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IRAN
AND THE WORLD IN THE SAFAVID AGE
Abstracts
Allan, Prof. James, Ashmolean Museum, Department of Eastern Art, Oxford, Safavid
Loss, Ottoman Gain - Metalwork across the Two Empires
There appears to be no
evidence of any positive Ottoman influence on the development of
Persian metalworking in the Safavid period, be it technical or
stylistic. However,
the brief campaign of Selim I, which culminated in the battle of
Chaldiran in 1514 and the occupation of Tabriz, seems to have
had a major, negative impact. Available evidence indicates that it brought to an end the
role of Tabriz as a major metalwork production centre. The evidence is as follows.
Although the accounts
vary, it is certain that substantial numbers of craftsmen were
taken from Tabriz by Selim, and resettled in Istanbul.
There their role was to provide objects for the Ottoman
court and Ottoman army. These
craftsmen included metalworkers.
Among these were probably workers in zinc. Otherwise it
is difficult to explain the Ottoman successors to the Safavid
pieces of bejewelled zinc in the Topkapi collection, and the
lack of a continuing zinc tradition in Iran.
Among them too were probably brass inlayers. This would best explain the lack of pieces from the 'Tabriz
School' post dating 1514. Even
more important, some of the finest craftsmen in steel seem to
have been deported. For
there is no later Iranian workmanship known equivalent in
quality to the belt of Isma'il I in Topkapi, and yet also in
Topkapi is Sulayman the Magnificent's sword, for which there is
no known Ottoman prototype.
There is no known example of a Tabrizi nisba among the
many Safavid metalworkers whose names have come down to us.
If
we are seeking external links, however, it is clear that there
were much closer stylistic and technical ties between metal
objects produced in Iran and those of the Indian subcontinent.
Though how that relationship worked in the everyday lives of the
master craftsmen remains to be determined.
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