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 Un rossignol, volant, apporte une écharpe, et Un couple d'amoureux, assis, tenant une écharpe. A nightingale, flying, brings a scarf, and a couple in love, sitting, holding a scarf. |
Edirne, Turkey, 1455-56. This manuscript, a copy of the Dilsūznāmah or Book of Compassion by Badīʿ al-Dīn Manūchihr al-Tājirī al-Tabrīzī (fl. late 14th cent.), is a rare dated example from the early period of Ottoman Turkish book production. An unknown scribe copied it at Edirne, in Thrace. It tells the popular story of the rose and the nightingale, through human protagonists of the same name. It is an example of the way Persian stories, and the poets and scribes who wrote and copied them, travelled far beyond the borders of Iran. (MS. Ouseley 133, fol. 62a)
Bodleian Library
A work representing the early period of the Ottoman miniature art is the manuscript called Dilsuzname of Bedieddin Minuçihr el-Taciri el Tebrizi, prepared in Edirne between 1455-1456. Five miniatures in this small work are productions of Edirne Sarayı Nakkaşhanesi (Imperial Studio of Edirne Palace) which lost its importance after the conquest of Istanbul. While these pictures attract attention with their simple compositions and weak techniques reflecting the effects of Timurid Shiraz miniature style, the characteristics peculiar to Ottoman are seen in the hard lines which shapes the figures, huge plan motifs drawn in human dimension and captions peculiar to Turks. From this point of view, the miniatures of Dilsuzname are important since they are one of the first examples of the early period and reflect particular characteristics of Ottoman book painting.
Source: The Miniature Art In The Manuscripts Of The Ottoman Period (XVth - XIXth Centuries) by H. Sekíne Karakaş & Fatíh Rukanci
Reference: Stchoukine, Ivan. 'Miniatures turques du temps de Moammad II' In: Arts asiatiques. Tome 15, 1967. pp. 47-50.
