Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 14. (Budapest, 1994)
DOBROVITS Mihály: Egy Kába-miniatúrával díszített XVIII. századi török kézirat a Hopp Ferenc Kelet-Ázsiai Művészeti Múzeumból
The present richly illustrated Turkish manuscript of small size (15.5 x 10 cm) with 35 leaves completed in the year 1185 (A. H. = 1771/2 A. D.) and bearing the inventory number H. 51. 114. is an outstanding work in the Islamic Collection of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts. In this manuscript the following types of writing are used: suis, nashî, muhaqqaq (ills. 2-A.). 1 This small book reflects the influence of Sufi culture in the Ottoman Empire at the time. This trend known through the Dervish Orders, aimed that its followers entered into spiritual contact with God through their especially deep religious feelings. According to their belief, every man is able to do this if he is willing to break the magic of the individual influenced by the outer world {nefs) for the sake of the Creator and the mystic meeting (vuslet) with him, satisfying its demands but not submitting himself to its temptations he dedicates his energies to the seeking of God. The zikrs, the common ceremonies of the representatives of the different sufi currents (tariqat) much misunderstood by Europeans, served this aim. The essence of these ceremonies is that the participants together in group ecstasy strive to archieve a meeting with God, the True (haqq). Their doctrines do not mean a basic break with the Sunnitic current of Islam, but their several disciplines bring them nearer Shiism. This means the acceptance of the spiritual contact between the spiritual leader (pír) and the person led (mürld), further the acceptance of the spiritual contact between the Creator and the living being created, the honour paid to c Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet, the fourth Caliph of Islam and the reverence to the First Imam of the Shi-ites and his sons, the imams Hasam and Husayn. x The manuscript which comprises three parts serves one idea: religious perfection. God' s 99 names can be found on the decoratively gilt opening page and the following three folios (ff. l v-4 r ) written in gilt hexagonal frames connected with vertical and horizontal lines. The next three folios (ff. 4 r-6 r ) are dedicated to the names of the Prophet. This enumeration of names is closed by the traditional blessing formula: "May God' s blessing be on our Lord Muhammed, on his clan and all of "his attendants, further on every Prophet sent. Gratitude to God, the Lord of the worlds." This is followed by the description of the outer appearances of the Prophet and the first four Caliphs especially honoured among the Sunnits in oval frames. Between the frames with the descriptions of the outer appearances of the four Caliphs and the edge of the paper one finds the names of Shi-ite Imams, too. The next folios (9 V — 17 V ) contain the names of the Prophet' s followers who took part in the Battle of Badr in Arabic alphabetical order. The participants in this battle are accorded a special place in the tradition of Islam. 4 The second 17 folio text (ff. 18 v-35') contains a hitherto unkown poem (mesnevî) written by the Turkish poet Pederi about the Battle of Badr and the wonderworking, evil-deterring influence of the list of names to be published later. The miniature painting depicting the Kaba sanctuary (ill. 5.) found its place on the central page of this volume (f. 18 r ) according to accurate compositional principles, on the basis of a precise programme. It is its aim to unite the first and second halves of the volume, to provide them with uniform content. Its frame of pure gold and its size (10 x 6 cm) reflecting the ratio 5:3. which is very popular in Islamic book art, correspond to the sizes of the pages with texts. This miniature is a landscape in composition. The representation of the Great Mosque of Mecca and the Sanctuary of Kaba are placed between the roofs of the houses on the outskirts of the town in the foreground and the hills in the background. Blue sky covers the upper part of the picture. The composition is strictly symmetrical. Both the foreground and the background occupy one fourth of the picture size. The Great Mosque can be seen in the central zone of the picture. It is the invention of the composition that the Kaba, the objective of the Prophet'
