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The essays focus on the global nature of the Renaissance. The research demonstrates the shared heritage of the early modern Mediterranean civilisations, especially between Italy and the Ottoman Empire. This book complements my doctoral work, The Ottoman Renaissance: A Reconsideration of Early Modern Ottoman Art 1413-1575 and further the many renaissances argument put forward. The collection of essays addresses the Renaissance narrative from the perspective of the Ottomans and integrates the achievements of the Early Modern World through culturally inclusive framework. To insist on an exclusively Florentine, Italian, or European rinascita or cultural rebirth would fail to appreciate the cultural interconnectedness of the early modern period. In contrast, by recognising Ottoman arts as part of a larger Renaissance narrative the essays celebrate the globalisation that took place and presents a more objective version of the historical and cultural contexts of the sixteenth-century Mediterranean world. The anthology of essays hopes to inspire future scholarship to recognise the significance of seemingly peripheral cultures in established narratives. By reorienting the purview, a greater understanding of the value of less dominant centres can be achieved, ultimately broadening our understanding of human history.

The accomplishments of the civilisation of early modern Europe is inconceivable without the achievements of medieval Islam and the Ottoman Empire. It is most pertinent that historians explore the notion of cultural enlightenment in the early modern period from an inclusive paradigm - one that unites rather than erect barriers across civilisations. Exploring the notion of the Mediterranean zeitgeist from a culturally inclusive perspective widens our scope of understanding of the meaningful practices that is specific to a particular historical time-period. These meaningful practices, including architectural accomplishments, hybrid objects of cultural materialism, and the iconography of public ceremonials by the ruling elite, most often include recurring symbolic structures that underpin the idea of the Mediterranean zeitgeist. These recurring symbolisms in early modern Europe and the Ottoman Empire respectively underscore the human, cultural and intellectual phenomena that ultimately associate with cultural identity and affirmation of court ceremonial grandeur. It can be argued that the idea of Mediterranean zeitgeist, instead of concentrating and elaborating upon the differences between cultural accomplishments, rather celebrate each age or epoch through the central thesis of historicism. It is, therefore, the aim of the essays in this book to provide a discussion that firstly redefines what we mean by the term "Renaissance" in Essay I and then reconsider the patterns of cultural practices in Italy and the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century from a revisionist paradigm in Essays II and III respectively. By re-Orienting the Renaissance, the history of the Mediterranean zeitgeist in the sixteenth century commemorates the shared cultural accomplishments that epitomised the spirit of the age.

This book aims to re-orient the narrative of Sinan's use of the fine art of Iznik çini (tiles) within the context of the Renaissance humanist paradigm. The study compares the fine art of Iznik çini of the Mosque of Rustem Pasha (1560-61) by the Ottoman imperial architect and artist Sinan, with the monumental buon' fresco of one of the giants of the Renaissance-Michelangelo's Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican (1541). The alternative reading of these two works, as undertaken in this study, looks beyond the grand-scale production of the two works in order to examine the allegorical message they convey. Such a comparison underpins the Mediterranean zeitgeist exemplified by the early modern art of Italy and Ottoman Istanbul in the sixteenth century. Inspired by their respective religious and intellectual traditions, the works of Michelangelo and Sinan converge thematically. Close analysis of the two works from anagogical and eschatological paradigms based on the religious themes alluded to in the New Testament and the Qur'an respectively: 'Salvation', 'Act of Judgement', 'Self-reflection' and 'Predestination' including the Isra and Mi'raj narratives of Prophet Muhammad influencing Dante's (d. 1321) Divine Comedy, establish the meeting point between Michelangelo and Sinan. Furthermore, applying the Sufi humanist, Ibn Arabi's (1165-1240) theophanic (visible manifestations of God to humankind) experience of the Divine, and the Jungian theory of religious symbolisms providing a deeper sense of meaning to one's existence, the book establishes a link between the art of Michelangelo and Sinan. From these perspectives the pan-European notion of the Renaissance begins to dissipate and instead offers a more inclusive understanding of the period in discussion. Therefore, the underpinning of this argument promotes the broadening of our understanding of the shared heritage in the Mediterranean during the sixteenth century.

