Textiles were the second-most-traded commodity in all of world history, preceded only by grain. In the Ottoman Empire in particular, the sale and exchange of silks, cottons, and woolens generated an immense amount of revenue and touched every level of society, from rural women tending silkworms to pashas flaunting layers of watered camlet to merchants traveling to Mecca and beyond. Sea Change offers the first comprehensive history of the Ottoman textile sector, arguing that the trade's enduring success resulted from its openness to expertise and objects from far-flung locations. Amanda Phillips skillfully marries art history with social and economic history, integrating formal analysis of various textiles into wider discussions of how trade, technology, and migration impacted the production and consumption of textiles in the Mediterranean from around 1400 to 1800. Surveying a vast network of textile topographies that stretched from India to Italy and from Egypt to Iran, Sea Change illuminates often neglected aspects of material culture, showcasing the objects' ability to tell new kinds of stories.

Woven by women to adorn tents and camel caravans, kilims are enduring records of life in Turkeyʹs nomadic communities, as well as stunning examples of abstract art. This exhibition marks the public debut of treasures from the museumʹs Murad Megalli Collection of Anatolian Kilims dating to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

He tells of architecture, calligraphy, woodworking, and earthenware, but lays particular emphasis on the brilliant, underglaze-painted ceramics of Kutahya and the rich, piled carpets for which Turkey has been famed for centuries. While searching for the traits that define art and the stylistic complexities that characterize Turkish creativity, Glassie focuses on the artists and their theories and practices as well as the works they produce.

Set amidst the timeless landscape and remote villages of Anatolia, The Carpet Weaver of Uşak is the haunting and unforgettable story of a deep friendship between two women, one Greek Orthodox, the other a Muslim Turk: a friendship that transcends an atmosphere of mistrust, fear and ultimate collapse, long after the wars have ended.

With comprehensive text, diagrams, drafts, and examples of fine woven fabrics, this book about the art and craft of weaving offers complete coverage of the materials and equipment, the techniques and the creative possibilities of the medium. Now in its fourth edition, this indispensable handbook is a must-have resource for weavers of all skill levels. This timeless classic now features examples of contemporary work and discusses the use of digital tools for hand-weaving. Chapters include the fundamentals of weaving, as well as looms and other equipment, yarns, how to design a warp and warp the loom, drafting, the basic weaves, pattern weaves, and how to apply this knowledge to discover the many faces of weaving. Weave structures covered include tapestry techniques, knotted, pile, flat-woven rugs, and two- and three-dimensional wall hangings.

This vibrantly illustrated volume chronicles nearly a millennium of Islamic art and architecture in Turkey. Illustrated with some 250 attractive and well-chosen color photographs, Turkish Art and Architecture is fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in Turkey, and an essential reference for any student of Islamic art and architecture. The Anatolian peninsula, one of the oldest seats of civilization, has been ruled by a succession of great powers, including the Romans and their successors in the East, the Byzantines. Its Islamic era began in 1071, when the Seljuk Turks, nomads from Central Asia who had already taken control of Persia, defeated the Byzantine army at Manzikert and moved west, creating a new sultanate in Anatolia. The Seljuks were eventually succeeded in this region by the Ottoman Turks, who crossed the Bosphorus to conquer an exhausted Constantinople in 1453, and went on to extend their power far beyond the borders of modern Turkey, establishing an empire that endured until the early twentieth century. Ruling over a land that had always been at the crossroads of east and west, these Islamic dynasties developed a cosmopolitan art and architecture. As art historian Giovanni Curatola demonstrates in this insightful new book, they combined elements of the prestigious Persian style and memories of their nomadic past with local Mediterranean traditions, and also adopted local building materials, such as stone and wood. Curatola introduces us first to the new types of buildings introduced by the Seljuks?like the caravansary and the türbe, or mausoleum?and then to the sophisticated architectural achievements of the Ottomans, which culminated in the great domed mosques constructed by the master builder Mimar Sinan (d. 1588). He also traces the history of the decorative arts in Turkey, which included lavishly ornamented carpets, manuscripts, armor, and ceramics.