NEBAHAT AVCIOGLU

AHMED I AND THE ALLEGORIES OF TYRANNY IN THE FRONTIS- PIECE TO GEORGE 'S RELATION OF A JOURNEY

Visual images accompanying sixteenth- and seven- to Victa Iacet, and a bull identified as Apis Sive Osyris. teenth-century European travel accounts of the Ot- A large medallion, framed with strapwork portraying tomans are among the subjects least utilized by art the Virgilian Sibylla Cumea, placed in the recess of historians. Yet these images are important, for they the plinth between the medals completes the overall give us some sense not only of technological chang- design. es in printing and book production of the time, but In terms of design, Sandys's frontispiece is similar also of the complex cultural and aesthetic background into which they are set. Although they were meant to complement the text, the difficulty and the cost of production limited the number of illustrations in any given book. Consequently, frontispieces acquired a special importance, not unlike heraldic or emblem- atic imagery, as they were often the only visual state- ment of the content of the book. They frequently employed elaborate iconography which allowed au- thors, with the help of their engravers, to transform their written accounts into symbolic codification. A characteristic example is the early-seventeenth- century frontispiece to George Sandys's travel account, A Relation of aJourney begun An: Dom: 1610. Foure Bookes Containinga description of the Turkish Empire, of , of the , of the Remote parts of , and Ilands adjoining,1St edition (London, 1615). The frontispiece (fig. 1) depicts a classical temple adorned with figur- al images. To the left on the plinth of the temple stands a male figure in Oriental dress. He is identi- fied with an inscription just above his head as Ach- met, Sive Tyrannus, that is, the reigning Ottoman Sul- tan (1603-17). Accompanying him on the right stands a female figure personifying the Egyp- tian goddess Isis. They are separated by the text, "A Relation of aJourney Begun .. ," which fills the cen- ter of the temple and above which are seated two other figures personifying Veritas and Constantia, "the guardian angels of Christian humanism."' The fig- ures, joined in the middle by an ornamental oval cartouche containing an image of the ascending Christ, viewed together form an illusionary pediment. At the Fig. 1. Frontispiece to George Sandys's travel account, A Rela- bottom of the frontispiece, on the left and right, two tion of aJourney begun An: Dom: 1610. (Photo: courtesy of the oval medals depict a lamenting Virgin with the mot- Syndics of the Cambridge University Library)

111 1 ____ 204 NEBAHAT AVCIOGLU

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Fig. 2. Frontispiece to Jean-Jacques Boissard's Vitae et Icones Fig. 3. Frontispiece to Richard Knolles's Generall History of the Sultanorum Turcicorum. (Photo: courtesy of the Syndics of the Cam- Turkes, from the first beginning of that Nation to the rise of the Otto- bridge University Library) man Familie. (Photo: Courtesy of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library)

to earlier frontispieces to books such as Jean-Jacques compartmentalization of the individual images stresses Boissard's Vitae et Icones Sultanorum Turcicorum, a com- the distance between the rulers and their willingness pilation of biographical information and portraits of to lead a war, which is quite accurate considering that the Ottoman , Persian shahs, and other nobil- it was not until the end of 1596 that both rulers were ities, published in 1596 in Frankfurt (fig. 2), and Rich- forced to take action in the Great Hungarian war, ard Knolles's GenerallHistory of the Turkes, from the First also known as the "Long War" between the Habsburgs Beginning of that Nation to the Rise of the Ottoman and Ottomans (1593-1606). Familie..., published in 1603 in London (fig. 3).2 Knolles's frontispiece is also a further exploration Boissard's frontispiece depicts the Holy Roman Em- of the theme of conflict between the Ottoman Em- peror Ferdinand on the left and the reigning pire and European powers, which is expressed through Mehmed III on the right. Both rulers are treated scenes of battles and warriors within an architectural equally: they are the same height and have the same setting entirely in keeping with its location: Byzan- thrust forward; though facing each other, neither tine-looking marble columns, for example, relate to makes eye contact. Their gaze is directed towards the the Ottoman lands and the drapery between the col- action in the battle scene below the title frame. As if umns conveys an exotic character.3 Both these fron- to emphasize their position as onlookers only, the tispieces deal with the subject of Europe's military

____ p__ _ ls ___ _·I AHMED I AND THE ALLEGORIES OF TYRANNY 205 achievements, and particularly with the victory at the moment in the process of Ottoman alienation in in 1571, when the combined forces European political discourse One of the reasons why of and defeated the Turkish fleet. If a new label had to be invented for the political conduct put in context, however, the allusion to the victory of the Ottomans, she argues, was that conventional at Lepanto seems to act as moralizing propaganda words such as "tyranny"' had become problematic, for the ongoing Great Hungarian war, which began partly because the word had been used predominantly in 1593 and lasted for thirteen years, to convey an to describe the political systems of ancient equality of power between the Ottomans and them- and ; but mainly because it had become part selves. The distinctive feature of Sandys's frontispiece of the international political criticism exchanged is, however, the shift from such images of equality of among the European powers.6 Nicolo Morin, the power to Christian supremacy over the Ottomans. This Venetian ambassador to the court of James I, report- is represented in the idiosyncratic style of the fron- ed the "government's tyrannical beginnings and de- tispiece-pairing of male with female, human with scribed the King as being the absolute master in all divine, real with imaginary, the present with the past. things."7 But most important, labeling the Ottomans Furthermore, Ahmed is paired with the mythologi- as "despots" was indicative of the increasing preoc- cal figure of Isis and not with a monarch as, for ex- cupation with defining national identities by draw- ample, in the case of Boissard's frontispiece. This ing a distinct line of demarcation between different incongruity alone suggests Sandys's attempt to elim- cultures-placing the , as it were, at inate the Ottomans from the European political frame the boundary between legitimate and illegitimate and to undermine their legitimacy as the portrayal government made the Ottomans not only the object of Ahmed as a tyrant would suggest. of ridicule and contempt, but also a source of polit- Although on the surface the frontispiece could be ical and religious speculation in general. read as an allegorical representation of the places If Valensi's argument is supplemented with visual visited by Sandys during his travels to the East, the evidence, we come closer to understanding the role portrayal of an Ottoman sultan as a tyrant stands out played by the Ottomans in the formation of the dif- as a landmark in the visual propaganda disseminat- ferent national identities in Europe in relation to the ed against the Ottomans in Europe, as we shall see. Ottoman Empire. Sandys's frontispiece, for example, Therefore its impact and intricacy must be addressed can be seen as a significant political strategy employed in detail. The nature of and the reasons for this type to disentangle the notion of tyranny within the Eu- of visual propaganda against the Ottomans, howev- ropean political discourse through the use of exten- er, cannot be understood without an inquiry into the sive but controlled visual symbolism. 's struggle construction of European political identity vis-a-vis to define its political and religious identity vis--vis the Ottomans during the first half of the sixteenth other European powers during the reign of the Stu- century. art King James I can determine how the frontispiece The frontispiece takes its theme from the contem- as a whole is to be understood. The English Renais- porary prophecies of the imminent collapse of the sance historian Jonathan Haynes argues that "Sandys Ottoman Empire and the return of Christianity to and his book stand squarely at the conjunction of the Holy Land. The image serves to strengthen the two great historical events: the consolidation of hu- argument put forward by Lucette Valensi in Venice et manist culture in England and the foundation of the la Sublime Porte: la naissance du despote, in which she British Empire."8 The allegorical frontispiece on which identifies a turning point in the history of European the content of the book is carefully staged reflects perception and description of the Ottoman Empire this new sense of English identity. 9 by analyzing the vocabulary used by the Venetian bailos. Sandys was born into an aristocratic family. At "At the twilight of the, sixteenth century," she writes, Oxford, he was educated in the humanist tradition, "the [verbal] image that the Venetian ambassadors and in his later years he became an ardent believer give of the Ottoman Empire clouds over, the sover- in the political causes of James I and later Charles I, eign's portrait takes on a grimace, and cracks begin and held an important government position as the to appear in every part of the imperial edifice."4 Fo- chief adviser to the governor of ,l° as well as cusing on the appearance of the word "despot" in being a Gentleman of the Chamber, which afforded the accounts of the bailos, Valensi identifies a crucial him a specific mode of engagement with the Otto-

1__1____11_____·_1__ ---- - - 206 NEBAHAT AVCIOGLU

Fig. 4. Gentile Bellini. Portrait of (1480). London, National Gallery. Fig. 5. Agostino Veneziano. Sfileyman the Magnificent with the fantastic imperial headgear (1535). London, British Museum. mans."1 His portrayal of Ahmed as a tyrant seems the Porte and Stuart England in contrast to the le- geared to demonstrate attributes that could never nient policies of Elizabeth's reign.14 belong to a European ruler and in particular to James Images of the Ottoman sultans had circulated I, an effort no doubt prompted by the fact thatJames throughout Europe since the capture of Constanti- had acquired the reputation of being a tyrant when nople in 1453. The portrait of Mehmed the Conqueror immediately after his succession to the English throne (1480), under a triumphal arch decorated with the in 1603, he made his claim to divine authority by images of earthly paradise, by Gentile Bellini (fig. 4), attributing his accession to the particular interven- and the engraving of Sfileyman the Magnificent with tion of God,12 a claim inspired by the union of the the fantastic imperial headgear (1535) by Agostino crowns of Scotland and England.' 3 Veneziano (fig. 5), as well as the full portrait engrav- Sandys's commitment to the divine-right principle ing of the same sultan celebrating the inauguration of the English monarch under James I sets the gen- of the Sfileymaniye Mosque in 1557 by Melchior Lorich eral tone of the program for the frontispiece. His (1559) (fig. 6) are among the best known examples. use of the label "tyrant." for Ahmed can be consid- Several engravings depicting the Ottoman sultans also ered part of the larger political strategy to control appeared in the works of European chroniclers of the image of the English monarchy as well as to reflect the Ottoman Empire, in albums, and in travelers' the changing context of political relations between accounts, but until the late sixteenth century they

_ _ __ AHMED I AND THE ALLEGORIES OF TYRANNY 207

LAMEN TO D"E S E "LIN DR IAN IMPERAD OR D T v R C H i Ndla rotta, & delruttion delta s Armada.

