ACADEMIA Letters

A Visual Culture Analysis of an Ottoman Figural

Calligraphy from Seventeenth Century
Zeynep Demircan Şöner, Bahcesehir University

Submission to Academia Letters

Zeynep Demircan Şöner, Bahcesehir University,
Istanbul / TURKEY
A Visual Culture Analysis of an
Ottoman Figural Calligraphy
from Seventeenth Century
This paper consists of two parts, which aim to connect and draw a circle. At first, I will
attempt to examine a theoretical assumption of how a seventeenth century artifact (seen in
Figure 1) could have been produced based on the thoughts of the Sufi thinker Ibn Arabi by
considering the historical facts of the period. In the second half, I intend to make a semantic
reading of the calligraphy within Ibn Arabi’s thoughts with the hope of being able to extract
the messages from the imaginal world of thought of the period in which the artifact exists.
The substantial role of the embodied cultural beliefs in interpreting an image is eminent.
The socio-religious factors have superior influence on the insight of visual perception of a
culture. The images are culturally coded (Umberto Eco)[1]. The line between cultures is con-
structed historically with “image, belief and noesis as the ground of cultural meaning-making
activity and comprehension.” (Tzankova and Schiphorst: 2009) From this viewpoint, it is
crucial to explore the lexicon of the religious imagery in order to understand the recognition
of metaphors, semiotic details and the visual content. (ibid.)
There is an intimate relationship between the Muslim faith and the written text. The
written texts in some Islamic calligraphy works have pictorial qualities. These art practices
are known as Image-Texts and they are practices, which are performed widely by “Sufis and

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Zeynep Demircan Şöner, zeynepdemircan@gmail.com

Citation: Demircan Şöner, Z. (2022). A Visual Culture Analysis of an Ottoman Figural Calligraphy from
Seventeenth Century. Academia Letters, Article 4793.

1
Figure1. Osman Muhyi (?): Sefine-i Nuh Aleyhisselam (Denman Waldo Ross Collection,
MUseum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Shi’ites, though by no means limited to them, is to shape calligraphy into figurative images
ranging from mosques and everyday objects like ewers and oil lamps, to animals like lions,
camels, and birds, and even human beings.” (Schick: 2008) In this fashion, this study will
be an attempt to make an analysis of a seventeenth century religious artifact in terms of ‘per-
ception, legibility, Author, Text and Interpreter of the hermeneutics in Ibn Arabi. In order to
reveal how
the relationship between the chosen object of study and the thought of Ibn Arabi is artic-
ulated, I would like to begin with the historical background of Figure 1. There is a dialectic
relationship between the figural calligraphy in the Turkish Islamic art during the 17th Century
and its sources of inspiration in the existing world. By evolving a connection from this dialec-
tic relationship, my aim is to construct an argument from analogies and historical connections
that could help me to explore and discuss the range of meanings invested in this artwork.
Figural calligraphy (the calligraphies that are designated under pictures, images or forms

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Corresponding Author: Zeynep Demircan Şöner, zeynepdemircan@gmail.com

Citation: Demircan Şöner, Z. (2022). A Visual Culture Analysis of an Ottoman Figural Calligraphy from
Seventeenth Century. Academia Letters, Article 4793.

