Book features engravings on Ottoman-era tombstones

EDİRNE

Carved decorations in the form of figurative compositions appear on mosques, madrasahs and tombs across Anatolia, but now a book of detailed research features a series of aesthetic images of tombstones from different ethnic cultures that prevailed in Turkey’s northwestern province of Edirne for hundreds of years.

A book named “Edirne’s Tombstones’ written by Cem Altınel presents a large scale of data explaining the culture, art, science, literature, politics, military, economy, trade, bureaucracy and social life of the Ottoman city through examples of tombstones reflecting the most concrete practices of Turkish art.

The book also brings to light a series of examples of cultures from different ethnic groups, such as Turkish, Greek, Jewish, Armenian, Levantine and Bulgarian, who lived in the city for hundreds of years, reflected on the tombstones by stone carving masters in Edirne.

It also aims to showcase believers’ intensity of love and their longing for loved ones in the past, evaluating the inscriptions and patterns on tombstones from an aesthetic point of view.

The latest status of some burial stones that make up the content of the book is included in the work by comparing the images in Arif Dağdeviren’s archive.