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...... Fig. 6. Melchior Lorich. Engraving celebrating the inauguration Fig. 7. Frontispieces to Pianto, et lamento de Selin, Drian Imperador of the Sfileymaniye Mosque (1559). de Turchi.

were all celebratory images not unlike those of Eu- chical power. In the woodcut figure, on the other ropean rulers. hand, Selim II is divorced from his natural setting: One of the first images to depart from this trend the palace, the capital, or the battlefield; one sees is the frontispiece of a pamphlet entitled Pianto, et him alone, captured within a frame standing on bare Lamento de Selin, which depicts the reigning sultan ground. Although he is shown holding the royal scep- Selim II (fig. 7) in the year of his defeat at Lepanto ter, it is no longer held aloft as a symbol of power; (1571).'? The woodcut depicts the sultan standing, instead it seems to rest on the shoulder of the sultan turned three-quarters to the right, wearing a tradi- as if to signify resignation, not unlike the position of tional three-layered costume and holding a scepter a rifle held by a defeated soldier. The effect may be with a crescent on top. Gilru Necipoglu has identi- partly the result of perspectival distortion, but an- fied this image from the evidence of earlier portraits other frontispiece, this one belonging to Lamento et 6 as a relatively accurate portrait of the sultan.' Ultima Disperatione di Selim Gran Turco, shows him The frontispiece is remarkable for its alteration of beating his chest, tempted into a suicidal state by the the image of an Ottoman sultan when compared with, demon sneaking up from behind (fig. 8).17 say, Lorich's depiction of Siileyman the Magnificent Although both images portray a weakened sultan, in 1559. In the latter engraving, a narrative of mag- phrases such as Gran Turco and Imperador de Turchi nificence surrounds the figure of the sultan, within accompanying the frontispiece reinstate his power. which the figure is magnified to represent monar- These images were part of the immediate reaction to

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Fig. 8. Frontispiece to Lamento et Ultima Disperationedi Selim Gran Fig. 9. Frontispiece to Laonikos Chalkokondyles's L'histoire de la Turco. decadence de l'empire grec, et establissement de celuy des Turcs. (Photo: courtesy of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library)

the victory at Lepanto that lasted for a brief time age to the Christian victory at Lepanto, as the scenes because of continuing Ottoman pressure. This real- flanking the title of the book suggest.'9 Combining ization led to a very different kind of image of victo- text with images, the frontispiece is divided into three ry in frontispieces during the reign of subsequent sections. The first and the largest of the sections dis- sultans. plays the power of the Ottomans by depicting the The frontispiece to the 1612 French edition by sultan riding an elaborately caparisoned horse accom- Thomas Artus (first published in 1577) of the late- panied by soldiers and a group of prostrating slaves. 20 fifteenth-century Greek historian Laonikos Chalko- Despite the charged scene, the surrounding texts and kondyles's L'histoire de la decadence de l'empire grec, et images convey a very different idea of that power. It establissement de celuy des Turcs, provides one of the is both undermined and elevated at the same time, earliest manifestation of this change (fig. 9).S1 This for the Latin inscription, Quid Superbis Deus Irdebit two-volume work has two engravings depicting the Prostratus Tandem Solideo Servies ("Whatever you are reigning sultan Ahmed I. One is portrait bust at the proud of God will mock; prostrate at last you will end of the second volume (fig. 10): the other is a serve the only God"), mocks their power and pro- sultan on horseback in an allegorical frontispiece. Far claims Christian prophecies of Ottoman destruction. less enigmatic than the frontispiece to Sandys's work, In this sense, the image of the Ottoman magnificence this frontispiece could also be perceived as an hom- is merely a device for expressing a certain kind of

----·- ·--- I(IF--*--·l·------AHMED I AND THE ALLEGORIES OF TYRANNY 209

when the same image reappeared in 1633 in the fron- tispiece to Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq's letters from f io68 Continuation del'hi toire (fig. 12), the crescent remaining at the sum- ACHMAT OV ACHMET I. DV mit of the temple suggests that once the memory of the victory at Lepanto had faded, so had the hopes noma, S. Empereur des Turcs. for recapturing Istanbul.2 1 To go back to the treatment of Ottoman sultan portraits, both the frontispiece and the single por- trait of Ahmed at the end of the second volume eas- ily fit into the established norms for portraying Ot- toman sultans as legitimate rulers. They contain the usual attributes of rulers such as the crescent, scep- ter, aigrettes, and plumes decorating the sultan's tur- ban, and a richly caparisoned horse, all of which were considered emblematic of the Ottomans. 22 Sandys's frontispiece, which appeared three years after the translation of Chalkokondyles's history in 1615, pre- sents a dramatic contrast by denouncing any attributes of royalty, including the scepter and the crescent. If the earlier frontispiece left Ahmed's identity ambig- uous, the inscription declaring him "Achmet sive Tyr- annus" in Sandys's frontispiece leaves no doubt. And whereas Chalkokondyles's frontispiece still promotes the sovereign as a man of action, mounted on a roy- al horse in the company of his soldiers, Sandys's por- trayal of Ahmed rejects such a notion by presenting him immobile in front of a classical temple. Although solemn and monumental in posture, the grandeur of Ahmed is clearly undermined by the long unre- markable robe he wears, which seems deliberately Fig. 10. Portrait bust of Ahmed I in Laonikos Chalkokondyles's designed to look dull and inelegant. His bulky tur- L.'histoire de la decadence de l'empire grec, et establissement de celuy des Turcs. (Photo: courtesy of the Syndics of the Cambridge University ban has been stripped of its imperial ornaments; he Library) is depicted with a scruffy beard and melancholy eyes. His gaze is directed away from his surroundings, and "his narrow shoulders, emphasized by the exaggerat- confidence in Europe confirming the reader's un- ed lower belly, make him look somewhat deformed".2 3 derstanding of the recent shift in power. This sub- por- version, i.e., the contrasting messages of the word With such an image, Sandys seems to set out to and image, is clearly a necessary device for forging a tray a different idea of an Ottoman ruler, which aimed new idea of the Ottomans that is capable of generat- at distancing Ahmed from the previous Ottoman sul- ing a new image of a stronger Christendom. Clearly, tans and from the very idea of a legitimate ruler. the stronger the opponent the worthier the achieve- Sandys's engraver Francis Delaram was probably ment. The final message of the frontispiece appears guided by the written description of Ahmed for this in the right-hand corner where a cross replaces a portrait. It is worth quoting the relevant passage from crescent at the summit of a classical temple (fig. 11), the Relation of a Journey: which is clearly a reference to Christian hopes for He [Ahmed I] is, in this yeare 1610, about the age of recapturing the city of and reconvert- three and twenty, strongly lim'd, & of ajust stature, yet ing back to a church, as the Latin in- greatly inclining to be fat: insomuch as sometimes he scription Verso Vice Resurgam et Iterum ("Turned around is ready to choke as he feeds, and some do purposely I will rise again and once again") declares. However, attend to free him from that danger. His face is full and

_ ____ I__ ___I__ __ I__ 210 NEBAHAT AVCIOGL.U

Fig. 11. Detail from L'histoire de la decadence de l'empire grec, et establissement de celuy des Turcs. (Photo: courtesy of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library)

duely proportioned: ... onely his eyes are extraordinary nate; a yoke is a symbol of servitude indicating his .great, by them esteemed an excellency in beauty. Fleme power to enslave; broken scales symbolize injustice; hath the predominancy in his complexion. He hath a and the books under his feet his denunciation of little haire on his upper lip, but lesse on his chin, of a Truth, i.e., Christianity. darksome colour. His aspect is haughty as haughty as But where did these symbolic associations come his Empire is large, He beginneth already to abstain from from? Historians exercise; yet are there pillars with inscriptions in his such as Corbett and Lightbown have Serraglio, between which he threw a great iron mace, that argued that frontispieces were designed so that the memorise both his strength, and activity.... His Turbant readers "are confronted with conceits of the author, is like in a shape to a pumpion, but thrice as great. His represented at the front of his book in visual sym- under and upper garments are lightly of white sattin, bols that he himself had chosen and designed as its or cloth of silver tishued with an eye of green, and most fitting emblems."2 6 Much of the allegorical im- 24 wrought in great branches. agery in early-seventeenth-century frontispieces were Although this description of him as a gluttonous, derived from sixteenth-century emblem books, which indolent, and vain person may well have been one of were widely used for title pages and frontispieces for 2 7 the sources used for the visual rendering of the sul- printed books in general. Sandys and his engraver tan 25 the set of objects accompanying Ahmed's por- no doubt also made use of them; Francis Delaram trait suggests that Delaram's image should be read trained under renowned engravers such as Renold as complementing the written descriptions rather than Elstrack, Crispijn, and Willem and Simon de Passe, simply deriving from them. Ahmed is rendered with all of whom had an interest in emblematic images. 2 8 an orb in one hand and a yoke in the other, with The emblems used with the word Tyrannus can be a books under his feet and a broken scale on the floor. case in point. The composition seems to be self-explanatory-an orb The first emblem of tyranny appeared in an early signifies the world that Ahmed is aspiring to domi- book of emblems compiled by the Flemish humanist

