FRONTLINESFROM THE ARCHIVE

A selection of Turkish kilims, both Anatolian and Thracian and other flatweaves, , including an ala çuval, from the ‘Belik Collection’ that were included in the 1957 kilim exhibition at the German Lycée in Galata, and which still remain in Firuzan Hanım’s posession

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FRONTLINESFROM THE ARCHIVE

‘…their interest in the music, the storytelling, the mythology, the philosophy and the rugs and kilims of Anatolia was more than academic. Their aim was to bridge the great cultural dislocation resulting from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and to find the way to a new Turkish identity by returning to the old heart of Turkish culture in Anatolia.’

I learned a great deal that surprised me, not just about kilims but about a chapter of Turkish history of which I had been almost totally unaware. I was intrigued to learn that Firuzan Hanım’' sinterest in kilims was not dilettantish or primarily aesthetic. Nor were her motives primarily commercial. Rather her interest arose from a fortuitous coming together of her background and training, her husband’' s profession, the circle of friends they cultivated, and their mutual political and cultural leanings. Her early married years, at the beginning of the 1950s, were spent accompanying her husband on engineering projects throughout Anatolia. Thus they found themselves livingfor extended periods in such places as the Konya region, the Taurus Mountains, and Kayseri in Cappadocia, where they seem to have developed a deeply sympathetic interest in the peasant and nomadic populations of these regions. This openness to rural cultures was of a piece with their intellectual and political leanings. The Beliks were not elitist in dress, manner or attitude and did not share the conventional views of urban westernised Turks. In fact, they were part of a circle of left wing intellectuals that included their close friends: the renowned author Yasar Kemal, best known for his novel Memed, My Hawk; and Ruhi Su, a well-known performer and promoter of traditional Turkish folk music. This focus on the rural and working class populations of Anatolia was very much in the air in the Turkish Republic at this time. In one circle, such well-known figures as novelists Fakir Baykurt and Mahmut Makal, and the poet Orhan Veli, focused on characters, subjects, and themes drawn from Turkish daily life. Also in the air were the views of another influential circle called the Blue Anatolians, under the leadership of The Fishermanof Halicarnassus (Cevat Sakir Kabaagaçli). The groupderived its name from the cultural explorations of its members along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts on hired fishing boats to experience and study Anatolian culture at first hand. The Blue Anatolians saw Anatolia not as a backward province but as a rich cultural repository from which the future Turkish identity could emerge. Thus their interest in the music, the storytelling, the mythology, the philosophy and the rugs and kilims of Anatolia was more than academic. Their aim was to bridge the great cultural dislocation resulting from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and to find the way to a new

Turkish identity by returning to the old heart of Turkish culture in Anatolia. It was their conviction that Anatolia had its own unique civilisation which in fact served as a major source from which the ancient Greeks derived much of their knowledge, religious beliefs, and culture. The Beliks were very much immersed in and attuned to these wider cultural movements. Consequently, while Firuzan Hanım lived and travelled in Anatolia, she naturally interacted with and befriended the local women and made conscious efforts to understand their way of life. As she learned to appreciate their culture she began buying kilims, which she saw as one of their most important forms of expression. I also learned that while the Beliks were from families that identified themselves as Turkish Muslims, they were what Anatolian Turks would have called Muhacir, that is migrants who moved to Turkey from the former European and Balkan provinces of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th and early 20th century. Coming from more westernised and cosmopolitan regions, they undoubtedly saw the traditional society of Anatolia not just as the Turkish heartland but as an intriguing, foreign place to be understood. Firuzan Hanım majored in Art History at Istanbul University, where she specialised in Seljuk art.Thus she went on to travel and live in Anatolia as someone with a predisposition to the visual arts and a particular interest in Turkish arts. She felt that the Anatolian women she met "seemed to speakin poetry" and that the kilim was not just a decorative item but rather a valuable repository of the rich Anatolian and Turkish cultural heritage. Whileshe felt she could not determine the meanings of the kilims herself, she is certain that the weavers themselves knew, understood and appreciated the significance of their abstract motifs and designs. She gradually assembled her random kilim purchases into what she would, half in jest, call the ‘Belik Collection.’ It does not seem to have been put together with any particular programme or point of view in mind; her aims were not antiquarian or primarily aesthetic. She shared the kilimsshe found with friends and family. In fact, some of her friends, in particular Yasar Kemal, participatedin helping her make some of her selections and actually bought some of the kilims on her behalf. The ‘Anatolian Kilim Exhibition’ opened on 1 March 1957 in the exhibition hall of the German Lycée in Galata and ran for twenty days. There was little in the way of advance promotion, the

news apparently being spread by word of mouth. It featured some two hundred kilims from all over Turkey,as well as a range of other artefacts, including embroideries, ornate knitted socks and what the Turks call kolon, the woven bands used as horse trappings and storage bag ties. Understandably there was no defined curatorial point of view for selecting the kilims to display. In the 1950s so little was known about the Anatolian kilim that suchan approach would have been impossible. At most the kilims were accompanied by a card indicating their provenance. The regions represented tended to reflect wherethe Beliks were posted: Kayseri, Konya, the TaurusMountains, as well as random purchases from various nomadic groups they encountered. Some kilims were also found in the Bedestani section of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. The kilims on the whole were, according to Firuzan Hanım, " used, but not necessarily antique." No complete list of was kept and most of the pieces have long since been scattered, so it is impossible to reconstruct exactly what was shown. However, Firuzan Hanımhas kept intact a representative selection of photographs which suggest the character of the kilims in the exhibition. At this early period, it was Firuzan Hanım’' saimto create awareness of and appreciation for the art of the Anatolian kilim and to bring recognition to the nomadic and peasant women of Anatolia that had produced them. In her mind the kilim was verymuch an extension of the weaver. During its twenty-day run the exhibition apparently attracted a fairly good attendance with Turkish intellectuals, including members of the Academy of Fine Arts, well represented, as were members of the German community, some of whom bought kilims woven by Kurdish nomads and took them to Germany. The exhibition did receive some press in Turkey, but chiefly in journals rather than the major media,and thus it did not cause a great stir. So while Firuzan Hanım took great satisfaction in launching the exhibition she did not feel that there was enough interest to repeat it. Like most pioneers, she was ahead of her time. But ultimately she would be vindicated , as decades later the Anatolian kilim would achieve recognition and acclaim not only in Turkey but throughout the world.

Peter Davies is an experienced dealer in Anatolian flatweaves based in New York, and is the author of The Tribal Eye. Antique Kilims of Anatolia(1993), reprinted in 2000 as Antique Kilims of Anatolia.

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