Some Notes Relating to a Modern Misnaming of a Medieval Islamic Design

Year 2019, Issue: 1, 72 - 119, 31.12.2019

T.m.p. Duggan

Abstract

The aim of this article is to show the recent naming of the so-called “8 pointed star and cross design,” as representing “The Breath of the Compassionate,” has no support in the historical sources, and to draw attention to some of the problems in understanding, consequent upon the ongoing re-naming/misnaming of designs and design types, for a proper understanding of the content conveyed by works of Islamic art at the time they were made and displayed. Attention is drawn to the use of this type of design in Seljuk art, and it suggests that the use of this design in its vertical form is often to be associated with the ruler, as the Second Sulaymān, that is to indicate through the use of this design that the ruler was to be understood as being The Just Ruler of the Time. It also indicates the importance of the set of designs, of which this forms but one example, that were termed in the 13^th c. mushabak-shabaka - meaning a lattice, net, or a grid design, thereby, from the etymological root of the term, conveying a rather different meaning from the modern term “geometric design;” and finds the recent repeated association of this mushabak-shabaka design type with, “the infinite pattern,” “infinity,” or the “illusion of infinity” to be without foundation from the historical sources and context. Some reasons for the importance of this group of mushabak-shabaka designs in works of Islamic art and culture in both two and three dimensions from the 3^rd/9^th c. A.D. down to the present day are suggested; together with both etymological and religious reasons for the increased prominence and use of “knotting-inter-lace” designs in the 5^th-8^th/11^th to 14^th centuries - that can perhaps more accurately be termed, “al-i’tiqād” designs

Keywords

mushabak, shabaka, lattice design, Breath of the Compassionate, Seal of Suleyman, the infinite pattern, knotting interlace -‘aqīdah

Ortaçağ İslam Dünyasına Ait Bir Motifin Modern Dönemde Yanlış Adlandırılmasına İlişkin Notlar

Abstract

Birtakım notlar aracılığıyla, bu makale, yapıldıkları ve sergilendikleri dönemde İslam sanat çalışmaları tarafından iletilen içeriklerin doğru bir şekilde anlaşılabilmesi için, tasarım ve tasarım türlerinin devam eden bir şekilde yeniden adlandırılması / yanlış bir şekilde adlandırılmasından kaynaklı ortaya çıkan bazı anlayış sorunlarına dikkat çekmektir. Özellikle de, son zamanlarda sözde “8-uçlu yıldız ve haç tasarımının”, “Merhametlinin Nefesini” temsil ettiği şeklinde aksettirilmesi için tarihi kaynaklarda herhangi bir destek olmadığını göstermek adına, Selçuklu sanatında bu tür tasarımların nasıl kullanıldığına dikkat çekilmektedir ve bu tasarımın dikey formunda kullanılmasının çoğu zaman hükümdar (İkinci Süleyman) ile ilgili olduğu öne sürülmektedir. Başka bir deyişle, bu motifin kullanılma nedeni, zamanın hükümdarının, Zamanın Adil Hükümdarı olarak anlaşılması gerektiğine işaret etmek içindir. Ayrıca, bunun sadece bir örneği olduğu ve 13. Yüzyılda mushabak-shabaka (kafes, file ya da ağ motifi) olarak adlandırılan motif grubunun önemine işaret etmekte, ve böylece, bu ifadenin etimolojik kökeninden yola çıkılarak, modern “geometrik motif” teriminden oldukça farklı bir takım çağrışımlar aksettirmektedir. Son zamanlarda bu mushabak-shabaka motif türünün, “sonsuz şekil”, “sonsuzluk” ya da “sonsuzluk illüzyonu” ile tekrar tekrar ilişkilendirilmesinin çağdaş tarihi ve dini kaynaklar ve bağlamalarda herhangi bir dayanağı bulunmamaktadır. 3./9. Yüzyıldan bugüne hem iki hem de üç boyutlu olarak bu mushabak-shabaka grubu tasarımların İslam sanat çalışmaları ve kültüründeki öneminin bazı sebepleri olarak, etimolojik ve dini sebeplerle birlikte, 5.-8. / 11.-14. Yüzyıllar arasında, belki de daha doğru bir şekilde al-i’tiqad” motifleri olarak tanımlanabilecek “düğümleme – birbirine geçirme”

Keywords

mushabak, shabaka, kafes motifi, Merhametlinin Nefesi, Süleyman’ın Mührü, sonsuz şekil, düğümleme – birbirine geçirme -‘aqīdah