___1 1 _____ll_____lrlIll___l_(·llb_·_ll 1_ -- ------AHMED I AND THE ALLEGORIES OF TYRANNY 211

Fig. 13. Emblem of Tyranny from Johannes Sambucus's Emblemata cum aliquot nummis antiqui operis. (Photo: courtesy of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library)

gram, "His will is his law."30 By using the word tyran- nus, Sandys might have tried to invoke a similar sen- timent regarding Ahmed, but the absence of any dis- cernible Ottoman motifs in Sambucus's emblem suggests no particular reference to an Ottoman ruler. By the same token, the presence of objects such as a crown, a sword, and wild beasts-the visual attributes of a tyrant-are missing from Sandys's personifica- tion. Another source available to Sandys may have been the collection of emblems entitled Iconologia. Overo descrittione di diverse imagini cavate dall'antichit&, e di propria inventione by the Italian Cesare Ripa, first pub- lished in Rome in 1593 without illustrations and then again in 1603 with over 400 images.3 1 Although the '- . - t!'¶ *'7 !- work was not translated into English until 1630 and Fig. 12. Frontispiece to Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq's Gislenii even then remained in manuscript form until 1709, Busbequii omnia quz extant. Cum Privilegio, 7th ed., 1633. (Photo: Sandys could have known the 1603 Italian edition. courtesy of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library) However, neither in this nor later editions-with the Johannes Sambucus in 1564. It seems to illustrate the exception of the French translation of 164432 (fig. sixteenth-century popular notion of tyranny (fig. 13).29 14)-was the emblem of tyranny illustrated. Sandys's It shows an ancient Greek ruler pointing a sheathed debt to Ripa's epigram is nonetheless evident in both sword at prisoners who have been brought to his the verbal and the visual depiction of Ahmed. For presence by a soldier, while a hungry lion roars in Ripa, like Sambucus, emphasizes "haughtiness" as the background. The accompanying epigram char- necessary for a tyrant: acterizes the two distinct animating faculties of the An armed woman, somewhat pale, haughty, and cruel tyrant as being animal instinct and irrationality, which in appearance, and standing in armor with a purple sash, are manifested in the concluding maxim of the epi- a crown of iron on her head, in her right hand is a drawn

I 1__ 212 NEBAHj AT AVCIOLU

of "haughtiness." 3 4 Furthermore, Ripa's tyrant is de- picted "on her feet," 3 5 like Sandys's Ahmed, "in or- r ' * -· -' ' :' der to demonstrate vigilance, which is necessary to TIRANNIE . the tyrant."3 6 But the most striking link between Ri- °...... pa's tyrant and Ahmed is the presence of a "yoke." tttt *. -- t According to Ripa, it signifies "one who obtains the obedience of the subjects with terror." This and many I other aspects of Ripa's epigram can easily be observed in Sandys's account of Turkish policy and the ruler of the empire: But the barbarous policie whereby this tyrannie is sus- tained, doth differ from all other: guided by the heads, and strengthened by the hands of his slaves, who thinke it as great an honour to be so, as they do with us that serve in the Courts of Princes: the naturall Turke (to be so called a reproach) being rarely employed in command or service: amongst whom there is no nobility of blood, no knowne parentage, kindred, nor hereditary posses- sions: but are as it were of the Sultans creation, depend- ing upon him onely for their sustenance and prefer- ments. Who disposeth, as well of their lives as their for- tunes, by no other rule than that of his will.3 7

; '- . - _. -_ ------Ripa's emblem, then, has an iconography similar to that presented both in the figure of Ahmed holding Fig. 14. Emblem of Tyranny from Jean Baudouin's Cesare Ripa, a yoke and in Sandys's literary descriptions. Yet the Iconologie. (Photo: courtesy of the Syndics of the Cambridge Uni- absence of Ottoman motifs in Ripa's emblem also versity Library) demonstrates-though less explicitly than that of Sambucus-that the notion of tyranny was associat- sword, and with her left she trails a yoke. She is depicted ed primarily with the ancients and that contempo- armed and on her feet in order to demonstrate the rary Ottoman rulers still remained outside the col- vigilance, which is necessary to the tyrant, to conserve lective notion, as an emblem tries to convey, until the greatness of her violent state, which stands always the beginning of the seventeenth century. This in- with her spirit and forces dedicated to her own defense, and to the offence of others. She is pale because of terpretation is also confirmed by Valensi's reading continuous fear and anxiety, which perpetually molest of the diplomatic reports produced by the Venetian and afflict her. She displays cruelty and haughtiness in bailos, who continued to discuss the Ottoman politi- her face because one of these plagues leads to unjust cal system within the norms of legitimate governments 3 8 greatness, and the other preserves it. She is dressed in until the middle of the seventeenth century. But purple, and a crown of iron, to demonstrate her lord- that is not to say that there had never been an occa- ship, which, however, is barbarous and cruel. Instead sion when the word tyranny was equated with the of a scepter, a symbol of greatness and of legitimate Ottomans. On the contrary, the emblem of Fortuna, government, she holds a drawn sword. As one who which we also find in Sambucus, has a clear refer- obtains the obedience of the subjects with terror, ence to "Turkish tyranny," and unlike the emblems shepherding them not for their good, as does the good of tyranny, makes explicit use of Ottoman motifs (fig. shepherd, but to subdue them under a plough, and to 15).39 fleece them, as does a boorish cattle thief. Having as a Fortuna is represented as a female figure with her goal only one's own benefit she holds a yoke in her attributes of swirling scarf and hair blowing in the hand."' wind and with a globe under her feet. She is holding Sandys's remark that Ahmed's "aspect is as haughty high above a flame a Turkish imperial turban, de- as his empire is large" is in keeping with this theme noted by a long plume of feathers, which has been AHMED I AND THE ALLEGORIES OF TYRANNY 213

whip, and a Turkish sword in the foreground depict fortune as a worldly possession with a fleeting pres- ence signified by the globe under her feet and the blowing wind. The emblem could also be read as moralizing propaganda encouraging Maximilian to wage war against Sifleyman the Magnificent and there- by also encouraging conscription into the armies at war throughout Europe. Considering that both Cath- olics and Protestants rejected war as barbaric, this iconography can be viewed as an appropriate instru- ment for the justification of wars in general.4 1 The Turkish sultan as tyrant in this case may represent Christian sentiments about war during the religious conflict in Europe. Although Europeans were also occupied with combatting the threat of Turkish ex- pansion into Europe, it was conflict over territories and religion in Europe that divided them. Some reli- gious and political thinkers of the time, including Erasmus in the Netherlands and Thomas More in Fig. 15. Emblem of Fortuna fromJohannes Sambucus's Emblemata England, argued that the real enemy was not the 'Turk 4 2 cum aliquot nummis antiqui opens. (Photo: courtesy of the Syndics on the outside but the Turk inside." of the Cambridge University Library) A reworking of Sambucus's emblem of Fortuna by the English artist Francis Hyckes in a 1611 tapestry pierced with a sword held by an arm emerging from decorating the walls of Hatfield House (fig. 16) also the clouds. In the middle burns a fire surrounded by demonstrates that even he did not find it appropri- wild animals, reminiscent of the emblem of tyranny. ate to identify the Ottomans with the notion of tyr- The emblem is dedicated to "the glorious King Max- anny. Hyckes substitutes for the turban ajar pouring imilian of Bohemia" and is "about the Turkish tyran- water on a fire burning below, but repeats the last ny"; it continues: line from Sambucus's emblem of Fortuna as a mot- Too much swollen and intoxicated by the temptation to, Tyrannus nullum nisi que[m] timet amat ("the tyrant 43 of fortune, he will madly rush to wherever his desire takes loves no one but him whom he fears"). him. Everything that he undertakes he undertakes by The preceding discussion suggests that Sandys's force and deceit, Breaking alliances, treatises and prom- labeling of an Ottoman sultan as tyrannus and show- ises in his faithless manner! And so you recognize the ing him with specific objects and expressions falls tyrant even better in all respects. He rages without God's outside the conventional forms of representing the fear also against his own people. To the same extent the Ottomans in the early seventeenth century. It seems deceitful ruins his own friends by his cunning, and like that the purpose of the motto was to promote the a wild animal he devours everything that is around him. idea that Ahmed shared the characteristics of a ty- Neither duty nor yellow gold changes his mind, and the rant prescribed in the emblems of tyranny and there- cruel ridicules and detests law, justice and equality. With fore should be considered to be one. By conveying him you will try in vain peace and everything else. It re- this idea, Sandys's frontispiece not only introduces quires the sword because he only loves those whom he the theme of tyranny into the prevailing perception fears.40 of the Ottoman ruler, but also modifies the notion This emblem represents the events of the time of its of tyranny in accordance with these perceptions. appearance; it celebrates the coronation of Maximil- Norman Bryson, in his seminal work, Word and Im- ian II as Holy Roman Emperor in 1564, the year in age, tells us that there are two aspects to an image which the book was published, and anticipates the that emerge simultaneously: "... the image must re- Turkish threats facing the new rule. It might also be call and reinforce the family of representations of taken as a warning to the Ottomans that their good the scene already encountered, like a memorandum; fortune may not last forever: the discarded arms, a and ... is subordinated to a proleptic place within

__ __ _11______(__1_____ 1_ I I 214 NEBAHAT AVCIOIGLU

ELlz'arTA D. G.A'GLL. Fig. 16. Emblem of Tyranny. "Tyrannus nullum nisi que[m] timet u; lR E f FT N..IC. . . .. V . amat" on the Sheldon tapestry by Francis Hyckes, 1611. Hatfield .. = .. .. - -

House. (Photo: courtesy The Marquess of Salisbury) 'r-......

