As a result of the emergence of Islam on the stage of history and the subsequent conquests, new ornamental elements have entered the Islamic art. Turkish bookbinding art, which started with the Uyghur Turks, has always had a dazzling beauty by affecting the emergence of precious works in Arab and Iranian geographies. The bindings produced from the 9th to the middle of the 13th century were mostly made with geometric or rumi decorations and then there was a transition towards (...) floral patterns. After the Anatolian Seljuks, the Mamluk State and the Karamanid Principality continued the accumulation of Turkish bookbinding art and only after the conquest of Istanbul, the Ottoman binding could create its own style. Floral motifs stylized by Baba Nakkaş a mighty artist who lived in the Fatih Era influenced the decoration understanding of the period and became a highly preferred decoration element in book arts. The motifs of the bindings produced in the 15th century were different from the previous periods as well as the design schemes shemse shapes and leather colors heralded new searches. Bookbinding studies mainly focus on works from the 16th century or later, and it has been observed that academic and artistic works from previous periods are rare. In order to contribute to the studies in this field, researches were carried out in libraries and 3286 manuscripts in the Vahid Pasha Manuscript Library were examined in detail and six bookbindings belonging to the Fatih Period were identified. Bookbindings design was evaluated in terms of composition and technique and compared with the examples in other museums and libraries. (shrink)

The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding: Methods, Materials and Regional Varieties. By Karin Scheper. Islamic Manuscripts and Books, vol 8. Leiden: Brill, 2015. Pp. xii + 428, illus. $181, €140.

Stages on Life's Way, the sequel to Either/Or, is an intensely poetic example of Kierkegaard's vision of the three stages, or spheres, of existence: the esthetic, the ethical, and the religious. With characteristic love for mystification, he presents the work as a bundle of documents fallen by chance into the hands of "Hilarius Bookbinder," who prepared them for printing. The book begins with a banquet scene patterned on Plato's Symposium. (George Brandes maintained that "one must recognize with amazement that it (...) holds its own in this comparison.") Next is a discourse by "Judge William" in praise of marriage "in answer to objections." The remainder of the volume, almost two-thirds of the whole, is the diary of a young man, discovered by "Frater Taciturnus," who was deeply in love but felt compelled to break his engagement. The work closes with a letter to the reader from Taciturnus on the three "existence-spheres" represented by the three parts of the book. Stages on Life's Way not only repeats themes, characters, and pseudonymous authors of the earlier works but also goes beyond them and points to further development of central ideas in Concluding Unscientific Postscript. (shrink)

This thoughtful, learned, well-written, extensively illustrated, and heavily documented study deserves to be regarded as a landmark in art history. Traditional art history has dealt for the most part with the “fine arts” (chiefly painting, drawing, sculpture, and architecture), whereas other human creations that take physical form (such as furniture, ceramics, textiles, and metal and glass items), whether utilitarian or decorative (or both at once), are considered “craft” or “applied art” and are studied by folklorists, anthropologists, and archaeologists and often (...) displayed in different museums. Cooke wishes to break down this “hierarchical taxonomy,” this “fragmented, hierarchical field,” that emerged from Western Europe's “misunderstanding of art,” which valued “the cerebral over the manual.” His goal, in other words, is to outline “a more inclusive human history of art”— “a connected art history.” This phrase from his subtitle refers not simply to connecting “fine art” with “applied art” but also to crossing temporal and regional boundaries. Still another act of connecting is to examine all parts of an object's life history, and thus the three main divisions of the book deal with the making of objects, their circulation from one person and place to another (and “their ability to transmit ideas” in the process), and their meaning for the persons who possessed or encountered them.Over the years I have repeatedly said that all objects made by human beings are worthy of preservation and study because they bring us into direct contact with the past and, as part of our surroundings, affect our thoughts in the present. Every object, I have argued, including copies of a single printed edition of a book (so-called duplicates), is an independent witness to the past. I am particularly pleased, therefore, to welcome a major book that explores in detail, with a wealth of examples from many centuries and cultures, the place of objects in human history. Cooke's pursuit is “object-driven,” beginning with the nature of the materials and finally coming to “the inherent power of the object itself to influence human thought and action.” (Compare the subtitle of Sherry Turkle's 2007 anthology Evocative Objects: Things We Think With.) Cooke's refusal to separate “materials” from “people,” or “technologies” from “values,” reminds me of John Szarkowski's approach to photographs. In Photography until Now (1989), Szarkowski points out that histories of photography generally treat technical matters separately from artistic ones—a split between the “empirical” and the “intuitive” that he finds indefensible, for “these two ways of knowing meet in the process of making things.” He adds, “The meeting can be cordially symbiotic or aggressively competitive, but its resolution defines the character and meaning of the thing that is made.” This statement has been a favorite of mine as an elegant characterization of the nature of art, and it is one that Cooke would clearly agree with.Cooke does not discuss photography, but he makes clear that he is not attempting a “comprehensive history that charts the complete ebb and flow of objects over time.” Rather, his book is meant to be a “suggestive guide” to the “principles of material literacy,” a “kit of tools for future complex constructions of history.” Even so, I find some of the omissions puzzling. Why, for example, are glass objects not taken up, when he so thoroughly deals with other common materials? More serious, in my opinion, is the exclusion of the fine arts. (Of the 215 illustrations, five are of oil paintings and one is of a Japanese print, but they are present only as the sources for information drawn from their pictorial content; one Hogarth engraving is shown because its image was often reproduced on punch bowls; and there is a very brief passage on the “uneasy relationship” between sculpture and material culture, but no sculptures are illustrated or used as examples for discussion.) Presumably Cooke felt it was unnecessary for his book to encompass the fine arts after demonstrating that functional objects are just as sophisticated artistically and culturally as products of the fine arts are. Yet those products also belong to the universe of “entangled objects” (How could they not?), and it would have been illuminating to see them adduced among the examples Cooke cites. One could argue that by excluding them—and by referring to the makers of the objects he does discuss as “artisans” and “craftspeople”—he comes close to reinforcing the division he wishes to eliminate.Less easy to explain is Cooke's omission of books, for they have been one of the largest and most widely circulated classes of utilitarian objects. Most people never think about books as objects, treating them only as disposable receptacles for transmitting verbal texts in tangible form (which is why so many books are destroyed when their texts supposedly become available in another form). Such people do not realize that texts have connections with their physical embodiments. (For example, books, whether manuscript or printed, often contain clues revealing how their texts were affected by the production process; and readers’ attitudes toward texts can be influenced by their presentation.) Cooke, however, with his deep understanding of the way objects function and his impressive knowledge of the scholarship, cannot be one of these uninformed people. He would obviously be aware of the vast literature devoted to leather and cloth bookbindings and their decoration, as well as to the myriad styles of letters and the varieties of paper and parchment; he would also know how letterforms and binding designs reflect a complex interplay of social, political, and artistic forces. Bibliographers have long studied books as Cooke advocates studying other objects: “working from the inside out,” beginning with the evidence in books themselves for reconstructing the routines that were followed in their creation. And book historians are recognizing the necessity for an international approach like Cooke's, since many of the books circulating in one country originated in other countries. Books would have been a prolific additional source for illustrating Cooke's analyses.My admiration for Cooke's book is not altered by these few disappointments. Even without discussions of paintings, sculptures, and books, it is still exhilarating in its scope and depth. One hopes that art and material-culture historians will pay attention to it. But it ought to have a wider audience, for the daily lives of all of us would be enriched by a greater appreciation of the objects that make up a significant part of our environment. (shrink)

Stages on Life's Way, the sequel to Either/Or, is an intensely poetic example of Kierkegaard's vision of the three stages, or spheres, of existence: the esthetic, the ethical, and the religious. With characteristic love for mystification, he presents the work as a bundle of documents fallen by chance into the hands of "Hilarius Bookbinder," who prepared them for printing. The book begins with a banquet scene patterned on Plato's Symposium. Next is a discourse by "Judge William" in praise of marriage (...) "in answer to objections." The remainder of the volume, almost two-thirds of the whole, is the diary of a young man, discovered by "Frater Taciturnus," who was deeply in love but felt compelled to break his engagement. The work closes with a letter to the reader from Taciturnus on the three "existence-spheres" represented by the three parts of the book.Stages on Life's Way not only repeats themes, characters, and pseudonymous authors of the earlier works but also goes beyond them and points to further development of central ideas in Concluding Unscientific Postscript. (shrink)

