Tree has great importance in Turkish culture. With the belief of Shamanism, tree is entered daily life and accepted as a tool of communication. All the meanings that the tree of life encompasses are reflected on traditions. Tree of life is used as a motive in architecture and handicrafts of Anatolian realm in Turkish culture before and after Islam.
A new interpretation of tree is observed in the festivities and weddings organised in the Ottoman Empire with the use of three dimensional nahıls in different sizes.
Nahıl is an object which is used in weddings and festivals resembling a palm tree with its conic shape getting thinner as it goes upwards and is decorated with ornaments in different shapes.
The meaning ascribed to nahıl coincides with the meaning ascribed to the tree. Nahıls which draw all the attention to themselves are important indicators in terms of sharing power and beauty with the society.
Historians mention the existence and technical features of nahıls in small and large scales. Nahıls on which the power of sovereignty is also reflected have begun to be forgotten with the collapse of Ottoman Empire.
The traces of nahıl are found, though rarely, in Turkey and it is used in plain forms as a sign of wedding ceremonies. As a reflection of an almost forgotten cultural tradition, nahıl makers (Nahılbents) of today strive to keep alive this tradition.
Ebru is more than just an art. Ebru is dance of colors on the water. It is also a hummorous poem, a soft melody…
It takes you to another world where you can relax and leave all the stress of daily races onto the water… Ebru is a dancing figure, just like it’s pronunciation: EBRU! No art in the world gets along well with its name.The simplicity of water, festivity of color, emotions of human beings, perfection of nature and uniqueness of God come together in art of ebru.
The final result is art of ebru takes a new meaning when taken in hand with the process of creation.
Ebru is a way of expression which never loses its mysticism beginning from the moment of idea come into mind to the appearance of ebru on paper.
It is also used as a rehabilitation for physicological issues, treatment for hyperactive children, relaxation of elderlies e.t.c.
Ebru Sanatını yıllar boyu gizemli kılan, Sanatcıyı ebru teknesinin başında dunyanın butun gizlerini, kaoslarını aşmaya iten; akıcı tekniği, daima dinamik, değişken, kendini aşan sonsuz teknikleri deneme fırsatı veren bir kağıt boyama Sanatı olan ebru, tezhib ve hat ile birlikte kitap sayfalarında, murakka kenarlarında, ciltlerde, yazı boşluklarında ve koltuklarında kullanılmakla birlikte gunumuzde başlı başına bir sanat eseri olarak dusunulmekte ve sergilenmektedir.
Ebru sanatının ne zaman ve hangi ulkede ortaya cıktığı bilinmemekle beraber bu sanatın doğu ulkelerine ozgu bir susleme sanatı olduğu bilinmektedir. Bazı İran kaynaklarında Hindistan’da ortaya cıktığı yazılıdır. Bazı kaynaklara gore de Turkistan’daki Buhara kentinde doğmuş ve İran yoluyla Osmanlılar’a gecmiştir. Batıda ebru ‘Turk Kağıdı ‘ya da ‘mermer kağıt’ olarak adlandırılmaktadır.
Ebru, geven otunun oz suyundan elde edilen kitre veya deniz kadayıfı bitkisi (kerajin) ile kıvamı arttırılmış suyun uzerine, icine od katılarak suyun dibine cokmeyecek hale getirine boyaların serpilmesi ve su yuzeyinde meydana gelen şekillerin olduğu gibi ya da biz adı verilen metal uclu bir aletle mudahale edilerek bir kağıda gecirilmesi yoluyla yapılır.
Ebru sanatının koklerinin 9. ve 10. yuzyıla kadar uzandığı varsayılmaktadır. Bilinen o ki, bu sanat, kağıdın tarih sahnesine girmesiyle gelişmiştir.
PAPER MARBLING
Paper marbling is a method of aqueous surface design, which can produce patterns similar to smooth marble or other stone. The patterns are the result of color floated on either plain water or a viscous solution known as size, and then carefully transferred to an absorbent surface, such as paper or fabric. Through several centuries, people have applied marbled materials to a variety of surfaces. It is often employed as a writing surface for calligraphy, and especially book covers and endpapers in bookbinding and stationery. Part of its appeal is that each print is a unique monotype.