Fig. 17. Crispin de Passe, Sr. Engraving of Queen Elizabeth I (1596). (Photo: courtesy of the Syndics of the Cambridge Uni- versity Library)

future memory."4 4 Sandys's image of Ahmed, and the concerned with transposing existing cultural symbols frontispiece generally, does precisely that. and notions into an unfamiliar context than with Sandys, like most Europeans, was fascinated with producing a literal portrait of an Ottoman sultan sym- the unlimited power of the sultan, a power that could bolizing the country he visited. For example, the sym- claim to dominate the world, that could enrich the bolism of an orb is predominantly European; as state revenues beyond imagination, and, most impor- Salomon Schweigger, the contemporary traveler to tant, that could enslave Christians and other nations. , remarked: "Golden chains, royal crowns, scep- Throughout his discussion of the Ottoman army and ters, orbs, clocks and similar Imperial regalia are treasury, Sandys conforms to the late-sixteenth-cen- unknown there [in Turkey] and not in use."45 There tury perception of the supreme power of the sultan, are numerous early-seventeenth-century images of tying his strength and wealth, as did earlier observ- Queen Elizabeth I showing her with a globe in her ers, to the voluntary submission of his subjects. In hand-including images by the tutors of Delaram (fig. the frontispiece to the Relation of a Journey, Ahmed's 17; compare with fig. 1).46 By placing a globe in power is signified, not by the marching army and Ahmed's hand, Sandys's engraver both confirms prostrate slaves evident in Chalkokondyles's frontis- Ahmed's status as a monarch and simultaneously piece, but by the presence of a golden globe which denies his legitimacy by showing him usurping an Ahmed holds high in his left hand. European icon.4 7 The message is therefore also about Sandys's frontispiece is a provocative image more the stability of monarchical legitimacy that suffers at

II_ ___ _I____ _I_ AHMED I AND THE ALLEGORIES OF TYRANNY 215 the hands of the Ottomans, as the juxtaposition of the globe with the yoke that Ahmed holds with equal vigor suggests. By the end of the sixteenth century, the Ottoman administration of justice had become the target of attacks by Europeans, who argued that it was based solely on the will of the sultan and not on written law and therefore could not guarantee justice, but the sultan himself did not become the object of such criticism until the middle of the seventeenth centu- ry. The notion of injustice became a leitmotif in Eu- ropean perceptions of the Ottoman Empire, repre- senting a stark contrast to the sultan's perception of himself as the spearhead ofjustice. 48 Accordingly, the readers of Ripa's Iconologia would have encountered the characteristics of the Ottoman Empire, not in the emblems of tyranny, but in the emblems of injustice. Injustice offers a profound cul- tural synthesis of the overall sentiment about the Ottomans prevailing in Italy at the time, and is also acutely expressive of certain aspects of the observa- tions of the Venetian bailos and ambassadors that Valensi discusses. In the first illustrated edition of Fig. 18. Emblem of Injustice from Ripa's Iconologia, 1603. (Photo: the Iconologia there are two separate entries for the courtesy of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library) emblem of Injustice, only one of which is illustrated (fig. 18). 4 9 Both epigrams remark on the despicable broken scales. She is depicted deformed, because injus- and monstrous character of a person who is blinded tice, where the universal troubles of people, and the civil by greed, signified by a toad in one epigram and a wars often derive, is considered very ugly. The scimitar rich golden cup in the other, which she secures only signifies distorted justice; and the Barbarian clothing through cruelty and denunciation of the laws: cruelty, the blood stained white shirt signifies the cor- rupted purity ofjustice. And to this corruption belongs The personification of Injustice is a tall woman of com- also the golden cup, having his eyes, that is his will and manding appearance, wearing a turban and a rich robe. his thoughts, the unjust Judge turns towards avarice, to Her white cloak is spattered with blood, and she holds the charm of gold only. Because he can not hold at the a blood-stained scimitar in one hand. At her feet lie torn same time the scales, and the reason, they fall, where scrolls, parts of a broken pair of scales, broken tablets they come to be trampled upon as if they are things of of the Decalogue, and a fragment of an obelisk. On her minor value. 51 shoulder sits a toad. Her spotted white robe represents purity corrupted by injustice. Her turban and robe sug- Although Injustice is represented by a female figure, gest the barbarous lands where injustice is common. The the contemporaries of Ripa would have had little curving scimitar symbolizes twisted justice, while the difficulty in assuming the real identity of this figure broken scales, tablets, and scrolls represent broken faith to be an Ottoman sultan in disguise, even though in justice. The toad is a symbol for greed, upon which the engraver has omitted the turban and substituted much injustice is founded.50 a European sword for a scimitar. Sandys's direct adop- tion of this emblem is observable in the broken scales And the next one: and books thrown on the ground under Ahmed's feet. A deformed woman dressed in white sprinkled with Another subtle influence is discernible in Ahmed's blood, with a turban on her head, in the fashion of the garment. Since it is an important aspect of the sym- Barbarians. She holds in her left hand a big golden cup, bolism in Ripa's emblem, as the epigram would sug- towards which she keeps her eyes turned, in her right gest, it is fair to assume that it also received atten- [hand] she holds a scimitar, and on the floor are the tion in Sandys's depiction. Unlike Ripa, Sandys makes

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dinary sword with a straight blade (compare fig. 18 A _ groizo and fig. 19). Appearing only in the English edition, the significance of the change from female to male figure and from a straight to bent blade points to European attempts to establish a more concrete de- fining characteristic of Ottoman sultans as initiated by Sandys's image. The accompanying epigram men- tions nothing of the turban or the bent sword, leav- ing the image to speak for itself: A Man in a white Garment full of Spots; a Sword in one Hand, and a Goblet in the other; the Tables of the Law all broken to pieces, on the Ground; blind of the right Eye, and tramples on the Balance. His Garment denotes Injustice to be the Corruption and Stain of the Mind. The Laws broken, the Non-observance of them, being despis'd by Malefactors; and the due weighing of Mat- ters neglected, intimated by the Balance. The blind Eye shews that he sees only with the left; that is his own interest. 5 3 Sandys's frontispiece replaces a female personifica- tion with a portrait of Ahmed using two devices- word and image: tyrannus and all the visual attributes of injustice. The intention is clearly to draw on the already existing modes that the readers would use to characterize the Ottomans and to modify these stock Fig. 19. Emblem of Injustice from the English translation of Ripa's notions in order to suit the contemporary context Iconologia or Moral Emblems, 1709. (Photo: courtesy of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library) and the rapidly changing relations between Europe and the Ottoman Empire. In the frontispiece and as no reference to blood stains, but instead ingeniously well as in his book, it seems that Sandys's mission sprinkles the dress with small dark spots, thereby giving was to place Ahmed and James I, or for that matter at once the illusion of a traditional Turkish costume other rulers in Europe, on opposite sides of the po- and the "purity corrupted by injustice" referred to litical spectrum. in the first epigram. By the same token, the 1633 Labeling Ahmed a tyrant gave Sandys the oppor- English translation (published in 1709) of the emblem tunity to rescue the reputation of James I as a tyran- of Injustice makes no reference to bloodstains, but nical king by highlighting the attributes of a tyrant, to "a white garment full of spots," which according notably belligerence and inevitable downfall. Erasmus, to the author, "denotes Injustice." This may have been in the Education of the Christian Prince, advises the prince the result of Sandys's modifications of Ripa's emblem. not to wage war unless it is impossible to avoid, for The English version not only eliminates the refer- he claims that wars are barbaric and therefore the 5 4 ence to blood but also transforms the female figure greatest threat to humanity. Over a century later, of Injustice into a male figure (fig. 19). He stands in in the same tradition of advice to princes, the anon- front of what seems to be a classical temple with two ymous author of A Briefe Discourse upon Tyrants and of its columns visible, against a view of open country. Tyranny also denounces wars and identifies them as The male figure of Injustice wears a turban and holds a tyrannical practice: a Turkish sword, identified by its slight curve, corre- So then Tyranny cannot agree with the joyfull tidings sponding to the epigram rather than to the illustra- of the Gospel, which desires the unity of spirit in the tion. Although Ripa gives particular iconographic bond of peace. Now where Law, Religion, and the Love importance to the bent sword-namely "distorted of People are, it makes a threefold cord, not easily bro- justice"- in his illustration, the figure holds an or- ken, which drawes on plenty, peace, and prosperity. And

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if such a Prince comes to be invaded, he is commonly to which Sandys pays so much attention in his the last that suffers, when a Tyrant is ever the first.55 discussion of Turkish religion and the life of the Prophet in the Relation of aJourney: "Their James I's well-known maxim "peace at home and peace Morall and Ecclesiasticall lawes, the Turkes do receive abroad" immediately sets him on the opposite side from Mahomet, the Saracen law-giver: a man of obscure of a tyrant.f 6 parentage, born in a yeere 551. His father a Pagan, The importance of the motto, Tyrannus, lies also his mother a Jew both by birth and religion." 61 The in its contribution to the allegory of constancy.5 7 For presence of Isis might also be read as a reference to the seventeenth-century audience, the notion of tyr- religions that are long past or condemned to be sur- anny involved the inevitable destruction and ruin of passed by the revealing truth of Christianity, as well empires, as is evident from the same anonymous as a celebration of the purity of ancient civilizations, author: highlighting the contrast between her and Ahmed. Tyrannie is most commonly taken for the irregularity For Sandys, whose ultimate goal was to diminish of him that governs in chiefe, who only rules accord- the legitimacy of the Ottoman Empire, the impuri- ing to will; for in subordinate instruments it is called ties of Muhammad's background could only have oppression: And under this title it caused the ruine of represented tyranny. He claimed that Turkish civili- the first world, as it doth now of all corporations where zation, culture, and religion is a conglomeration of it is suffered too much to abound. 58 different languages and civilizations that lacked the coherence of an ancient civilization. He wrote: This allegory was well recognized and captured in Sandys's rendering of the success of the Ottoman The Turkish tongue is lofty in sound, but poore of it- Empire as a self-consuming process: self in substance: for being originally the Tartarian,who were needy ignorant pastors, they were constrained to And surely it is to be hoped that their greatness is not borrow their termes of State, and office from the Per- only at the height, but near an extreme precipitation: sian, (upon whose ruines they erected their greatnesse) the body being grown too monstrous for the head; the of Religion (being formerly Pagans) from the Arabians; Sultan 'sunwarlicke and never accompanying their armies as they did of maritime names (together with the skill) in person; the Soldier corrupted with ease and liberty; from the Greekes and .62 drowned in prohibited wine, enfeebled with the continuall converse of women; and generally lapsed from If we look carefully, we can see that the immediacy their former austerity of life, and simplicity of manners. of Ahmed and Isis is ultimately denied, as they seem Their valours now meeting on all sides with opposition; to be blind to each other's presence. The prevailing having of late given no increase to their dominions; and capacity of emblematic images for the most part re- Empire so got, when it ceasseth to increase, doth be- mains opaque. But what is discernible is that Sandys gin to diminish. Lastly, in that it hath exceeded the ob- attempts to reformulate a notion of "the other" by served period of a Tyrannie, for such is their Empire.5 9 drawing clear lines of demarcation between the three religions: Christianity, Islam, and paganism. 63 One Sandys's pairing of Ahmed with the long forgotten cannot overestimate the religious overtones of this mythological figure of the pagan goddess Isis adds frontispiece. In contrast to the long-gone paganism to this metaphorical inhuman characterization of and soon to be diminished Islam, Sandys hails Chris- Ahmed and his empire. Adorned with her attributes tianity as the religion that will prevail. The inscrip- of sistrum and hydreion, Isis is depicted as a young tion, Magnae estis et praecalebitis ("You will be great woman.6 0 Yet her humanity is as illusory as Ahmed's; and you will prevail") on the architrave, together with the protruding horns, slightly disguised by her crown the ascending figure of Christ, along with a of olive leaves, demonize her as much as the label motto, Sic redibit ("Thus he will return"),64 conveys tyrannus denies Ahmed both humanity and legitim- the most obvious message of the frontispiece that one acy. The horns also assimilate Isis with Osirus, who is day Christianity will return to the Holy Land. appropriately placed just below her in the image of a By dedicating the Relation of a Journey to Prince bull whose ambiguous identity-man or animal, broth- Charles, the heir to the throne, and not to James I, er or husband-serves to enhance one of the many Sandys not only affirms his support of the Stuarts but subtle aspects of the frontispiece. This juxtaposition also conjures up a vision of dynastic continuity from might be meant to emphasize the pagan origins of father to son, without the threat of usurpation char-