Muslims are fundamentally interested in the practice of writing especially for scribing the copies of the Qur’ān. Later, the practice of scribing ḥadīths texts and writing diplomatic correspondence increased the demand for developing this practice. It is because the writing is based on a religious reference in Islamic societies; over time, the interest in writing and writing materials has also turned into an art form. Thus, writing and writing materials have been named with the selected words from the Qur’ān. Pencil, (...) book, pages (ṣuḥuf), line, stone tablet (alwāḥ) are some of the examples of those words. The writing constituted a series of professions. Calligraphers and warrāqs (book dealers/booksellers) are some examples in Islamic societies. Until the printing press became widespread, the books were written and reproduced by hand which is called istinsākh. Nowadays, these manuscripts are protected in libraries and digital archives. Codicology examines the external elements of these manuscripts such as ink, binding and paper. In addition, the critical edition method was used to bring out manuscripts to the surface. Critical edition of manuscripts is not only transferring the text to the computer. The critical edition is to compare manuscripts of work to reach the original text of the author. While doing this, the evaluation of the text has been held to reveal the historical value of it. In this article, the place of manuscripts in Islamic culture has been discussed and the basic principles of the critical edition, how to create the editing (dirāsa) and text (naṣṣ) sections of the critical edition are explained with examples. The examples were selected from the previous critical editions conducted by the author. This study aims to give an introduction to a very wide field of codicology and critical edition. This article is intended to provide basic information for researchers interested in codicology and critical edition.Summary: Classical Islamic writing culture has its method. For centuries, Muslims have written manuscripts according to this method. This method has been applied from writing the knowledge on paper to collecting and binding the fascicles.The adventure of creating a manuscript is a long process. A lot of people come around to contribute this process initiating from the writing of the first sentence. Producer of the knowledge: scientists, paper-producer: werrâq, the calligrapher: khaṭṭāṭ, bookseller, bookbinder, expert in the ink, naqqāsh who marbles the papers, sponsors of the project, collection and the librarian are some of the contributors. Today, this adventure continues with the participation of enthusiasts which are: the author who re-writes the manuscript to revive it, the restorer who repairs the damage of the manuscript, the expert who creates the digital copy and institutions which publishes the facsimile.Nowadays manuscripts are accepted as important scientific data and are examined in many ways other than their contents thus new specialities have been occurred. At universities, the institutes which examine manuscripts have been established and academic journals have been published. Moreover, the critical edition of manuscripts is the main subject of some of the M.A. and Ph.D. theses.The studies on critical edition, which initiated earlier in some of the western countries, have made a rapid development and created its method. In Turkey, there are many critical editions of works which are based on various manuscripts from Theology to Literature fields. However, there is no significant mutual method among the studies yet. Also, their understanding of critical edition differentiates. In those studies, it has to be examined that basic parameters such as the selection of convenient copy, access to all copies of manuscript or priority of copies are applied to critical edition process. Most of the time it is observed that the advisor’s way of the critical edition has shadows on studies. However, fundamentally critical edition process needs expert contribution itself. Difference between studies is related to the fact that the critical edition is relatively a new field of study in Turkey. Therefore, specific studies in the field of critical edition and codicology are still needed to be developed. On the other hand, there are various publications to establish an objective methodology of the critical edition. Significant studies are being held by the Center for Islamic Studies (ISAM) to establish a mutual language and method for critical edition studies. The factor that led to the emergence of this article is the effort to contribute to the realization of this method. The article discusses the principles to be followed during a critical edition process. Moreover, topics are explained practically with examples selected from manuscripts. Those examples have been chosen from the author’s previous critical edition works. The article would be considered as an “Introduction to Critical Edition” for the researchers who are new at this field. In this respect, the article aims to make a methodological contribution to the critical edition studies.There are many parts of a manuscript –something more than the written text on the page– which makes it a whole. These parts can be divided into internal and external elements of the manuscript. All of these are parts have different levels of contribution to the examination of the critical edition of the work and the interpretation of the texts.Some external elements of manuscript are: ink production and color, inkwell, production of paper, foliation, rule-borders, and frames, ruling board (misṭara), sewing of quires, gilt and gilding, bookbinding, stamping and tooling, frontispiece, cases and pouches, storage boxes and cabinets, flap, tabula ansata, the history of manuscript.The internal elements of the manuscript are: text of the