami, or Green Mosque, in Bursa), to Mehmed Emin Efendi (1872–1922), a leading name in the great revival of tile-making before the First World War. He often worked in partnership with the Minasyans, as well as with David Ohannesyan, who was to move on to Aleppo, Jerusalem and eventually Cairo. Stepan Vartanyan also became famous for his designs for tiles in Ottoman foundations and Armenian churches. Ten of these are reproduced, showing a meticulous adaptation of classical Iznik motifs, which are given a new lease of life. Special mention should be made of the lists of potters, both Muslim and Christian, in local documents dated 1764 and 1766.
In the first part of the annexes, Michael Rogers surveys in nine pages seven centuries of Ottoman architecture and the tilework related to it. This dense résumé underlines the precarious balance between supply and demand in the metropolis (Istanbul) and the provinces (Iznik and Kütahya) supplying it with ceramic goods.
The Turkish–English glossary of ceramic terms which follows should be used with care. Its translations will be useful to foreign collectors, but anyone using the references to world ceramics, mainly drawn from Turkish sources, should be wary of a number of inaccuracies.
To conclude, this welcome volume truly brings forward our knowledge of Kütahya and its production of ceramics down the ages.
Review of Garo Kürkman, Ottoman Silver Marks, Istanbul: Mathusalem Publications
The government of the Ottoman sultans controlled the distribution of precious metals by testing the purity of the gold and silver used to fashion precious objects and strike coins. An official stamp (sah) guaranteeing the purity, usually 90% for silver, accompanied by the monogram signature (tughra) of the reigning sultan was stamped on all precious metalwork. The marking was done by a special assay office in the Ottoman mint. This practice is virtually unknown in other Islamic dynasties, thus, in one more respect, the Ottomans followed procedures established centuries earlier by the Byzantine imperial court. The system of silver marks begins with the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror just after the capture of Constantinople in 1453. In this remarkable book, Garo Kürkman presents readers with a luxurious volume and a dynamic manual for the study of Ottoman silverware as well as its coinage. The result is an accumulation of research begun decades ago by Kürkman whose interest and expertise in numismatics goes back to his youth. For the first time we have a systematic study of Ottoman assay marks and silver stamps, abundantly illustrated with beautiful photography of luxury metal objects, both religious and secular. Through these one can followed the history and development of Ottoman orfèverie. The works were additionally stamped with the craftsman’s hallmark and Garo Kürkman also catalogues these. They date from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century.
Taken together the study combines a history of Ottoman and Middle Eastern coin production, the history and development of the tughra from its primitive tribal form to its imperial perfection, a catalogue of assay marks (sah), a catalogue of craftsmen’s marks and town marks also at times found on objects, a sample of forged tughra marks, and a number of appendices with reproduction of important chancellery documents: list of Ottoman sultans and their reigns and lists of silversmiths, goldsmiths, and related crafts. There is also a bibliography and an index.
The study of Byzantine silver marks and their arrangement by emperors has allowed art historians to develop clear ideas of dating, especially in the pre-iconoclastic period. The ability to compare stylistic and iconographic changes in motifs on metalwork dated within the narrow confines of the ruler’s reign has served to help date art in other media, miniature painting, ivory, mosaic, textiles. So too the stylized tughra-stamps of the Ottoman sultans as well as the hallmarks of the silversmiths and the monograms of the Anatolian cities allows us to date rather precisely the enormous quantities of precious metal objects which have survived from the Ottoman period. The great mass of this metal work is from the later centuries, seventeenth and after. A dramatic silver crisis in the Islamic east, dominated by the Ottoman Empire, resulted in the seizure and the melting down of tens of thousands of objects by the Sublime Porte to provide silver bullion for the striking of coins during this period of shortage, thus explain the scarcity of silver work prior to the eighteenth century.
With its many close up photos of the marks, Kürkman’s Ottoman Silver Stamps will serve as the indispensable guide to collectors, museum curators, and scholars. Surely it is the first group for whom the layout and organization is intended. Thus, far, however, its use by experts in the world of auction sales has been limited. Few recent sale catalogues from Paris or London bother looking up the silver marks and noting them in the description of Ottoman silver, even though the bidding for Ottoman metalwork is very brisk, with a avid and a aggressive group of Turkish collectors buying up everything that comes on the market. In time this will certainly change because most specialists are quite familiar with Kürkman’s volume.
