The exhibition "Seyahat Sanatı" (“The Art of Travel”) opens at Istanbul's Meşher on May 8 and will remain on view until May 23, 2027. It examines journeys to the Ottoman lands from the late 15th century to the first quarter of the 20th century, approaching travel not through a chronological narrative but through the motivations behind it. The exhibition brings together rare works from the collections of the Sadberk Hanım Museum and the Ömer Koç Collection, alongside selected loans from other Koç-related collections.

Prepared by the Sadberk Hanım Museum as part of the Koç Group’s 100th anniversary, the exhibition reflects a century-long institutional journey shaped by human values. It presents travel as more than physical movement, framing it instead as a deliberate act of observation, selection and recording.

Concept of the 'Art of Travel'

At its conceptual core, the exhibition draws on "Ars Apodemica," the early modern “art of travel,” rooted in the idea of leaving home and documenting the world. Travel is presented both as an intellectual practice and a creative process, where experience is transformed into writing, image and object.

The exhibition is the result of close collaboration between collections. Works from the Sadberk Hanım Museum and the Ömer Koç Collection are complemented by important loans from other Koç collections. Among the highlights are diplomatic paintings and a portolan map introduced through the Çiğdem Simavi donation, which forms the foundation of a new collection group. Works by artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Jacopo Ligozzi and Louis-François Cassas, alongside travel books, Istanbul views, maps, diplomatic gifts and ethnographic objects, create a layered visual and intellectual narrative of the Ottoman world.

As noted by Hülya Bilgi, director of the Sadberk Hanım Museum, the exhibition builds on the museum’s long-standing expertise, together with recent significant donations. This collaboration between collections allows for a rich and multifaceted presentation of travel as a cultural and historical force.

The curatorial process was led by M. Merve Uca, with coordination by Hülya Bilgi. Preparation lasted approximately one and a half years and included research, selection, expert consultation, conservation, photography, catalogue production and design, bringing together multiple disciplines within a single narrative framework.

Travel motivated by curiosity, faith, war

The exhibition is organized into thematic sections based on different travel motivations.

Curiosity focuses on journeys driven by the desire to observe and classify the world, including travel writings, natural history publications, costume albums and observational works. The concept of "mirabilia," wonders of the natural and imagined world, appears prominently here, where exotic animals and extraordinary objects marked the limits of the known world.

Faith presents pilgrimage journeys to sacred sites such as Mecca and Jerusalem, including visual and written materials related to Hajj routes and the Surre processions from Istanbul – the annual Ottoman ceremonial caravans sent to Mecca carrying gifts, provisions and official correspondence on behalf of the imperial court – which also functioned as expressions of political and religious authority.

War examines forced mobility through military campaigns, sieges and conflicts, including maps, engravings, printed materials and representations shaped by European “Turkish fear” narratives, as well as accounts produced through direct or indirect wartime experiences.

Diplomacy, trade, tourism

Diplomatic journeys often included artists who documented both travel and court life, while ambassadors such as Yusuf Agah Efendi are represented through historical records and recurring observations found in travel accounts. Many travel accounts note that European envoys kept their hats on in the presence of the Ottoman sultan, reflecting differences in court etiquette rather than a breach of protocol within the Ottoman context. These diplomatic scenes were also commonly represented in paintings, where envoys appear within formal court ceremonies.

Trade highlights the circulation of goods, ideas and aesthetics through textiles, ceramics and commodities, as well as cultural transformations such as the spread of coffee consumption and the emergence of “Turkish fashion” in European courts.

From the late 15th century onward, European “Turkish fear” narratives gradually shifted toward curiosity and admiration, giving rise to new forms of cultural exchange. Turkish coffee and Ottoman dress, for instance, became integrated into European court culture and fashion, acquiring iconic status.

Tourism, the final section, addresses the 19th-century transformation of travel into a leisure-based activity accelerated by steamships and railways, marking a shift from necessity to experience and desire.