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acteristic of tyranny. Sandys predicts the success of alike to consider Ahmed's reign one of recovery and the reign of Charles I and sanctions it by showing success. 7 0 To understand how Ahmed could use Sibylla Cumae (the Cumaean Sybil), sitting inside a Siileyman as the means of achieving his own distinct cave with her prophecies communicated through the political identity, it is necessary to go back to the time inscription, Folisque notas et nomina mandat65 ("She of his accession to the throne and the conditions un- commits notes and names on the leaves of her book"). der which he had to operate. His confidence in this continuity and in the union When Ahmed ascended the throne in 1603, he was of the crowns is staged like an entablature by the barely fourteen years old. The court had been left in presence of the pillars of Christian doctrines person- a weakened condition by the death of Sileyman in ified by figures of Veritas (Truth) i.e., Christianity, 1566, and by the time of Ahmed's accession, hostility and Constantia66 (Constancy), i.e., Eternity, lest we between the court factions had reached a climax. forget that no tyrannies are eternal. Ahmed's grandmother Safiya Sultan had tremendous Why was Ahmed singled out as the object of this influence in the palace administration under the sub- shift in the European perceptions of the Ottoman sequent sultans-Murad III, her husband, and Meh- sultans? According to Valensi, Ahmed, "who was a med III, her son-and she most likely expected to poet and a pious man," fell victim to political disor- have the same influence over Ahmed. Instead, con- der in Europe, at the time when the rhetoric of tyr- fronted with the inadequacies of the political order anny was part of the discourse of politics.6 7 To sup- and the growing hostility of the ulema, Ahmed de- pose that Ahmed had no role in this shift, however, cided to curb the power of the factions in the pal- would be wrong. At the beginning of the seventeenth ace. century, the European and Ottoman struggle to re- According to the historian Pecevi and others, define their relationship entailed a subtle manipula- Ahmed, shortly after his father's death, declared him- tion of political, social, and aesthetic modes on both self sultan in a note sent to the governor Kasim Pa- sides. sha, in which he threatened the with death if Ahmed's great grandfather Siileyman the Magnif- he did not obey his orders. The note reads, 'You Kasim icent was the last of the sultans to have the power to Pasha! My father died by the will of God. And now I control European perceptions of his empire-the next have ascended the throne. Keep the city under con- two sultans lacked his sophistication-until Ahmed trol; if anything goes wrong, I will cut your head off!" 7'1 decided to take control of these perceptions by fol- No doubt the threat was effective for asserting the lowing in his footsteps. Not surprisingly, it was dur- young sultan's authority, but it also betrayed Ahmed's ing his reign and for this reason that there was a own fears vis-A-vis the establishment. As further pre- visual and verbal shift in the European perception of vention, Ahmed banished his grandmother to the Old the Ottoman Empire. Palace, a sanctuary for the women of deceased sul- Growing up in a court still resonating with the tans, thereby removing her from the center of poli- success stories of his great grandfather, Ahmed was tics. Both these accounts and reports of his dismissal only too aware of the challenges in asserting his iden- of men from every rank in the empire were circulat- tity. According to the palace historian Naima, from ed in the Ottoman chronicles as well as in the Euro- the beginning he was constantly judged against the pean accounts of his reign. Ahmed's fourteen-year standards set by Sfileyman. For example, one of reign saw six grand viziers and a constantly shifting Ahmed's favorite viziers, Dervi5 Pasha, was in the habit landscape of court administrators. of provoking Ahmed by saying that he must live up In this struggle for control, Ahmed's debt to his to his great grandfather's successes; on several occa- great-grandfather Sileyman is evident in both his sions he even told Ahmed in a critical tone that un- public and private deeds. According to Thomas Ar- der similar circumstances Sileyman would have tus, who had brought Chalkokondyles's history up to acted differently.6 8 In response, Ahmed began to date, Ahmed promised his people an empire more emulate Suleyman obsessively; throughout his reign flourishing than ever before by "imitating the virtues it became a political strategy in which traditional values of his predecessor Sfileyman" ("Qu'il [Ahmed] a were set against the rapidly changing administration donne au commencement une grande esperance aux of the empire.6 9 It was the success of such strategies siens de voir leur Empire plus florissant que jamais, that led most contemporary and modern historians et qu'il serait imitateur des vertus de son ayeul Soly-

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man, qu'A son advenement a l'Empire il fit plusieurs dons, et congiaires la milice pour luy gaigner le coeur de plus en plus" 72 ). Four years later another author in a letter from Istanbul to a Jesuit brother remarked on Ahmed's desire to become the next Siileyman the Magnificent. 7 3 In his history of the , Bostanzade Yahya Efendi, the accomplished theologian and his- torian, also described Ahmed as having, like Siley- man, a high position in the heavens with the features of an angel and the nature of a dervish. 74 This con- nection between Ahmed and Sfileyman has never been made before, but it was significant for Ahmed's es- tablishment of his own political legitimacy in order to gain the confidence of his court. To mark the beginning of his reign, Ahmed paid homage to Sfileyman by going to the Sfileymaniye Mosque for Friday prayer rather than following the tradition of visiting Hagia Sophia. 75 Determined to follow in Sfileyman's footsteps, Ahmed composed his own law code, or Kanunndme. In doing so he not only recalled one of the most important deeds of Siley- man (it earned him the title Lawgiver [KanCini]), but he also revived some of the lapsed practices of the empire that Sfileyman had initiated. In contrast to Sandys's image of a tyrant, Ahmed was remembered Fig. 20. The golden crown sent to Stephen Bocskai made by as one who "revisa et codifia la legislation anterieure Turkish goldsmiths. (Photo: from H. Fillitz, Die Schatzkammer in dans un kanunam qui subsiste encore." 7 6 A nineteenth- Wien [1964]). century French historian called Ahmed's Kanunndme "as monumental as his mosque," which had also been convince Bocskai to accept his title from Sultan Ahmed inspired by the mosque of Sfileyman. 77 and to make peace with the Hapsburg emperor. In Political circumstances also helped Ahmed's quest retrospect, Ahmed's act may not have carried the same for public attention as the second Sileyman the political weight as Siileyman's, but symbolically it must Magnificent. The crowning of Stephen Bocskai, the have boosted his confidence. The treaty ended the prince of as the king of Hungary and fluctuation of the Ottoman Empire's western borders Transylvania 78 with an impressive golden crown dec- for half a century and fueled the hostilities between orated with rubies, emeralds, turquoises and pearls, the European kings and princes to the advantage of sent from Istanbul (fig. 20), gave Ahmed the oppor- the Ottomans. tunity to adopt Sfileyman's well-known appellation "the Another major military event which helped Ahmed distributor of crowns," thus recalling the memories to present himself triumphantly in the manner of of Sfileyman's conquest of the regions and his crown- Siileyman was the suppression of the "uprising of ing of a Christian king, John Zapolya, with the holy provincial administrators and the irregular soldiers" crown of Saint Stephen.7 9 Even Ahmed's grand vi- known as the Celali revolts of 1609 in Anatolia, one zier, Mehmed Pasha, was compared to Sfileyman's of the most important domestic crises he had to face.81 vizier Ibrahim Pasha, when he overcame "most of the Ahmed used this victory over the rebels as an excuse troubles with Bocskay and managed to sign the Zsit- to build a new royal mosque bearing his name. The va-T6rok treaty in 1606" which concluded the "Long announcement caused extreme discontent among the War" between the Habsburgs and Ottomans.8 0 Accord- conservative ulema, because Ahmed had never been ing to Pecevi, Lala Mehmed Pasha made a point of to war and had no intention of doing so. According following the same strategies used by Sleyman to to Ottoman tradition, the erection of public works