Like any good manual there are a number of step by step charts and drawings, for instance those devoted to the development of the tughra and the identification of each sultan’s unique official signature. Kürkman has pioneered the gathering of town marks, usually supplementary marks to those of the makers. He points out that most of the silversmiths were from ethnic minorities, in the first place Armenians followed by Greeks and Levantine. Thus far he has identified Aleppo, Bitlis, Damascus, Diyarbakir, Egypt, Erzincan, Harput, Istanbul, Izmir, Izmit, Kula, Malatya, Sahili, Sivas, Trabizon, Van and Yozgat. Of these the ones for Izmir (Smyrna), Kula and Salihli are written in Greek letters, while Van is written in Armenian, Ottoman-Arabic, Russian, and Latin characters. The rest are all written in Arabic letters. By far the largest number of craftsmen’s marks are from Van and these, whether written with Arabic or Armenian alphabets, are virtually all Armenian craftsmen. Some sixty different names are identified from Van, whereas the next highest in number are from Izmir, (25 names, of which seven are Armenian and thirteen Greek and the rest Italian or European) and Istanbul (15, 13 Armenian and two probably Turkish). A further sign of the dominance of Armenians among the silversmith is the list of 103 gold and silversmiths who submitted works to the authorities for assay in 1790 (p. 287, Documents 12/1-10 in the appendix), 66 are clearly identifiable Armenian names. It is no coincidence that there are so many Kouyoumdjians (Kuyumcu=goldsmith, silversmith) among the Armenians.
On the other hand, in the special category of makers of penholders with attached inkpot, the divit, all the craftsmen bear Muslim names, at least for the silver divits. Yet in the latter half of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries one finds many divits made of yellow brass stamped with Armenian makers marks, these, however, being of base metal are not discussed in the book.
The juxtaposition in the catalogue of religious and domestic objects (page 122-255, some 150 items) from the Islamic, Greek, and Armenian traditions underlines how difficult it is to determine the stylistic and even the iconographic origins of motifs in Ottoman Art. Is there any different between the gold plated silver mosque lamps (pp. 165 and 175 both in the Turk ve Islam Eserleri Muzesi, Istanbul) or the incense burner (p. 188, private collection) and virtually identical pieces in the liturgical museums of Etchmiadzin and Antelias?
This vast compendium far transcends the pioneering study by Armenak Sakisian, “K. Polsoy hay oskerch’ut’iwne (Armenian Goldsmiths of Constantinople),” Anahit, vol I, no. 5 (1930) and his “L’orfèvrerie arménienne à influence occidentale de Constantinople aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles,” Pages d’Arts Arménien, Paris, 1940, pp. 87-95. It should serve as an inspiration for younger scholars to delve deeper into the various rich domains exposed by Kürkman.
A final note, in this age of deregulation, the Turkish government no longer makes it binding on gold and silversmiths to submit their works to the assay office to guarantee the purity of the metal used. Nevertheless, the bureau still functions and may be used on a voluntary basis by all precious metal craftsmen.
Dickran Kouymjian
California State University, Fresno
Celil Ender, Karesi, Saruhan, Aydin ve Mentese Beylikleri Paralari (Numismatik Yayinlari No.2)
Turkish text, 224 pages, map and bibliography, 19 plates of coin photos. With 6 colour plates of monuments, mosques and inscriptions. The catalogue portion, profusely illustrated by accurate line drawings. Card covers, 61/2 x 9 inches. ISBN 975-93806-0-9. Published by the author, Istanbul, 2000 (Posta Abone Kutusu 76, 81062 Erenkoy, Istanbul, Turkey).
Garo Kurkman and Celil Ender, Coins of the Fourteenth Century Aegean Anatolian Begliks: 700-829AH / 1300-1425 AD (Ege Beylikleri Sikkeleri – 14 yuzyil – Karesi, Saruhan, Aydin, Mentese Beylikleri)
Text in Turkish and English, 254 pages, bibliography, 28 plates of coin photos in enlargement. Catalogue portion illustrated with hundreds of enlarged line drawings. Well bound, 8 x 111/2 inches. Published by Kurkman in a limited edition, Istanbul, 1998; released in April 2001 by the author (P.K.121, Tesvikiye, 80212, Istanbul, Turkey).