2
–Surah-) was widely found in the Sufi circles crafted by the dervishes and for this reason
it is mostly associated with the Sufi orders during the Ottoman era. The earliest examples
of the Image-texts belong to the 16th Century (and even earlier in a sporadic manner) but
basically these pictorial works generally appear to be produced intensively between 17th and
19th Century. (Çağman - Tanındı: 2014, P. 699) The intensive production of these artworks
is coeval with the rise of the religious fanaticism in the Ottoman era.
From the period of the beginning of the sixteenth century religious fanaticism became
increasingly powerful in the Ottoman Empire. The uprising of Kadızades was a hallmark
of this religious fanaticism in the midst of the 17th Century. In 1656 a group of preachers
attached to Kadızade, (who is a follower of a Muslim puritan Mehmet of Birgi) “intended an
attack on all the tekkes[2] in Istanbul and a general massacre, to strike religious heresy at its
roots.” (İnalcık: 2001 P.489) The grand vizier, Köprülü Mehmed quieted the situation and
prevented civil war. The events that took place at the time actually began much earlier through
theoretical discussions between the two groups on the question of “innovation” in Islam that
also marked the whole seventeenth century. Still, today the collision of these opposing views
is symbolic in the modernization of Islamic societies. (ibid.)
According to Katip Çelebi (an Ottoman scholar of the period), the theoretical debates
between the two groups (Kadızades and the Sufis) covered 19 topics including one theme that
is a matter of intellectual concern: Kadızade’s request of condemnation of the thoughts of Sufi
mystic Ibn Arabi (İdiz: 2015). Since from the beginning of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman
scholarship has been under the great influence of Ibn Arabi’s thoughts (Akbarian School),
which can be understood “as a synthesis or alliance between the exoteric and the esoteric
sciences, and between rational and esoteric knowledge.” (Tahralı: 1999) Immense effects of
Ibn Arabi’s thoughts in the tariqas[3] were also in full force during the seventeenth century.
Tariqas also played an important role since the earliest period of Islam’s arrival in Middle East.
As a ‘segmented society’, The Ottoman state empowered the widely held Sufi Lodges as the
representatives of the voices and protests of different groups that expressed themselves through
the religious ideologies. (İnalcık: 2003) As a result the spiritual and scientific personality of
Ibn Arabi came into being as a dominant influence in Turkish thought. (Tahralı: 1999)
The political and intellectual climate of the seventeenth century explained above, had set
the historical background of an era in which the most intensive production of Image-texts was
taken in the Sufi circles. In the light of these patterns, one could assert that these images may
have functioned as mediums that conveyed a message within the theoretical debates of their
period and additionally, they naturally bear the chief approaches of the Sufi culture, along
with its conceptions of God, human and nature.
The illustration seen above is made of monochromatic ink and paint on paper. It measures

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Zeynep Demircan Şöner, zeynepdemircan@gmail.com

Citation: Demircan Şöner, Z. (2022). A Visual Culture Analysis of an Ottoman Figural Calligraphy from
Seventeenth Century. Academia Letters, Article 4793.

3
36 x 50,5 cm. The title of the illustration is written with a pen and the rest is painted. The
writings that illustrate the ship are in Küfi writing style. The traditional rules of calligraphy
are not applied to the illustration, which makes one think that this is a work of public art.
(Neuemeier & Schick: 2013) The up-left text on the scripture writes “bismillâhi’r-rahmani’r-
rahîmi’l-halîmi’l-alîm” (“in the name of God, the most Gracious, the most Merciful”). The
main text is from the eleventh chapter of the Qur’an, the 41th verse of the Surah Hud, which
is about Prophet Noah’s Ship: “And [Noah] said, “Embark therein; in the name of Allah is its
course and its anchorage. Indeed, my Lord is Forgiving and Merciful.” The first half of the
verse illustrates the ship and the other half is drawn on the up right of the illustration. In the
plate on the left, the title of the illustration is plainly given: Sefîne-i Hazret-i Nûh alâ nebînâ
ve aleyhisselâm (Prophet Noah’s ship). (ibid)
The date of the illustration is unknown. However, many art historians including Oleg
Grabar, an Islamic Art professor reviews the image as belonging to 17th Century. (ibid) Grabar
also indicates its inner meanings and searches for clues of the relationship of the calligraphers
with the Sufi circles (Grabar: 1992, P.88-89), which is an assertion that validates the research
questions of this essay. [4]
Henceforth, for a basic introduction of the semantic axis of the visual, I will be borrowing
the inferences of an art historian, Valerie Gonzalez on the double ontologies of the Image-texts
in the Ottoman Calligraphy:
In her article, Gonzalez writes that these calligraphies transgress the boundaries between
the conceptual and the material, which results with securing the role of both linguistic incar-
nation and iconography. In other words, the picture and the scripture become one, the same
entity with two faces, two properties, two natures and two ontologies. If this pictorial com-
position appeals a sort of ‘natural movement of cognition’ (Gonzalez) that refers to a Sufi
from seventeenth century, he/she would interpret the double ontology in accordance with Ibn
Arabi, who argues that the heart has two eyes: the reason and imagination: When the in-
dividual is inclined to one of these, then the perception is distorted. (Almond: 2015 P.14)
This idea of perception comes from Ibn Arabi’s non-dualistic doctrine of wahdat al-wujud,
which “is an attempt to re-ascribe the origins and ontic status of all things to God whilst at the
same time preserving their ontological individuality.” (Ibid.) When this image is delivered to
our gaze, one of the first things we realize is that the text is absorbed in the image. (Grabar:
Ibid). But the contribution of the drawing of the gaff top sail and the masts of the ship make
the image seem more like falling into Gonzalez’ categorization of the “figural or representa-
tional regime”. (Within the perspective of Ibn Arabi, such an image under the figural regime
would fall into an excess of imagination.) So in this perspective, the artistic vocation aims at
delivering the viewer a sense of meaning between the reason and imagination.

