Lovers of the Rose : Islamic Affect and the Politics of Commemoration in Turkish Museal Display
(2023) In Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe p.57-98- Abstract
- This chapter explores Turkish museal display as an arena for memory-cultural Islamisation, extending beyond the walls of museums. It probes museums as spaces for exhibiting nationalism, and the burgeoning interest in religion and affect within a new museology. It discusses how Turkish expositions have appropriated aspects of such a new museology in restorative-commemorative expositions of the Ottoman past, under the auspices of the AKP government. The establishment and re-organisation of museums has co-occurred with (and extended into) a performative ritualisation of public space and education. The Ottoman-Islamic past hence is re-constructed, re-imagined, and re-spatialised, not only as a national-cultural heritage, but as ethics of... (More)
- This chapter explores Turkish museal display as an arena for memory-cultural Islamisation, extending beyond the walls of museums. It probes museums as spaces for exhibiting nationalism, and the burgeoning interest in religion and affect within a new museology. It discusses how Turkish expositions have appropriated aspects of such a new museology in restorative-commemorative expositions of the Ottoman past, under the auspices of the AKP government. The establishment and re-organisation of museums has co-occurred with (and extended into) a performative ritualisation of public space and education. The Ottoman-Islamic past hence is re-constructed, re-imagined, and re-spatialised, not only as a national-cultural heritage, but as ethics of citizenship. Such tendencies are developed in an analysis of the revitalisation, reinterpretation, and exposition of hilye-i sṃerif calligraphy. This Ottoman-Islamic genre, commemorating and visually conjuring the love (asṃk) for Prophet Muhammad, has emerged as a quasi-national, state-patronised, Turkish-Islamic art form, exhibited in museal-cum-ritual and affective display. (Less)
- Abstract (Swedish)
- This chapter explores Hilye-i Şerif, the calligraphic description of the Prophet Muhammad—and its significance in current Turkish politics. With roots in Ottoman literature, art and Prophet devotion, this genre is currently witnessing a striking artistic innovativeness. Under the theme of Aşk-ı Nebi (Love for the Prophet), several public exhibitions have been organised within recent, state-run mevlid-festivals, commemorating the birth of the Prophet. Here, a recurring motif has been ‘the Rose of Muhammad’, symbolically compounding Muhammad’s human nature and prophethood. The calligraphic art hence is associated with devotional and mystic traditions. Bodily-masculine, floral-symbolic and textual-Quranic references creatively intersect in... (More)
- This chapter explores Hilye-i Şerif, the calligraphic description of the Prophet Muhammad—and its significance in current Turkish politics. With roots in Ottoman literature, art and Prophet devotion, this genre is currently witnessing a striking artistic innovativeness. Under the theme of Aşk-ı Nebi (Love for the Prophet), several public exhibitions have been organised within recent, state-run mevlid-festivals, commemorating the birth of the Prophet. Here, a recurring motif has been ‘the Rose of Muhammad’, symbolically compounding Muhammad’s human nature and prophethood. The calligraphic art hence is associated with devotional and mystic traditions. Bodily-masculine, floral-symbolic and textual-Quranic references creatively intersect in visual/devotional objects of memory, affect and desire.
Concomitantly, the revival of calligraphic art carries political overtones. The exhibitions of devotional art have been orchestrated in central memory-sites such as Hagia Sophia and the Topkapı Palace Museum—contributing to the current sacralization of Turkish memory institutions and public-urban space. With a theoretical point of departure in new museology, nationalism, and memory studies, this chapter discusses the revitalisation of Turkish devotional art exhibition as part and parcel of a memory-political claim of the Ottoman heritage under the auspices of the AKP government. Empirically, it explores the broader political aspects of the museal-devotional landscape of Istanbul and probes into the textual and symbolic detail of contemporary Hilye-i Şerif calligraphy.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/2eee07cc-9b9a-4136-815f-36de71f744ba
- author
- Janson, Torsten LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Turkey, museums, nationalism, Islam, Ottoman, calligraphy, hilye-i şerif
- host publication
- Neo-Ottoman Imaginaries in Contemporary Turkey
- series title
- Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe
- editor
- Raudvere, Catharina
- pages
- 57 - 98
- publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85144215397
- ISSN
- 2523-7993
- 2523-7985
- ISBN
- 978-3-031-08023-4
- 978-3-031-08022-7
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-031-08023-4_3
- project
- Beyond Sacred/Secular Cities - Exploring Politics of Memory, Space, and Religion in Middle Eastern Nationalisms
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 2eee07cc-9b9a-4136-815f-36de71f744ba
- date added to LUP
- 2021-03-28 17:18:33
- date last changed
- 2024-04-18 11:28:02
@inbook{2eee07cc-9b9a-4136-815f-36de71f744ba,
abstract = {{This chapter explores Turkish museal display as an arena for memory-cultural Islamisation, extending beyond the walls of museums. It probes museums as spaces for exhibiting nationalism, and the burgeoning interest in religion and affect within a new museology. It discusses how Turkish expositions have appropriated aspects of such a new museology in restorative-commemorative expositions of the Ottoman past, under the auspices of the AKP government. The establishment and re-organisation of museums has co-occurred with (and extended into) a performative ritualisation of public space and education. The Ottoman-Islamic past hence is re-constructed, re-imagined, and re-spatialised, not only as a national-cultural heritage, but as ethics of citizenship. Such tendencies are developed in an analysis of the revitalisation, reinterpretation, and exposition of hilye-i sṃerif calligraphy. This Ottoman-Islamic genre, commemorating and visually conjuring the love (asṃk) for Prophet Muhammad, has emerged as a quasi-national, state-patronised, Turkish-Islamic art form, exhibited in museal-cum-ritual and affective display.}},
author = {{Janson, Torsten}},
booktitle = {{Neo-Ottoman Imaginaries in Contemporary Turkey}},
editor = {{Raudvere, Catharina}},
isbn = {{978-3-031-08023-4}},
issn = {{2523-7993}},
keywords = {{Turkey, museums, nationalism, Islam, Ottoman, calligraphy, hilye-i şerif}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{57--98}},
publisher = {{Palgrave Macmillan}},
series = {{Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe}},
title = {{Lovers of the Rose : Islamic Affect and the Politics of Commemoration in Turkish Museal Display}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08023-4_3}},
doi = {{10.1007/978-3-031-08023-4_3}},
year = {{2023}},
}