Laudatory to descriptive

A subtle change occurred between the first Ottoman stamps, i.e., the tughra issue of 1863, and the Duloz issue of 1865. This difference is not between the designs, which are very obviously different, but in the inscriptions.

The 1863 tughra issue reads “Sublime Ottoman Empire”. The 1865 Duloz issue reads “Post of the Ottoman Empire”. The first inscription is laudatory. The second is descriptive.

Duloz stamp

I turn now to the main entrance to the Seraskerât (Ministry of War), the celebrated Seraskerât Gate, built in 1865, the year the Duloz stamps were issued. (It became the main entrance to Istanbul University in the 20th century.)

The Seraskerât Gate is a Tanzimât structure, built with an eye to the West, gothic and modernisation, whilst being consciously revivalist in its Moresque motifs.

Its modernity lies not only in its neo-Gothic solidity, but also in the fact that it adopted a graphic layout for its inscriptions that was resolutely novel. The greatest novelty was the central inscription that reads, in large thulth script by Sefik Bey (1819–80), ‘Då’ire-i UmËr-ı ‘Askeriye’, or literally ‘Office of Military Affairs’. This is a relatively early example (1282/1865–6) of the nineteenth-century practice of explicitly naming buildings by citing their nature and/or function, or the institution that they housed or represented. 

In earlier times, buildings would be calligraphically marked with a poetic inscription in praise of the sultan or the founding figure of the building, including lines describing the building physically, metaphorically and functionally, providing at the very end a chronogram that would date its construction, endowment or repair. Alternatively, again in earlier times, an inscription would not refer directly to the building, but would contextually refer to its function. In most cases, the inspiration for that would be a Koranic verse or Hadīth.

What differentiated the novel way of labelling the Seraskerât Gate was its directness and its implicit reliance on the legibility of the inscription. The Seraskerât Gate boasted in huge letters the simple name of the institution it represented was boldly innovative.

Front façade of the Bâb-ı Seraskerât, today Istanbul University Gate, displaying, from top to bottom, the tughra covered with ‘T. C.’, the university’s name in bronze lettering, and the original calligraphic programme. 

Public buildings, government offices, municipal halls and post offices were all gradually subjected to the same epigraphic treatment. Why?  

The practice was born at the juncture of several phenomena. A rather predictable one of these was, of course, western inspiration. A certain degree of emulation was involved in the process, due to the transformations which the Ottoman state and society were undergoing.

The modernisation of the state was certainly one of the most important developments in this respect: from a pre- or early-modern structure dominated by informal and personal relations, the Ottoman bureaucracy was rapidly growing, while at the same time becoming more specialised and more impersonal.

It was in the capital of the empire that this phenomenon left its strongest imprints on the urban landscape: ministries, offices, bureaus, barracks, schools, hospitals, factories and prisons were being built at an ever-increasing pace in order to accommodate the new services of the modernising state.
Labelling, describing, showing, separating and directing became important issues in an urban environment that was becoming more complex and more anonymous every day.

I return to the stamps.

Being coterminous with the building and labelling of the Seraskerât Gate, the Duloz issue fell under similar influences. Self-evidently a stamp for the post, the need was felt nevertheless to label the stamp as being for the post, i.e., the “Post of the Ottoman Empire”. Description was felt to be more Western and, therefore, more up-to-date than mere laudation “Sublime Ottoman Empire”. 
© John Dunn.

Coat of arms stamps, 1892

The Ottoman Coat of Arms appeared as the central motif on the 1892 issue. This stamp was the first to be designed and issued during the reign of Abdul Hamid  II. It is highly likely that he had a key role in the choice of design.

20 paras stamp of the 1892 issue (printed by the office of the Dette Publique Ottomane, Istanbul)

At the very centre of a modified coat of arms and the dead centre of the stamp itself is Abdul Hamid  II, represented by his tughra and al Ghazi insignia.

The coat of arms has been modified to give centrality to Abdul Hamid’s tughra, but also for aesthetic reasons, given the constraints on space.

The centrality of the Sultan on the stamp is symbolic of the political situation at the time. The brief experiment in parliamentary democracy begun one month after Abdul Hamid  became the Sultan in 1876, which replaced the Tanzimat Era with the First Constitutional Era, was ended by Abdul Hamid  when he suspended the constitution and Parliament in 1878.

The First Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire was the period of constitutional monarchy supported by the Young Ottomans, that began on 23 December 1876 and lasted until 14 February 1878. These Young Ottomans were dissatisfied by the Tanzimat and instead pushed for a constitutional government similar to that in Europe. The constitutional period started with the dethroning of Sultan Abdülaziz and enthronement of Murad V. Abdul Hamid II took Murad's place as Sultan following only a brief three month reign. The era ended with the suspension of the Ottoman Parliament and the constitution by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, after which he established his own absolute monarchy or sultanate.

