Abstract:

Thanks to the numerous studies on the Ottoman period tile art, we have very detailed information about the tile decorations of this period. With today's research, this information is increasing day by day. Especially in the 16th century, tiles produced in Iznik became one of the main decoration materials used to decorate the structures built in various regions of the Empire, especially in the capital. It is also known that tiles were produced in Istanbul and Anatolia, such as Kütahya, Tekfur Palace, and Diyarbakır, as well as Iznik, and they were used in architectural decoration. Considering the geographical locations of the cities of Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep, which are located in the Southeast Anatolian Region, which we evaluated within the scope of our study, it would be difficult and troublesome to bring tiles from Iznik to this region. Therefore, it is understood that probably stock (warehouse) tiles were brought to these two cities from Diyarbakır and Syria, which are closer to Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep, and were used for decoration. The fact that the tiles of the buildings built in regions such as Diyarbakır, Damascus, and Aleppo, which are thought to have been produced in local workshops, and the different tiles that adorn the buildings in Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep, bear very close similarities, which strengthens this idea. Evaluating the tiles in Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep together with similar examples, introducing the structures decorated with tiles from the tile centers outside of İznik in Ottoman architecture, and the 16th-17th century tile centers in Diyarbakır and Syria. It will be important in terms of showing that they produced the tiles adorning the structures in the region in the centuries.

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