Ortaköy Mosque, Turkey
Ortaköy Mosque (Turkish: Ortaköy Camii), officially the Büyük Mecidiye Camii (Grand Imperial Mosque) of Sultan Abdülmecid in Beşiktaş, Istanbul, Turkey, is situated at the waterside of the Ortaköy pier square, one of the most popular locations on the Bosphorus. The original Ortaköy Mosque was built in…
Around the World with Nusret Colpan
Nusret Çolpan (October 1, 1952 – May 31, 2008) was a Turkish painter, architect and miniaturist, renowned for his paintings in Ottoman miniature style depicting cities around the world, particularly Istanbul. He painted over 300 miniatures in his 30…
Calligraphic Galleon, 1766 AD
Flanked by two other galleons on the horizon, this carefully drawn imperial calligraphic galleon sits on a row of waves containing aphorisms. The imperial galleon with its wind-filled sails is an example of…
Iznik Pottery (16th Century)
This Turkish dish is one of the finest examples of Iznik ceramics anywhere. Painted with a masterful flourish, both delicate and striking, it features one of the earliest known combinations of flora and…
Album of Ottoman Calligraphy
This album (muraqqaʿ) of calligraphy in an accordion format was compiled in Ottoman Turkey in the twelfth century AH / eighteenth CE. It consists of leaves bearing fragmentary passages from the Qur’an (chapter…
A 16th Century Ottoman Atlas
It is an early Ottoman atlas, perhaps dating to the 10th century AH/AD 16th. The work contains 8 double-page charts executed on parchment. Four of the maps show the Mediterranean, Aegean, and Black…
Tughra of Suleiman the Magnificent
Calligraphy, from Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey AD 1520–1566 Between about 1350 and 1550 great swathes of the world were occupied by the superpowers of their day – from the Inca in South America to the…
The Magic of Science
Science in Islam was at its high peak between the ninth and 13th centuries. Charlotte Schriwer of the Nasser D Khalili Collection of Islamic art examines the achievements of the early Islamic scientists;…
The Farjam Collection of Islamic Art
The Farjam Collection is one of the most impressive privately-owned collections in the world today. Featuring Islamic and pre-Islamic art, Contemporary Middle-Eastern art and International Modern and Contemporary Art, the Collection is born…
Exploring the Damascus Room
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art reopened the museum’s Islamic art galleries to display roughly 1,200 works spanning 13 centuries and dozens of Islamic-influenced cultures. One highlight is the Damascus Room, a 26-foot-long…
Prisse d’Avennes – A Portrait
Prisse d’Avennes: British by blood, French by birth, Muslim by choice, scholar by avocation. Emile Prisse d’Avennes (1807–1879), a French Orientalist, author and artist, was one of the greatest pre-20th century Egyptologists. An…
Meidan-i-Chah ou Place Royale, Ispahan; Ispahan, Meidan-i-Shah
The wide expanse of the Maydan was created as a polo ground by Shah Abbas soon after he moved his capital to Ispahan in the early 1600s. On the far side is the…
