We know that in the last period of the Ottomans, students were sent to Europe frequently. Why such an application? European technique, the developments in science, to move to Turkey innovations. To take advantage of them …
Of course, these departed people learned a lot and returned home. Perhaps there are many who have useful services.
However, they also carried some diseases that would cause many disasters for our country! .. One of them is to behave up to the extent of disrespect, hostility and betrayal towards their sultans …
The second is unbelief …
The political practices brought by the Tanzimat era had a great impact on the development of these diseases.
During the Republic period, sultans were always shown as the reason for reactionary and bigotry and tried to be remembered with hatred, while such faces were glorified as much as possible.
One of them is Osman Hamdi.
In a period when Islam phobia was fueled in France and insults to the Prophet increased, it was really unfortunate that his works were exhibited by his crown.
Who is Osman Hamdi?
Born in Istanbul in 1842, Osman Hamdi started primary school in Beşiktaş and enrolled in Mekteb-i Maârif-i Adliyye in 1856. He was sent to Paris in 1857 for law education. Here, while continuing his law education, he also took painting lessons at the Paris Fine Arts High School and was interested in archeology. Here his teachers directed him especially towards art and especially painting. Law was out of his life now. He worked in the workshops of Jean-Leon Gerome and Boulanger, who were famous painters of his time.
His Western-style education gave him a completely different perspective. The change wasn’t just experienced in the profession. He was gathered with his beliefs and ideas now! ..
From now on, his life would pass by struggling for the Muslim Turkish people to adopt a Western-style morality and civilization.
He had important duties in the state on his return from Europe. Besides being a painter, archaeologist, musicologist and author, he worked as a diplomat and manager in the bureaucracy. But his real recognition was with his paintings. In a sense, it was these paintings that showed the personality structure.
Because, in his paintings, Osman Hamdi was using metaphors that the Ottoman society was closed to modernization and innovation. He tried to show how the change should be through these tables.
It is well known that art is not just a decoration product. An expression is a form of communication. Some reflect his ideology with poetry, some cartoons and some novels, stories and plays. Osman Hamdi also expressed what he did not say directly through his paintings.At this point, some of his paintings have been the subject of much discussion.
In July 2014, a heated debate took place in the Parliament. During the negotiations of the draft that envisions the establishment of a new university under the name of Gebze Technical University, CHP proposed the establishment of a Faculty of Fine Arts under the name of Osman Hamdi Bey. However, AK Party representatives strongly opposed the proposal, arguing that Osman Hamdi’s painting “Mihrab“, which depicts an uncovered woman in the altar of the mosque, disturbs Muslims.
What has changed after six years? The officials of the Directorate of Communications praise Osman Hamdi as “the pioneer of contemporary Turkish painting and museology” and exhibit his works as “Our national, historical, cultural and scientific riches“.
Let’s get to know Osman Hamdi from two paintings, one of which is exhibited and the other is not displayed …
Great insult to Muslim and Islam!
The first is Osman Hamdi’s best-known work and is world-famous with the name “Tortoise Trainer“. The location of the painting is in front of a window on the upper floor of Green Mosque in Bursa. Behind the window stands a dervish with his hands folded behind his back. On the back of the dervish holding what is in his hand, a Naqareh hangs. Turtles are wandering around.
The dervish in this painting is Osman Hamdi himself. Turtles, which are known for their slowness around them, are the Muslim people who are closed to change and progress! .. Osman Hamdi in the role of a dervish shows the way to change through the expression of patience on his face and the ney he holds. With patience, art and music, it signals that the Turkish people can finally get to the point they desire.
Some art historians have emphasized that turtles, which are difficult to educate, represent the ego and stated that the message is given with what can only be done to educate the ego. In this case, prayer and dhikr, which are the most important elements in exquisite discipline in the mosque, are replaced by musical instruments, which is a separate disaster! ..
The second work of Osman Hamdi named “Mihrap” or “Genesis” clearly shows where he wants to take the Muslim people and what kind of discipline he wants to do. Therefore, our people heard great indignation against the Osman Hamdi exhibition. This painting has never been exhibited.
Osman Hamdi in this picture shows the interior of a building with a tiled mihrab on the wall. A pregnant woman with her head turned back to the altar surrounded by the Quran, is sitting upright on a large womb. There are books and pages around his feet. There is a censer right in front of the picture, and a giant candle next to the altar.
The woman in the picture is said to be the youth of the artist’s wife, Naile Hanım. On the other hand, there were also those who stated that the artist chose the Armenian girl working in her house as a model.
It is clearly seen that the books under the feet of the woman are the Quran, the holy book of Zoroastrianism, Zend-Avesta, and the book of Buddhism, Sakiya-Muni. The Bible and the Torah do not exist. Thus, Osman Hamdi painted the sacred religions of the East under the feet of the woman. According to him, there is Christianity or Judaism as a religion. The East has no representational power left. The eastern needs education …
On the other hand, the art historian Mustafa Cezar, who made researches on Osman Hamdi, gave the name “Mihrap” to the painting. There are many who write that the original name of the painting is “Genesis“, that is creation …
According to these, the woman in the picture is pregnant. Osman Hamdi positioned this woman at a completely different point by placing this woman in front of the altar where Muslims turned to Allah Almighty and the Quran with the rah they put on. In a way, he wanted to give the message that “the real creator is a woman!” Some art historians have interpreted this painting as that religion obstructs the freedom of women and that the painting means a rebellion against it. As a matter of fact, the woman in the painting wants to be worshiped with her place, her uterus, and her dominant posture …
In any case, it is understood that Osman Hamdi clearly gave the message of Islam phobia and that he performed this with his art…
That place is not the altar but the Ocakbasi, the woman has nothing to do with pregnancy, it is not clearly seen that the books are the Quran, and some approaches, such as looking at the issue, are nothing more than squint. Because no expert art historian on the subject has made such a silly comment.
It is really sad that Osman Hamdi, who was an enemy of Islam enough to be called “a Charlie Hebdo in the last period of the Ottoman Empire” and who was determined to educate Muslims by removing them from Islam, is exalted today with an exhibition with praising expressions.
Those who hang and glorify the “Tortoise Trainer” should think once more what they glorify.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Kec-nihâdân rast-ı tab’ân ile etmez imtizaç
İttihâdı olmaz anınçün kemânın tîr ile.
(Those who are unhygienic cannot compromise with truth
Therefore, the bow and arrow cannot be together.)
Article by İsmail KAPAN, published in Türkiye Gazetesi