There are several methods for making marbled papers. A shallow tray is filled with water, and various kinds of ink or paint colors are carefully applied to the surface with an ink brush. Various additives or surfactant chemicals are used to help float the colors. A drop of “negative” color made of plain water with the addition of surfactant is used to drive the drop of color into a ring. The process is repeated until the surface of the water is covered with concentric rings.
The floating colors are then carefully manipulated either by blowing on them directly or through a straw, fanning the colors, or carefully using a human hair to stir the colors. In the 19th century, the Kyoto master Tokutaro Yagi developed a method for using a split piece of bamboo to gently stir the colors, resulting in concentric spiral designs. Finally, a sheet of washi paper is carefully laid onto the water surface to capture the floating design. The paper, which is often made of kozo (Paper Mulberry or Broussonetia papyrifera), must be unsized, and strong enough to withstand being immersed in water without tearing.
Another method of marbling more familiar to Europeans and Americans is made on the surface of a viscous mucilage, known as size or sizing in English. This method is commonly referred to as “Turkish” marbling, although ethnic Turkic peoples were not the only practitioners of the art, as Persian Tajiks and people of Indian origin also made these papers. The term “Turkish” was most likely used as a reference to the fact that many Europeans first encountered the art in Istanbul.
Historic forms of marbling used both organic and inorganic pigments mixed with water for colors, and sizes were traditionally made from gum tragacanth (Astragalus spp.), gum karaya, guar gum, fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum), fleabane, linseed, and psyllium. Since the late 19th century, a boiled extract of the carrageenan-rich alga known as Irish moss (Chondrus crispus), has been employed for sizing. Today, many marblers use powdered carrageenan extracted from various seaweeds. Another plant-derived mucilage is made from sodium alginate. In recent years, a synthetic size made from hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, a common ingredient in instant wallpaper paste, is often used as a size for floating acrylic and oil paints.
In the sized-based method, colors made from pigments are mixed with a surfactant such as ox gall. Sometimes, oil or turpentine may be added to a color, to achieve special effects. The colors are then spattered or dropped onto the size, one color after another, until there is a dense pattern of several colors. Straw from the broom corn was used to make a kind of whisk for sprinkling the paint, or horsehair to create a kind of drop-brush. Each successive layer of pigment spreads slightly less than the last, and the colors may require additional surfactant to float and uniformly expand. Once the colors are laid down, various tools and implements such as rakes, combs and styluses are often used in a series of movements to create more intricate designs.
Paper or cloth, is often mordanted beforehand with aluminium sulfate (alum) and gently laid onto the floating colors (although methods such as Turkish ebru and Japanese suminagashi do not require mordanting). The colors are thereby transferred and adhered to the surface of the paper or material. The paper or material is then carefully lifted off the size, and hung up to dry. Some marblers gently drag the paper over a rod to draw off the excess size. If necessary, excess bleeding colors and sizing can be rinsed off, and then the paper or fabric is allowed to dry. After the print is made, any color residues remaining on the size are carefully skimmed off of the surface, in order to clear it before starting a new pattern.
Contemporary marblers employ a variety of modern materials, some in place of or in combination with the more traditional ones. A wide variety of colors are used today in place of the historic pigment colors. Plastic broom straw can be used instead of broom corn, as well as bamboo sticks, plastic pipettes, and eye droppers to drop the colors on the surface of the size. Ox gall is still commonly used as a surfactant for watercolors and gouache, but synthetic surfactants are used in conjunction with acrylic paints.
Serhat Ozsen Ozlem Tuna designed this set for serving coffee and Turkish delight, or lokum.
ISTANBUL — Good things often come in small packages: dark Turkish coffee or freshly brewed tea, for example, served in exquisite porcelain cups or etched tulip-shaped glasses, all accompanied by a mere bite or two of lokum, the candy also known as Turkish delight.
In the designer shops of Istanbul, traditional lokum dishes, or lokumluk in Turkish, are getting a modern makeover, though one with roots stretching to the Ottoman, Seljuk and even Hittite eras.
Prices can range from 390 Turkish lira, or about $192, for the designer Ozlem Tuna’s individual platter, miniature lokumluk and demitasse set, to more than to 3,100 lira for a dish in solid silver from the workshops of the upscale design house Armaggan.
“Presentation says a lot here in Turkey,” the designer Irem Bonfil of Dot Design Studio said. “It’s a sort of ceremony, so you have not just the special glass teacups, but other things you need for the table. A lokumluk is part of that.”
The serving of lokum, she said, “is a very old custom that is still used in most houses. You always have a box of lokum to put into a special dish in case someone just drops in.”
Whether the sweets are rose-scented lokum from the classic Haci Bekir on Istiklal Caddesi in the heart of the lively Beyoglu district, or rolls of almond paste from Meshur Bebek Badem Ezmesi along the Bosporus, they are presented in containers of silver, gold plate or fine ceramic decorated with accents like turquoise stones or a tulip-shaped finial.
“When I got married, I received one as a wedding gift from my mother-in-law,” Ms. Bonfil said. “It’s an important item that you receive as a young girl, and you keep it.”
Many of the lokumluk that she and others are creating are made by hand, from natural materials, by master craftsmen in the workshops that stretch from the Egyptian spice market up the hill to the Grand Bazaar.
“I had been an interior designer since 1986 for more commercial projects like large hotels and hospitals in the Middle East and Central Asia,” said Ms. Bonfil, who studied costume and stage design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. “But I wanted to come closer to local people and the source. I like to work with the craftsmen. They tell me their abilities and I design new things for them to make. It’s actually a dialog between them and me.”
Her newest line will be available, starting this month, at the Beymen department store at the new Zorlu Center Mall in Istanbul. Items include substantial plates carved from blocks of white or dark gray Turkish marble, with a small hand-hammered antique or silver-plated brass, crescent-moon-topped lokumluk as a centerpiece.
Perhaps her most interesting lokumluk reflects Ms. Bonfil’s own multicultural background.
“My mom is Levantine — half-Italian half-Hungarian — my dad is Turkish with some drops of Greek blood,” she said, “whereas my husband is a Sephardic Jew. I find myself immersed in all of these different traditions and I love it.”
That love is embodied in a 24-karat gold-plated hammered oxidized brass platter, 32 centimeters, or 12.6 inches, wide. The decorative top is a dreidel, or spinning top, crafted by Afghan Jews, she said. Some of the dreidels are engraved with Hebrew lettering. The silver and gold leaf veneer is circled with small agates and an accent bead is built from tiny pieces of turquoise. It sells for about 1,500 lira.
“I work with craftsmen whose work may be extinct soon,” she said. “There are only a few people that work on copper and brass the way you can see on my objects.”
Keeping crafts alive is also a goal of Ms. Tuna, who has a bachelor’s degree in ceramics from Marmara University.
“I work mostly with the traditional craftsmen around the Grand Bazaar,” she said. “I really care about using local products. All of my things are produced in Istanbul by hand in small ateliers using methods that haven’t changed since the Ottoman Empire.”
Ms. Tuna’s lokumluk blend old-style manufacturing with contemporary shapes and colors, offering bright turquoise or cherry red ceramics and hammered copper or brass silver-plated saucers, and cup handles with a tiny tulip motif. A set of three gold-plated, hand-beaten copper lokum bowls, called Dun, Bugun, Yarin (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow), sells for 710 lira.
“For me, it’s very important to keep tradition alive,” she said. And that includes the role of Turkish delight in entertaining.
“Lokum is special,” Ms. Tuna said, “because Turkish coffee has a bitter taste, and we also like to eat sweets. Lokum is small and comes in different flavors. So it’s a perfect team.”
A version of this article appears in print on November 19, 2013, in The International New York Times.
