The Visual Language of Power
‘For as long as people have held power, they have looked for ways in which to demonstrate it.’
For as long as people have held power, they have looked for ways in which to demonstrate it to both those under its sway and to those outside it. In particular, art and architecture have often been used to create a ‘visual language’ through which to proclaim power. Such visual proclamations have taken many forms over the centuries; sometimes they are quite overt and unmistakable, while at other times they are more subtle and implicit. The art and architecture of the Ottoman period includes an instructive range of examples by which the power of the sultan and of the Ottoman state was manifest in a visual form.
Star tiles

During the reign of Sultan Alaaddin ('Ala al-Din) Keykubad I (r. hegira 616–35 / AD 1220–37)
Anatolian Seljuq
Karatay Madrasa Tile Museum
Konya, Turkey
Many of the figures on tiles such as these are thought to have been symbolic of the power held by the state. These tiles are of the Anatolian Seljuq period.