Across all sections, travel is framed as a transformative practice that shapes knowledge, perception and cultural production.

For visitors interested in discovering how different travelers documented and interpreted the Ottoman world across centuries, "The Art of Travel" offers a wide-ranging selection of works that bring together multiple perspectives, histories and forms of representation.

https://www.dailysabah.com/arts/events/art-of-travel-exhibition-explores-ottoman-travel-through-rare-works

Drawing on ideas and styles passed from vibrant Middle East trading cities into the West, the architectural heritage of Europe — and America — owes an important debt to the Arab and Islamic world, as I lay out in my new book, Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe. England’s greatest architect, Sir Christopher Wren, wrote that what we call “the Gothic style should more rightly be called the Saracen style.” Americans, it seems, are especially fond of Gothic. Across the continent are spectacular Gothic Revival structures, many modelled on the medieval cathedrals of England and France, such as St. John the Divine and St. Patrick’s in New York City, Washington National Cathedral, and the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, GA. On top of that, America boasts the world’s biggest collection of neo-Gothic architecture in its universities, colleges, and schools. What accounts for that popularity?  

America’s leading neo-Gothic architect, Ralph Adams Cram, wrote in his book Gothic Quest about the power of architecture “to bend men and sway them.” Like the fervent European Gothic Revival architects before him, such as Augustus Pugin, designer of the clock tower commonly known as Big Ben for the Houses of Parliament in London, Cram believed that Gothic was the “purest” form.

While studying classical architecture in Rome, he had an epiphany during a Christmas Eve mass, thereafter becoming an Anglo-Catholic. Like his fellow neo-Gothic enthusiasts in Europe, and indeed like many Europeans today, for him Gothic architecture epitomized the Catholic faith. The commonly held view of Gothic’s provenance was that it represented Europe’s shared heritage. Although such Eurocentrism remains deeply rooted, serious scholarship has questioned just how “European” the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine civilizations that preceded the era of Gothic actually were, since all three empires were multicultural and multiethnic. Few of the later Roman emperors were ethnically Italian and even fewer Byzantine rulers were ethnically Greek.

The Islamic roots of Gothic architecture

The time has come to examine Gothic in the same way, since Cram never realized, along with Americans and Europeans in general, that key elements of Gothic architecture — the pointed arch, the trefoil arch, ribbed vaulting, and many other features — were born, not in Europe, but further east, often evolving from styles that were associated with a completely different religion.

Even Eurocentric architects cannot deny that the pointed arch had its origins in Islamic architecture. It appeared in the 7th century Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, built as the first Muslim shrine by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik, and was then further developed under the Abbasids in Baghdad.

It went on to become the defining feature of Islamic religious buildings. The trefoil arch, so enthusiastically adopted by Gothic architecture as a symbol of the Holy Trinity, first appeared as a carved decorative feature in Umayyad shrines and desert palaces. Byzantine church architecture, which the Umayyad caliphate inherited, had round Roman arches and single domes, like Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia. There was not a pointed or trefoil arch in sight, let alone ribbed vaulting.

From Syria and their capital Damascus, the Umayyads brought these elements to Spain in the 8th century, re-using them in their main mosque of Cordoba, still known today as the Mezquita, Spanish for “mosque,” even though it was converted to a Catholic cathedral at the Reconquista. The 10th century ribbed vaulting of the Mezquita’s main dome, today called the Villaviciosa Chapel, was analyzed in 2017 by Spanish architectural engineers and pronounced the most perfect example of geometry, never once needing repair in its thousand-year existence.

The masons’ marks displayed on the rear wall show the names to be overwhelmingly Muslim, unsurprisingly, since their grasp of geometry and their stonemasonry was recognized as far superior to that of their European counterparts. It was no coincidence that Spanish Christian kings like Alfonso XI and Pedro the Cruel insisted on Mudéjar (Muslim) craftsmen for their building projects.

