Reviving the illuminated art of 'mahya' in Turkey

Two book projects documenting traditional Turkish arts have been initiated by the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency as part of an effort to identify master practitioners of these disappearing techniques.

The books, titled “The Art of Writing on the Sky: Mahya” and “Ottoman Headgear,” aim to document the potential of traditional arts in Istanbul, Ömer Faruk Şerifoğlu, the traditional-arts director of the culture agency, told the Anatolia news agency.

Research has been conducted from İzmit’s Gebze district to Istanbul’s Çatalca area in order to find people working in these traditional styles, Şerifoğlu said, noting that 350 masters have been identified thus far, a number that is expected to increase to 500 by the end of the summer.

“Our cultural values and local identity are disappearing gradually as they are exposed to a bombardment of popular culture,” Şerifoğlu said. “All cities, especially Istanbul, have begun to resemble each other, but the ‘masters’ of a city are the ones who keep its local culture alive.”

One result of the research will be the establishment of a Web site, “Istanbul’s Masters,” in Turkish, English, Arabic and Japanese.

“The Web site will feature short life stories of 500 masters, their artistic adventures and examples of their work” that can be searched by the style of art or craft or by the district in which they reside, Şerifoğlu said. “Masters who are not known by anyone will be promoted. An iron master who cannot get a job today, for example, will be able to get a job every month and will have a chance to revive his art. This is what we hope.”

The agency also plans to prepare a book in the same four languages, along with 25-minute documentaries featuring the occupational and personal stories of 10 masters, which will be submitted to international film festivals and competitions.

“We will make serious promotions for this art,” Şerifoğlu said.

‘Mahya is our art’

The art of “mahya,” or writing messages with lamps or other lights strung between a mosque’s minarets, is one of those the culture agency hopes to revive.

According to Şerifoğlu, “The Art of Writing on the Sky: Mahya” will be the first significant book on the subject since the short volume written by Süheyl Ünver in 1940.

“The art of mahya is ours, but we have forgotten it. This art has been an important part of Istanbul city culture since the 1530s,” he said. “It was a very big medium for publication in its own time; imagine, you could write something on the sky in the center of the city and the whole city could read it.”

Since there is only one mahya master alive today, Şerifoğlu said, the agency’s work will include teaching the art to a team of eight to 10 people during seminars that will last until the end of the year.

“There is a comprehensive article in Professor İsmail Kara’s book on the etymology of the art of mahya and what is written on the sky,” he added. “Beşir Ayvazoğlu compiled this information for our book.”

Mahya competition

Though mosques still use strings of lights to convey messages, Şerifoğlu said the true mahya writing style and size are ignored today. “The sentence is written without art. Standard letters were used at the time of the Republic, but its artistic side was ignored,” he said. “This is why we asked a designer to reconsider it. Because mahya does not only mean writing something between two minarets.”

Honoring the culture and past of the art can help “keep the traditional style of classical mahya alive” and provide a way for lighting designers to earn a living, Şerifoğlu said.

A competition to be announced April 1 will be open to everyone interested in amateur designing. Five awards will be given by a jury made up of Şerifoğlu, Ayvazoğlu and Kara; mahya master Kahraman Yıldız; Turkish painter Gürkan Coşkun, known as Komet; designer Zeynep Fadıllıoğlu; architect Nevzat Sayın; and Yeşim Demir from the Graphic Designers Union.

The project, a collaboration with the Graphic Designers Union, the Foundations Regional Directorate and Istanbul Bilgi University’s Design and Culture Management Department, will also produce a catalogue and an exhibition that include the winning designs.

“We want all of them to be applied during the month of Ramadan this year,” Şerifoğlu said. “We also plan to bring together 99 Koran masters and open an exhibition the night of Sept. 5, the 1,400th year of the revealing of the Koran.”