THE SELJUK CIVILIZATION (1071 - 1300 B.C)

The first nation to settle and inhabit in the entire Anatolia had been the Turks. Hittites, Frigs and the Greeks had been able to settle in particular sections of the peninsula as the preceding nations. The Persians (543 - 333 B.C) and later the Romans (30 B.C 395 A.D) had succeeded in conquest of the entire Anatolia but they did not settle in entire
Anatolia , instead they hold the political control of the entire land.

The Turks had reached Anatolia by continuos raids from Central Asia and by migration. The Turks had gained the sympathy of the Anatolian nations, the majority of which are of Indo - European origin by their administration based on tolerance. The citizens accepting the Islam Religion had become Turks, so the native nations and the Turks began to fuse with each other starting from 1071. Therefore, Turks have accepted the ancient
civilizations  as the heritage of all humanity not only as their national riches.

The Seljuks had developed a high-level tolerance culture in accordance with the boundaries of the above-mentioned first Renaissance movement developed in the Islam world in 9th -12th centuries A.Din the Ion civilization section. Mevlana Celaleddin Rumî was teaching and writing about a humanist point of view with a modern expression in 13th Century in the Province of Konya and the value of his teachings is appreciated especially in the current century. Medical studies and researches were executed at the major hospitals founded in every Seljuk province and astronomic studies were executed at the observations.

As in the Roman Period, The Seljuks had connected various regions of Anatolia which are separated from each other by mountain chains and different climates by strong, well-maintained roads and stone bridges. And the trade caravans could stay at the beautifully crafted and constructed caravansaries, which are the bright artworks of architecture.
Although the Seljuks are greatly influenced from the Arabic and Persian art and culture, they had developed an original civilization. The originality of the Seljuk art is formed from the elements, which they had carried together from their motherland, Central Asia . The mausoleums are the monumental interpretations of Turkish tents transformed into stone buildings. The tile crafting, metal and woodworking, art of miniature greatly demonstrate the effects of Central Asia . The method of curved carving is an original method used in central Asia originating to Turkish clan of İskit.

The Seljuks had granted appropriate volumes and adobes to the structures of caravansaries, mosques, mausoleums and theological schools relevant with the Anatolian climate. The Persian originated monumental entrance gates are adorned with the beautiful representations of the Turkish art.

Either these high entrance gates or their adornment elements resemble the Gothic churches. The Gothic architecture structures constructed with bricks in North Europe are of Seljuk origin and carried among that distance after the Crusades. There are unpaired and unique Seljuk structures in the cities Konya , Kayseri , Niğde, Sivas , Divriği, Amasya, Urfa and Malatya . The art of the Seljuk civilization is present in Anatolia with the selected samples of original tiles, metal and wood works.

SELJUK CERAMICS

The Art Of Turkish Tiles & Ceramics >>

13^th Century Seljuk Carpet-Making

One of the areas in which Turkish art has long produced its greatest and most original works is that of the textile arts. It is known that among the Turks the art of carpet weaving possesses a deep-rooted past.

In actual fact various historical sources record that the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Acmaenids all produced valuable carpets in Asia Minor prior to the arrival of the Turks. Production of carpets, known as the "Eastern Luxury" was also subsequently continued by the Byzantines and by the Sassanids. Nevertheless, the descriptions in historical sources make it clear that these carpets were not made with a knotting technique; it is agreed that they were the result of various techniques, such as applique for example, or woven, embroidered, or decorated with precious stones. The same tradition persisted in the form of similar methods through to the Great Seljuk period within the borders of the Islamic empire and particularly in the palaces of the Caliphate. Furthermore there are documents proving that the famous carpets so often mentioned in Islamic sources were produced by a knotting technique prior to the Tenth Century. But with the exception of a few examples found in Egypt which are made with open knots on a single warp, knotted carpets commence for the first time in the Eleventh Century with the Seljuks, and their line of development continues down to the present day. However from the period of the Great Seljuks, a large part of whose empire occupied Iranian soil, not a single example of carpet has survived down to the present day. Unquestionably this situation is a great historical loss for the Turkish textile arts.