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on such a scale was only legitimate for rulers who phy of Ahmed's mosque was part of the program for had gained victory over the infidels or conquered recovery of the golden age and the statement of new territories. Perhaps Ahmed considered this vic- Ahmed's superiority as the reigning sultan. This ca- tory over the rebels as a legitimate excuse, though pacity to embody both programs might also explain the question of whether it was legitimate or not may the significance of its location near the Hippodrome: not have been the real issue for a sultan whose ea- punctuating the point where the axis radiating from gerness to emulate Sleyman was part of a grand the earthly paradise, the Topkapi Palace, on the north scheme of re-creating Silleyman's "golden age," in side meets the heavenly temple of Solomon, the 8 6 which the commission of works of art and architec- Siileymaniye, on the west. A poem called the Baha- ture was paramount. Through his emulation of Sfi- riyye also emphasizes the association between the sul- leyman, Ahmed had rediscovered that image was just tans and their mosques and describes it as the icon as important as the deed itself. He spared no expense, of Ahmed's achievement: "That holy place proclaims labor, or time in its construction, and it is still today all the sultans / Is it any wonder that it is the com- 87 considered to be one of the most magnificent mosques mander of the army of mosques?" in Istanbul. A contemporary observer describes it as Ahmed's emulation of Sfileyman eventually reached follows: such proportions that it could be found in every as- pect of his life. He built gardens in the place where The most beautiful of all the mosques that the Ottoman Sfileyman had once owned his. 88 Imitating his great- Princes have had built is the one of Sultan Achmat, the grandfather's piety, he ordered restoration work at eighteenth emperor of the Turks: it is ordinarily called the Ka'ba; he redesigned his imperial seal according the new Mosque: but lawyers [the ulema] call it the to the norms established by Sfileyman by reintroduc- unbeliever's mosque, because, notwithstanding what they ing the word shah;89 he even tried to revive the liter- could mean to Sultan Achmat, he insisted on building ary corpus Siileyman initiated by ordering a new edi- it. It is expressly forbidden by their law to found nei- tion and translation of the works commissioned by ther a mosque nor a hospital, if it is not out of a wealth him.9 0 that one has legitimately acquired. For they say that God Respect for Sfileyman could certainly be observed may not be pleased that one offers something to him in earlier generations of sultans, but, as Kafadar points that one doesn't own. They hold that wealth is legiti- out, Sileyman was "not always the favourite."9 1 Be- mately acquired when it comes by succession: and even fore Ahmed, Selim II, Murad III, and Mehmed III more so when one earns it by serving the prince against also revered Sileyman, but none seems to have sin- infidels to the law. But for the Ottoman princes, before gled him out as a role model in their cultural, polit- being able to perform any foundation, they must have conquered some land over the infidels and they must ical, or military achievements. During Ahmed's reign, have personally assisted in these conquests. This is why on the other hand, we see both in Ottoman and for- the mufti and all the lawyers [ulema] tried so hard to eign sources a more exclusive reverence, not only convince him not to build this mosque because he had for the reign of Siileyman but also for Sfileyman him- never been to war.82 self. Individual works such as the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, commissioned by Selim II, and the scien- In stylistic terms, Ahmed's mosque was in many re- tific-technical achievements during the reign of Mu- spects a tribute to the artistic canons established by rad III, may be more worthy of comparison with some Silleyman and his architect Sinan (fig. 21).83 The plan of Sileyman's accomplishments, but the systematic was drawn up by Mehmed Aga, one of Sinan's ap- adherence to examples set by Sfileyman seemed to prentices, who devoted a great deal of attention to reach its peak during Ahmed's reign. Ahmed's emu- 8 4 dramatic effects. Several historians have noted that lation of Sileyman, unlike that of his predecessors, its overall design lends itself to a series of analogies has more to do with his struggle for identity than with the mosques of Siileymaniye (1550-57) and Seh- with a straightforward reverence. As a result, Ahmed's zade (1543-48), both of which were built by Sinan vision of success and the modes of representation for Siileyman.8 5 While the interior of Ahmed's mosque appropriate for reconciling his vision with the con- echoes that of the Sehzade in its form and the rich- temporary context largely depended on producing a ness of its decoration, its austere exterior establishes complicated interplay between the memories of Sii- a direct dialogue with the Sfileymaniye. Stylistically leyman's cultural innovations and his own desire to situated somewhere between the two, the iconogra- surpass him.

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Fig. 21. Sultan Ahmed Complex; view from Hagia Sophia. (Photo: from Istanbul Ansiklopedisi)

This struggle for identity must have made more of rather than Sfileyman. 93 For example, the French vis- an impact on the Europeans than on the Ottomans, itor Canillac was impressed by the amount of atten- who were somewhat critical of his disruptive cultural tion given to decorating his horse withjewel-encrusted activities, especially the construction of his mosque. trappings for one of these occasions: European nations, some of whose borders were de- "... upon the Saddle of an Arabian Horse out of the the termined by Sfileyman's conquests, even after Grand Vizirs stable: Others fasten a Bitt of Gold to Reines victory at Lepanto must have been particularly recep- of rich red Leather of Russia; some doe fit stirrop Leath- tive to Ahmed's pretensions as the new Sfileyman. It ers to stirrops of Gold, enricht with a Great number of is tempting to consider the two early-seventeenth-cen- Turkishes of the olde Rocke: Others fasten upon a large tury German engravings of the equestrian Ottoman Crouper a great number of the Diamonds wherewith it sultan identified as "Sultan Achmet Chan Turcarum is enricht make it inestimable: The Bitt and stirropes Tyrannus," as a subtle response to Ahmed's preten- of Gold covered with Diamonds, the Tassels of Pearles sions (fig. 22). Although the inscription identifies the which are at the Reines, and at the Trappers of the sultan as Ahmed, the upper part of the image be- Crouper, and the other beauties of this royall Harnesse, longs to an earlier profile portrait of Sfileyman wear- ravish the eyes of such as looke of it with admiration ing the Venetian helmet-crown (see fig. 5) discussed of their wonders, and some silently perswade themselves by Necipoglu, who suggests that the caption is a mis- that Fortune adorned with these precious things which identification of the sultan,92 but the number of con- depend on her, meanes to goe in triumph through Constantinople, to let the Turkes see that she dwels temporary European descriptions of Ahmed's cere- 94 monial parade through Istanbul suggest that the amongst them. engraving might have been intended to portray him, A passage in L'histoire de la decadence de l'empire grec,

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frontispiece. The verse accompanying the engraving of the equestrian sultan declares, "Make a show with robbed crowns, you cursed World Tyrant," which serves as a metaphorical reference to Ahmed's pretensions as Sfileyman and as a direct reference to Siileyman's usurpation of a papal crown. Having accused the sultan of being a "world tyrant," it also mocks the once magnificent emperor Sfileyman, so as to deprive the empire of any legitimacy past or present. Images like this one and Sandys's portrayal of Ahmed as Tyran- nus seem to be geared not only to undermine Ahmed as a ruler but also to proclaim his empire as illegiti- mate and past its prime. The complexity of thought that lies behind not only the frontispiece to Sandys's Relation of aJourney but also the differing European and Ottoman dis- courses about the self and the other can be seen in several contrasting attitudes-Europeans vs. Euro- peans; Europeans vs. Ottomans; past vs. present. With- in these contexts, I have argued that Sandys's fron- tispiece should be seen as an allegorical and emblematic display of his nationalistic tendencies.9 6 Even though the Relation of a Journey was an impor- tant means of establishing Sandys's own identity, as a poet/traveler, among his contemporaries, a travel account-one which embodies the "other" as much AVBih o :.rnC -d '-$.A.;Pzt , . .t .r _It.' as the "self'-should be considered more than a mere fliinrt D n.l -- - s( :. i. - ? 5r,. ~~Sni~ zealI ~ r.,e- ~ i; i. r , , - .- . . staging of a public persona. In other words, since the book and its frontispiece deal with the Ottomans Fig. 22. An early-seventeenth-century German engraving of the collectively, the counterpart is not Sandys as an indi- equestrian Ottoman sultan identified as "Sultan Achmet Chan vidual but the idea of his nation as a whole. In ef- Turcarum.Tyrannus." fect, the process of forging a national identity is not unlike the process of forging an individual identity. In either case, as Stephen Greenblatt has argued, "the also gives a brief description of a ceremonial proces- power to impose a shape upon oneself [or the "oth- sion that the sultan led from the gate of the Topkapi er" for that matter] is an aspect of the more general to the Hippodrome. It devotes particular attention power to control identity."9 7 Sandys's frontispiece was to the jewelry worn by both the sultan and his horse: instrumental in contributing to the incipient processes "And then comes the king, riding his horse which is of European self-fashioning at the time-at the ex- royally reined, the king is ordinarily dressed in white pense of Ottoman alienation from the European wearing three black and white aigrettes in his tur- political discourse. In Sandys's case the possibility of ban, one or two looking sideways, shining with pearls achieving this was clearly built into the increasingly and stones as the rest of his horses reins." 95 An eques- hierarchical distinction between Europe and the trian portrait of Ahmed in the frontispiece of the same Ottoman Empire. book matching this description might well have been The study of the frontispiece also provides a win- the model for the later engravings (see fig. 8). dow onto some of the important aspects of Ottoman The portrait thus involves more than a simple con- changing self-perceptions in the early seventeenth fusion of identities; it is possibly a deliberate cross- century. The dynamics between past and present reference contributing to European visual propaganda Ottoman sultans and its contribution to the question undermining Ottoman power, much like Sandys's of the "golden age" in Ottoman historiography is a

