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Emine Fetvaci : Picturing History at the Ottoman Court . xiii, 317 pp. Bloomington : Indiana University Press , 2013. £33. ISBN 978 0 253 00678 3 .
H. Erdem Çipa and Emine Fetvaci (eds): Writing History at the Ottoman Court: Editing the Past, Fashioning the Future . xv, 181 pp. Bloomington : Indiana University Press , 2013. £16.99. ISBN 978 0 253 00864 0 .
Reviews: The Near and Middle East
Published simultaneously by Indiana University Press, these two books are companion pieces in that they share not only paired titles and an author/editor but also a focus on recent scholarship concerning Ottoman artistic and intellectual production, principally in the sixteenth-century heyday of the empire.
Full of fresh discoveries, Picturing History is a comprehensive study of Ottoman illuminated histories and their readers, makers, intended meanings and political uses. The intricate interplay between historical writing and image making is a core preoccupation of Fetvaci's study. Its principal argument is that the boom in production of elegantly illustrated books in the second half of the sixteenth century was sparked by a broad range of patrons and artists whose individual purposes coalesced to "codify" a shared imperial vision. This is a book for the specialist as well as the intelligent undergraduate, as its exceptional clarity of organization and exposition makes complex and overlapping dynamics readily meaningful. The lavish illustration (102 colour plates) and the author's interest in comparative imperial practices add to its depth.
The introduction could be read with profit as a stand-alone essay, its chapter summaries far more than the...