This item has been added to the Database within the Explore Islamic Art Collections project. Information is available in: English, Arabic.

Name of Object:

Diwan Muhibbi

Location:

Hamburg, Germany

Holding Museum:

MKG Museum for Applied Arts

About MKG Museum for Applied Arts, Hamburg

Date of Object:

Hegira 961-962 / AD 1554

Museum Inventory Number:

1886.168

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Coloured and gold ink on paper; leather binding with triple-layered gold tooling

Dimensions:

Height: 23.6cm, Length: 15.8cm; Pages: 213

Period / Dynasty:

Ottoman

Provenance:

Turkey, Court workshop Istanbul

Description:

This precious and richly decorated divan is a manuscript by the poet and Sultan, Süleyman I, whose pen name, Muhibbi, literally translates to “lover" or God lover." The divan contains 213 folios with 614 poems written in ta’liq script. Each poem is framed by naturalistic, gilded floral illuminations. The leather binding is also decorated with gilded floral ornaments and bears the following inscription: “This is the Third Diwan from the speech of the sultan of sultans of the rime, from Ghazi Sultan Suleyman Khan may his rule last until Judgement Day”. Other known divans by Süleyman are held at the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul (Inv. No. T 3873) and in the University of Istanbul.
The calligrapher and illuminator can also be identified through a colophon which reads: “Haci Mehmmed has finished this whilst praying wholeheartedly for lasting conquests and victories at the last ten days of the month Rabi as-sani in the year 961 (March 25-April 4, 1154).” The illuminator, Kara Memi, worked in the court of Süleyman and is well-known for his innovative floral ornaments which replaced the Safavid tradition of book illumination. A unique example of Ottoman book decoration, each of Memi's folios has an individual, unrepeated design. Each realistically-depicted plant can be individually identified through their precise botanical rendering, giving the illuminations a nearly encyclopaedical character.
In 1886, the divan was purchased from the art dealer Franz Bock by the founder and initial director of the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg, Justus Brinckmann.

How date and origin were established:

Manuscript of Sultan Suleiman I.

How Object was obtained:

Purchased in 1886.

How provenance was established:

Purchased by Franz Bock (1823-1899), clergyman and art historian. He traveled to Syria and Egypt and owned a large textile collection which he started to sell in 1850 to major museums in Europe (Paris, Berlin and the South Kensinton Museum (now V&A, London).

Selected bibliography:

Czygan, C., "A Device of Communication: The Third Divan of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent (1520-1566) and its Political Context", Islamic Perspective Journal of the Islamic Studies and Humanities, 15 (2016): 77-90.
Czygan, C., “Was Sultan Süleymān Colour-Blind? Sensuality, Power and the Unpublished Poems in the Third Dīvān (1554) of Sultan Süleymān I.” in Stephan Conermann and Christiane Czygan (eds), An Iridescent Device: Premodern Ottoman Poetry, Bonn: Bonn University Press 2018: 190 (translation); 183–206.
Czygan, C., "Zur Ghazelkultur in der Zeit Sultan Süleymâns des Prächtigen: Der Herrscher als Liebender," in E. Ragagnin and J. Wilkens (eds), Kutadgu Nom Bitig Festschrift für Jens Peter Laut zum 60 Geburtstag, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag in Kommission, 2015.
Haase, P., "Der dritte Divan Sultan Süleymans des Prächtigen," Jahrbuch des Museums für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 5 (1986): 27-39. Karolewski, J. and Köse, Y., "Wunder der erschaffenen Dinge: Osmanische Manuskripte in Hamburger Sammlunge," Manuscript Cultures, 9 (2016): 175-190.
Kohlhausen, H., Islamische Kleinkunst, Führer durch das Hamburgische Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, vol. 12, Hamburg: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 1930.
Schimmel, A. et al., Islamic Calligraphy, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992.
Schönberger, I. and Kalter, J., Der lange Weg der Türken, Stuttgart: Linden Museum, 2003.

Citation of this web page:

 "Diwan Muhibbi" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2025.
https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;de;Mus21;5;en

Copyedited by: Caitlin Link

MWNF Working Number: DE1 05