Eugène-Edouard Heill

This painting affords a rare and fascinating insight into relations between Islamic cultures in the nineteenth century. Likely a Malay woman reads in a serene outdoor space in Constantinople, quite possibly a madrasa in the harem in the Topkapı palace. The setting is at once Turkish and south east Asian in atmosphere, the Kufic tiles and Ottoman Koran stand balanced by distinctly Asian decorative influences like the bonsai cherry tree in bloom. The relationship between the Ottoman Empire and Malaya (modern-day Malaysia) goes back as far as the fifteenth century, to the time of the Malacca-Sultanate, and continued until the fall of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. At first, relations between these Islamic caliphates were focused on politics and trade, but became increasingly cultural, the Sultans of Malacca frequenting the Sublime Porte and even taking oaths of allegiance to the Ottoman Empire, promising to defend Islam in Asia. After the fall of Malacca to the Portuguese in 1511, the Ottoman Empire provided war aid to help Malacca regain control, and continued to support the Malay community’s struggle for independence well into the eighteenth century.