Two acknowledged Turkish experts on Islamic coinage collaborated in the past decade to write an up-to-date history of the four Anatolian Turkish principalities and describe as many of the coins attributed to the Karasi, Sarukhan, Aydin and Mentese beyliks examined in museums in London, Berlin, Rome, Paris, Oxford, New York, Washington DC, Tubingen and Graz, as well as the important collections in Turkey (Bursa, Ephesus, Istanbul, Manisa, Milas, Odemis and Tire) plus specimens from the collections of Etker, Olcer, Kabaklarli, Yardas, YapiKredi, Erel, Sengun, Webdale, Erek and the authors themselves. In both editions the two pages of abbreviations are included which show the initials of the source collections of the coins catalogued. Ender, however, has omitted 97 of the collectors’ own numbers which fortunately are printed in Kurkman’s volume. It is of intereset to realise that approximately half of the coins catalogued were once in the collections of two numismatists: Webdale and Olcer. The publication of their work was first announced for release by EREN in Istanbul but was cancelled after there was an abrupt termination of the authors’ joint venture in 1998. Fortunately, the major part of the work had been completed and one of the authors, Celil Ender, published his copy of the manuscript in Turkish in July 2000 and added a few coins he had discovered later. The fact that he had unfortunately omitted the name of his co-author, Garo Kurkman, resulted in the publication of a limited but superior edition of the work with both of the authors’ names mentioned, with an English translation included, with all the line drawings (Mr Kurkman’s work) and enlarged coin photos. This edition was released in Istanbul in April this year, but bears the date of 1998 on the title page, although his preface is dated September 2000. This means that the work is essentially the same in both volumes, the text and catalogue portions being well organised as follows:
KARASI BEYLIK: 697-761 / 1297-1360 The two pages of text provided by the authors mention the fact that the history of this beylik is derived from contradictory accounts and from the tombstones in the Tokat Museum. The best account is Elizabeth A. Zachariadou’s article in the 1991 Symposium volume (“Halcyon days in Crete 1”) 1993. In the catalogue section there are descriptions of six coins minted in the name of the Ilkhanid ruler, Uljaitu, followed by 22 coins struck in silver and copper by Demirhan Beg in Balikesir and Yahsi Han Beg and Beylerbegi Celebi, who ruled in Bergama.
SARUKHAN BEYLIK: 700-814 / 1300-1411 Three pages are devoted to the history of this beylik. The contribution by Zachardiadou in the Encyclopedia of Islam, 1995, is a necessary source for further study especially since the authors raise the question of the death of Ishak Beg and which of the two sons succeeded him. Moreover, the evidence of recently discovered copper coins dated 814 shows that Ishak Beg had another son named Sarhan, which Kurkman discussed in an article in the Turkish Numismatic Society Bulletin, 1986. The genealogical table of the rulers of the beyliks shows a serial number beside the name which relates to the catalogue portion. This makes it very easy to refer to the pages and find the coins for each ruler. No coins have been found belonging to Saruhan Beg and his successor, Ilyas Beg, and it is pointed out that the coin Erel attributed to Ilyas was an error for a coin of Leys Beg, the last Menteshe ruler. Ishak Beg coins without dates, similar to Ilkhanid types, total nine. There are two with the word sultan. Those dated 776 and with the earliest known tughra device total 11, of which four are illustrated. There are 13 with halledehu / ishak on the obverse and hallada allahu / mulkehu on the reverse and a metrological list. The next ruler, Hizir Shah Beg , is represented by 8 silver coins and a similar number of copper coins. For Orhan Beg 4 silver coins with a tughra device on the obverse and dated 807 are shown. These were well discussed by K. Zhukov in the Rethymon Symposium volume, 1993, and are followed by 13 copper coins dated 806 and 807. Two recently found copper coins dated 814 provide evidence of the existence of the second Saruhan Beg’s rule. Six coins of Ishak Beg II are described and two copper coin types illustrated. (An unpublished paper by Zhukov read at a conference in Cesme, 1997, discussed these interesting coins in detail). The catalogue portion of the Sarukhan coins concludes with 22 anonymous copper coins of three types. There are many such coins in the museums of the Aegean region. They are difficult to assign to the beyliks covered in the present study and only a limited selection has been made.