Noah’s Pudding (Asure) 1 cup barley 1 cup white kidney beans (in a can), washed and drained 1 cup chickpeas (in a can), washed and drained 1 cup sugar 1 pkg vanilla or 1 tsp vanilla extract 10 cups water 10 dry apricots, soaked in water overnight, cut in pieces 10 dried figs, cut in pieces 1/2 cup raisins Garnish: 1/4 cup walnuts, crumbled Put 4 cups of water in a large pot along with the barley. Get it to boil on high heat. Then as soon as it boils, turn it down to medium-low heat and cook for about half an hour. Add the beans, chickpeas, vanilla, apricots, raisins, figs, sugar and 6 cups of hot water. Cook for about 45 minutes on medium-low heat. Stir occasionally. Pour into a large service bowl and let cool. Keep Noah’s Pudding refrigerated. When serving, garnish with crumbled walnuts. This recipe is one of the oldest and best known desserts of Turkish Cuisine. It’s original name is “Asure”. When we cook Asure, it is traditional to give some away to friends and family. 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia, Noah was King of the city Shuruppak. His was a trade empire, and he built a large trading ship. At that time, there was a raging flood and rainstorm. He and his family loaded animals, grain, fruit and beer on board. The rain continued for 40 days. Afterwords there was no land in sight for 7 days. They ran out of drinking water and since the sea was salty, they had to resort to drinking beer. They eventually landed on Mount Ararat. The old saying goes that Noah’s food was about to run out. He mixed and cooked all that he had left. The result became known as “Noah’s Pudding”. Turkish people love Asure and there is even an Asure Month The aşure holiday is about keeping up good relations with neighbors no matter what their religion or beliefs might be. It is common Turkish practice to make big cauldrons of aşure to distribute to the poor. Everything goes into the pot, and what is in the pot goes to everyone.
Mesir paste is a very old tradition in the history of Manisa, an Anatolian city in the Aegean region, dating back to almost 500 years. Mesir paste was started as a medicine invention during the Ottoman period but later on it became an important part of local festivity in this city.
According to the story about the origins of Mesir paste; Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, who became the wife of Yavuz Sultan Selim and the mother of Suleyman the Magnificent after her placement from Crimea to the Ottoman Harem in the 16th century, became very ill after the death of her husband. Unfortunately doctors couldn’t find a cure thus Sultan Suleyman consulted Merkez Muslihiddin Efendi, the head of the theological school belonging to the Yavuz Selim Mosque. He was already making medicines using herbs and spices for the sick people and built a small sort of hospital next to the school. After receiving Suleyman’s letter regarding his ill mother, he mixed 41 different types of plants and spices together to form a medicinal paste and sent it to the palace.
When Hafsa Sultan ate this paste, she was recovered and wanted to share this miraculous medicine with others. As requests from the people increased, the Sultan told Merkez Efendi to distribute the paste to the people every year in a form of festivity. For this, 22nd of March was selected because it symbolized the beginning of Spring, and the tops of the Sultan Mosque’s domes and minarets were chosen for its location. The Mesir Celebration began this way in around 1527-28. Since then, every year on or around March 21st, which is known as Spring festival Newroz, thousands of people gather in front of the Sultan Mosque to catch the Mesir Paste wrapped in paper and thrown from mosques rooftop. In 2009, due to the local municipality elections throughout the country, 469th Mesir Macun international Festival was postponed and held on April 26th. Meanwhile, in 2010 the 470th edition was held between March 21st – 28th.
“Bean Soup” aka “Kuru Fasulye” is one of the most traditional Turkish dish, wholesome and so delicious.
Whatever pasta is for Italians “bean soup” is same for Turks. The traditional recipe for Bean soup contains beef or lamb meat with small chunks , ground beef , sucuk or even pastrami. However we serve “bean soup” in A la Turca without meat to please our vegetarian customers as well. 🙂
It’s very common to serve “bean soup” with “buttered rice” in Turkey
Why don’t you stop by and try this delicious Turkish beauty today ?
