This landmark survey introduces the reader to the entrancing world of the Seljuk and Ottoman Turkish arts. The Turks dominated the Near East for nearly a thousand years. Between 1300 and 1600, they hewed out an empire that extended over three continents. Through trade, their influence spread into Russia and Europe. Yet their cultural contribution is still not widely appreciated. This book opens unexpected vistas to the nonspecialist and supplements the scholar's knowledge with wealth of illustration and fresh analysis. In his foreword, Oleg Grabar remarks that the imperial character of Ottoman art is most apparent in architecture. The sultans--occasionally their wives and daughters, too--were energetic builders, and they gradually transformed the Turkish heartland into an Islamic country resplendent with mosques, schools, caravansarays, gardens, and mausoleums. In a survey that begins with the 12th-century Seljuk architecture of Anatolia and ends with the Europeanized mosques and palaces of the 19th century, Ülkü Bates shows how Turkish buildings, endowed by the elite, nevertheless clearly reflect the effect of social, political, and religious processes on all classes of society. The arts of the book--calligraphy, illumination, and fine binding--reached extraordinary heights during the Ottoman suzerainty. Hundreds of illustrated volumes preserved in the royal libraries in Istanbul reflect the kind of exquisite aesthetic that can flourish only under exceptionally enlightened royal patronage and also provide an astonishingly lively portrait of a whole society. Esin Atil also surveys the four-century history of the nakkașhane, the royal academy that produced thousands of books as well as a flood of elegant designs for tiles, dishes, rugs, and textiles. These more useful but equally appealing arts--ceramics, carpets, and fabrics--are the subject of sections by Walter B. Denny and Louise W. Mackie. Both ceramics and weaving have evolved major artistic traditions in Turkey. Tiles contributed immeasurably to the beauty of the Ottoman buildings and, as is borne out by innumerable book illustrations, the sheen of beautiful fabrics and flow of beautiful rugs were a vital part of what can only be described as the "art" of courtly life under the sultans. Moreover, Turkish tiles and dishes, garments, and rugs have been admired throughout the West for centuries--ever since Marco Polo described "Turkey Carpets" as the "finest and handsomest in the world." Their subtle, complex, and luminously colored designs still enchant us today. An admirably thorough yet succinct chapter by Roderic H. Davison orients the reader to Turkish history. A wealth of colorplates and a superb selection of black-and-white illustrations convey the unique quality of imperial Turkish art, in which richness and delicacy complement an underlying strength of design. -- Inside jacket flaps