AYDIN BEYLIK: 707-829 / 1307-1426 There are 11 pages devoted to the history of this important beylik, which has been well covered by Uzuncarsili in his Anadolu Beylikleri (pages 104-20) and by Melikoff in the Encyclopedia of Islam. The present authors have included the full text of the early treaty between Giovanni Sanudo, Duke of Candia, and Hizir Celebi, the Emir of Aydin, 9 May 1337. They point out that it is curious that such a treaty should have been signed by a lower ranking emir than Umur Beg during his lifetime (one of the great Turkish naval commanders), his brother being a far less capable leader. When Sultan Bayezid led his armies against the principalities, Isa Beg pledged his allegiance but he was forced to live in Tire by the Ottoman sultan, which resulted in the beylik going into abeyance for 15 years. After the battle of Ankara, the beylik was restored by Timur under Isa Beg’s sons, Musa and Umur. The authors agree that much more remains to be discovered about the history of this principality. They add that, on the evidence of the coinage, Umur Beg II had a son named Mehmed. The catalogue section is organised as follows. Two coins are listed for Ibrahim Bahadur Beg, the third son of Mehmed Beg, the founder of the dynasty. One coin is described of Suleyman Sah Beg, one of the five sons of Mehmed Beg, who received the lands around Tire. Fahreddin Isa Beg, the fifth and youngest son of Mehmed Beg, remained with this father in Birgi. More of his coins exist than for any of the other Aydin emirs. The catalogue shows several types: 18 coins with a square cartouche on the obverse, three with a double ring intersected by the “knot of bliss” motif, two with the names of the four caliphs around the Kalima, one with the names around a hexagon. There are also two coins with the mint-name of Ayaslug. One silver coin is attributed to Musa Beg, who may have fought with Timur at Ankara, but nothing is known about his brief reign. There is an interesting commentary on Mehmed Beg II, who ruled from 807 / 1406 (?) and 10 dated and undated copper coins are attributed to him. These are followed by the coins of Mustafa Beg. There are two silver ones dated 834 expressing allegiance to the Karaman sultan, Mehmed Beg II, and two in his own name. These latter were once attributed to the Ottoman ruler, Mustafa Sehzade (Kucuk). Fifteen pages of this catalogue section cover the copper and small number of silver coins of this Beylik which lack either the ruler’s name or mint. In the Aydin genealogical table, Cuneyd Beg is listed as the son of Ibrahim Bahadur (son of Mehmed Beg). A separate two-page history is devoted to this intriguing person, who was a member of the Aydinoghullari dynasty and not an outsider. This only emerged from examination of the vakf records and the evidence of the coins. He had three reigns: 866-9 (1403-6), 813-6 (1410-13), 825-9 (1422-6). During the struggle between the Ottoman princes for the accession (i.e. the interregnum period), Cuneyd Beg backed Isa Beg against Mehmed Celebi. When Mehmed defeated Isa, Cuneyd asked for a pardon and swore allegiance to Mehmed Celebi, who granted him the title Aydin Begligi. Two types of coins of Cuneyd are described and illustrated, the first with a confused and semi-literate declaration of faith and the names of the four caliphs around. Three specimens are shown. The reverse is divided into four segments with mehmed (b…) bayezid in the upper segment, ghazi cuneyd in the lower segment, hallada at the right, and mulkehu at the left. Turkish written sources report that Mehmed Celebi forced Cuneyd Beg to recognise his suzerainty and his right to strike coins (Mordtmann in EI). The second type, of which 9 examples are described, has the ruler’s tughra on the obverse.
MENTESE BEYLIK: 700-829 / 1300-1435 The history of the Mentese-Oghullari has been studied by many scholars, with P. Wittek’s “Das Furstentum Mentesche”, 1934, reprinted in Turkish translation after 1944, and E. Mercil later (1991) article in EI both being standard references. The authors have made good use of them and give the details of the treaty concluded between the Duke of Candia, Morosini, and the Emir Orhan (13 April 1331). After the death of Ibrahim Beg, the beylik was split into three. Musa took Balat and Milas, Ahmed Gazi became ruler of Fethiye, and Mehmet Beg ruler of Mugla and Cine. This period is well covered in the text. Ender’s Turkish edition includes a genealogical table, but this was omitted in error from Kurkman’s superior publication. The first coins were struck during the reign of Masud Beg in 702 in Milas, in the name of the Seljuk sultan, Masud II, as recorded by J.C. Hinrichs in his study of the Seljuks (1990). Three specimens are listed in the catalogue. Thereafter, coins of the three sons were struck and examples of these are described. Three types of silver coins of Ahmed Gazi are represented as are undated copper coins. Coins of the next ruler, Ilyas Beg, are discussed – 16 silver coins minted in 805 and 10 without date. Six more silver coins and two half-denomination coins, dated 818, demonstrate that he paid allegiance to the Ottoman sultan, Mehmed Celebi. Coins of the last ruler, Leys (Uveys), the son of Ilyas Beg, are represented by two undated silver coins and 14 akches and half akches dated 823, 824 and 825. Finally the authors have added four silver coins which they state are probably struck by Ahmed Beg II (823-7), the other son of Ilyas Beg.
