Border tile with cintamani design,

second half of the 16th century

In many respects, the Ottoman Empire was the successor to the Byzantine Empire, centered as it was on the former Byzantine capital of Constantinople, which the Ottoman Turks captured in 1453. For six centuries, the Ottomans were at the center of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds. At its height in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the empire spanned three continents, controlling much of Southeastern Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa. The finest Ottoman ceramic vessels and tiles were made in Iznik, in northwest Anatolia. From the late-fifteenth century, earthenware began to be replaced by a white amalgam made of eighty percent silica, ten percent glass frit, and ten percent white clay. At first, Iznik ceramics were blue and white, inspired by Chinese models, but after 1540, a range of colors were introduced—including red, green, purple, turquoise, grey, black—together with new, more naturalistic designs. After an initial firing, these works were coated with a transparent glaze and fired again. Tiles of various shapes decorated the interior and exterior walls of mosques and public buildings, such as the Topkapi Saray, the sultan’s palace in Constantinople. The small border tile displayed here features the cintimani design of three balls and two wavering stripes, alternating in a simple rhythm. The jug nearby is painted with vivid red tulips, a favorite motif; they recur on the larger plate beside it, along with red carnations.