References

• Reading of Mystical Ideas, SUNY Press, New York, 2012Akkach 2005, Samer Akkach, Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam: An Architectural Reading of Mystical Ideas, SUNY Press, New York,Akkach 1997 Samer Akkach, “The world of Imagination in Ibn ‘Arabi’s Ontology,” 97-113, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 24(1), 1997Arabi 1991, Ismail Hakkı Bursevı’s translation and commentary on Fusus al-Hıkam by Muhyıddın ıbn ‘Arabı, rendered into English by Bulent Rauf with the help of R. Brass and H. Tollemache, III., Muhyıddın ıbn ‘Arabı Society, Oxford, Istanbul, San Francisco, 1991.Arberry 1977 Arthur John Arberry, Discourses of Rumi (or Fihi Man Fihi), Trans. A. J. Arberry, Samuel Weisner, New York. 1977Auld 2004, Sylvia Auld, Renaissance Venice, Islam and Mahmud the Kurd: A Metalworking Enigma Altajir World Of Islam Trust, 2004Bakhtiyar 1991 Laleh Bakhtiyar, Sufi, Expressions of the Mystic Quest, Thames and Hudson, London, (1976) 1991Bakırer 2000 Ömür Bakırer, Onüc ve Ondördüncü yüzyıllarda Anadolu Mihrabları, TTK., Ankara, (1976) 2000Bakirer1999 Ömür Bakirer, “Recently Discovered Stucco Window Lattices from the Anatolian Seljuk Period” 127-133, Eds. Déroche et al., 10th International Congress of Turkish Art. 10e Congrès international d'art turc. Genève, 1995, Fondation Max van Berchem, Geneva, 1999Barışta 1984 H. Örcün Barışta, Türk işleme sanatı tarihi, Gazi Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, 5. sayı, Ankara 1984Barrow 1735 John Barrow, Dictionarium polygraphicum, or, The whole body of arts regularly digested: containing the arts of designing, drawing, painting ... adorned with proper sculptures, curiously engraven on more than fifty copper plates, C. Hitch, C. Davis, London, II., 1735, npn.Behrens-Abouseif – Orazi 1989 Doris Behrens-Abouseif and Roberto Orazi, “Mas̲h̲rabiyya”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 24 February 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0697Bibi 1996, I, Ibn Bibi El-Hüseyin b. Muhammed b. Ali El-Ca’feri Er-Rugadi, El Evamirü’l-Ala’iye Fi’l-Umuri’l-Ala’iye, (Selçukname), Vols. I, II. Trans. Mürsel Öztürk. TTK, Ankara 1996Bibi 1956 Ibn Bibi, El Evamirü’l-Ala’iyye Fi’ Umuri’l-Alaiyye, (Tıpkı basım) Haz. Adnan Sadık Erzi, TTK, Ankara, 1956Bier 2017 Carol Bier, “Alloys and Architecture: Periodic and Quasiperiodic Patterns in Sinan’s Selimiye in Edirne,” 82-100 in, Overturning Certainties in Near Eastern Archaeology: A Festschrift in honor of K. Aslihan Yener, Ed. Çiğdem Maner, ‎Mara T. Horowitz, ‎Allan S. Gilbert, Brill, Leiden, 2017Bier 2015 Carol Bier, “Geometry in Islamic Art,” 1-21 in, Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, Springer, 2015 DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_10111-1Bier 2008 Carol Bier, Art and Mithāl: Reading Geometry as Visual Commentary, International Journal of Iranian Studies, Vol. 41, No. 4, Sciences, Crafts, and the Production of Knowledge: Iran and Eastern Islamic Lands (ca. 184-1153 AH/800-1740 CE), Sep., 2008, pp. 491-509Bonner 2017, Jay Bonner, Islamic Geometric Patterns: Their Historical Development and Traditional Methods of Construction, Springer, New York, 2017Burckhardt 2008 Titus Burckhardt, Introduction to Sufi Doctrine, World Wisdom, Inc, Bloomington, Indiana, (1959) 2008 Burckhardt 2001 Titus Burckhardt, Mystical astrology according to Ibn ‘Arabi, Titus Burckhardt (1950), Trans. Bulent Rauf, Fons Vitae, Louisville, KT, 2001O’Callaghan 2016 Cheryll Ann O’Callaghan, The Tapestry of Me: Through Sacred Geometry, Balboa Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 2016Canby 2005 Shelia R. Canby, Islamic Art in Detail, Harvard University Press, U.S.A., 2005Chorbaci 2016 Wasma’a Khalid Chorbaci, “In the Tower of Babel: Beyond symmetry in islamic design,” 751-790 in Ed. Istvan Hargittai, Symmetry 2: Unifying Human Understanding, Pergamon Press, Elsevier, Oxford, 2016Chorbachi 1989 Wasma’a Khalid Chorbachi, “In the Tower of Babel: Beyond symmetry in islamic design,” 751-789 in, Computers & Mathematics with