manuscript, script, subject, authenticity, historical value and importance, proprietor, literary features, number of copies and textual variants, scribes and copyists, whether it has been falsified or not, sources used or referenced by the author, abbreviations, records of marginalia, colophon, glosses and scholia, ownership statements, seals and seal impressions, word transposition or transposition of words/letters, waqf-statements, correction signs and corrections, countermarks.While the internal elements of manuscript are the work of critical edition, the external elements of the text fall within the field of codicology. Although critical edition and codicology are considered as separate sciences, there are points where they can contribute to each other. For instance, the ink tone or binding style of a manuscript may help to determine the writing date range of it. The references used by the manuscript can give us an idea about the name or the subject of another manuscript. The literary characteristics of the manuscript may reflect the author's success in language and literature fields. Thus, we are able to inform that the critical edition process of a manuscript requires the evaluation of substantial information at the same time which is no different from an archaeologist carefully examining an arrowhead. Therefore, whatever is the relation between History and Archeology has; Islamic sciences have the same relationship with critical edition. They are both individual sciences with methods of their own and two inseparable common sciences. Thus, without the contribution of codicology or other sciences, rewriting a manuscript on a computer does not mean making a critical edition of it. According to this information, we can define the critical edition as follows, “Critical Edition is the process of reviving of any manuscript -which belongs to Islamic civilization- with comparison of all available copies to create a single text which is closest to the text of the author and to determine the sources which this main text is based, citations such as verses, hadiths and poetry.”For studies on critical edition, the priority should be given to the texts which will contribute to this science. Before initiating critical edition, the authenticity of the author of the manuscript should be determined precisely. Of course, having a person's name on the page is not enough for determination. All copies of the manuscript must be identified. From those copies, critical edition should be based on the text that the author has personally written or prepared as a draft and other copies should be compared with this. In the absence of the author’s authentic copy, new criteria will apply. For instance, the copy written by the closest student of the author or the copy with the closest writing date takes precedence over the copies with no date. After comparison of all copies, the differences are shown in the citation.Critical Edition consists of two sections entitled as Edition (Editing/Dirāsa) and Text (Naṣṣ):The Edition section includes: the author’s name, lineage, place and date of birth, scientific life of the author and his/her prominent students, works, the authentication document which is proven that the text is belong to the author, the place of the work in the history of science, studies about the work, bibliography, literary characteristic, terms in the text, the amount and characteristics of the copies, the characteristic of the main copy which is determined as the fundamental text for the research, the rules and principles applied during the critical edition, the digital images of the first and last pages of the copies used. The Edition section is the part that demonstrates the reliability of the study. All external elements of writing are being introduced here. The importance of the text is confirmed by this edition process. Thus, the final shape of the edition section must be shaped by reading and understanding the text.In the text section, the main aim is to reach the very first text which has been written originally by the author. In this section, principles of morality and objectivity are followed. The text is preserved; additions or subtractions are not made. Cited sources at the manuscript are being found. Verses and ḥadīths are written with their sources. Poems are found in Dīwāns. Text is made legible with punctuation and pilcrow. Proper names, dates of death are written together. Page numbers in the manuscript are shown in square brackets. Some simple grammatical errors are corrected without interfering with the main text. Mostly the reason for this is the letters used for men or women. At the end of the study, a bibliography with all the resources used during the critical edition process is added. The Islamic codicology and manuscripts appear to receiving interest especially in academic studies. Considering that many manuscripts from the Ottoman Era are still waiting to be revived thus, we may come across profound critical edition works in the near future. Therefore, it is understood that individual studies related to the manuscript itself and the method of the critical edition will guide the researchers. (shrink)

In his talk about G.K.'s Weekly to the 1986 Toronto Conference, Father Brocard Sewell, O. Carm., spoke about Chesterton's tribute to Alderman Cedric Chivers. This tribute was written at the time of Cedric Chivers's death and was published in G.K.'s Weekly . Cedric Chivers was, for many years, the Major of Bath, a bookbinder, and one of the Directors of G.K.'s Weekly. He was one of Chesterton's close friends.

