Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 31. (Budapest, 2017)

Szabolcs KONDOROSY: Types of Smoking Pipe Widespread in the Ottoman Empire in the 17th Century in Connection with Archaeological Finds from Onetime Várad Cathedral (Budapest Museum of Applied Arts)

because merchants took products they could sell).

The geographical distribution of manufacture must be distinguished from the distribution of sale (Bisaga) or transport as personal property, for which a detailed study of one type can be informative. Pipes as personal property are most of all found among the possessions of ship crews (Pomégues and Malta).

Pipes of what may be regarded as the earliest, the keel type were manufactured widely in the territories of the Ottoman Empire in Europe and Asia Minor, as many local variants attest. They were carried by waterborne and overland trade within the empire. The absence of such pipes from the Western Mediterranean may be explained by their early period of prevalence, a time when Western interest in pipes or at least this type may have been low (the Arabian text ribbon may have put them off), although access may also have been restricted at this time.

The horizontal cylinder type, whose only known location in the Ottoman Empire is Mytilene, was carried as merchandise to the whole Western Mediterranean, even on Western ships. The basic type is unknown on the European mainland of the empire. This may partly be explained by the arrangement of the empire’s internal trade routes. Routes to the Hódoltság basically ran through Istanbul and probably did not pass through the manufacturing centre(s) in Asia Minor. Neither did production spread to South East Europe, although a few examples did reach there. Only greatly altered versions were made in the Hódoltság (as on the African coasts), no doubt deriving from differences in taste.

The polished type, by contrast, evolved in the south east of the European territory

of the empire, far from the coasts, and spread as an article of trade and was at the same time probably also manufactured locally. Only versions far removed from the basic type could have been made on the European Ottoman coast and brought from there to West Mediterranean ports. No examples are known from the Asian lands of the empire. One possible reason is the difference in taste, because samples were certainly taken to Istanbul for inspection but did not find followers. The exterior of the pipe was well received, however, because the glossy red finish, although made using a different technique, dominated Istanbul pipes from the 18th century on.

The geographical location of the manufacturing centre and the attractiveness of the product (i.e. prevailing public tastes) determined the spread of these pipes. Syria, Palestine and Egypt seem to have occupied a world apart in respect of these Ottoman- Empire pipes during the 17th century.

The ethnic and cultural differences and divergent tastes which had previously separated European lands from Asia Minor, particularly the Near East, persisted despite political and economic union and a shared habit; the material culture of the empire, even in respect of these apparently easily transferable objects, did not move towards unity. Indeed, pipes developed clear regional features, and when thoroughly mapped out, the data on their distribution permits an archaeological assemblage to be localized to the precision of half a country.

The Várad pipes show that incorporation into the empire did not mean absorption into the imperial material culture. Some empire-wide spread types adopted some degree of the Hódoltság identity.

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