From Spain, these skills and styles passed into southern France where they were gradually incorporated into Benedictine abbeys and Cluniac shrines on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. The same styles also found their way into Europe from vibrant Islamic cities like Cairo, Damascus, and Aleppo, passing first via Italian trading ports like Amalfi, then via the Norman, Arab-influenced architecture of Sicily.

The returning Crusaders, ironically, set up new kingdoms in the 12th century, mimicking the styles of their conquered enemies, whom they called the Saracens, meaning “people who steal.” The Norman French brought the styles back to Normandy, where they synthesized them into what was originally just called “French work” in cathedrals like Notre-Dame and Chartres, before importing the style into England, under Norman rule at the time, in buildings like Canterbury Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.

Only centuries later was it misleadingly dubbed “Gothic” by an Italian art historian, the same person who coined the term “Renaissance.” In Spain, it was called the “Gothic of the Catholic Kings.” Eurocentrism at work again.

From Spain to North America

In North America, it is easy to forget that when the Spanish arrived in Mexico in 1492, they came from a world in which Christians and Muslims had shared rule for nearly 800 years. The Spanish colonizers did not build in the style of the native Americans whose lands they took, but imported the styles of their homeland, just as the Umayyads had recreated the Syrian styles of their homeland in Spain, modelling the Cordoba Mezquita on the Damascus Umayyad Mosque. The influence of “the Moors,” as the Muslims were known, can be found in practically every style of Spain from the 8th century onwards, with its unmistakable tinge of Orientalism.

The Spanish missions in California and Arizona, founded by Catholic priests of the Franciscan order in the 18th and 19th centuries, also imported the styles of their homeland, and Moorish designs are evident in San Xavier del Bac and San Luis Rey de Francia.

Taking inspiration from English Oxford and Cambridge colleges, “Collegiate Gothic,” as it is known, began in 19th century America with church-like libraries at prestigious universities such as Harvard’s Gore Hall.

The popularity of Collegiate Gothic endures into the 21st century, with prominent “new” buildings still seen as representing the pinnacle of sophistication, such as Yale’s Benjamin Franklin College and Princeton’s Whitman College. Much of Yale’s campus can be considered “Gothic,” including Yale Law School.

In Europe too there is still one famous neo-Gothic church under construction. Its Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudí, another devout Catholic, openly acknowledged the influence of Islamic architecture in his masterpiece, the Sagrada Família in Barcelona. It is a style we might call Hispano-Saracenic-Gothic, representing the ultimate fusion of nature, geometry, and religion. A multinational team is collaborating to complete it in time for the 2026 centenary of Gaudí’s death, using materials from all over the world.

On top of all the “Saracen,” “Moorish” elements we have identified in so-called “Gothic” buildings, there is still one more surprising thing to take in: The Capitol building in Washington, DC owes a debt to Islamic architecture, through its double dome.

This is the technique, first used in Seljuk tombs and later Ottoman mosques by the great court architect Sinan, where the exterior profile is taller, in order to make a bold silhouette on the skyline, than the interior dome, which is lower, with a hollow space in between. The clever device was copied across Europe, notably by Wren in his iconic dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London where he openly admitted use of what he called “Saracen vaulting.” That is why the cover of this beautifully illustrated book shows the interior dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Surely if there is a lesson in all of this, it is that no one “owns” architecture, just as no one “owns” science. Everything builds on everything else.

How wonderful it would be, in this current age of Islamophobia and nationalism, if we could acknowledge the ties that bind us, often in mysterious and unseen ways, rather than seeking to airbrush them out of our history. My hope is that an enhanced understanding of the shared elements of Christian and Islamic architecture might encourage us toward a broader inter-religious dialogue, even with those we may sometimes have seen as “the enemy.”