The calligraphy and revivalist arabesque design features (unique to each stamp value) of the 1892 issue present an Islamic aesthetic that was wholly in keeping with Abdul Hamid’s Islamist state ideology.

Latin script was kept to the absolute minimum required by the Universal Postal Union. The calligraphy at the centre-top is in the script of Jeli Diwani, which make no consessions to readabilty other than to scholarly Ottoman eyes. This kind of calligraphy is distinguished by the intertwining of its letters and its straight lines from top to bottom. The diacritical marks and decoration are placed to make the individual words appear as one piece, a symbol to be recognised rather than words to be read. It does in fact read as - from right to left - ‘Postai devleti aliyeyi Osmaniye’, which translates as ‘Post of the Sublime Ottoman Empire’. The Diwani calligraphy is known for the intertwining of its letters, which makes it very difficult to read or write, and difficult to forge.

So, in the 1892 issue we see symbolically represented the absolutist monarchy and Islamist state ideology of the Ottoman Empire under Abdul Hamid II.

Ottoman coat of arms

Queen Victoria, trying to establish good relations during the Crimean War with the Ottoman Empire, admitted Sultan Abdülmecid I to the Order of the Garter in November, 1856. He was the first non-Christian ruler to be admitted to the Order.

The spiritual home of the Order is St George's Chapel, Windsor. Every knight is required to display a banner of his arms in the Chapel, together with a helmet, crest and sword and an enamelled stallplate.

However, the Ottoman Sultan had no coat of arms. Consequently an English officer of arms, Charles Young (1795-1869), was appointed to create a coat of arms for the Ottoman Empire. Young came to Istanbul and carried out research to establish features which would be suitable to the European arms tradition. He was assisted by the dragoman of the British Embassy, Etienne Pisani (d. 1882).

Like the crescent motif, the coat of arms is very much a product of the Tanzimat era and the associated diplomatic balancing act with European powers.

Abdülmecid I’s successor and brother, Sultan Abdülaziz was also admitted to the Order of the Garter in 1867.

George Housman Thomas (1824-68)
The Investiture of Sultan Abdülaziz with the Order of the Garter, 17 July 1867

The components of the coat of arms as it appeared under Sultan Abdul Hamid  II are described below.

The sun ornament around the Tugra stems from the resemblance, sultan and sun.

Tugra (Seal of the Sultan). The Ottoman Sultan was placed in the seat of honour above the State and his subjects. Alonside the tughra is an additional inscription which translates to 'muslim warrier', a title held by Abdul Hamid II. The tugra, that is to say, the sultan, as seen in the coat-of-arms is the sun lighting up the Ottoman territories.

Below the tughra there is an Arabic inscription: “'The ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Abdul Hamid, who puts his trust in God”.'

The crested turban on the upper section of the shield is a symbol of world dominion, representing the Ottoman throne and its founder Osman Gazi.

The flags - green was a symbol of Islam and represented the Caliphate. The red flag represented the military and secular aspects of the Empire.

Under the rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, scales and weapons were added to the coat of arms on the 17th of April, 1882.

The weapons represent the military strength of the Empire

On the right-hand side of the Ottoman coat-of-arms, the following weapons and symbols were depicted from above, respectively:

- Spear

- Single-bladed hatchet

- Double-bladed hatchet

- Spear

- Sword

- Cannon

- War trumpet, armour or Shield

- Sword

- Iron mace

- Cannon balls

On the left-hand section of the Ottoman coat-of-arms, the following weapons and symbols were depicted from above, respectively:

- Spear

- Bayonet-rifle

- Single-bladed hatchet

- Revolver

- Şeşper (six-fold mace) or scepter

In addition, the following symbols appear on the left side.

- Scales of Justice

- The Holy Koran

- Statute books

- Cornucopia

- Anchor representing the navy

In the small group below the central shield, the following symbols were depicted on the shield:

- Zurna (wind instrument)

- Lantern

- Quiver

- Floral motif

- Medals (Nişans) right to left:

Nişan-ı Ali imtiyaz (Order of Honour) 1780* 

Nişan-ı Osmani (Order of Osmanieh) 1861

Nişan-ı iftihar (Order of Glory) 1831

Mecidi Nişanı (Order of the Medjidie) 1851

Şefkat Nişanı (Order of Charity) 1878

*It was revived on 17 December 1878 by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. This was the highest order in the Ottoman Empire. 
© John Dunn.

Crescent

The tughra did not appear on the Duloz and Empire stamps (first printed 1865 and 1876 respectively), the design of which coincided with the high point of the Tanzimât era under Sultan Abdülaziz III. (Abdulhamid was crowned in 1876, but after Empire stamps were issued).