Taking his cue from Emerson and the eighteenth-century naturalist Gilbert White, Richard Quinney examines the beauty of the world and ponders our place in it in Field Notes. As much as we might look to the heavens, this earth is the only world in which we move and have our being, where we may see into the nature of all things. For many naturalists, writers, and poets, the boundaries between the animate and inanimate, the living and the dead, are ambiguous (...) and arbitrary. In the moments when we grasp the essence and wonder of nature, we know that all things are in its domain, that we too are nature. Yet nature is not necessarily benevolent to our human interests. We are subject to the same forces that work in all of nature. Nature is the source of life as well as its destruction as new life is being created. With pen and camera in hand, between town and country, notes are made and a life is lived. One world at a time, here on earth. Finalist, MIPA Midwest Book Awards, Midwest Independent Publishers Association Second Place Hardcover Fiction Book, 2008 New York Book Show, Bookbinders' Guild of New York. (shrink)

In this article, it is often pointed out to a more specific area by using the term Ṣūfi art on the basis of the aforementioned understanding. Thus, an analytic approach is adopted along with the usage of deductive method, and a layer of meaning is tried to be established through criticism and analysis. Firstly, a basic framework was constructed by mentioning the origins of Ṣūfi art. Then the attention was drawn to the sacredness included in Ṣūfi art in terms of (...) its historical frame and ontological structure. It is asserted that Ṣūfi art is based on four basic arguments: beauty, creativity, transcendence, and imagination. Ṣūfis considered art as an activity of beauty and the expressive power of it. Relying on the basic motive that Allah is the Greatest Artist, the Ṣūfis believe that the beauty of their art is a manifestation of Divine Names. They saw art as an expression of manifestation and unveiling. The Ṣūfis, who deemed the world in terms of Divine Beauty (Jamāl), witnessed the manifestations of the Divine Attribute of Beauty in all things; as a result of this witnessing, the masterpieces of Islamic art came into existence. It is the sapiental and the gnostic outlook that underlies this success of the Ṣūfi orders (tariqa) in Islamic history. In Ṣūfism, the perfection (kamāl) presupposes the beauty (jamāl); and each beauty presupposes also the perfection. Therefore, it is not possible to distinguish beauty from perfection in the Ṣūfi art. The sense of loving the beauty is so strong for them that they have tried to reflect the perfect beauty they witness in their works of art, to give an external presence to the phenomenon of beauty and to make the spiritual reality visible that is innate within their beings. Ṣūfism is in a sense an effort to seek beauty. It has been an endless longing to seek, search and witness The All Beauty, that is God Himself. The effort to search for Divine Beauty is sometimes revealed by tune, and sometimes by harmonious words or by a single line. Then, they turn into music, poetry, calligraphy and illumination. According to the maxim stating “There is a path from heart to heart”, these works were transmitted from one generation to another, ensuring the continuity of this Divine tune. Despite the fact that Ṣūfi works make no pretensions to be art as such, they were widely accepted, influenced the masses and gained appreciation in that they were created by people with a sincere heart, intimate sentiments and a deep world of contemplation. The second stage of the gnostic dimension in Islamic arts has been tried to be expounded through the ultimate goal of Ṣūfi art. In Ṣūfi tradition, the aesthetics and sensitivity of art attract attention at every opportunity, but the Ṣūfis did not consider art as their main aim. For them, art denotes only a means. Ṣūfis, who appeal to the eyes, ears and mind with the artistic forms, endeavoured to permeate to