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subject which has hitherto been neglected.9 8 As Kaf- nied by a explanatory poem entitled "The Minde of the adar has pointed out, the Ottoman "golden age," like Frontispiece, and Argument of this Worke" on the page facing the frontispiece. any other, never really existed in the ways in which 10. "Even more important is his [Sandys'] role in laying colo- its proponents envisaged it. But for the Ottoman sul- nial foundations, for he was director of industry, collector tan Ahmed I not only the consideration of the reign of revenue, chief advisor to the governor, model farmer, and of Siileyman as the age of glory and order but also military raider in a crucial period in Virginian and English the emulation of Sfileyman himself helped him to colonial history" (Richard Beale Davis, George Sandys: Poet- create a language of political power that was neces- Adventurer. A Study in Anglo-American Culture in the Seventeenth Century (London, 1955), p. 16. sary for the legitimacy of his kingship and the con- 11. Ibid., p. 284. trol of his empire, however it might have been per- 12. Ernest N. Williams, The Penguin Dictionary of English and Eu- ceived from the outside. ropean History, 1485-1789 (London, 1980), p. 236; see also David Howarth, Images of Rule. Art and Politics in the English University of Cambridge Renaissance, 1485-1649 (London, 1997). Cambridge, England 13. Throughout James's reign and even after his death. the tropes of union were invoked to give him "an aura of di- vinity" as exemplified in the ceiling decoration of the Ban- NOTES queting House in Whitehall known as the Apotheosis ofJames. The sacred symbolism of the elaborate decoration by Rubens Authors' note: The research for this article was made possible by was based on the allegory of Unity, conflating images of the an Aga Post-doctoral Research Fellowship from Harvard divine revelation with the hopes of English supremacy over University in 1997-98. I owe many thanks to Professor Glru Christendom. Stephen Orgel, ed., The Renaissance Imagina- Necipoglu, Dr. Julian Raby, Dr. Deborah Howard, and Dr. Jean tion. Essays and Lectures by D.J. Gordon (Berkeley, 1975), p. Michel Massing for their comments on earlier drafts. 168. 14. For a further discussion on the relationship between the 1. Jonathan Haynes, The Humanist as Traveler: George Sandys's Porte and England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Relation of a Journey begun an. Dom. 1610 (London, 1986), see S. W. Crew, The Crescent and the Rose: Islam and England p. 15. during the Renaissance (Oxford, 1937). 2. Jean-Jacque Boissard, Vitae et icones sultanorum Turcicorum 15. Anonymous, Pianto, e/ lamento de Selim Drian Imperado de (Frankfurt, 1596); Richard Knolles, The Generall History of Turchi: Nella rotta, & de struttion della so Armada Con un 'Esor- the Turkes, from the First Beginning of that Nation to the Rise of tationfatta a (Venice, 1571). the Ottoman Familie: with all the Notable Expeditions of the Chris- 16. I am grateful to Professor Necipoglu for allowing me to see tian Princes against Them (London, 1603). her unpublished catalogue entry, "Selim II (r. 1566-74)," 3. Just to add that the link between Knolles and Boissard is for the "Ottoman Portraits" project, p. 19. also significant. Knolles had not only owned a copy and made 17. I am greatful to Professor Necipoglu for bringing this im- extensive use of it in his book, he even had copied the battle age to my attention. scene from its frontispiece. 18. Laonikos Chalkokondyles, L'histoire de la decadence de l'empire 4. Lucette Valensi, Venise et la Sublime Porte: la naissance du despote grec, et establissement de celuy des Turcs, par Chalcondile, trans. (Paris, 1987); English translation by Arthur Denner, The Birth B. de Vigenere (Paris, 1612-20). I am grateful to Gfilru Neci- of the Despot: Venice and the Sublime Port (Ithaca and London, poglu for bringing this frontispiece to my attention. The 1993), p. 69. All references to this work are to the transla- book contains a portrait of each of the sultans at the be- tion. ginning of the section dealing with his reign. 5. Ibid., pp. 92-93. 19. Memories of the victory at Lepanto were frequently invoked 6. "The word tyranny continued to be used occasionally in dis- in the designs of early-seventeenth-century frontispieces. See, cussions of the Ottoman system, though mostly referring to for, example, the frontispiece to Boissardo's Vitae et Icones the 'abuses of the system rather than the system itself,' un- Sultanorum Turcicorum (1596), which includes a scene from til the word 'despot' entered into the Italian, French, and the battle. Nine years later, in 1603, Richard Knolles, in finally English lexicon in the 1640s"; ibid., pp. 72-77. Generall Historie of the Turks, reuses the exact same image, 7. Ibid., p. 90. although this time with a different perception of the out- 8. Haynes, Humanist as Traveler, p. 13. come of the battle. 9. None of Sandys's contemporaries who can be compared with 20. There are many aspects of this frontispiece which need to him as travelers to the East-Thomas Coryat (1611), Sir be addressed but are beyond the scope of this paper. Anthony Sherley (1611); William Lithgow (1632), and Sir 21. L. Batavorum, ed., Gislenii Busbequii omnia quce extant. Cum Henry Blount (1636)-use allegorical or emblematic fron- Privilegio, 7th ed. (Frankfurt, 1633). The earlier editions of tispieces. Sandys's interest in emblematic images becomes Busbecq's letters had different frontispieces, decorated with more apparent in his subsequent book, 's Metamorpho- printers' devices. It seems that there was a conscious effort sis Englished, Mythologized and Represented in Figures (London, for expression in the early-seventeenth-century frontispieces. 1632), where the allegorical frontispiece was also accompa- 22. For detailed discussions of Ottoman imperial symbols, see

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Gfilru Necipoglu, "Silleyman the Magnificent and the Rep- design of certain emblems. Some of the particular details resentation of Power in the Context of Ottoman-Hapsburg- that symbolized the Ottomans were turbans, crescents, and Papal Rivalry," Art Bulletin 71 (1989): 401-27. a cityscape with crescent-crowned buildings. Some of these 23. Arthur M. Hind, Engraving in England in the Sixteenth and emblems can be found in Arthur Henkel and Albrecht Seventeenth Centuries, pt. II, vol. 5 (Cambridge, 1955), p. 185, Sch6ne, eds., Emblemata: Handbuch zur Sinnbildkunst des XVI. pl. 136. und XVII. Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart, 1967). 24. George Sandys, A Relation of a Journey Begun An. Dom. 1610... 40. Ibid., pp. 1804-5. Original is in Sambucus, Fmblemata, p. 200. containinga Description of the Turkish Empire, of /Egypt, of the I am grateful to Kenneth Lapatin for this translation. Holy Land, of the Remote Parts of Italy, and Ilands adjoyning, 41. Cambridge Modern History, vol. 3 (New York and Cambridge, Ist ed. (London, 1615), p. 73. 1934), p. 171. 25. There is a parallel between Sandys's description of Ahmed 42. See Ronald G. Musto, "Just Wars and Evil Empires: Erasmus and the earlier European accounts of his grandfather Selim and the Turks," in Renaissance Society and Culture, Essays in II, which might have been known to Sandys. But whereas Honor of Eugene F. Rice Jr., ed. John Monfasani and Ronald Selim's characterization was based on factual evidence, G. Musto (New York, 1991), pp. 197-217. Sandys's characterization of Ahmed seems to have been 43. Peter Daly, ed., The Index ofEmblem Art Symposium (New York, purely rhetorical. 1990), pp. 144-45. 26. Ronald Lightbown and Margery Corbett, The Comely Fron- 44. Norman Bryson, Word and Image. French Paintingof the An- tispiece: The Emblematic Title-page in England 1550-1660 (Lon- cien Regime (Cambridge, 1980), p. 3. don, 1979), p. 1. 45. Cited in Otto Kurz, "A Gold Helmet Made in Venice for 27. Karl Josef H61ltgen, "Emblematic Title-pages and Brasses," Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 76 in Aspects of the Emblem.: Studies in the English Emblem Tradi- (November, 1969): 254. tion and theEuropean Context, chap. 3 (Kassel, 1986), pp. 91- 46. For images of Queen Elizabeth, see Roy C. Strong, Portraits 140. According to Hl6tgen about two hundred emblematic of Queen Elizabeth I (Oxford, 1963); see also the exhibition title pages are known for the period 1570-1660. catalogue, The Print in Stuart Britain, 1603-1689, 8 May-20 28. A BiographicalDictionary of Artists (London, 1983). Sandys's September 1998 (London: British Museum Press, 1998), by frontispiece was Delaram's first major commission. Arthur Antony Griffiths. By the middle of the seventeenth century Hind lists at least ten other frontispieces subsequently en- most eastern rulers, including the Ottomans, experimented graved by Delaram (Arthur M. Hind, Engraving in England with the symbolism of the globe. Mughal images of Shah in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. A Descriptive Cata- Jahan holding a globe or standing on a globe are well known logue with Introductions: Part II: The Reign of James I [Cam- examples, but Sandys's image predates all of these. bridge, 1955], pp. 238-41). 47. We could recall the iconographic significance of Sfleyman's 29. Johannes Sambucus, Emblemata cum aliquot nummis antiqui possession of a papal crown in the 1530's as discussed by operis (Antwerp, 1564). Necipoglu in "SfileymAn the Magnificent and the Represen- 30. Ibid. The emblem reads in English: "Who holds the royal tation of Power." sceptre alone as a tyrant, you have to obey whatever his 48. Halil Inalcik, "Sfileiman the Lawgiver and Ottoman Law," misguided greed commands. Failing to do so, he will force Archivum Ottomanicum, 1 (1969): 110-11. the issue and raising his right hand threateningly, he de- 49. Ripa, Iconologia, pp. 230-32. stroys the disobedient by cruel murder. Just as the lion roars 50. Ibid., p. 230. I am grateful to Marina Belozerskaya for this and digs his claws into the prey, so your hands, cruel ruler, translation. are stained with blood. Just as the insatiable catfish takes 51. Ibid., pp. 231-32. 1 am grateful to Marina Belozerskaya for everything that is in his way, so little mildness is in the mind this translation. of terrible kings. He suppresses and conquers everything with his gesture, he reaches for the stars and turns happiness into 52. Caesare Ripa, Iconologia, or Moral Emblems (London, 1709), groans. Whatever takes his fancy is allowed: his will is his pp. 41-42. law. When I am the judge, the pale orcus shall consume his 53. Ibid. pestilence." I owe this translation to Kenneth Lapatin. 54. Decimus Erasmus, Education of the Christian Prince (1516), 31. Cesare Ripa, Iconologia. Overo descrittione di diverse imagini Penguin edition (London, 1987). cavate dall'antichita, e di propria inventione (Padua, 1603). 55. Anonymous, A Briefe Discourse upon Tyrants and Tyranny (Lon- 32. Jean Baudouin (or Baudoin), trans. and ed., Cesare Ripa, don, 1642), p. 8. Iconologie (Paris, 1644), pt. 2, p. 174. 56. Howarth, Images of Rule. p. 122. 33. Ripa, Iconologia, p. 487. 57. The title Tyrannus is not descriptive since it presents a conflict 34. Sandys, Relation of a Journey, p. 57. with the text of the book and with the general views of 35. Emblems were normally depicted as males or females ac- Ahmed in Europe during his reign. In his discussion of cording to the gender of the main word in the motto. The Ahmed's character, Sandys described him as someone who word tyrant in Italian is feminine and therefore here de- "is of no bloudy disposition, nor otherwise notoriously picted as a female. vicious, considering the austerity of that government, and 36. Ripa, Iconologia, p. 487. immunities of their Religion. Yet is he an un-relenting 37. Sandys, Relation of a Journey, p. 47. punisher of offences, even in his owne Household" (Sandys. 38. Valensi, Denner trans., Birth of the Despot, p. 47. Relation of a Journey, p. 73). Several other descriptions of 39. Eastern or Ottoman-looking figures have appeared in the Ahmed's personality more or less like this one were circu-