The tughra was considered old fashioned by the modernisers, not least of whom was Sultan Abdülaziz. The crescent and star offered a much more up-to-date symbol.

With the Tanzimât reforms in the 19th century, flags were redesigned in the style of the European armies of the day. The reforms abolished all the various flags and standards of the Ottoman pashaliks, beyliks and emirates and a single new Ottoman national flag was designed to replace them. The result was the red flag with the white crescent moon and star.

The crescent and star as an emblem of nationhood was very much a product of the Tanzimât reform era. Thus the designs of the Duloz and Empire stamps were products of Tanzimât inspired thinking also.

The crescent and star designs went hand in hand with Abdülaziz’s concern to progress the reforms started by his father Mahmut II, and continued by his brother Abdülmecit.

Abdülaziz was also the first Ottoman ruler to travel outside the Ottoman Empire on a State visit. He travelled to France and stayed in Paris as the guest of Napoleon III. Afterwards Abdülaziz travelled to London as Queen Victoria’s guest and on his way back stayed in Austria as Emperor Franz Joseph’s guest. He would have been well aware of developments in the western world.

Sultan Abdülaziz was not impressed with the design of the first Ottoman stamps, which he thought reflected badly on the Empire. After the Tughra stamps were put in use, he sketched some stamp patterns personally and sent them to the famous calligrapher Vahdet Sevket Bey who was in London at the time, appointing him to complete the designs.

The first Ottoman stamps had been printed in Istanbul but were seen as low in quality in comparison with the stamps of western countries. So postal officials decided to have the new crescent and star design printed in Paris as the Greeks had begun to do some two years earlier.

The stamps were impressed at the Poitevin printing house in Paris. The artist who prepared the stamps was Duloz and these stamps were named Duloz stamps after him.

Bearing a new national symbol and printed to the highest western standards, the Duloz issue was emblematic of the Tanzimât era.

Duloz stamp

© John Dunn.

Tughra

The tughra, the highly stylised calligraphic rendition of the sultan’s name, had long been affixed to official documents and put on coins. The parts of the tughra were composed by the calligrapher to a traditional design.

Courtesy of tugra.org

The tughra did have a written meaning, but was not really calligraphy to be read as words, but rather to be recognised as a symbol of the sultan.

The written meaning within the tughra of Sultan Abdulaziz III

Working within a tradition that forbade pictorial representation, on stamps the tughra served a similar purpose to representations of the monarch’s head on British stamps for example. To the Ottomans, the tughra represented the validating authority of the caliph and head of state and served this purpose up to the end of the empire.

The tughra of Sultan Abdulaziz III as it appeared on the first Ottoman stamps

Notably, the tughra did not appear on the Duloz and Empire stamps. 
© John Dunn.

The chosen motifs

Muslim tradition mitigated against a pictorial design and especially against a royal portrait. After a few seventh century imitations of Byzantine and Sassanid numismatic portraits, Muslim rulers nearly all abandoned portraiture on their coins until the twentieth century. Aversion to such portraits in official and religious art apparently stemmed not from any clear Quranic injunction but from a decision not to compete with highly-developed Byzantine and Sassanid iconography. Muslims poured their artistic energies instead into abstract geometric designs - the arabesque - and decorative calligraphy. Calligraphy became the main decoration on Muslim coins down through the centuries.

Crescent and star on 20 para Duloz issue 1865

Coat of arms on 20 paras of 1892

Tughra on 1863 20 paras issue

For exactly half a century (1863-1913) Ottoman stamps drew mainly on this Muslim tradition. Three specialised motifs - the tughra, a coat of arms and the crescent (sometimes accompanied by a star) - were employed on the stamps, along with the calligraphic, arabesque and baroque features described elsewhere. 
© John Dunn.

Ambiguous symbols

The first stamp designs were self-consciously Ottoman, clothing a new western innovation with a distinctly Ottoman aesthetic, expressing a cultural tension never to be wholly resolved.

By the time that the first Ottoman stamps were issued, the Empire was well down the road of decline. Quite apart from the reckless spending of borrowed money on the Dolmebarche Palace (completed in 1856), the Crimean War had strained the Ottoman treasury, leading it towards further European loans and eventual bankruptcy. Rivalries amongst the European powers kept the Empire intact, but even so the Ottomans were to lose virtually all their European and African territories by 1914.

Against this background, the first Ottoman postage stamps with their self-consciously revivalist Ottoman aesthetic were ambiguous symbols. Were they signs of progress and modernisation? Or did they symbolise the Empire’s helpless absorption into the periphery of a world market dominated by the West?