the hearts with the spiritual atmosphere provided. With their performances, exuberance and success in different branches of fine arts, they mobilized the aesthetic sentiments in each person's nature and ensured that the human pleasure become accorded with the divine pleasure. Focusing on the sapiential and gnostic dimension of Islamic arts, the basic principles of Ṣūfi art are emphasized as the third stage. It is also suggested that these principles also have a religious content are marked with religious style, have a strong sense of sacredness, possess generality and the peculiarity, have symbolic and representative aspects, are based on symbolism and have traditional characteristics, their style of expression is based on revelation, and are not intended to provoke carnal desires. As to the fourth remarkable factor within the sapiential and gnostic dimension of Islamic art, the Ṣūfi worldview behind the mentioned artistic works is given. As to the fifth remarkable factor in the gnostic dimension of Islamic arts, the thought behind the world of art sustained in the dervish lodges (tekke) is discussed. These dervish lodges were emphasized as the most important places where the beautiful word, beautiful sound and beautiful line converge and these lodges were evaluated as the kitchen where the fine arts were prepared and as the boiler where the arts are cooked. It is due to these features that each of the dervish lodges in Ottoman Empire became a kind of education and fine arts centre. In these lodges, many musicians, composers, poets, illuminators, bookbinders, carvers, engravers and marbling masters were trained. While the dervishes in the dervish lodges exhibited their own unique works of art, they also carried out the requirements of their spiritual trainings (sayru sulūk). (shrink)

Dentro de la historia de la encuadernación española destaca el florecimiento del estilo mudéjar entre los siglos XIII y XVI, sobre todo en la península Ibérica, sobresaliendo los trabajos realizados en algunas ciudades como Toledo. La Biblioteca Capitular de la Catedral de Toledo dispone de uno de los grupos más importantes de España, cuantitativa y cualitativamente, aunque su estado de conservación no es el más adecuado en muchos de los ejemplares. El presente trabajo pretende estudiar y analizar los diferentes tipos (...) de encuadernaciones mudéjares con lacerías, tipo de decoración muy propio de ciudades como Toledo, Salamanca y Barcelona. Se han estudiado las estructuras decorativas y los elementos artísticos empleados, las técnicas de decoración y de construcción, así como los materiales utilizados en la elaboración, con lo que hemos podido establecer el origen o procedencia de cada encuadernación en función de la estructura decorativa, de los motivos decorativos individuales, de las filigranas de las guardas originales y del tipo de cabezadas.Within the history of bookbinding highlights the flourishing Spanish Moorish style between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, especially in the Iberian Peninsula, highlighting the work done in cities like Toledo. The Chapter Library of the Cathedral of Toledo has one of the most important in Spain, quantitatively and qualitatively, although his condition is not the most appropriate in many copies. This paper aims to study and analyze the different types of bindings mudéjares with interlacing, kind of decoration very own cities like Toledo, Salamanca and Barcelona. Structures have been studied decorative and artistic elements employees, decoration techniques and construction, and materials used in the production, so we could determine the origin or source of each binding decorative structure function of the individual motifs from the original guards filigree type and bridles. (shrink)

