THE DIFFUSION OF THE FLORAL STYLE IN ANATOLIA AND THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

Abstract

The article “The Diffusion of Floral Style in Anatolia and Ottoman Empire” by renowned professor Walter B. Denny, one of the leading experts in the history of Islamic arts in general, and in the field of carpets and textiles in particular, relays about
the spread of the Ottoman court-floral style throughout the Ottoman Empire, its geographical routes as well as its social
diffusion from the court, through villages and nomadic milieu. One of the most characteristic symbols of this style is the carnation which travelled from the Ottoman court brocade to the Anatolian village kilim in its geometricized and stylized form. Scholarly research in the field of carpets, rugs and textiles as a part of the Islamic arts is very rare in our region where its latest discoveries are almost unattainable to an extent that whatever someone claims to be true in this field ultimately is regarded as the truth. Public discourse here in this regard is still stained with false, and in scholarly circles already decades ago denounced theory of the “mother goddess” motif which proved to be, as Professor Denny will explain here a mere fabrication. He demonstrates here that the motif which Western authors, in a surge of the New Age philosophy, have interpreted as “mother goddess” is actually stylized and geometricized carnation motif. The significance of this knowledge to designers of mosque carpets needs no further be stressed.