GIGLIATI-TYPE SILVER COINS In Kurkman’s edition of the work there is a three-part survey of the gigliati type coins struck by the Latin colony, the first being those struck during the first half of the 14th century AD. These were the founding years of the Sarukhan beylik in which there were no coins either in the name of the Ilkhanids or of the Islamic type. This may have encouraged the striking of gigliati-type coins. Schlumberger’s explanation of these coins is included, and the only coins catalogued are also taken from his work (reprinted in Graz in 1954) and show the mint of Manglasi. The second part concerns the imitations of the gigliati struck in Naples around 1300 AD which were assumed to have been struck by the Sarukhan and Mentese beyliks. The authors point out that errors occurred in the writings of P. Lambros in which Magnesia de Spil was confused with Magnesie de Meandre, near Ephesus, which was part of the Sarukhan beylik. They also mention the erroneous attribution of such coins to Umur Beg by such eminent numismatists as Karabecek and referred to by Uzuncarsili in his Anadolu Beylikleri (page 119) and Ibrahim Artuk (no. 1486 in his Istanbul catalogue). Sixteen silver and one gold coin (not in Schlumberger) are listed here from the mint of Theologos. The last part of this section is devoted to the silver gigliati- type coins struck by the Latin Colony during the time of Sucuaddin Orhan Beg (720-45 / 1320-45) of the Mentese beylik. It is the firm view of both authors that none of these gigliati type coins were struck by the beyliks. In fact, Mr Ender assumes that they were illegally minted by the Venetian and Genoese merchants in their own mints set up in Miletos and Agios Theologos (Ayasluk). One of the features of the Ender edition is a six-page coloured supplement, with 14 photos of monuments and inscribed stonework, and mosques relevant to the history as outlined in the text. Some of these appear in the Kurkman volume in black and white on the appropriate pages of Aydin and Mentese history. In both volumes, the photos of the coins are extremely well printed and excellent for study along with the superb line drawings. This reviewer has no hesitation in recommending the purchase of one or both volumes by historians and numismatists interested in the subject since the work is unlikely to be superseded for some time, perhaps only when Dr Konstantin Zhukov publishes the revised edition of his Egeiskii Emirati v. xiv-xvvv (The Aegean Emirates in the 14th and 15th centuries), Moscow 1988, which he is currently working on.
Kenneth M. MacKenzie
If at first this seems an exotic addition to most people’s libraries, take a simple glance through this book and you will find it hard to resist. The standard of the photography, both of the pieces and of the marks themselves, is superlative. With a wealth of information, this is a fascinating and comprehensive book, showing us both the variety of Ottoman silver, and its influence on the silver of Europe and indeed America. it is the only such reference available on the subject.
For centuries, during the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, it was obligatory for gold and silver wares to be assayed and stamped at the Imperial Mint. These marks are catalogued here for the first time. The book contains not only a complete list of the Tugra marks, or imperial ciphers, and other silver marks, but also individual town marks and maker’s marks. Tugra marks are shown from as early as the fifteenth century, up until the reign of Mustafa VI (1918-1922). This last of the Turkish Sultans was deposed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
There are interesting sections, among others, on the positioning of marks, on foreign marks on Ottoman silver, and on Ottoman marks on foreign silver. There is also a short, illustrated section on counterfeit Tugra marks. The severity of Ottoman law is hard for us to contemplate. While silversmiths caught selling below standard silver were to be imprisoned, the lot of the dishonest assay-master was not an enviable one. “In the event of a mark being struck on silver of low quality then the Damgacibasi, (Chief Assay-master) and three inspectors shall be beheaded, and a true man appointed in his place.” In spite of this type of punishment, there were fakes!
