Geometric pattern analysis of 14th century Turkish bookbindings

Turkish bookbinding art is a deep-rooted art branch whose origins date back to Central Asia. This art, which started to take shape during the Uyghur period, moved to the Islamic region in time and continued its development in different areas. The art of bookbinding, which reached Anatolia through the Seljuks, produced original examples during the Anatolian Seljuks in the 13th century and the Principalities in the 14th century. During this period, the Anatolian Principalities, especially the Karamanos and Candarids, took over the Seljuk heritage and enriched the art of bookbinding in terms of aesthetics and technique; they served as a bridge to the early Ottoman period. Geometric ornamentation has an important place in Islamic art, especially in the fields of architecture, illumination, and binding. The knowledge of geometry, the foundations of which were laid in antiquity, was combined with systematic rules in the Islamic world and transformed into an artistic form. In the 14th century examples of bindings, patterns that look similar but contain differences based on mathematical principles, draw attention. In this respect, geometric ornamentation both offers aesthetic diversity and reflects the knowledge and competence of the artist. In this study, Turkish bindings with geometric patterns from the 14th century are analyzed. In the catalogue section of the study, examples found in the literature have been grouped according to patterns; the quarter section of the geometric pattern on each binding has been analyzed and supported with drawings. The cover images of the bindings in various libraries belonging to the identified unit cells are presented in the form of a table, thus the geometric ornamentation understanding of the period is systematically revealed.