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Zeynep Demircan Şöner, zeynepdemircan@gmail.com

Citation: Demircan Şöner, Z. (2022). A Visual Culture Analysis of an Ottoman Figural Calligraphy from
Seventeenth Century. Academia Letters, Article 4793.

4
 But where is this ship image? It is un-located because it is not in a material space but in
a conceptual space. And it is there to look at us. It looks and looks at us. Its gaze recurs.
Its gaze is inviting us to embark for an infinite iterative process between the image of the
ship and its text. Grabar writes that there is a second dimension in the calligraphic works
that refer to the symbol that is hidden in all things: “the attempt to search for signs in the
external, visible and in the inner, hidden, apparently inspired the artists, who were able to
use their insight to produce calligraphic works (Grabar, 1992, p. 87-88).” Gonzalez regards
this principle as a mirror relationship, an endless visual transposition between the pictorial
and textual fields in which the form and the letter visually and semantically reflect each other
that invites the viewer to play the game of binding the semiotics of the visible with that of
the legible (ibid.) In Futuhat, Ibn Arabi writes that the Author is hidden beyond the veils of
forms. Author (God) writes every book, every thing and intends all kinds of meanings. The
text of Quran contains infinity of symbols. The text is a vehicle, which constantly delivers new
meanings according to the situation and moment of the reader. Author/Text/ Reader becomes
the possessor of infinity of ebbs and ties that produce meanings. The endless switching process
that happens in the Image-text (Figure 1) is because of the infinite semantic depth of the Text,
namely the Quran. In the perspective of Ibn Arabi, the meaning is transitive ‘sent down’ to the
reader by ‘Something’ outside the book. (Almond: ibid P.79) In this sense Ibn Arabi offers a
deconstructive rejection of an ‘authentic’ meaning of the calligraphy by freeing its text but at
the same time keeping the concept of author but imagining it as a Sender (ibid.)
Gonzalez also discusses the aesthetic phenomenon of the reciprocal nature of Image-texts
in terms of the visible and the legible. She explains this phenomenon, as the writing that gives
birth to the image. According to her analysis, there are two types of pictorial calligraphies:
The first one is the “figural or representational regime” in which the image dominates the
text; and the second one is the “scriptural regime” in which the text dominates the image. She
observes a second distinction in these works of pictorial calligraphy, which are the works that
share a single referent, and those in which the referents are distinct. In the case of Figure 1.,
the text (”Embark therein; in the name of Allah is its course and its anchorage.”) and the image
(the ship in the case of Figure 1) share a single referent. Both figuring and writing say the same
thing to increase the rhetoric power of the linguistic statement: Its content is doubly signified.
(ibid.) What is this content (the ship of Noah) that is being doubly signified? The ship of Noah
is a rarely seen occasion in Image-Texts, which makes Figure 1 special. The ships, which
are illustrated as Image-Texts usually belong to another parable, form the Quran (Azhab ı
Qahf). There is an interpretation of the story of Noah given by Ibn Arabi, which is radically
remarkable in this sense. In his book Fusus al Hikem, Ibn Arabi conceives the Quranic account
of the flood in the story of Prophet Noah is referred to ‘the seas of knowledge’ and Noah as

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Zeynep Demircan Şöner, zeynepdemircan@gmail.com

Citation: Demircan Şöner, Z. (2022). A Visual Culture Analysis of an Ottoman Figural Calligraphy from
Seventeenth Century. Academia Letters, Article 4793.