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lated in diplomatic papers and travel accounts throughout 68. See Tdrih-i Naimd: Ravzat el-Hiseyn fi huldsat ahbdr el-hdfikayn, Europe. These accounts give the impression not so much trans. Zuhuri Danilman (Istanbul, 1967), pp. 466-68; see of a tyrant as of a ruler in charge. See F. Canillac, Lettres also Solak-zdde AMehmed Hemdemi Celebi: Solak-zdde Tarihi, ed. annuelles de Constantinople (annie 1612), addressees aux Vahid Cabuk (, 1989), pp. 454-57. See Tdrih-i Pecevi, pares et freres de l'assistance de ," in Relations inedites ed. Bekir Sitki Baykal, 2 vols. (Istanbul, 1987). des Missions de la Compagnie de Jesus a Constantinople et dans 69. For the perceptions of Sileyman in the post-classical age, le Levant au XVIIe silcle, 1813-1864, ed. P. A. Carayon (Paris, see Cemal Kafadar. "The Myth of the Golden Age: Ottoman 1864); and Bekir Sitki Baykal, ed., Pecevi Tarihi, vol. 2 Historical Consciousness in the Post-Sileymanic Era," in (Istanbul, 1987); see also Louis Deshayes, Voiage de Levant Siileyman the Second and His Time, ed. Halil Inalcik and Cemal fait par le commandement du roy en lanne6 1621 (1624), 3rd Kafadar (Istanbul. 1993), pp. 37-48. ed. (Paris, 1645), p. 104; Henri, baron de Beauvau, Rela- 70. V. J. Parry, "The Successors of SfileymAn, 1566-1617," in A tionjournalieredu voyage du Levant.... (Nancy, 1615); Chalko- History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730, ed. M. A. Cook (Cam- kondyles, L 'histoire de la decadence de l'empire grec; Christoforey bridge, 1976). 7 Valier, Relazioni degli stati Europei lette al Senato dagli ambascia- 71. Tdrih-i Naimd, p. 38 . tori Veneti nel secolo decimosettimo, ed. Nicolo Barozzi and Gu- 72. Chalkokondyles, L 'histoire de la decadence de l'empire grec. vol. glielmo Berchet (Venice, 1856), pp. 255-321, and in the 2 (Paris, 1620), p. 1074. same volume, see Simon Contarini (1612), p. 254. 73. Christoforey Valier, in Relazioni (1866), p. 290. I am grate- 58. Anonymous, Briefe Discourse on Tyranny, p. 1. ful to Gfilru Necipoglu- for this important source. 59. Sandys, Relation of a Journey, p. 50. Somewhat similar descrip- 74. This reference to Sfileyman becomes even more significant tions in European accounts also appeared during the reigns as we read in the same paragraph that although it was said of Selim II and Murad III but not with such a pointed ref- that Ahmed resembled his grandfather Murad III, the au- erence to diminishing dominions. See, for example, Alberi. thor considers him as being a thousand times greater, more 60. The figure resembles the statue of Isis erected at Hadrian's merciful, and more distinguished; BostanzAde Yahya Efendi Villa. However, it is hard to determine for sure whether (d. 1637), Duru Tarih, Tanrih-i Sdf Tuhfet2'lI-Ahbab (Istanbul, Sandys or Delaram had seen it. The earliest printed version 1978), pp. 115-16. of this statue appeared in De Rossi Maffei, Raccolta di statue 75. In the accounts of his visit, he sometimes confuses St. Sophia antiche e moderne, in 1704 a photograph of which is preserved with the Sileymaniye. But the contemporary historian Pecevi in the collections of the Warburg Institute in London. (1574-1649) mentions the Sfileymaniye several times. See 61. Sandys, Relation ofa Journey, p. 52. also Diinden Bugilne Istanbul Ansiklopedisi, 7 vols. (Istanbul, 62. Ibid., p. 72. 1993), 1:105. However, later accounts seem to prefer Hagia 63. The religious aspect of Sandys's frontispiece is further im- Sophia; see, for example, Tdrih-i Naimd, 2:390; though written plicated by the subtle changes made to the Dutch transla- later, this account was based on Sarhfi'l Menarzade, a con- tion of the Relation. This edition depicts the ascending fig- temporary of Pecevi. Also J. van Gaver and J. V. Jouannin, ure of Christ without the head, and transforms Isis, the L 'univers. Histoire et description de tout les peuples: Turquie (Paris, Egyptian goddess, into Iris, the messenger of God, in or- 1840), p. 187, which is based on Naimi's account. der to comply with the visual ideologies of the Reformation. 76. Louis Enault, Constantinople et la Turquie. Tableau historique, Both Stephen Greenblatt and Deborah Kuller Shuger have pittoresque, statistique et moral de l'empire ottoman (Paris, 1855), argued that "the dominant culture of the English Renais- p. 168. sance was 'religious.' Religion controlled every aspect of life. 77. Van Gaver and Jouannin, L'univers, p. 188. It governed subjects' behaviour whether or not they were 78. An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, vol. 2, religious themselves. Religion during this period supplies 1600-1914, ed. Suraiya Faroqhi. Bruce McGowan, Donald the primary language of analysis. It is the cultural matrix Quataert and Sevket Pamuk (Cambridge, 1994), p. 422. for exploration of virtually every topic: kingship, selfhood, 79. See Necipoglu, "SfileymAn the Magnificent and the Repre- rationality, language, marriage, ethics, and so forth. Such sentation of Power," p. 416. subjects are, again, not masked by religious discourse but 80. Pefevi Tarihi, 2: 282-92 articulated in it; they are considered in relation to God and 81. An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, p. 416. the human soul. This is what it means to say that the En- 82. Deshayes, Voiage de Levant, p. 104. glish Renaissance was a religious culture, not simply a cul- 83. See Necipoglu, "A Knfin for the State, A Canon for the Arts: ture whose members generally were religious" (Deborah Conceptualizing the Classical Synthesis of Ottoman Art and Kuller Shuger, Habits of Thought in the English Renaissance: Architecture," in Sfileymdn the Magnificent and His Time: The Religion, Politics and the Dominant Culture [Toronto, 1997], Ottoman Empire in the Early Modern World, ed. Metin Kunt and p. 6). See also Stephen Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashion- Christine Woodhead (London, 1995), pp. 195-216. ing: From More to Shakespeare [Chicago, 1980]). 84. For a more detailed account of the mosque's architecture, 64. A quotation from 's 3.444. see Zeynep Naylr, Osmanli Mimarliginda Sultan Ahmed Kiilliyesi 65. Ibid. ve Sonrasz (1609-1690) (Istanbul, 1975). 66. Most likely Ripa's Iconologia (1603) also inspired both of these 85. Mehmed Aga not only followed Sinan's architecture but also figures; see, for example, pp. 499-501 for Veritas and pp. participated in the literary initiation of Sinan's autobiogra- 200-2 for Constantia. phy. See Ca'fer Efendi, Risale-i Mi'mdriyye: An Early Seventeenth- 67. Valensi, Denner trans., Birth of the Despot, p. 91. Century Ottoman Treatise on Architecture, facsimile with trans-

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lation and notes by Howard Crane (Leiden, 1987). tified the sultan; it is in fact a depiction of Sfileyman the 86. For a detailed discussion of the symbolic relationship be- Magnificent with the famous helmet and royal regalia or- tween the Sfileymaniye and the Temple of Solomon, see dered by the grand vizier for Sfileyman's European cam- Gilru Necipoglu-Kafadar, "The Sileymaniye Complex in paigns (Necipoglu, "Sileyman the Magnificent and the Istanbul: An Interpretation," in Muqarnas 3 (1985): 92-117. Representation of Power," p. 416). 87. Cafer Efendi, Risale-i Mi'mdriyye, p. 74. 93. Necipoglu argues that the depiction of the decorations for 88. "The Dolmabahce garden was created for Ahmed I in the the horse is also in keeping with the jewel-encrusted capari- early seventeenth century by his grand vizier , son commissioned from the same Venetian jewelers who who was ordered to fill.the small harbor between the Karabali made the helmet. But it would be very difficult to determine and Besikta5 gardens" (Glru Necipoglu "The Suburban whether the seventeenth-century engraver knew this. Unlike Landscape of Sixteenth-Century Istanbul as a Mirror of the woodcut and engraved images of Sfileyman with the Classical Ottoman Garden Culture" in Gardens in the Time fantastic helmet, there is no surviving image of the decora- of the Great Muslim Empires: Theory and Design, ed. Attilio tions for his horse. Petruccioli [Leiden, 1997], p. 48, n. 12. 94. Canillac, "Lettres annuelles de Constantinople (annie 89. Sfileyman was the first to put the title "shah" on his impe- 1612)," p. 16. rial seal where it appears twice; Suha Umur, Osmanlz Padisah 95. Chalkokondyles, L'histoire de la decadence de l'empire grec, 2: Tugralarz (Istanbul, 1980), pp. 154-59 and 186-91. 1076. 90. Such as the translation of the work of Kinah-zade Ahl]k-i 96. For an extensive discussion on this topic, see Haynes, The Alai (1563-65); it was translated by Abdfilaziz for Ahmed I Humanist as Traveler. in 1612. Ismail Hakki Uzuncarsili, Osmanlh Tarihi, vol. 3, part 97. Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashioning, p. 1. 2 (Istanbul, 1964). 98. Kafadar deals with the subject only from the point of view 91. Kafadar, "The Myth of the Golden Age," p. 39. of intellectuals, not of the Ottoman sultans in "The Myth 92. Necipoglu has suggested that the engraving simply misiden- of the Golden Age," pp. 37-48.

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