The Ottoman Renaissance, which took place during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in the cities of Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul, produced an extraordinary array of artworks in the form of monumental imperial architecture, Iznik tiles, calligraphy, and illustrated manuscripts. Notwithstanding this exceptional artistic production, Ottoman art and architecture have not received the same attention in historiography as, for instance, the celebrated Italian Renaissance. Drawing upon notions of rebirth characteristic of the Renaissance, more generally, The Ottoman Renaissance seeks to situate Renaissance Ottoman art within a more global context. This book recognises the cultural interaction and sharing of values across the Mediterranean basin that characterised the period more broadly, yet examines art and architecture through specifically Ottoman conceptions of rebirth. Ottoman ideas of rebirth, although built on the classical Greece and Rome, moved well beyond these legacies. Indeed, the Ottomans were much more focused on their Eastern (Turkic, Timurid, Persian) and Islamic heritage than that of the classical world which features in the West. Both the ancient and recent past provided inspiration on which to build a cultural identity specific to the Ottoman artistic experience. In order to fully understand the shared values of the early modern Mediterranean and critically engage with the period's different interpretations of rebirth, this study compares the works of three Renaissance contemporaries: the Italian Giorgio Vasari and the Ottomans Mustafa Ali and Mimar Sinan.This study argues that the unique geographic location of the sultans of the Ottoman court allowed artists of the Ottoman Empire to capitalise on the inherited legacies of both the Islamic-Timurid-Turkic-Persian East and the Latin West. The result was a synthesis of Eastern and Western exemplars which ultimately produced a rebirth in the arts distinct from their early modern Italian and European counterparts. This work traces this Renaissance from its beginnings in 1413 through to its triumphant phase in the Süleymanic Age (1520-75, including the reign of his son, Selim II). In its examination of the Empire's architecture, decorative tiles, calligraphy, and miniature paintings, the study contributes to current scholarship in the field that seeks to assess the Renaissance from a more complex, multi-focal, and multinational perspective. Furthermore, it reinforces the idea that many renaissances arose concurrently in the Mediterranean basin in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The three essays in this book place more emphasis on the role of early modern women in the Ottoman imperial harem and their counterparts in Italy, influential wives and nuns. The discussion also engages in the correspondence between Safiye Sultan and Elizabeth I establishing connections between the Ottoman and English royal households further reinforcing the legitimising of female sovereignty during the Renaissance. The predominant focus on the patronage of Renaissance women in asserting their sovereignty and challenging the patriarchal norms of early modern societies underpin the significance of the role of influential women in Ottoman Istanbul, Italy and England. I argue this through the feminist paradigm and the idea of mimicry put forward by the French philosopher Luce Irigaray. The importance of this demonstrates women were not silent, but active participants in early modern societies in Europe and the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman Renaissance, which took place during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in the cities of Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul, produced an extraordinary array of artworks in the form of monumental imperial architecture, Iznik tiles, calligraphy, and illustrated manuscripts. Notwithstanding this exceptional artistic production, Ottoman art and architecture have not received the same attention in historiography as, for instance, the celebrated Italian Renaissance. Drawing upon notions of rebirth characteristic of the Renaissance, more generally, The Ottoman Renaissance seeks to situate Renaissance Ottoman art within a more global context. This book recognises the cultural interaction and sharing of values across the Mediterranean basin that characterised the period more broadly, yet examines art and architecture through specifically Ottoman conceptions of rebirth. Ottoman ideas of rebirth, although built on the classical Greece and Rome, moved well beyond these legacies. Indeed, the Ottomans were much more focused on their Eastern (Turkic, Timurid, Persian) and Islamic heritage than that of the classical world which features in the West. Both the ancient and recent past provided inspiration on which to build a cultural identity specific to the Ottoman artistic experience. In order to fully understand the shared values of the early modern Mediterranean and critically engage with the period's different interpretations of rebirth, this study compares the works of three Renaissance contemporaries: the Italian Giorgio Vasari and the Ottomans Mustafa Ali and Mimar Sinan.This study argues that the unique geographic location of the sultans of the Ottoman court allowed artists of the Ottoman Empire to capitalise on the inherited legacies of both the Islamic-Timurid-Turkic-Persian East and the Latin West. The result was a synthesis of Eastern and Western exemplars which ultimately produced a rebirth in the arts distinct from their early modern Italian and European counterparts. This work traces this Renaissance from its beginnings in 1413 through to its triumphant phase in the Süleymanic Age (1520-75, including the reign of his son, Selim II). In its examination of the Empire's architecture, decorative tiles, calligraphy, and miniature paintings, the study contributes to current scholarship in the field that seeks to assess the Renaissance from a more complex, multi-focal, and multinational perspective. Furthermore, it reinforces the idea that many renaissances arose concurrently in the Mediterranean basin in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.