Turkish Tezhip Art

Every religion brings its own art along with its rise. Islam also has prepared an environment for the development of its own arts since the day it rose and spreaded. Islam religion which rose in the Arabia and spreaded to a wide area brought out a new approach in art with the influence of the art of different cultures which accepted Islam.  Countries which accepted Islam came to a prominance in calligraphy, tezhip, miniature and bookbinding along with architechure.

On the one hand in Turkish society a part of the traditional arts are based on pre-islamic prediod. On the other hand with the acceptence of Islam a new Turkish-Islamic syntesis has risen in the art. Architecture and music has been developed and enriched with the effect of this syntesis. Tezhip is one of the decorative arts and its lexical meaning is “gilding” in the dictionary. But Tezhip does not only consist of the works which are made with gold, it also consists of the works made with paint.

In Tezhip art calligraphic works and especially title pages of manuscript books (Like copies of Quran and poems) are decorated with different kind of patterns and motifs. The masters of this art are called müzehhip or müzehhibe.

Tezhip which has a great importance among the classical Turkish arts has been devepoled in Seljuk era. In Ottoman era Tezhip art has made a great progress and it reached a peak in the 16th century.

 
While lines, colours and designs are too detailed in the works which were made in this era, harmony of the motifs with each other is unique. Şahkulu and Karamemi who were the most important artists of the era opened a door of a new period in Tezhip art.