Applications Vol. 17, Issues 4–6, 1989 https://doi.org/10.1016/0898-1221(89)90260-5Critchlow 2004 Keith Critchlow, essay in, Eds. Z. Hussain, F. Khan, A. Mitha, Handasah: unity in pattern, Shisha, the International Agency for Contemporary South Asian Crafts and Visual Arts, Manchester, 2004Critchlow 1973 Keith Critchlow, Islamic Pattern, An Analytical and Cosmological Approach, Thames and Hudson, London, (1973) 1992.Duggan 2017 Terrance M. P. Duggan, On Reading The Meanings Carried By The Zigzag Design In Islamic Art, Uluslararası XXI. Ortaçağ ve Türk Dönemi Kazıları ve Sanat Tarihi Araştırmaları Sempozyumu, Antalya, 25-27 October 2017, forthcoming 2019Duggan 2018 Terrance M. P. Duggan, “The Just Ruler of the Age - Exhibiting Legitimacy for Rule through Visual Representation, as in the Written and Inscribed Record: On the Meanings Conveyed by the Creatures Depicted on 8-Pointed Tiles from Rūm Seljuk 13th c. Palaces, Pavilions and Bath-Houses: The Jinn” Phaselis, IV, 2018, 389-421Duggan 2015 Terrance M. P. Duggan, “The O’Grady factor and false resemblance – blinding Oriental-isms and misapprehensions of the 13th century in the absence of due contextualisation and a little common sense,” Akdeniz Üniversitesi, Edebiyat Fakültesi, İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı Bölümü, I. Dil, Talat S. Halman Kültür ve Edebiyat Çalıştayı, Haziran 2015, Talât Sait Halman’a Armağan Kitabı, Ed. A. Arıkan, 2015, 178-198Duggan 2014 Terrance M. P. Duggan, Veil of Lights, Mediterranean Journal of Humanities mjh.akdeniz.edu.tr IV/1, 2014, 129-157.Eckmann-Schutz 1976 János Eckmann, Ed. E. Schutz, Middle Turkic Glosses of the Rylands Interlinear Koran Translation, Akadémiai Kiadó, Vol. 21, Bibliotheca orientalis Hungarica, Budapest, 1976Ekhtiar-Moore 2012, Unit 3: Geometric Design in Islamic Art, 77-90 in, Ed. Maryam D. Ekhtiar-Claire Moore, Art of the Islamic World: A Resource for Educators, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2012Elmore 1999 Gerald T. Elmore, Islamic Sainthood in the Fullness of Time: Ibn Al-ʻArabī's Book of the Fabulous Gryphon, Brill, Leiden, 1999Encyclopaedia 1798 Encyclopaedia; or, A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature; constructed on a plan, by which the different sciences and arts are digested into the form of distinct treatises of systems... Ed. Thomas Dobson, The first American edition (of the Encyclopaedia Britannica), in eighteen volumes, greatly improved. Illustrated with five hundred and forty-two copperplates, Vol. XII., MIE-NEG, T. Dobson, Philadelphia, 1798Exell-Spence, Joseph S. Exell, Henry D. M. Spence, The Complete Pulpit Commentary, Bk.4, Psalms to Songs (1880-1919), Delmarva Publications, Inc., Harrington, DE, 2013Fairchild Ruggles 2011 Islamic Art and Visual Culture, An Anthology of Sources, Ed. Dede Fairchild Ruggles, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2011Fakhry 1994 Majid Fakhry, Philosophy, dogma, and the impact of Greek thought in Islam, Variorum, Aldershot, 1994Frank 1994 Richard M. Frank, Al-Ghazālī and the Ashʻarite School, Duke University Press, Durham-London, 1994Gearhart 2010 Heidi C. Gearhart, Theophilus’ On Diverse Arts: The Persona of the Artist and the Production of Art in the Twelfth Century, Unpublished DPhil., (History of Art) University of Michigan, 2010 https://arhpee.typepad.com/Theophile%20par%20Gearhart.pdf Al-Ghazali 1998 Al-Ghazali, The Niche of Lights, Trans. David Buchman, Brigham Young University Press, Utah, 1998Gilchrist 1821 John Borthwick Gilchrist, The Hindee moral preceptor; or, Rudimental principles of Persian grammar, as the Hindoostanee scholars' shortest road to the Persian language or vice versa; rendered ... through the medium of sixty exercises in prose and verse, including the ... Pundnamu or Ethics of Shuekh Su’udee, with a Hindoostanee literal version, and an English metrical paraphrase of each poem; comprising in part II a large English and Hindee-Persic vocabulary, Part I., Black, Kingsbury, Parbury, and Allen, London, 1821Grabar 1992 Oleg Grabar, The Mediation of Ornament, (Bollingen Series, 35/38.) Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1992Giroire-Roger 2007 Cecile Giroire, Daniel Roger, Roman Art from the Louvre, American Federation of Arts, Hudson Hills, 2007Goldstein 2015 Darra Goldstein, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, Oxford University Press, Oxford-New York, 2015 Grube 1966 Ernst J. Grube, The World Of Islam, Paul Hamlyn, London, 1966Gwilt 1842, Joseph Gwilt, An Encyclopædia of architecture: historical, theoretical, and practical, illustrated with more than one thousand engravings on wood by R. Branston, from drawings by John Sebastian Gwilt, Longmans, Brown, Green and Longmans, London, 1842Headlam Wells 1994 Robin Headlam Wells, Elizabethan Mythologies: Studies in Poetry, Drama and Music, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994Holt 1957 A Documentary History of Art, Ed. Elizabeth Gilmore Holt, Vol. 1, Doubleday Anchor, New York, 1957Irving 1983 Thomas Ballantyne Irving (Al-Hajj Ta’lim Ali Abu Nasr), Islam resurgent: the Islamic world today, Suhail Academy, Lahore, 1983.Irwin 1997 Robert Irwin, Islamic Art, Laurence King, London, 1997Issa 1994 Ahmad M. Issa, Islamic Art Terms (Lexicon: Explained and Illustrated): IRCICA, Istanbul, 1994Johnson 1852 Francis Johnson, A Dictionary, Persian, Arabic, and English, under the patronage of the Honourable East-India company, Wm. H. Allen and Co., London. Pt. II, 1852 Johnson-Richardson 1828 Francis Johnson, John Richardson, A Dictionary, Persian, Arabic, and English; with a dissertation on the languages, literature, and manners of the eastern nations, Parbury, Allen and Co., London, 1829Lacombe 1768 Jacques Lacombe, Dizionario portatile delle belle arti,…, Bassano, 1768Laude 2017 Patrick Laude, Shimmering Mirrors: Reality and Appearance in Contemplative Metaphysics East and West, SUNY, New York, 2017Lee 1987 A. J. Lee, Islamic Star Patterns, 181-197, Muqarnas, An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture, edited by Oleg Grabar. Leiden, E. J. Brill, Vol. 4, 1987.Lessing-Frothingham 2013, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Laocoon: An Essay upon the Limits of Painting and Poetry, Trans. Ellen Frothingham, Courier Corporation, New York, (1898) 2013Lévi-Provençal-Balbás1957 Evariste Lévi-Provençal, ‎Leopoldo Torres Balbás, España musulmana: hasta la caída del Califato de Córdoba (711-1031 de J.C.), Espasa-Calpe, Madrid, 1957Lukonin-Ivanov 2012 Vladimir Lukonin, ‎Anatoli Ivanov, Persian Art, The Lost Treasures, Parkstone Press, New York, 2012Marchant – Horning 2013, Paul Marchant and Jonathan Horning, “Shapes, Grids and Patterns,” 48-127 in Ed. Khaled Azzam, Arts and Crafts of the Islamic Lands, Principles, Materials, Practice, Thames and Hudson, London, 2013Martelloti 2005, Anna Martelloti, I ricettari di Federico II: dal “Meridionale” al “Liber de coquina,” Leo S. Olschki editore, Roma, 2005Melchert 2004 Christopher Melchert, “The Etiquette of Learning in the Early Islamic Study Circle”, 33-44 in, Joseph E. Lowry et al (eds.), Law and Education in Medieval Islam, Studies in Memory of Professor George Makdisi, E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Trust, Cambridge, 2004 Met 1993 Stefano Carbonari - Tomoko Masuya, Persian Tiles, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Catalogue, New York, 1993Middleton 2005 Sheila E. Hoey Middleton, Intaglios, Cameos, Rings and Related Objects from Burma and Java: The White Collection and a Further Small Private Collection, Archaeopress, Oxford, 2005Montpalau 1792 Antonio Capmany y de Montpalau, Memorias Históricas sobre la marina, comercio, y Artes De La Antigua Ciudad de Barcelona, ..., T. III., Sancha, Madrid, 1792Mülayim 1982, Selçuk Mülayim, Anadolu Türk Mimarisinde Geometrik Süslemeler, Selçuklu Çağı, Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., Ankara 1982.Naval 1920 I.D. 1121, Vocabularies: English, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Armenian, Kurdish, Syriac, Comp. by the Geographical section of the Naval Intelligence