TURKEY: ART AND LITERATURE

Early Turkish art was influenced by several ancient cultures that included groups like the Hittites, the ancient Greeks, and later the Byzantines. You can see some of this in pottery and carvings and such. However, the first major influence on Turkish art was from the Ottomans.

During the Ottoman reign, there were artist workshops in the palaces, but they were physically located away from the main palaces. Apparently, they produced most of the high-end art that you see from this period, and may have been able to take other commissioned work from other people outside of the palace (everyone needs a side hustle, you know). However, pottery and textiles weren’t done in these workshops, though. For many of these artists at this time, these coveted skills were passed along from father to son.

The Ottomans, being highly tied to Islam, developed and promoted Islamic art. The architectural styles that stemmed from this include the use of highly decorative tiles. They also incorporated vaults, domes and semi-domes, arabesque-style walls, and columns in their buildings. Because Islam forbids creating any kind of human likenesses, many of the tile decorations are geometric in design and typically fills an entire space. They also tend to use quite a bit of color and sometimes outlined in gold or silver for a very elegant effect.

Islamic calligraphy has long been a type of artform throughout the Arab world, and Turkish calligraphers even developed their own style, like the mirror writing seen above. Usually drawn upon words and phrases from the Quran or other literature, it can be artistically drawn itself or incorporated into a larger picture. I’ve seen some examples that are absolutely outstanding. I can’t read any of it, but it’s so fascinating to see the creativity. Related to this is the tughra: a type of stylized signature the sultans would adopt as a way of formally signing their name. You never get a second chance at a first impression, I guess.

Turkish carpets, also called Anatolian rugs, is a knotted, pile-woven rug used as either a floor or wall covering. There are different kinds of rugs, like the kilim, that vary in their type of weaving, materials, and designs but all historically dominated during the Ottoman Empire, although it was a practice well before and certainly after that time.

The Tortoise Trainer, by Osman Hamdi Bey

Painting in the European style took a while for it to make its way to Turkey and was slow to become popular. Osman Hamdi Bey was one of the lone painters for a long time, active from about the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Not only was he considered a leading art expert, but he was also a successful archaeologist. And he really paved the way in museum studies, essentially leading the way in the profession of museum curators. He also holds the record for the most expensive painting sold in Turkey. As Turkey transitioned to a more officially secular country, painting and sculpture adapted and changed along with it as artists began to find their own styles.

Turkish literature was highly influenced by Persian and Arabic literature and also includes different Turkic languages. Early Turkish texts used a Perso-Arabic script, which changed over to using a Latin-based alphabet in 1928. It’s somewhat debated on how literary historians divide up Turkish literary eras, but it’s generally pre-Ottoman/Islamic, Ottoman/Islamic, and modern.

Karagöz and Hacivat

Poetry has long been a genre that has lasted since antiquity, relying on many Persian and Arabic styles. Much of their folk poetry used syllabic verses organized into quatrains, and their poetry was very much tied in with music. This folk poetry was mainly told and passed down orally and performed at minstrel shows. Written folk literature had quite a few characters from folktales that outlasted the test of time. One popular character is Nasreddin, a type of trickster character who would kind of play jokes on his neighbors. Another popular duo in Turkish literature was Karagöz, a kind of country bumpkin, and Hacivat, a more worldly city-dweller.

A page of divan poetry by the Azerbaijani poet Fuzuli

The Ottoman era saw the rise in Divan poetry that included quite a bit of influence from Azerbaijani poets and others. Much of Divan poetry is characterized by its lyrical style, but sometimes included romantic themes or narratives. Early Ottoman prose grew out of this style and had to include a rhyme scheme. Their prose included topics like travelogues, political discussion, debates, and biographies. As the Ottoman era entered the 19th century, there was a bit more Western influence in their writing styles, mainly from French literature. However, they were also developing their own national identity at the same time. Toward the end of the 1800s, writers started experimenting with a number of genres that were making their way throughout Europe: Romanticism, Realism, and playwriting.

Orhan Pamuk

As writers moved into the 20th century and their own transition to a republic, literature changed with it. In 1908, a group of people who called themselves the Young Turks opposed the increasingly authoritarian Ottoman rule. (Not to be confused with The Young Turks [TYT], a sociopolitical news commentary show hosted by Turkish-American Cenk Uygur). A genre of literature grew out of this pro-Turkish national identity movement that followed. After Turkey became a republic and their writing system switched over to being Latin-based, a new genre took over: social realism. Authors like Sait Faik Abasiyanik brought up topics like ethnic minorities and the poor and lower classes. One of the most famous novels from this period is Yaşar Kemal’s 1955 novel İnce Memed. Female authors also helped to bring Turkish literature into the modern era with novels like the Adalet Ağaoğlu trilogy Dar Zamanlar. Orhan Pamuk, part of the postmodernism movement, won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature. His novel Kara Kitap is one of his most recommended books.

Up next: music and dance