1856 Dolmabahçe Palace. Cost 35 tonnes of gold, an enormous burden on the state purse during the Tanzimat era.

Baroque and Rococo elements

Baroque and Rococo elements were imported from the West into nineteenth century Ottoman design, especially from the nearby Austro-Hungarian Empire, but also from France, which was a major influence upon the Tanzimat modernising culture of the Ottoman Empire. One thinks of the French name Grande Rue de Péra in this context.

The escutcheon, scrolls and bands at the bottom of the Tughra stamps are in a baroque and roccocco style, popular in the Ottoman Empire of the 18th and 19th centuries and epitomised by the Dolmabache Palace (near contemporary with the first stamps). The Dolmabache Palace architects imported baroque and roccoco design concepts in a self conscious attempt to portray a modernising image to the world.   
 © John Dunn.

Tughra stamp and the arabesque

Whilst the tughra and calligraphy on the stamps were from the hand of Abdulfettah Efendi, the other decorative motives were made by Ensarcioglu Agop Efendi. The fine craftwork of jewellery ornamentation was to be found in the Armenian community, which is why the Armenian Agop Efendi was called upon to transfer his ornamentist skills and prepare the motives and decorations in the new miniaturist medium of the postage stamp.

It can be seen that a conscious historicism was applied to this most modern of design applications during the Tanzimat era.

Traditional arabesque motifs have been reconfigured in response to, rather than abandoned in favour of, the western models on offer, so that the aesthetics of the new stamps project a distinctive Ottoman identity.

Arabesque patterns recalling classical Iznic ceramic ware were produced by a workshop that had been established in Constantinople at Tekfur Sarayi in 1719 for the purpose of making revivalist ceramics. It produced ceramic tiles in a style similar to that of İznik tiles, but influenced by European designs and colours.

Revivalist design from Tekfur Sarayi

The various corner piece designs on the stamps bear resemblance to the revivalist arabesque corner pieces on this Tekfur Sarayı ceramic.  

In other words, like the revivalist ceramics, the stamp designs were self-consciously Ottoman, clothing a new western innovation with a distinctly Ottoman aesthetic, expressing a cultural tension never to be wholly resolved.
© John Dunn.

Tughra stamp and calligraphy

The Arabic script, and subsequently the art of calligraphy, is held in great esteem by Muslims because Arabic is the language of the Koran. The Arabic text of the Koran is sacred to Muslims and its high status gave rise to an associated respect for calligraphy.

Calligraphy was regarded as the highest form of art in the Ottoman Empire and calligraphers were among the most highly regarded artists. Their status was based on the excellence of their work, but also on the eminence of their teachers.

In addition to the text of the Koran, the best calligraphers were also commissioned to create compositions that could be executed to serve other purposes - the newly introduced postage stamps of the ottoman Empire being just one example.

Abdulfettah Efendi

The Tughra of Sultan Abdulaziz is the centre-piece on the stamps.  It was designed by the celebrated calligrapher Abdulfettah Efendi, who remains famous to this day for his tughra designs. Only in 2011 an Ottoman tughra (below) signed by Abdulfettah Efendi realised £6,250 at Christies.

He is famed also for designing the large Abdulaziz Tughra whilst he was repairing the inscriptions on the interior walls of the Great Mosque of Bursa.

Great Mosque of Bursa

The calligraphy eleswhere on the stamps is in the riqa script and was also executed by Abdulfettah Efendi.

Design features of the 2 kuruş Tughra stamp

Design features of the 5 kuruş Tughra stamp

The script inside the crescent is devoid of any decorations, has few diacritical signs and was written to be clearly understood. The script reads from right to left ‘The sublime Ottoman Empire’.
© John Dunn.

Ottoman art and design

There are four key principles present in Ottoman art and design. These are:

• Calligraphy
• Arabesque features
• Geometric patterns
• Baroque and Rococo elements imported from the West in the nineteenth century, especially the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

These key design principles appear in the stamps of the Ottoman Empire. 

The Dolmabahçe Palace, perhaps the most visible example of
Baroque and Rococo elements imported into Ottoman design. Built in the Tanzimat era between the years 1843 and 1856.

© John Dunn.

Tanzimat stamps

By the time the first Ottoman postage stamp came out in 1863, the Middle East was enmeshed in an ever-tightening network of European communications, trade, finance, and naval power.

Sultan Abdulaziz

Fu'ad Pasha

Ali Pasha

Ali Pasha and Fu’ad Pasha were keeping Sultan Abdulaziz in the background as they implemented far-reaching reforms intended to revive the Empire’s flagging strength. Postal reforms in the Empire were thus part of the broader reformist effort (known as the Tanzimat).
© John Dunn.