Diana Darke is a non-resident scholar with MEI’s Syria Program and an independent Middle East cultural expert and Syria specialist. She is the author of My House in Damascus: An Inside View of the Syrian Crisis (2016), The Merchant of Syria (2018), and, most recently, Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe (2020), on which this piece is based. The views expressed in this article are her own.

https://mei.edu/publication/stealing-saracens-how-islamic-architecture-shaped-europe/

In Kerala Islam took root through years of cultural exchange and trade. As the land and its people embraced the unique art forms, architectural styles, and celebrations of the Arab traders who arrived on the Malabar Coast, the world bore witness to a beautiful amalgamation of two distinct cultures.

Hundreds of silver coins reveal the "Commercial Face" of North warriors; Experts: Treasure was buried in haste due to "Sudden Danger"; Discovery proves Viking influence reached the heart of the Islamic Empire

Oslo – Archaeologists in Norway have announced an “extraordinary discovery” from the Viking Age, considered one of the largest monetary hoards ever found in the North. The treasure, unearthed at an archaeological site in the northern part of the country, was not just pieces of metal but an “economic map” that shocked researchers with rare silver coins bearing inscriptions from the Islamic Empire and Western Europe. Obviously, this May 2026 discovery will rewrite Viking history, transforming them from mere “raiding warriors” into “global traders” who possessed relationship networks spanning continents over a millennium ago.

“Transcontinental Trade”: How Did Islamic Coins Reach the Far North?

Researchers explained that the presence of coins from distant regions like the Middle East confirms that Vikings were skilled trade intermediaries, linking the civilizations of the ancient world through complex trade routes. Accordingly, experts believe this discovery shatters the stereotypical image of Vikings and proves their economic power rivaled their military might. Clearly, the volume of wealth discovered reflects unprecedented prosperity in Northern Europe during that era, opening the door for new studies on the scale of gold and silver circulating among Northern peoples.

“The Secret of the Burial”: Did the Vikings Flee a Sudden Conflict?

Preliminary studies suggest that the manner in which the treasure was found indicates it was hidden under “emergency conditions” and in a hurried fashion, favoring the hypothesis of a military conflict or imminent threat that forced its owners to bury it. As a result, historians are currently attempting to link the date of the treasure’s burial to political events and wars witnessed in the region at the time. Amidst this archaeological momentum, the Norway hoard remains living proof that the earth still hides many secrets that could entirely change our understanding of human history.

https://www.voiceofemirates.com/en/lifestyle/2026/05/02/lost-viking-gold-surfaces-in-norway-massive-hoard-of-islamic-and-european-coins-shakes-archaeological-circles/

The spring fixture of London’s biennial Islamic and Indian art auctions took place in their customary end of April slot and, aided by strong Indian buying, the results were surprisingly positive given the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran and wider tensions in the region.

“We're used to periods of great geopolitical instability in this field, and there's been quite a lot of that over the past 15-plus years,” says Sotheby’s head of Indian and Islamic art, Benedict Carter. While Carter says new museums in the Gulf were a little quieter this season, given conflict in the region, they were still buying as were other new museums—a delegation of four from the new Islamic Civilisation Center in Tashkent, which opened in March, was actively buying in the room, as they have been over the past few seasons.

At Sotheby’s, the Arts of the Islamic World & India, Orientalist art and Middle Eastern Art sales, totalled £14.8m (all prices include fees, estimates do not), while at Christie’s, the Art from the Islamic and Indian Worlds sale and single owner auction of the Mary and Cheney Cowles collection of Indian paintings and calligraphy amounted to £17.6m in total.

New records

The top lot of the week was a rare 14th century Mamluk gilded and enamelled glass footed bowl, deaccessioned with four other pieces from the Toledo Museum of Art, which set a new auction record for Islamic glass, selling for over three times its high-estimate at £5.5m (estimate: £1.2m-£1.8m).

