Style and iconography in mecmua-i murakkaat şah kuli mihrdar miniatures

The term murakkaa, which is originally Persian and means compilation, passed into Turkish as murakka' and is used as the equivalent of the term album. Murakkaât is the plural form of this term. Murakka' is formed by combining several pieces of paper with materials such as wheat starch, gelatine, alum and water, and this is encountered in traditional Turkish arts such as miniature, illumination or marbling. Murakkaât emerged as a result of book binding in the classical style. In the Ottoman Empire, murakka', which we come across especially in miniature art, is generally used to refer to miniature albums. Şahkulu Mihrdar's manuscript work called 'Murakkaât' is also a work of this type. This manuscript is dated to the 16th century in the Ottoman Empire. The first part of the manuscript, which is considered in three parts, consists of thirty-one leaves and consists of classics such as Pançatantra, Kelile and Dimne, Envar-ı Süheyli and Hümâyunnâme. Although these classic works have different names, they are composed of stories written with the aim of teaching, guiding and helping statesmen. In addition to the classics mentioned above, this manuscript also contains miniatures that take their sources from Şehname and Mesnevi. There are eighty-three different miniatures in the forty-one miniature leaves in this manuscript. In addition to these, calligraphy written in Arabic, Persian and Chagatai Turkish is also included. The miniatures in this manuscript are similar to 16th century Persian miniatures as well as 16th century Ottoman miniatures. As a result of the research, it was concluded that this manuscript belongs to a Humayunname, not to the Kalila and Dimne. In this context, it was concluded that some, if not all, of the miniatures were made by Şah Kuli and his student Kara Memi and his team, or that they took part in their production.