{"id":3740,"date":"2025-11-07T17:43:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T14:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/?post_type=sirenas-whisper&#038;p=3740"},"modified":"2025-11-13T16:26:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T13:26:13","slug":"boat-patterns-in-traditional-turkish-art","status":"publish","type":"sirenas-whisper","link":"https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/en\/sirenas-whisper\/boat-patterns-in-traditional-turkish-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Boat patterns in Traditional Turkish art"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Turkish traditional arts are usually classified as calligraphy, marbling, miniature and tile. When dealing with religious subjects, especially in calligraphy, where writing and painting are used together, it is seen that the &#8220;Amentu&#8221; prayer is written in the form of a boat. This attitude appears in other branches of art as different ship and seafaring patterns. Here is another reflection of maritime culture.<\/p>\n<p>In calligraphy, two perspectives are generally dominant. The first are those who consider writing to be the art of painting and adopt the function of depiction, which Islam stays away from. The other perspective views calligraphy as a distinct art form. Since it combines meaning and form in a very different way from other art branches, they argue that calligraphy cannot be reduced to neither text nor painting.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3991\" src=\"https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/motif2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"644\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/motif2.jpg 644w, https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/motif2-300x192.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 644px) 100vw, 644px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The prayer that starts with the word &#8220;Amentu&#8221;, which means &#8220;I believed&#8221; in Arabic,summarizes the principles of faith of the Islamic religion. In decorations written in the form of a boat, while the Arabic letter &#8220;vav&#8221; reflect people rowing, boat is usually depicted in two different ways. The letter &#8220;vav&#8221; is used in the sense of &#8220;and&#8221; and it represents the belief in Allah, his angels, holy books, prophets, judgement day, good and evil. The names of &#8220;Seven Sleepers&#8221; are written between these letters and additional meanings are added. It is believed that the writing will bring abundance and luck and that it is a talisman that protects from disasters such as fire and the plague. Therefore, these calligraphy writing are found in places such as mosques, houses, coffee houses and shops.<\/p>\n<p>In one of the examples accompanying the writing, the prayer is written as follows: &#8220;O Allah, who transforms states and circumstances! Transform our situation into the best. O Lord of all dominion, my Allah.&#8221; In the ship shape created with the names of the Seven Sleepers (Maximilian, Jamblichus, Martin, John, Dionysius, Antonius, and Constantine), which is the first verse of the Surah Al-Fath, the letters &#8220;vav&#8221; represent the people and oars of the ship. It was written by calligrapher H\u00fcsni in 1903. In another example, the same names are accompanied by the verse text on the sails. The phrase &#8220;Mashallah&#8221; was placed on the flag at the back, with the letters extended to form oars. Calligrapher Mehmed Hulusi wrote it in 1900.<\/p>\n<p>Maritime themes are also found in architectural decorative arts. Among the 18th-century murals, depictions of flowers, fruit bowls, and landscapes are prominent, while boats are also seen in paintings depicting Istanbul. Over time, new topics have also entered the mural, but the most outstanding architectural example of the marine theme is the dome of the Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha Mosque. Due to the fact that the pasha was a sailor, there is a compass in the center of the dome. The writing on the dome is Surah Ibrahim which describes the progress of ships in the sea. The outer wall of the composition is drawn in the shape of a ship&#8217;s rudder, and the chain pattern seen in many works is used on the other walls.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3993\" src=\"https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/motif3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"644\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/motif3.jpg 644w, https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/motif3-300x192.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 644px) 100vw, 644px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The branch of traditional Turkish art in which the approach to painting comes to the fore is undoubtedly miniature painting. This type of painting, in which perspective is ignored, is based on neat work and is intertwined with the art of calligraphy. Since calligraphers generally do not need to paint, miniature has remained a separate specialty. This branch of art, which is also seen in Iranian art, often depicts historical events and figures, so many miniatures related to seafaring can be found. For example, you can see this on the imperial barge Sultan Osman boarded to go to the newly built palace in Levni&#8217;s work Surname, created in 1690. In another miniature in the Topkap\u0131 Palace Museum, the sultan is depicted watching a festive scene set up on a raft. On this scene floating in the sea, dancer boys dressed in women&#8217;s clothes are dancing.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that \u0130znik was the most important tile-making center between the 14th and 18th centuries brought ceramics and tile-making to advanced aesthetic qualities. Although natural plant patterns, flowers, and spring branches are generally used in the decoration of ceramics, ship depictions of various sailboats, boats, and galleons are also encountered. The examples which marine vehicles are used especially by being stylized are the product of a strong imagination. Therefore, it can be said that boat depictions are used in almost every branch of traditional Turkish art. In addition, the stylized wave borders seen on the edge borders of the plates created different compositions, especially in examples depicting boats. Distinguished examples of ship depictions appear not only on plates but also on various bowls, jars, vases, goblets, ewers, and jugs. As production quality in \u0130znik declined from the 17th century onward, the tile and ceramic tradition continued in K\u00fctahya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3989,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3740","sirenas-whisper","type-sirenas-whisper","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sirenas-whisper\/3740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sirenas-whisper"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sirenas-whisper"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sirenas-whisper\/3740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4029,"href":"https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sirenas-whisper\/3740\/revisions\/4029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sirenaselection.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}