“Mamluk glass is exceptionally rare, as it was very difficult to make in the first place and is extremely fragile” says Sara Plumbly, Christie’s International Head of Islamic and Indian Art. “The footed bowl form is extremely unusual,” Pluymbly adds. “There are only three others that are know: one in the Royal Ontario Museum, one in the British Museum and one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” It was previously owned by the French artist Jules-Albert Goupil (1840-84), and at some point in the 19th century was repaired, the base reattached to the stem. Against global institutional, private and trade bidding, “it ended up selling to a European client,” Plumbly says.

At Sotheby’s the highest selling lot of the week was a 17th-century Mughal astrolabe, a sophisticated astronomical instrument used to tell the time and date, chart the position of the stars and calculate latitude. The monumental brass instrument was commissioned for Aqa Afzal, and made by Qaim Muhammad and Muhammad Muqim, sold for a mid-estimate £2m, an auction record for an astronomical instrument from the Islamic world. At 40cm high, it is thought to be the largest of these astronomical pre-modern computers in existence.

“We put that in at the highest estimate we’ve ever put on an Islamic scientific instrument,” Carter says, adding that it is a small but dedicated collecting field. “There's always a few bids, rather than a feeding frenzy of interest. I felt confident about this one, because it was in perfect condition, was made by the two most famous makers of the particular 17th-century Lahore school. It was made for Aqa Afzal, who was prime minister under Shah Jahan and a chief courtier of Emperor Jahangir, two of the great Mughals. It was massive, one of the largest functional astrolabes in existence. So, it had everything going for it. We had three bidders on the telephone. It didn’t really take off, but it's still a record for an Islamic scientific instrument.”

Iznik

Made in a small town in north-western Turkey between the late 15th century and 16th century, Iznik ceramics have been a mainstay of these Islamic sales for decades.

Two old English collections of Iznik pottery bolstered the bottom line at Sotheby’s, bringing in a combined £2m. The Ralph Brocklebank collection made over three times its high estimate at £994,560 while the Alan Barlow collection of nine lots was 100% sold, for £956,000 (est. £25,000-£35,000). Brocklebank (1840-1921), a Liverpool ship owner and art collector, was an influential collector of Iznik pottery, while Barlow (1881–1968), a civil servant and president of the Oriental Ceramic Society, amassed one of the largest collections of Islamic pottery in the UK.

“There’s always been an international demand for Iznik, buyers from the US, Europe and the Middle East, and museum buyers, too, for the top pieces,” Carter says. “It’s not just a Turkish market, so isn’t overly reliant on the Turkish economy.”

The lack of big results in the past few years is because of a lack of supply of exceptional pieces, Carter says: “In 2018 we had a one-off wonderful early blue and white charger from 1481 which came out of the blue from the US and it made a world record price [£5.3m, still the record].” While there have been good individual items offered at auction, there has been a dearth of quality collections, until Barlow and Brocklebank appeared: “I think them coming together really helped…both had wonderful provenances, most of these dishes haven't been on the market since the 19th century and you can't say that about many objects in our field. That was reflected in the interest.”

The top performing lots from the Brocklebank collection were an Iznik dish with an unusual emerald green marbled medallion at the centre (around 1590) sold for £256,000 (est. £50,000 - £80,000) and a rimless pottery dish (around 1585-90) for £140,800 (est. £30,000-£50,000). A polychrome Iznik jug from around 1580 was top of the Barlow selection, at £230,400 (est. £25,000 - £35,000).

“Iznik has always been highly commercial,” says Brendan Lynch, a dealer specialising in Indian and Islamic art alongside his business partner Oliver Forge Lynch. “There are various buyers that wax and wane scattered around Europe in particular, where, of course, it's always been collected—some Iznik was made for merchants in Genoa, quite early on in the 16th century.” Lynch describes the week’s sales as “extremely buoyant”.