Division, H.M.S.O. University Press, Oxford, 1920.Necipoğlu 1995 Gülrü Necipoğlu, The Topkapi Scroll-Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture, The Getty Center, Santa Monica, CA. 1995Nizami 1881, Shaikh Nizami of Ganja, Sikandernama, Trans. Wilberforce Clarke, V. I. Publishers, New Delhi, 1881Ölçer 2005 Nazlan Ölçer, “The Anatolian Seljuks,” 104-145, in, Ed. D. J. Roxburgh. Turks, A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600-1600, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005Ögel 1994 Semra Ögel, Anadolu’nun Selçuklu Çehresi, Akbank, İstanbul, 1994Ögel 1965 Semra Ögel, Anadolu Selçuklularının Taş Tezyinatı, T.T.K., Ankara, 1965Platts-Milford 1884, John Thompson Platts-H. Milford, A Dictionary of Urdū, Classical Hindī, and English, Crosby, Lockwood and son, London, 1884Raffa 2012 F. A. Raffa, Quantamplation: Something for Everyone from the “All That Is”, Authorhouse, 2012Redford 2008 Scott Redford, A Newly Read Inscription on the Walls of Antalya, Turkey, 177-184 in, Muqarnas, Frontiers of Islamic Art and Architecture: Essays in Celebration of Oleg Grabar's Eightieth Birthday; the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture Thirtieth Anniversary Special Volume, 2008Redhouse 1857 James W. Redhouse, An English and Turkish Dictionary in two parts, English and Turkish, and Turkish and English, Bernard Quaritch, London, 1857Rogers 1974 Leonard Robert Rogers, Relief Sculpture, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1974 Rumi 1983 The Mathnawi of Jalalud’din Rumi, Trans. Reynold Alleyne, Books I-VI., Gibb Memorial Trust, Cambridge, 1983, III.Safi 2014 Louay Safi, The Foundation of Knowledge: A Comparative Study in Islamic and Western Methods of Inquiry, International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), Herndon, VA., 2014Schneider 1994 Michael S. Schneider, A Beginner’s guide to constructing the Universe: the mathematical archetypes of nature, art, and science, HarperCollins, London, 1994S.O.D.3 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, Ed. Charles Talbut Onions, Third Edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1964Sandler 1976 R. Sandler, “Islamic Art: variations on the themes of arabesque,” 87- in, R. M. Savory, Introduction to Islamic Civilisation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (1976) 1994Von Simson 1956 Otto Von Simson, Gothic Cathedral The Gothic Cathedral: Origins of Gothic Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order, Harper and Row, New York, 1956Sirriyeh 2005 Elizabeth Sirriyeh, Sufi Visionary of Ottoman Damascus: ’Abd Al-Ghani Al-Nabulusi, 1641-1731, Psychology Press, Routledge Curzon, London-New York, 2005Sutton 2018 Daud Sutton, Islamic Design: A Genius for Geometry, Wooden books, London (2007) 2018Tabbaa 2002 Yasser Tabbaa, The Transformation of Islamic Art during the Sunni Revival, I. B. Tauris, London, New York, 2002Taylor-Hunter 1808 Joseph Taylor-W. Hunter, A Dictionary Hindoostanee & English, revised & prepared for the press, with the assistance of learned natives in the college of Fort William by W. Hunter, Vol. II, T. Hubbard, Calcutta, 1808Theophilus 2012 Theophilus, On Divers Arts, Trans J. G. Hawthorne- C. S. Smith, Courier Co. New York, 2012.Thornton-Wilson 2009, ‎Dora Thornton, ‎Timothy Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics: A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, British Museum Press, Vol. I., London, 2009Treiger 2011 Alexander Treiger, Inspired Knowledge in Islamic Thought: Al-Ghazali's Theory of Mystical Cognition and Its Avicennian Foundation, Routledge, London-New York, 2011Uysal 2013 Zekiye Uysal, Kubad-Abad Sarayında Selçuklu Cam Sanatı, T.T.K. Ankara, 2013Watson 1985, Oliver Watson, Persian Lustre Ware, Faber and Faber, London and Boston, 1985Wilber 1969 Donald N. Wilber, The Architecture of Islamic Iran: the Il Khānid period, Greenwood Press, New York, 1969 Willis 1844 Robert Willis, Architectural Nomenclature of the Middle Ages, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1844