Program:

1) Report on the 2nd Foreign Dispatch to Turkey: YAMANLAR-MIZUNO Minako

2) Individual Research Series Report:

a) "Musical Instruments Depicted in the Saray Albums": KOSHIBA Harumi (Tokai University)

b) "Chinese thrones: a contribution to the study of thrones depicted in Ilkhanid paintings": MURANO Hiroshi (Tokai University)

c) "Genealogy of the saz-leaf motif from the Taihu Rock": YAMANLAR-MIZUNO Minako (Toa University)

1) Report on the 2nd Foreign Dispatch to Turkey: YAMANLAR-MIZUNO Minako

From September 1st to the 24th, the 2nd Foreign Dispatch continued the work of the previous Dispatch at the Topkapi Palace Museum, entering data for the cataloguing of Album H.2153. Due to damages from the strong earthquake of August 17th, and to an inquiry into the theft of a Qur'an manuscript from the Museum on September 2nd, the library where our researchers were to carry out their work was closed for 6 days. Although we could not fully achieve our objectives as a result, we were able to input data for 34 folios, from fol.78 to fol.112. The survey report records most of the illustrations in these 34 folios.

These folios also include several works believed to be copies of European etchings. These may help illuminate the historty of the creation of the Albums as a whole.

2) Individual Research Series Report:

a) "Musical Instruments Depicted in the Saray Albums": KOSHIBA Harumi (Tokai University)

Prof. KOSHIBA conducted a comparative study of the shapes of musical instruments in the Islamic world and the methods for playing them. He compared the depictions of musical instruments seen in the Saray Albums with the names of instruments and the situations in which they were played, described in historical writings.

Prof. KOSHIBA's study includes the 42 types of instruments named by 'Abd al-Qader ibn Gheibi Maraghi (1360?-1435) and the 81 types mentioned by Evliya Chelebi (1611-1683?), as well as those cited by Marco Polo. However, in these historical writings, "saz," the designation for musical instrument, refers to an instrument that produces a melody, and does not include instruments such as drums. There is virtually no mention of bells or gongs, and there are many cases where the name of the instrument is unclear as well.

Prof. KOSHIBA divided the depictions of musical instruments in the Saray Albums into three categories: scenes of battle, scenes of musical performance and scenes of feast. Her study of the various wind and string instruments investigates the accuracy of their depictions and of the descriptions of performance methods.

b) "Chinese thrones: a contribution to the study of thrones depicted in Ilkhanid paintings": MURANO Hiroshi (Tokai University)

As a continuation of his previous report, Prof. MURANO investigated the forms and ornamentation of thrones depicted in the Saray Albums, comparing their development with that of Chinese thrones and altars as depicted in Indian art.

Thrones in the Saray Albums are mainly square-shaped or hexagonal. Among these are thrones showing ornamentation that is clearly Chinese, such as those with either a single or triple-paneled screen placed behind the zuochang, and crowned by a semi-circular decorative panel. Prof. MURANO focused on the various shapes of these decorative panels and their ornamentation. Observing a curve of repeated fishhook-like shapes that decorated one type of panel, Prof. MURANO hypothesized that the motif was derived from a scene often depicted in Chinese paintings and reliefs: a person seated on a throne, framed by a curtain tied and raised by cords.

There was discussion, too, on the origin of the numerous depictions of thrones with dragon-like creatures attached, mouth upwards, to the sides of the backrests. In India, murals at Ellora and other sites depict chairs with sea monsters called Makara decorating both sides of their backs. Archeologists in Afghanistan have also unearthed griffin-shaped chair ornaments believed to date from the first or second century.

Thus a theory was put forward where the Chinese semi-circular decorative panels and the Indian backrest ornaments entered Central Asia and Persia, and subsequently came to be featured in the Mongolian thrones of the Islamic Period.

c) "Genealogy of the saz-leaf motif from the Taihu Rock": YAMANLAR-MIZUNO Minako (Toa University)

Prof. YAMANLAR-MIZUNO explored the emergence of the "saz-leaf motif" of the 16th century Ottoman Empire, tracing its origins as far back as the Taihu Rocks of China, a natural formation of perforated rocks found near Taihu Lake in China. It was the gradual stylization of drawings found in the Saray Albums of forest scenes, animals, rocks, and marsh plants, that came to be the "saz-leaf motif" of long leaves drawn in supple, undulating strokes.

Sampler drawings in the Saray Albums contain motifs depicting dragons and other animals and plants passing through a hole in a lotus leaf. Prof. YAMANLAR-MIZUNO developed the argument that the origin of this motif is found in the depictions of the Taihu Rocks, featuring their many holes and accompanying foliage.

Using these sampler drawings, Prof. YAMANLAR-MIZUNO explained the way the motif of plants poking out of holes in rocks came, by way of Persia, to be perfected into the "saz-leaf motif" of the Ottoman period. Furthermore, it was proposed that the concept of passing something through, or passing through a hole in a rock had magical significance in Persia, Turkey and Central Asia.

(By ABE Katsuhiko)