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 Imperial fermans or edicts which once symbolised the
power of the Ottoman Empire are today not only a source of information for historians, but
valued as works of art in themselves, and collectors bid for them in Europe's famous
auction houses. Interest in these long narrow documents with their distinctive up-curving
lines of writing and illuminated imperial ciphers has soared in recent years in parallel
to the growing interest in Turkish and Islamic art, fuelled by books and major exhibitions
such as the Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent Exhibition of the 1980s.Interest in their appearance rather than content has led to the term ferman being applied for convenience to a whole range of different documents with a similar layout and bearing a tuğra (imperial cipher). In fact only some are strictly speaking ferman or imperial edicts, others being berat (warrants of appointment to government posts), hüküm (judicial decisions), emir (instructions to government officials) and so on. In addition to imperial documents of this kind there is another related class of legal and canonical documents which are also collectors' items, including rulings on religious questions and endowment deeds. Calligraphy and illumination were the fine arts par excellence in Turkey. Fermans,
functional as they were, were at the same time objects of exquisite beauty and a suitably
splendid reflection of imperial Official state business had its own calligraphic 'hand' known as divani (council script), whose origins go back to mediaeval Seljuk times. However, early Ottoman fermans were sometimes written in other calligraphic hands, such as nesih, rik'a, talik, şikeste, siyakat, nesta'lik, reyhani and islavi, as well as the forms of divani known as celi divani and divani kırması. From the reign of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, it was the latter two types of divani which came to be used almost exclusively for imperial documents, whether warrant, title deed, deed of patent, or edict. They were written in red, black or gold ink in lines which curved up towards the left margin, and were sometimes sprinkled with gold dust. The earliest example of an Ottoman tuğra appears on a vakfiye (endowment deed) dated March 1324 belonging to the second Ottoman sultan Orhan Gazi (1324-1360). The sultan endowed his estates in Mekece, a district in the province of Kocaeli, for the construction of a hankâh or dervish lodge which was to provide accommodation and food to the local poor and destitute, and to passing travellers.
The word hüve, meaning God, was always written above the tuğra as a reminder that God is greater than any man, even the sultan himself. While the abovementioned endowment deed of Sultan Orhan was the earliest Ottoman ferman, the last are those issued by Sultan Vahdettin (Mehmed VI) in 1922, the final year of his reign. Illumination of Ottoman fermans began during the reign of Sultan Bayezıt II (1481-1512), and became increasingly ornate from the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent (1520-1566) when the tuğra achieved its zenith in aesthetic form and decoration. With the expansion of the empire over three continents, fermans reflected the political and economic strength of the empire in the abundant use of gold in the text and the tuğra. The tuğras of this period are decorated with superb designs of the type originating with the illuminator Kara Memi.
Calligraphy played a role in Turkish culture comparable to that of figurative painting
in the West. It was appreciated for the aesthetic power of its composition and the
masterful execution of its strokes, as well as for the meaning expressed by the words
themselves. So if today, like paintings, fermans are framed and hung on walls to be
enjoyed, this is no discrepancy but something the people who wrote and read them at the
time would understand perfectly. Source: Sky Life |
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authority. The Ottomans are one of the
rare peoples to have created art in the form of documents, and this is true of the ferman
most of all. The word derives from the Persian fermuden, meaning an undertaking,
and came to mean specifically a written command issued by a ruler. The tuğra demonstrated
that the document emanated from the sultan himself. The early Ilkhanids, Karakoyunlu,
Akkoyunlu, Altınordu and Crimean khanates used the term yarlığ, the Seljuks
the word pervane, and the Memluks the word mevkii for such documents.
The earliest use of the word ferman appears among the Ilkhanids after their acceptance of
Islam, and this was later adopted by the Ottomans. Decrees issued not by the sultan but by
the grand vezir were known as buyrultu.
The tuğra is set at the top of the document, and the first and second lines of
the text explain to whom the deed is addressed and the purpose of the document
respectively. Then follow detailed instructions, an exhortation to carry them out, an
invocation for the success of the undertaking and a prayer. Finally there is the date and
a reference number. After documents had been drawn up a summary of their contents was
recorded in the registers of the Council of State before the tuğra was added with the
sultan's approval. Then it was delivered to the recipient.
From the reign of Murat III (1574-1595) onwards it became customary for the
sultans to add an exhortation such as let the necessary be done or may this
be signed by the vezirs to one side of the tuğra or above its shafts, in cases where
the document was of particular importance or a subject in which the sultan felt a personal
interest. Fermans of this sort were known as hatt-ı hümayunlu fermanlar or hatt-ı
hümayunla müveşşah fermanlar (fermans bearing the handwriting of the sultan). Due
to their rarity these are among the most valuable of all. Very occasionally a berat is
found with such an endorsement in the sultan's handwriting.