5
in failure in his discourse while addressing the unbelievers. Noah is criticized because of
putting emphasis only to the Sender’s transcendence without mentioning the immanence of
Him. (Almond: 2015 P.56) These unbelievers did the right thing for not embarking on the
ship and by undertaking the risk of drowning they became saints. Within this perspective, the
ship of Noah becomes a lesson for those who forget God’s emphasis ‘on being immanent and
transcendent’. Ibn Arabi argues that by the drowning in the sea of knowledge, it is meant that
these saints experience ‘perplexity’. Perplexity, emotions and sensations are simultaneously
important themes both in the analyses of calligraphy and the Ibn Arabi corpus. It is the state
of bewilderment of the viewer against the infinite possibilities of the text. Gonzalez explains
this as the astonishment or surprise of the linguistic ontology, is one of the aesthetic qualities
required to produce a good calligraphy according to some common Islamic artistic norms. In
this sense the visual topics function as signs by making a sign to themselves. (ibid.) The Noah
interpretation of Ibn Arabi might be determining the conceptual field that is signified in the
calligraphy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
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2. Schick, Irvin Cemil, “The Iconicity of Islamic Calligraphy in Turkey”, RES: Anthropology
and Aesthetics, 53/54 Spring/Autumn: 2008, pp.211-224

3. Filiz Çağman – Zerren Tanındı; “Tarikatlerde Resim ve Kitap Sanatı”, In Osmanlı Toplumunda
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work named Mizan al- Haqq”, The Journal of International Social Research, Vol.8, Issue:
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6. Tahralı, Mustafa, “A General Outline of the Influence of Ibn Arabi on the Ottoman Era”,
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7. İnalcık, Halil, ‘Tarihsel Bağlamda Sivil Toplum ve Tarikatlar’, Bursa’da Dünden Bugüne

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Zeynep Demircan Şöner, zeynepdemircan@gmail.com

Citation: Demircan Şöner, Z. (2022). A Visual Culture Analysis of an Ottoman Figural Calligraphy from
Seventeenth Century. Academia Letters, Article 4793.

6
 Tasavvuf Kültürü-2, Bursa Kültür Sanat ve Turizm Vakfı Yayınları Bursa Kitaplığı, Kasım
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Ferrari, Nicole Kançal & Taşkent, Ayşe, Tasvir - Teori ve Pratik Arasında İslam

[1] There is a reference here to Eco’s “A Theory of Semiotics”, which is a critique of the
general semiotic theory that defines signs as determined by events or things. According to
Eco, a semiotic theory should include a theory of how signs are produced or interpreted.
On this basis, a theory of sign may involve many different areas of research as such: the
study of rhetoric, the study of ancient alphabets, secret codes, the study of group behaviour
ect…[2] The Sufi Dervish Lodges

[3] Tariqa actually means the “spiritual path” but is also used to indicate the Sufi orders that
follow different paths of spiritual doctrines.

[4] The verification of the information that states the relationship between this image and
17th Century Ottoman Sufis is expandable. The artefact (Figure 1) is a gift to Boston Art
Museum by the curator of the museum: Ananda Coomaraswamy, who was a scholar that
also studied the Islamic mysticism revealled in the Persian Art. Ananda Coomaraswamy’s
involvement with Sufi circles are acknowledged.

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Zeynep Demircan Şöner, zeynepdemircan@gmail.com

Citation: Demircan Şöner, Z. (2022). A Visual Culture Analysis of an Ottoman Figural Calligraphy from
Seventeenth Century. Academia Letters, Article 4793.