The oldest examples of carpets woven in Anatolia with the Gordium-Turkish knotting technique and surviving to the present day were produced in the Thirteenth Century in the period of the Anatolian Seljuks. Known as "Seljuk Carpets" or "Konya Carpets" so called because they were most likely woven at the Seljuk capital the existence of a total of eighteen of such pieces has been established to date. In fact beginning with Marco Polo and Ibni Batuta, travellers in thirteenth century Anatolia made note of the fact that beautiful carpets were being woven in such centers as Konya , Aksaray, Sivas , and Kayseri , and that in particular the most famous were the carpets of Konya . Of the eighteen such carpets discovered in Konya , Beysehir, and Old Cairo (Fustat), ten are still in museums in Turkey . Seven are in European museums and one is in a private collection in England .

In addition to their being the oldest examples produced with the technique of knotting in Anatolia and Asia Minor and surviving down to our present day, the discovery of the Seljuk carpets is also quite interesting. The eight carpets today preserved in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in Istanbul were found and revealed from among a great number of old carpets in Alaeddin Mosgue in Konya by the German Consul in Konya, Loytved, in 1905. The first person to realise their importance and true worth however was the Swedish researcher Martin. Upon the request of the Swedish King Wilhelm who was visiting Konya , Grand Vizier Avlonyali Ferit Pasa gave permission for water colours of the rugs to be made and for their pictures to be taken. These were published in various articles and books in Europe in 1907 and 1908, and were thus made known to the scientific world. The carpets on the other hand remained in Konya for some time more, after which on 31 May 1914 they were moved by the then Ministry of Mortmain Estates to the newly opened Museum of Islamic Antiquities (the present Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in Istanbul).

Although three of the eight carpets on display at this museum are considerably worn,  they are intact, large-size carpets (6.08x2.40, 5.20x2.85, and 3.20x2.40 meters). Three others are pieces remaining from small-size carpets, while the last two are extremely worn pieces which have managed to remain from large-size carpets. Taking into consideration the fact that they were found in Konya 's Alaeddin Mosque, research suggests that they be dated between 1220 and 1250. There are approximately 84 thousand knots per square meter in these carpets woven with the Gordium-Turkish knotting technique. By another definition, in 10 square centimetre's there are 28 to 30 horizontal and 20 to 30 vertical rows, for a total of 840 knots. The wefts are of natural, white, double-twisted wool yarn. The designs are mostly derived by the filling of a rectangular area with lines of a continuously repeated motif, the area being surrounded by two or wide borders. With the appending of various hooked points to diamond, stars, polygons, and other geometric shapes on their surfaces, there occur various adaptations of the motifs which yield a distinctive appearance. In the borders, a decorative composition developed from stylised Kufic writing is used. The use of the geometric motifs gives the impression that they are the result of the stylisation of animal or plant motifs. In particular these motifs are attention-getting among the products of Seljuk art, as they continue its formal ties with Central Asia . Such colours as light and dark red, pink, brown, light and dark blue, yellow, light green and cream white are employed in these rugs which, since they are dyed entirely with natural plant dies, have not lost their lively and bright appearance. In general and despite their fairly restricted uset of colour, the appearance of the tones side by side creates a startlingly harmonious and visually serene effect.

Three other carpets which are attributed to the Seljuks and which are believed to have been woven in Konya were discovered by an American, Professor R.M. Reifstahl in 1930 in the district of Beysehir in Konya in the famous Mosque of Esrefoglu.

These carpets, which were made known to scientific circles in 1938 by the same researcher, were subsequently moved to the Mevlana Museum in Konya . Two of these have remained on display down to the present, while the third suddenly disappeared and just when all researchers believed that it would never be found, it was established quite recently that it had entered the Edmond De Unger Collection in London . These three carpets attributed to the Thirteenth Century, show a complete similitude and unity of style with the other Seljuk carpets with respect to technique, colour and design.

Seven other examples of carpets, which are established as belonging to the period of the Anatolian Seljuks, and which it is quite likely were woven in the Aksaray district of Konya, have survived down to the present, having been found in Egypt in 1935-1936. Of the hundred or so carpets found in old Cario (Fustat) and taken to Seweden by Carl Johan Lamm, only twenty nine were the subject of publication, and of these, it was indicated that seven pieces were carpets bellonging to the Anatolian Seljuk period. The other pieces were scattered, some going to the Benaki in Athens, to the Metropolitan in New York, to the Berlin Museum, and most of all to the Stockholm National Museum and the Gotenburg Rohss Museet in Sweden. In the event that these too should be published, there might be an increase in the number of Anatolian Seljuk period carpets which have survived down to the present day.