A lovely student @fzkabelitz has translated a book on the elusive Siyah Qalam from German into English. One of the main scholars appears to be Turkish (and the Siyah Qalam original paintings are indeed housed at the Topkapi museum in Istanbul) - there doesn't appear to be much scholarship on Siyah Qalam, and the stuff that does exist is not always in English but Turkish and German. So, thank you again so much Franzizka for removing at least a little bit of the mystery!
Thank you Arzu for sharing this! I totally agree with you about cyclic time. I'm thinking more about this also in relation to the actual format of the work, ie. the book format, and then the scroll format (as in Siyah Qalam). Welcome your thoughts!
I’d like to comment initially on what was for me some new information:
The possibility that the images were used as backdrops for performances; could they have also been used as an integral part of the performance? Art as ritual and art as a magical ritual object in itself, which I do believe is anyway one of the functions and uses of art (art being inherently ‘useless’ in some opinions; it’s not, if you look at it like this)
‘Gravity’s pull’ of the figures towards the earth - yes, they are indeed sitting down a lot or dancing around campfires in a very earthy way - yet at the same time are out of this world in possibly their own trances - this strange effect is enhanced by the fact that there is no background (as there almost always is in classical miniatures with their horror of the void/horror vacui); this is influenced by Chinese painting and the endless vertical perspective but the combination here of all the sitting earthy figures which are sitting on solid bums on solid… floating in space!
Ready to jump at any second - yes - and the contortions and twists are really really strange. This is one of the most striking features of Siyah Qalam and the more I look at it, the more enmeshed it is with the world of dance and the less it can be separated from this aspect I think. So, used in ritual dances maybe/almost as a ‘shamanic dance move manual’?
A teacher in my high school once told me that magic realism didn’t exist and I think I have spent the greater part of my adult life trying to prove this wrong ;-)
Religions: the world of miniature painting is mainly situated geographically in areas of monotheistic religion strongholds, however there is the great exception of India; also Central Asia with its shamanic and Buddhist influences make Siyah Qalam a rich and fertile meeting place for pictures
Scrolls and Chinese influence/vertical format - the notion of nomads and the idea that you can just roll up a scroll and take it with you to the next place, the next dance… seems even more portable than a book. I’ve had a few thoughts about scrolls and the endlessness, too… we scroll on our iPhones and that can often be endless, too… books are also portable, but they are not light (as evidenced by shipping costs today!) - scrolls are lighter and even more portable, almost like a carpet (but without the weight of the fibre) - roll and go - scroll up roll up and rock and roll
The ordinary extraordinary - yes depictions of shamanic rituals, but also humdrum daily life - including a possible drug deal (@samihah who did a copy of this!) and… a donkey doing a poo (have yet to have a student who does this, still waiting!)
Demons - yes - they are little naughty devils, they are not extremely evil. I agree - I think they are like temptations, or little naughtinesses - the 5th chocolate that you should not have had but you did, but that won’t kill you, as long as you are in balance overall, etc etc
Welcome your thoughts!