Odyssey of Tulips: From Sultan’s Turban to Feminine Adornment

2022 Tulip Show at Chiang Kai-Shek Shilin Residence, Taipei

In late February, Taipei’s Annual Tulip Show opened its door to the public in the garden of Shilin Official Residence (former residence of the late Republic of China President Chiang Kai-shek), celebrating the blooms of more than 130,000 tulip bulbs from the Netherlands and Japan.

While surrounded by ocean of tulips, this writer couldn’t help but think of a time when the flower’s single bulb is said to have sold for more than ten times the annual income of a skilled artisan at the peak of the Dutch “tulip mania”.

Tulip’s intense colour and a profusion of its varieties appealed to 16th and 17th-century Europeans, turning this flower into a coveted luxury item. At the time, cultivators even gave prestigious names to tulips, crowning more than dozens of variety with exalted titles, such as “Admiral” and “General”. While tulip has, since then, become intrinsic to the Dutch identity, only few are aware of the fact that this flower, native to the land of Central Asia, was introduced to Europe by Ogier de Busbecq — the ambassador of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I to the Ottoman Empire.

Illustration of Admiral Verjick (van der Eijck), 1637

Ottoman’s Fondness for Tulips

The Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (r.1520–1566) was obsessed with tulips and ordered the bulbs to be cultivated in the imperial gardens. In the eyes of a foreigner, the empire’s fondness for flowers was simply unparalleled. Pierre Belon, a French botanist who visited Turkey between 1546 and 1549, wrote of Turkish gardens and described how “no people delight more to ornament themselves with beautiful flowers, nor praise them more than the Turks.”

At a time when interests in flowers and gardening were on the rise, Kara Memi, a celebrated court painter who served during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, created naturalist motifs of tulips, roses, carnations, hyacinths and various blossoms, laying the foundation for Ottoman floral ornamentation. Traces of tulips alone or intertwined with other spring blossoms, coupled with the graceful saz leaves, can be found on ceramic tiles, brocades, book bindings, furnitures, utensils, and even prayer rugs.

Dish with roses and tulips from late 16th century
Ashmolean Museum Collection

Ottomans’ passion for tulips, however, didn’t reach its peak until the early 18th century. Similar to the tulip mania that took place 80 years earlier in the Netherlands, historians later refer to this period as the Tulip Era ( Lale Devri). The Tulip Era coincides with the reign of Sultan Ahmed III (r.1703–1730), otherwise known as the Tulip King, who imported millions of tulip bulbs from the Netherlands to embellish his gardens.

Eventually, an obsession for tulips grew among high-class society. According to historian Ariel Salzmann, distinguished members of the Ottoman regime were ranked according to their horticultural achievements. Grand Admiral Mustafa Paşa, for instance, is remembered for cultivating 44 novel bulbs.

Tulip not only appeared in elitist gardens within the Ottoman border, it also played a role in diplomacy and was used in gift exchange between rivalling empires: the Ottoman and the Persian. As the nation’s demand for flowers grew, prices for rare bulbs began to rise, reaching its highest around 1726. To the Ottomans, tulip was merely an attractive flower — it was a symbol of status.

Tulips and the Sultan’s Turban

The name ‘tulip’ seems to have derived from tulban, the Turkish word for turban. While some point to its etymology as a complete misunderstanding, one can’t deny the fact that the shape of a tulip bulb coincides with that of the turban. In fact, the wearing of tulip in one’s turban seems to have been a common practice in 16th-century Turkey. Philippe Fresne-Canaye, a French man who visited Istanbul in 1573, remarked that the Turkish “always carry a tulip in their hand or set in their turban”.

Ottoman sultans, like rulers of any magnitude, adorned their heads with distinctive headgear and ornaments to set themselves apart from their subjects. Aigrette is one such adornment that found its way to the sultan’s turban. Notable for the presence of its feather, aigrette proved to be indispensable for the sultans; it is said that no sultan would complete his turban without an aigrette for an important occasion, be it a Friday parade, military campaign or other ceremonies.

Portrait of Sultan Murad III (detail of a manuscript)

An aigrette in the Imperial Treasury illustrates the example of such head ornament used by the sultans in 17th century. This aigrette, accentuated by three cabochon emeralds, is embellished with faceted diamonds encrusted in individual bezel; some bezel has been designed in the shape of a tulip bulb, while the rest come together to form a blooming tulip. On either side of the aigrette, two white bulbs recalling that of tulips’ act as terminal to the wire that holds the emeralds in place.

The feathers are inserted into the socket hidden behind the jewel. Either rising naturally or fanned out, the presence of the feather — calling to mind the shape of a blooming tulip — emphasised the majesty and might of sultans.

In the Ottoman Empire, aigrette functioned very much like a royal crown. An account by François Baron de Tott describes the illustrious procession of Sultan Mustafa III (r.1757–1774) led by two turbans and aigrettes, detailing how the janissaries flanking the route bowed to these symbols of sovereignty in reverence. Clearly, a sultan’s aigrette would symbolise him — the sovereign — even when not worn.

Although tulip was not the only floral motif adopted by artisans of the Ottoman court, the fact that this flower was chosen to adorn the empire’s most iconic symbol of sovereignty reinforces its association with power. What other better way to immortalise a symbol of status that would eventually withers than turning it into long-lasting jewels?

Aigrette set with emerald cabochons (TSM 2/327)

Tulip as Adornment of Beauty

Besides the sultans, women of rank and wealth also favoured the aigrettes. Women in the imperial harem, in particular, wore aigrette as expression of status and opulence. A beautiful socket encrusted with diamonds and rubies may very well be an example of a woman’s aigrette. Stylised tulip, each embellished with a faceted diamond, radiate from a central rosette on a peacock-green enamelled ground.

Enamelled aigrette (TSM 2/447)

The turquoise blue enamel found along the border complements and enhances the brilliance of the yellow gold, with the top of the socket tapers into a tulip, into which feathers of bird of paradise or black heron would’ve been inserted to complete the look. In this example, tulip is used to adorn jewellery of feminine beauty, as expressed in the lines of the poet Nzami of Edirne:

Of Ruielia’s — Western Ottoman Empire — finery
None to match the aigrette wearing beauty.

Influence of European styles grew in the 19th century, introducing brooch to the repertoire of Ottoman jewellery. Despite foreign influence, flowers remained to be a recurring theme for fabulous jewels for the Ottomans. A silver and diamond brooch made in the European style features a naturalistic depiction of two tulips poised gracefully side by side. Unlike the earlier examples in which gold was used to illustrate the silhouette of the flower, the European-style tulip features two pear-shaped diamond, each accentuated by naturalistic rendering of diamond-set petals.

Tulip brooch
Nihal Kuyaş Collection

Although this article is merely a sneak peak into the vast collection of Ottoman jewellery, this writer has tried to demonstrate that tulip was more than a pretty-looking flower favoured by the wealthy and the powerful. The tulip flower ventured outside the wall of the Ottoman gardens, and travelled west until it reached the Netherlands, where its offsprings were bred and blossomed. At the court, tulip dwelled in the turban of great sultans, sought shelter on the surface of precious jewels and objects, and witnessed the rise and fall of a great empire. Even then, the legacy of tulips continues.

Reference:
Fisher, Celia. Tulip. 2017
İrepoğlu, Gül. Imperial Ottoman Jewellery: Reading History Through Jewellery. 2012.
Salzmann, Ariel. “The Age of Tulips: Confluence and Conflict in Early Modern Consumer Culture (1550–1730).” Consumption Studies and the History of the Ottoman Empire 1550–1022: An Introduction (2000)