High fashion meets high politics in the fabulous kaftans of the Ottoman golden age. Nurhan Atasoy unwraps a Washington blockbuster.
For boldness, colour and virtuosity- not to mention unashamed glittering luxury - nothing can compare with the golden age of the Ottoman kaftan. The latest blockbuster exhibition, following the Royal Academy’s sensational ‘Turks’, is ‘Style and Status’, showing at the Sackler Gallery in Washington from October 29. After months of conservation work to ensure that they travel safely, the Topkapi has lent the Sackler dozens of its mesmerising royal kaftans for a show that promises to sweep the fashion world off its feet. ‘Style and Status: Imperial Costumes from Ottoman Turkey’ is on until January 22, 2006.
Silk Kaftan, 16th century, Topkapi Palace Museum Made from a single piece of kemha (brocaded silk) without repeats, this mid-16th-century kaftan, probably worn by a son of Süleyman the Magnificent, is unique in its rich palette and marks the peak of textile weaving. The black-green ground is filled with a riot of saz leaves, pomegranates, rosettes and peonies, recalling Iznik tiles in the Topkapı Palace’s Circumcision Chamber, which dates from 1520, and manuscripts of the same era.
A special 38-page feature exploring the tea gardens and rain forests
The Country Houses of the Black Sea
Emerald-green tea gardens, thunderous rivers, magical rainforests - Turkey’s Eastern Black Sea Mountains are a remote paradise when they emerge from the mists and the rain. In a special report featuring the photographs of Ali Konyali we celebrate the beauty of the mansions and farmhouses that survey the valleys.
In 2004, the photographer Ali Konyali set out with his publisher, Ameli Edgü, to capture the magnificent houses of Turkey’s Eastern Black Sea Mountains. The resulting book, published this summer, is a unique record of the region. Cornucopia presents 38 pages of the book’s visual highlights, with accompanying text based on the detailed knowledge of Mustafa Resat Sümerkan, an authority on the region’s vernacular architecture. But how did these houses come to be built? The anthropologist. Michael Meeker investigates on page 74.
An appreciation of Godfrey Goodwin (1921-2005) by Maureen Freely
Where shall we begin he would ask, when he'd tired of the adults and defected to the children's table. Then for the next few hours we'd watch him drawing hobgoblins in vast tableau of tilting buildings, crashing planes, wobbling space-ships and ocean liners battling the waves.
Painting his way into history The last caliph, by Philip Mansel
The dashing Abdülmecit Efendi, pictured here in his library, was the last member of the Ottoman dynasty to hold court on the Bosphorus. Cultured, enlightened and with a passion for painting, he was cousin of the last Sultan and spent two years as Caliph. But in 1924, the caliphate was abolished and Abdülmecit left the city his family had captured five centuries earlier for exile in France. His paintings, abandoned in the very studio of his house on Camlica Hill where he had created them, are a remarkable pictorial legacy of the last days of empire. By Philip Mansel. Photographs of the Caliph's palace on Camlica Hill by Fritz von der Schulenburg
Articles in Cornucopia by Philip Mansel:
Cornucopia 22 Philip Mansel on the Abdulhamit's guesthouse for the Kaiser (photographs by Fritz von der Schulenburg) Cornucopia 32 The Connoisseur's Guide to Istanbul Issue 28 Fausto Zonaro: Painter to the Ottoman Court Issue 31 Princess Durrusehvar
Continuing his series on the villains and heroes of the Ottoman Empire in its final years, David Barchard looks back over the roller-coaster career of Ismail Kemal (1844-1919)
David Barchard's remarkable nineteenth-century heroes and anti heroes include:
The Doorman's Son who Saved the Empire: a profile of A'ali Pasha
The Wrong Side of History: the extraordinary Strangfords
BFG: Big Friendly Giant: Capt Fred Burnaby
Sir Herbert Chermside
Stratford Canning
Giritli Mustafa Naili Pasha
Ahmed Vefik Pasha
Cookery
Championed by the cavalry: Winning ways with okra Text and photographs by Berrin Torolsan
Sharpened like pencils so that they retain their juices, okra marry well with peppers of every kind. Okra was so well established as a food in Turkey by the fifteenth century that Mehmet the Conqueror’s formidable horsemen adopted it as an emblem for their jousting tournaments. In Europe many still give it the cold shoulder. Berrin Torolsan comes to the rescue with five firm favourites.
For the full feature and the recipes Add Issue 34 to the basket
Cookery features and recipes in every issue of Cornucopia.
In the Spirits' Wake The Sumahan on the Water by Patricia Daunt Photographs byJürgen Frank
At last there need be nothing between you and the Bosphorus. The launch speeding guests across the straits from the Asian shore is heading downstream from Istanbul’s chic new waterside hotel. Patricia Daunt tells the story of how two architects created Sumahan on the Water, breathing new life into an old Ottoman spirit factory. Photographs by Jürgen Frank