Little Ottoman silver has survived, for a variety of reasons. Silver was relatively scarce in the Ottoman period, partly from its use for coinage and partly from widespread smuggling of the metal out of the Empire. And, recurring economic crises caused the periodic widespread melting-down of silver vessels, flatware and ornaments. Despite the thousands of working silversmiths, there are no extant pieces from the reigns of certain Sultans.
Happily, the author has chosen to illustrate not just the expected ewers and basins, but also examples of many other forms, such as spoons, bowls, mosque lamps, incense burners, charms and the unusual divit and inkwell. This last, is a longish tubular container for quill pens, with a small lidded inkwell attached at one end. At first glance it looks like a pipe or musical instrument. Of the illustrated pieces, many date from the nineteenth century, which, realistically, is the period of greatest general interest. While many of the more important pieces of Ottoman silver are many centuries old, it is worth mentioning that even nineteenth century pieces, if they are fine enough, can be valuable. At a recent auction in Paris, such pieces were fetching between $5,000 and $20,000 each. In the same sale, a post-finial made from tombak (an alloy of copper and zinc, frequently gilded), and dating from the reign of Mahmud II, (1808-1839), made $45,000 (dollar prices are approximate). See page 45 for an illustration of the Tugra mark.
Understandably, most of the collections of Ottoman silver are to be found in Istanbul, but there are examples at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Ashmolean in Oxford. An illustration on page 122 depicts a beautiful, small decorated silver bowl, from the reign of Bayezid II (1481-1512), which is in the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
This big, heavy and beautiful book is appealing in every way. Not an inexpensive book, it is, however, value for money.
David Allan
Istanbul, 1996
Yet again, a major publication concerned with Turkish art and history comes from the pen of a gifted and diligent amateur. Garo Kurkman is an engineer by profession, yet his passion and enthusiasm for Ottoman silver marks have produced a text and reference work for which all who are interested in Ottoman art will be indebred.
His exhaustive study is based on the evolution of the tugra, the royal cipher used both on documents and coinage, which changes with each reign to incorporate the name of the sultan. The earliest written example is on a ferman dated 724H/324AD, bearing the name of Orhan b. Osman, an Ottoman warlord. This is followed by several incorporating various benedictory phrases such as han, muzaffer, el-muzaffer daima, sah (khan, victorious, ever victorious, shah). A continuous series of imperial tugras then runs from Mehmet the Conqueror right up till 1922 and the birth of the republic.
Used on objects, particularly silver, they are an invaluable source of information for the specific dating of works of art. On coinage, the earliest tugra indentified is that of the Emir Suleyman from 806H/AD1403. Tugras also appear on weights.
Following on the classic analysis of individual tugras by Suha Umur, Osmanli Padisah Tugralari, Kurkman described clearly the various elements of each cipher and includes a chart of his own drawing of each variant. One might regret the absence of analytical drawings for the different marks, but as these are found in Umur’s book and elsewhere, the author perhaps decided to confine his illustrations to unfamiliar material. Here he scores, for this handsomely printed and designed volume illustrates all the points he discusses with detailed photographs of actual specimens. He has an interesting chapter on fake tugras, to help authenticate suspect objects on the art market, and he also points out a number of published misattributions, notably a magnificent silver-gilt bowl which surfaced at Sotheby’s London in 1990 and whose tugra was read as that of Price Alamsah, son of Bayezid II, whereas it is in fact that of Selim I, his younger brother.
Tugras were not confined to Ottoman silver. Foreign silver had to be stamped to give it validity, particularly intriguing is the existence of Maria Theresa thalers of the eighteenth and nineteenth century over stamped in this manner. In turn, Ottoman silver, when exported, was counter stamped with foreign silver marks. As for the craftsmen, there are detailed charts of maker’s marks, in Armenian script, and town marks, which give some idea of the wide distribution of silversmiths throughout Anatolia and into Syria.
An appendix reproduces in facsimile a number of documents concerned with the royal mint and the trade in silver, and legislation concerning the surrender of silver to the mint in 1788=90 to cover the costs of war. There is also a useful biography and index which complete a work of great value to scholars and collectors alike.
By John Carswell
