Tile

• Accession Number:AKM862
• Place:Turkey, Iznik
• Dimensions:24 cm × 25 cm
• Date:1560-1570
• Materials and Technique:Fritware, underglazed and painted

The most exceptional architectural monuments of the Ottoman Empire were designed by Sinan, the famous architect of Süleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520–66). While he was building monuments and complexes under the patronage of his sultan, Sinan built monuments for Ottoman aristocrats as well. The Mosque of Rüstem Pasha in the Eminönü district of Istanbul is one of Sinan’s great creations. Rüstem Pasha (d. 1561) was Süleyman’s chief vizier and a notable patron of architecture.  
 
Together with two other tiles in the Aga Khan Museum (AKM583, AKM584), this tile is identical to a group of tiles mounted on the back wall of the Rüstem Pasha Mosque, allowing a fairly secure date of around 1561. [1] At the centre is a rosette from which four spiraling rumi scrolls radiate and intersect with scrolls radiating from the rosettes at the edges. Together, these elements form an infinitely repeating composition. [2] 
 
Walls of imperial mosques and other buildings often featured tile friezes directing the eye to specific areas, such as the mihrab. Other interiors were entirely covered in tiles. The interior decoration of the Mosque of Rüstem Pasha combines panels of different repeating tile friezes to dazzling effect. The project was probably pushed to completion by Rüstem Pasha’s widow Mihrimah Sultan, the daughter of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent. She was also one of Sinan’s major royal patrons.  
 
In the Ottoman tradition of tile makers, it was common to overproduce tiles. This phenomenon seems to apply these examples, as the identical pattern can be found on tiles in several international museum collections, such as the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon; [3] the David Collection, Copenhagen; [4] the Sadberk Hanım Museum, Istanbul; [5] the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; [6] and elsewhere.  
 
- Filiz Çakır Phillip 
 
 
Notes 
1. Walter B. Denny notes that this design may have elicited later copies. See The Ceramics of the Mosque of Rüstem Pasha and the Environment of Change (New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1977), 55–56. 
 
2. See Hülya Bilgi. Dance of Fire: Iznik tiles and ceramics in the Sadberk Hanım Museum and Ömer M. Koc collections (Istanbul: Vehbi Koç Foundation, 2009), 308.  
   
3. See Denny, Iznik: The Artistry of Ottoman ceramics (London: Thames & Hudson, 2004), 208–10. 
 
4. See Kjeld von Folsach, Art from the World of Islam in The David Collection (Copenhagen: David Collection, 2001), 193. 
 
5. See Laure Soustiel, ed. Splendeurs de la céramique ottomane du XVIe au XIXe siècle, des collection Suna-Inan Kiraç et du Musée Sadberk Hanim (Paris and Istanbul: Musée Jacquemart-André, Institut de France – Suna - İnan Kiraç Akdeniz Medeniyetleri Arastirma Enstitüsü, 2000), 70; Bilgi, 308. 
 
6. https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/343919 
 

 
References 

Bilgi, Hülya. Dance of Fire: Iznik tiles and ceramics in the Sadberk Hanım Museum and Ömer M. Koç collections. Istanbul: Vehbi Koç Foundation, 2009. OCLC: 854719226
 
Denny, Walter B. The Ceramics of the Mosque of Rüstem Pasha and the Environment of Change. New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1977. ISBN:9780824026844 
 
---. Iznik: The Artistry of Ottoman ceramics. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004. ISBN: 9780500517888   
 
Von Folsach, Kjeld. Art from the World of Islam in The David Collection. Copenhagen: David Collection, 2001. OCLC: 794655621 
 
Soustiel, Laure, ed. Splendeurs de la céramique ottomane du XVIe au XIXe siècle, des collection Suna-Inan Kiraç et du Musée Sadberk Hanim. Paris and Istanbul: Musée Jacquemart-André, Institut de France - Suna-Inan Kiraç Akdeniz Medeniyetleri Araştırma Enstitüsü, 2000. ISBN:9789757078067