An Ottoman cuerda-seca tile, Turkey, first half 16th century

Following the Ottoman defeat against Timur at the battle of Ankara in 1402, many Turkish craftsmen were captured and brought to Samarqand. The designer Ali ibn Ilyas Ali ‘Nakkas’ later returned to his homeland inspired by Timurid culture and artistic practices. He introduced the cuerda seca technique in Ottoman architecture, covering the facades of mosques, mausoleums and madrasas with intricate mosaics of polychromatic tiles. This initiative was supported by a group of Persian craftsmen based in Bursa known as the Masters of Tabriz (N. Atasoy & J. Raby, Iznik: the Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, 1989, p.83; W. Denny, Iznik: the Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, 2015, p.67-68). However, production of cuerda seca tiles declined at the end of the fifteenth century until the first decade of the sixteenth century, when Sultan Selim I brought back Persian craftsmen from his campaign in Tabriz. These artists formed a workshop that reintroduced the cuerda seca style in the repertory of Ottoman architectural surfaces (Atasoy & Raby 1994, p.96). Led by Habib of Tabriz, the group developed new designs in fashion between the 1520s and 50s, distinguishable by the intricateness of their arabesques and their bright yellow and apple green palette (V. Porter, Islamic Tiles, London, 2004, p.102).