Roads of Arabia

34 Arabie US p522-545_BAT.qxd 23/06/10 21:30 Page 542
ROADS OF ARABIA
Holy Cities of the Hijaz under the Ottomans
308. Incense burner commissioned by the mother of Sultan Murad IV
Turkey 1059 H./1649
Iron alloy, damasquined decoration in gold and silver (?)
H. 14; Max. L. 38 cm
Hujra, sanctuary of Medina
National Museum, Riyadh, 2999
Bibliography: unpublished.
It is difficult to find an artefact comparable to this incense burner,
privately commissioned for the Medina sanctuary. Its delicate decoration
of branches and blossoms adorning each facet of the decagonal
base recalls certain Ottoman textiles. The Topkapı Saray
Museum 1 possesses, for instance, a metal horse-forehead armor decorated
with floral motifs that are simpler but in the same spirit. This
piece was most probably produced in Istanbul, and the craftsman
signed his work with a small medallion under the base of the handle
marked “work by ‘Uthman”.
Above the floral decoration is a narrow border inscribed in a simple
naskh script indicating that the object was commissioned by “Valide
Sultan Ghazi” (“the mother of the Ghazi Sultan”). The date specified
in the inscription would indicate that it refers to the mother of Sultan
Murad IV. This sultan, during whose reign the Ka‘ba was renovated
(cat. no. 305), had assumed the title of Ghazi (“frontier
warrior”) after his campaigns in Poland in 1596. His mother Mahpeyker,
also called Kösem, is remembered as the most powerful
Ottoman queen mother. 2 The wife of Sultan Ahmad I, with whom
she had many children, she served as regent three times, in 1623,
1640 and 1648, and lived until 1651, under the reign of her grandson
Mehmed IV.
Especially from the mid-16th to the mid-17th century, the valide
wielded extensive power and helped build and promulgate the
dynasty’s reputation through their active patronage, not only in the
capital Istanbul but also at the holy sites. Ottoman sources mention
Kösem’s works in Mecca and Medina, 3 providing water for the pilgrims,
an annual distribution of clothing to the poor of the two
cities as well as needy pilgrims, recitations of the Quran, and gifts
offered to the descendants of the Prophet, to which no doubt were
added precious objects for use in the sanctuaries, like this incense
burner. C. J.
1. TSM 1/1445, Aydin 2007, p. 118.
2. Pierce 1993, p. 105 and pp. 208–09.
3. See Cavid Baysun “Kösem Walide” in EI2, t. V, Leiden, 1986, pp. 270–71.
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