Indian paintings

Indian paintings also continued something of a bull run. Last October at Christie’s, the collection of Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan made £45.8m from 95 lots, topped by the Indian miniaturist Basawan’s A Family of Cheetahs in a Rocky Landscape (around 1575-80) which sold for £10.2m, the most expensive classical Indian or Islamic painting ever sold at auction.

The Aga Khan sale buoyed the market, and, for the April sale series, Christie’s had another collection of Indian miniatures, plus calligraphy and drawing, from the collection of the Seattle-based couple Mary and Cheney Cowles. Cheney Cowles, a retired dealer in East Asian art, ran the Crane Gallery from 1975 until 2016. The 84-lot single owner sale was 100% sold, making three times the estimate at £5.3m (with fees).

“The market for Indian painting is clearly very strong, and this was a really nice group,” Plumbly says. “The estimates were attractive, the material was good and was generally relatively fresh to the market with good provenance.” She adds the range of estimates, down to the low hundreds, encouraged new collectors.

The top lot was an early 17th century Mughal painting of A Courtier Holding a Book, ascribed to Manohar and from the desirable Brabourne-Ardeshir album, which sold for £571,500 (est: £80,000-£120,000). The long provenance helped too. “We were able to trace its history back to 1937 when we know it was in the collection of Michael Knatchbull, 5th Baron Brabourne … there's a lot of things going for it. And if I'm frank, I think the estimate was quite attractive.

“Cheney was very discerning,” Lynch says. “He bought some things from us in the past, and has very particular taste. The drawings are usually about ten times more difficult sell than any Indian painting, it's just a different market. But Christie’s cleverly made very attractive estimates for the drawings. So it was a very well-constructed sale, obviously with compliance from the vendor who was brave enough to agree to those low estimates.”

Lynch adds that many of the works, with provenance listed simply as “American market”, were bought from Terence McInerney, “a very well-known dealer in New York in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.” One of those works, with provenance rather thinly defined as “American market 1988” was a Mughal drawing of demons banqueting (around 1590), the calligraphy signed Muhammad Husayn Kashmiri. Pitched at £50,000-£70,000, it sold for £444,500 (with fees). It sold to an Indian collector, Lynch says.

While the Cowles collection “is a very fine collection in its way”, Lynch says, it is not in the same league as the Aga Khan’s. “What was really remarkable about Sadruddin’s collection was the fact that when he was buying in the 1970s, there was so much on the market. Things were pouring out of India after Indira Gandhi [then prime minister] withdrew the Privy purses of the princes in 1971. There was a huge amount of material, and so to be quite so discerning, was really the remarkable thing about [the Aga Khan] collection.”

A recent phenomenon, noted by Carter, Lynch and Plumbly, is that Indian buyers who have previously concentrated on contemporary art have started to cross over into classical Indian painting. Plumbly comments that some collectors who bought miniatures for the first time in the Aga Khan sale returned to buy from the Cowles collection, plus some entirely new names.

“What's actually changed in the last one-and-a-half or two years—and was really firstly manifest at the Aga Khan sale in October—is that new Indian buyers have come into the market,” Lynch says. “Almost all are collectors of Indian contemporary art and that market has been booming.” Lynch identifies “three very major Indian contemporary collectors” who have been active in the Indian miniatures market since the Aga Khan sale in October, and are particularly attracted to ascribed paintings from well-known albums such as the Brabourne-Ardeshir.

This strength is part of a broader upswelling in the Indian paintings market. Lynch mentions the sale at Pundoles in Mumbai in March 2025, in which a miniature by Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906) sold for around $1.7m (160m Indian rupees, with fees), despite the fact it was listed as a national treasure therefore could not be exported. Only last month, Raja Ravi Varma’s Yashoda and Krishna (1890s) sold for $17.9m (or 1,672m Indian rupees, with fees) at Saffronart in Mumbai, setting a new record for any South Asian painting.

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/05/11/record-%C2%A355m-glass-goblet-leads-london-indian-and-islamic-sales

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