Beylikler devri Türk-İslam ciltleri hem tezyînatları hem de üzerlerindeki dini içerikli ibareler, dua ve mücellid mühürleri vasıtasıyla cilt sanatı araştırmacılarının yayınlarına konu olmuştur. Ancak ciltlerdeki dua ifadelerini müstakil olarak konu edinen yayın sayısı oldukça azdır. Türk-İslam ciltlerinin gerek kapak yüzeyinde gerekse kapak içlerinde dua içerikli ibarelere rastlamak mümkündür. Makalenin konusu, Beylikler devrinde üretilen Türk-İslam ciltlerinin deri kaplı kapak içlerinde yer alan el-İzzü’d-Dâim ve’l-İkbâl (العزّ الدّائم والإقبال) yazısı, bu yazının yer aldığı desen kompozisyonu ve yazının analizidir. Makaledeki amaç, şimdiye kadar cilt (...) literatüründe müstakil olarak ele alınmamış el-İzzü’d-Dâim ve’l-İkbâl yazılı cilt kapak içi tezyînatı hakkında tespit edilebilen örneklerin detaylı desen ve yazı analizleriyle bilimsel birikim oluşturabilmek ve aynı ya da benzer ibarenin yer aldığı diğer İslam sanat eserlerini tespit ederek bu dua ibaresinin ciltlerdeki kullanım amacını ve kullanıldığı dönemleri belirlemeye çalışmaktır. Cilt sanatı literatürü ve yazma eser kütüphanelerinde yaptığımız araştırmalar neticesinde, Beylikler dönemine ait ciltlerin altı tanesinin kapak içinde el-İzzü’d-Dâim ve’l-İkbâl ibaresi tespit edilmiştir. Bu tespitlerin sayısı, yapılacak yeni araştırmalarla artabilecektir. Tespit edilen yazma eserler; Amasya YEK: 217, İnebey YEK Hüseyin Çelebi: 481 ve Ulu Cami: 318, Kastamonu YEK: 2856 ve 3435 ve Süleymaniye YEK Fatih: 5004’tür. Ciltlerin kapak, sertâb ve mikleb yüzeylerindeki tezyînatları, Beylikler dönemi cilt sanatı üslûbunu yansıtan süslemelerdir. Ciltlerin teknik ve tezyînatları, -mevcut olanların- istinsâh kayıtları incelendiğinde üç örneğin (Amasya YEK: 217, Kastamonu YEK: 2856 ve 3435) 14. yüzyıl tarihli olduğu ya da tarihlendirildiği, üç örneğin (İnebey YEK Hüseyin Çelebi: 481 ve Ulu Cami: 318, Süleymaniye YEK Fatih: 5004) ise 15. yüzyıl tarihli olduğu ya da tarihlendirildiği görülmektedir. Ciltlerin kapak içi deseni, bitkisel ve rûmî motiflerle bezeli tam zemin geometrik bir tasarıma sahiptir. Geometrik desenin içerisindeki altıgen paftalarda el-İzzü’d-Dâim ve’l-İkbâl (العزّ الدّائم والإقبال) yazısı yer almaktadır. İbarenin, cilt kapak içlerine tek satırda (İnebey YEK Ulu Cami: 318, Kastamonu YEK: 3435) ve çift satırda -½ oranında ters simetrik- (Amasya YEK: 217, İnebey YEK Hüseyin Çelebi: 481, Kastamonu YEK: 2856, Süleymaniye YEK Fatih: 5004) olmak üzere iki türde yazıldığı tespit edilmiştir. Her iki tasarımda da sülüs yazı çeşidi tercih edilmiştir. İnebey YEK Hüseyin Çelebi: 481 envanter numaralı 15. yüzyıla ait cildin kapak içinde ise diğer örneklerden farklı olarak yazı paftalarının bazılarında mücellit kitabesi bulunmaktadır. Kitabede, “Amel-i Mücellid Haydar b. Turbegî” yazılıdır. Kapak içi tezyînatının aynı olması nedeniyle, Kastamonu YEK: 2856 ve Süleymaniye YEK Fatih: 5004 envanter numaralı ciltlerin de Haydar b. Turbegî adlı mücellidin eseri olma ihtimali vardır. Ciltlerin kapak içlerinin tümü, çeşitli tonlarda kahverengi sahtiyanla kaplıdır. Derilerin gözenek türü bunu ispat eder niteliktedir. Süsleme tekniği, tüm kapak içlerinde soğuk baskı tekniğidir. Bu teknik adını, uygulanması esnasında altının kullanılmamasından almaktadır. Soğuk baskı tekniğinde, desenin deriye genellikle sıcak pres uygulaması yapılarak aktarıldığı bilinmektedir. Uygulamada yüzeyinde motif veya desenin yer aldığı kalıp, çivi ve diğer ciltçilik aletleri kullanılmaktadır. Çalışma kapsamındaki ciltlerde kapak içi deseninin kalıpla uygulandığı, deri üzerindeki desenin kesintili çizgilerden anlaşılmaktadır. Kapak içi tezyînâtını oluşturan desenin simetrik bir parçası, kalıba işlenmiş ve kalıp deri üzerine simetrik bir şekilde, boşluk bırakılmadan basılmıştır. Yapılan incelemelerden anlaşıldığı kadarıyla kalıbın basıldığı deri, kapak içine yapıştırıldıktan sonra kapak kenarlarından cilt ebadına uygun şekilde kesilmiş olmalıdır. Kalıbın bazı örneklerde hatalı basıldığı da görülmektedir. Bu da desenin devamlılığını kısmen bozmuştur. Soğuk baskı tekniğinde, desenin deriye genellikle sıcak pres uygulaması yapılarak aktarıldığı bilinmektedir. Desenin deri renginden daha açık olması, uygulamanın ısıyla yapılmış olduğunu doğrulamaktadır. Ciltlerin kapak yüzeylerinin kullanıma bağlı olarak yıprandığı ve bu nedenle desenlerin