Related Arts

Ebru

Marbling, a traditional Turkish and Islamic art, originated in Central Asia and dating back to the fifteenth century, can be described briefly as waterface painting. The Turkish word ebru, meaning clouds, describes the artist's own inner world. Patterns which take shape on water are fixed when they are transferred to paper or other materials, which are then used for a variety of purposes. As it is akin to abstract painting and contemporary graphic art, marbling is often framed and hung.

The art came first to Iran via the “silk road,” where it was called ebri, meaning “cloud” or “cloudy”. It was also called abru or “waterface.” Subsequently, the art moved toward Anatolia and was named ebru in the Turkish language. At about the end of the 16th century, tradesmen, diplomats and travelers coming to Turkey took this art to Europe calling it “Turkish Paper.” Marbling came to be used widely in Italy, Germany, France and England.

At the same time, marbled paper was used to decorate calligraphy, whether as a background or as decorative fillers for the blank spaces left in the four corners of the page. This is clear evidence that Turks envisioned marbling primarily as a work of art. Within this scope, ebru has been framed and displayed like oil paintings since antiquity. The use of ebru as endpapers in fine bookbinding was an additional use of the art.

Later, marbling art developed an important place in Islamic art. Turks adopted Islam with great fervor and they attempted to express the Beauty of the Divine in all artistic disciplines. They searched for mystical beauty in architecture, music, and in functional ornamental art. Out of this interest grew art workshops and students were trained in the master/apprentice method.

This method of training in arts and crafts was also applied to mystical learning as taught in the tekkes, or dervish lodges. Those wishing to learn came and began their apprenticeship by performing simple services. No professional questions were allowed during the training. The masters gave whatever was necessary according to the ability and capacity of the beginners. In time apprentices were promoted to senior apprentices and some ultimately became masters.

Many of the artists were dervishes, and having a modesty about their art, treated them in a traditional manner and left them unsigned. This is expressed in the couplet by the Turkish poet Necip Fazil, who wrote:

I admit now: art means to search for the Eternal Being.
That's the talent. The rest is nothing.

Excerpted from The Aesthetic Principle of Islamic Art by Hikmet Barutcugil

Hikmet Barutcugil was born in 1952 in Malatya. In 1973 he began studying textiles at the State Academy of Fine Arts. He became the student of calligraphy professor Emin Barin, and started the study of marbling at the same time. He is currently one of a few ebru masters and has taught and exhibited worldwide.

Calligraphy

Read! This was the first word of GodÕs revelation to the Prophet Muhammad, which was transmitted over a period of twenty-three years and is known to the world as the Koran. In manÕs desire to make the sonoral visual, the written word has held a position of primacy in the Islamic religion.

Beautiful writingÐcalligraphyÐcelebrates the sounds and meanings of this sacred text and preserves its accuracy. To write the Koran is an act of religious devotion and merit. It was said that, ÒHe who writes the basmala, beautifully, obtains innumerable blessings.Ó This phrase, ÒIn the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful,Ó begins all but one of the chapters of the Koran.

The introduction of printing in the Islamic world was delayed several hundred years until the eighteenth century because of the status attached to the pen as the traditional instrument for recording GodÕs word. When it finally arrived it actually liberated calligraphy from scribalism and freed serious calligraphers to concentrate on art rather than text.

Throughout history Muslim poets have sung the praises of calligraphy. Jalaluddin Rumi wrote: My heart is like the pen in your hand, From You comes my joy and my despair. We are the pens in the MasterÕs hand; We ourselves do not know where we are going.
Nizami wrote: I studied a hundred learned manuscriptsÐ When I found Thee, I washed off
the pages.

Though its origins are obscure, the Arabic alphabet predates the Islamic religion by as much as four centuries. By the time of Muhammad (c.e. 570-632), Arabic script, written from right to left, was a practical, though simple means of writing. It has nineteen basic letter shapes which are used to convey a total of twenty-nine letters.

From Persia, to Damascus, from Baghdad to Istanbul, from the Maghrib to China, the refined scripts were used by calligraphers to write the Koran or verses from it on paper, weapons that warriors took into battle, clothes such as dresses and shirts, on the walls of mosques, and everyday ornamental items such as ceramics, candleholders, trays and lamps. For Muslims the function of calligraphy is to support and strengthen their faith. Calligraphy was the king of Islamic art and it flourished when Istanbul became the cultural center of the Ottoman Empire.

A Turkish proverb says: The Koran was revealed in Makkah, recited in Egypt, and written in Istanbul.

In the latter part of the fifteenth century, Seyh Hamdullah, a fifty-year old calligrapher redesigned the structure of the six Islamic scripts and with the help of Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II, changed forever the way one looks at calligraphy.

The most important tool in calligraphy is the kalem, or reed pen. The size of the tip determines the size of the script, and different scripts require tips of different angles. For large pieces the pens are carved from wood. Ink is made of specially prepared soot, which is mixed with dense gum arabic and ground for more than thirty hours before thinning with water. In the early days the soot was placed in a water bag and attached to a camel and was mixed by the movement of the camel. Paper is dyed, sized, burnished and aged to prepare it for calligraphy.

One of the most cherished calligraphic expressions is the hilye, a written description of the Prophet Muhammad.

As one can appreciate Italian opera without understanding the language, one can appreciate Islamic calligraphy without a knowledge of Arabic, Turkish, Persian or Urdu. Translation adds to the experience but much of the communication between artist and observer is on a deeper, wordless level.

At its best, Islamic calligraphy creates a visual harmony that resonates within the spirit.

Adapted from Music for the Eyes, An Introduction to Islamic and Ottoman Calligraphy, by Mohamed Zakariya the foremost American Islamic calligrapher who holds icazets in sulusneshih and taÕlik, and Calligraphy and Islamic Culture by Annemarie Schimmel, a prolific author and educator who is one of the primary authorities on Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi.