The Istanbul Municipality recently released a book titled “In Praise of the Tulip.” It is about tulip, its importance in Turkish culture, its types and personal feelings associated with them.
Tulips don”t have a scent, but does it matter? They color our world in a stately manner with their bright cup-like blooms and sturdy long stems. The tulip originated in the Near East or possibly Central Asia, not in Holland as the Dutch might want the world to believe. Sometimes we also think that Istanbul residents would be delighted if the tulip had originated here, as we begin to enjoy the spring season with its tulip festival. This year”s festival continues through April 13, so there”s still a chance to get involved in some of the events, especially those in Taksim Square.
The tulip as symbol
The Turks call the tulip lale, a Persian word, suggesting they didn”t know about the tulip or didn”t pay attention to the flower as they moved from Central Asia into the Near East. The word tulip comes from another Persian word, tulbent, or muslin cloth that became corrupted into turban on the one hand and tulip on the other. They are grown from bulbs that should be planted in the fall so that they will come up in good time in spring.
The Ottomans had a wide range of comparisons between the tulip and humans and other images. The flower could be compared to the color of a beloved”s cheek. The singularity of the tulip when it bloomed was considered to be that of Allah, the one true God. The flower”s corolla was identified in Ottoman poetry as a woman”s garment or shift, so a red tulip might be described as a red shift. It might also be compared to a cup of wine. The black center of the tulip represented the brand that the fire of passion put there. Other flowers were also used in poetry to make comparisons, but none seem to have been as well loved as the tulip.
The tulip as traded commodity
No one is quite sure when the tulip was first recognized as having value, although it was most likely in the 16th century. If the poet Mesihi is to be believed, the Ottomans recognized tulips as important but didn”t grow them in gardens as late as the beginning of that century, until
Sultan Süleyman Kanuni directed the planting of tulips at Topkapı Palace in 1526.
Finding tulips in the sultan”s garden would have given added value to the flower. The first person to export tulips seems to have been the Austrian Ambassador Ghiselin de Busbecq, who sent them to Europe in 1554.
He claimed at the time that he found them in every Turkish garden. They then went to Clusius and he planted them in his garden in Leiden, the Netherlands.
From there they became all the rage even to the point of the Dutch establishing a commodity market to regulate the trade in tulip bulbs: You could even buy shares in bulbs without even seeing them. The price of tulips reached $5,000 at one point during the three years from 1634 to 1637 before the bubble burst. With entire fortunes wiped out overnight, the tulip ceased to be as popular as it had been. The Dutch turned to producing tulips as an export commodity and many of the more fanciful hybrids disappeared.
Back in Turkey nearly a century later, tulips really reached their height of popularity and even gave their name to a specific period between 1618 and 1630, the Lale Devri or Tulip Period. This was a time of festivals and entertainment under the patronage of Sultan Ahmet III and his son-in-law and grand vizier, İbrahim Paşa, who probably instigated the revelry. The area along the Golden Horn known as Sa”dabad was the scene for poetry readings, contests and drinking parties and even had tortoises wandering through the gardens at night with candles on their backs to illuminate the festivities.
The tulip as decoration
We see many tulips reproduced in a variety of mediums during the Ottoman Empire”s time. In a book written in 1764, the author lists 1,588 varieties. The most beautiful representations are to be found in the tiles of İznik, where internationally renowned workshops produced stunningly realistic but stylized tulips on vases, wall tiles, cups, plates, bowls, etc. These workshops supplied the imperial palaces and the homes of the wealthy usually from designs executed in Istanbul at artisans” workshops connected to the court.
The sultans who conducted victorious military campaigns against the rulers of Persia would usually bring the best artisans from the cities they conquered to Istanbul to work, and so one sees the influence of these men in the pieces they designed. The same floral designs can be found in the clothing woven for the imperial family as well as in carpets.
Efforts are being made today to revive ceramic art in İznik and Kütahya, another center of ceramic pieces, and by and large they have achieved some success, as can be judged by their products sold mainly in the Grand Bazaar.
Domestic news – Resource: Turkish Daily News