deforme olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Ancak kapak içleri böyle bir yıpranmaya maruz kalmadıkları için korunarak günümüze ulaşmıştır. el-İzzü’d-Dâim ve’l-İkbâl (العزّ الدّائم والإقبال) ibaresi Arapça bir terkip olup “sonsuz güç ve yüksek mevki” anlamına gelmektedir. Terkip; güç, kudret ve ihtişam anlamına gelen العزّ ve ferah, parlak ve yüksek mevki anlamındaki الإقبال kelimelerinden oluşmaktadır. İbare dua, temenni vb. maksatlarla kullanılmış olmalıdır. Çalışma kapsamındaki ciltler ve diğer İslam sanatı örneklerinden anlaşıldığı kadarıyla İslam sanat eserleri üzerinde el-İzzü’d-Dâim ve’l-İkbâl ibaresine 12. yüzyıldan 15. yüzyıla kadar geniş bir dönemde yer verilmiştir. (shrink)

Süsleme teknikleri her sanat dalında olduğu gibi cilt sanatında da zaman içerisinde değişim göstermiştir. 18. yüzyıl klâsik üslûpta ciltlerinin yapılmaya devam edildiği ancak aynı zamanda yeni tezyînat tekniklerinin denendiği bir dönemdir. Bu tekniklerden bir olan yekşah, cilt üzerine altınla işlenen motiflerin üzerine ucu düz veya oval olan demir aletin kakılması/bastırılması şeklinde uygulanan bir tezyînat tekniğidir. Bu süsleme tekniği, adını uygulamada kullanılan metal aletten almaktadır. Yekşah demiri olarak isimlendirilen bu alet, ortalama 15-16 cm uzunluğunda olup ağzı düz veya oval bir el (...) aletidir. Yekşah süsleme tekniği, yazma ciltler üzerine uygulanmaktadır. Yazma cilt, desenin fırça yardımıyla zermürekkep kullanılarak deri üzerine işlenmesi anlamına gelmektedir. Desenin yazma tekniğiyle (fırçayla) deriye nakşedilmesinin ardından yekşah demiriyle işlenmesi aşamasına geçilmektedir. Motiflerin üzerine, gidiş yönü esas alınarak yekşah demiriyle taramalar yapılmakta, desen üzerinden çizgiler halinde geçilmektedir. Deri bu tarama esnasında kısmen de çukurlaşmaktadır. Yekşah tezyînat tekniği, Türk cilt sanatına 17. yüzyıl sonu ile 18. yüzyıl başı itibariyle katılmıştır. 19. yüzyılda da örnekleri görülmeye devam edilmiştir. Ancak en yoğun kullanıldığı dönem 18. yüzyıldır. Yekşah tezyînatın çoğunlukla saray mücellitleri tarafından ve özellikle değeri yüksek eserlerin ciltlerinde tatbik edildiği bilinmektedir. Türk cilt sanatı literatüründe yayınlanmış ve müze ve kütüphanelerde tarafımızca tespit edilen yekşah cilt örneklerinin incelenmesi neticesinde, Türk ciltlerinde yekşah tezyînat tekniğinin 3 farklı desen üzerine tatbik edildiği tespit edilmiştir. Bunlar; rûmî, zerbahar ve barok-rokoko desenleridir. Rûmî desenli yekşah ciltlerde cilt kapağının tüm bölümlerinde yekşah tekniğinin uygulandığı görülmektedir. Ancak en yoğun ve çeşitli olarak şemselerde rastlanmaktadır. Bunun nedeni, yekşah tezyînatın görülmeye başlandığı 18. yüzyıl itibariyle cilt kapaklarında köşebentlere sıklıkla yer verilmemesi ve bezeme yoğunluğunun şemselerde görülmesi olabilir. Rûmî desenli yekşah ciltlerde şemselerin üç türü tespit edilmiştir. Bunlar; klâsik oval/beyzî formda dilimli şemse, dikdörtgen formda şemse ve dilimli dairevî formdaki şemsedir. Rûmî desenli yekşah ciltlerde desenin altınlarının daha net görülebilmesi amacıyla şemse ve salbek zemini sıklıkla bordo renkle boyanmıştır. Yekşah tekniğinin uygulandığı bir diğer desen türü ise zerbahardır. Zerbahar desen, 18. yüzyılın sonunda ve özellikle 19. yüzyılda görülen bir cilt tezyînat türü olup ciltlerin genellikle tüm yüzeyini kaplayacak şekilde uygulanmıştır. 18. yüzyıl itibariyle Türk ciltlerinde görülen realist üslûptaki çiçek veya Batı etkisindeki barok-rokoko motifleri üzerine de yekşah uygulaması yapıldığı belirlenmiştir. Türk Rokokosu, C ve S kıvrımlı motiflerle yüzeyin tamamen doldurularak süslendiği gösterişli bir bezeme üslûbudur. Kavisli ve yuvarlak şekillerle birlikte yaprak, çiçek motifleri ve çiçek demetleri bu bezeme üslûbunda yer almaktadır. Dayanıklılık bakımından zayıf olmasına rağmen yekşah tekniğin 18. yüzyıl ciltlerinde sıklıkla tercih edilmesinde, cildin sanat değerini arttırma çabası vardır. Bu teknik sayesinde, yazma olarak uygulanmış desen daha cazip hale getirilmiştir. Bu da cildin sanat değerini yükseltmiştir. (shrink)