SULTAN SELIM I’S ACCESSION TO THE THRONE, SCHOOL OF NAKKASH OSMAN, TURKEY, OTTOMAN, 16TH CENTURY |

gouache heightened with gold on paper, the reverse with 15 lines of text in black naskh

In generally good condition, the painting is cropped and must have been bigger, losses to the paint, stains and abrasion, as viewed.
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To the skilled eye, this scene immediately recalls that represented in the first volume of the Hünername now in the Topkapi Library (inv.no.H1523), which depicts the accession to the throne by Sultan Selim I in 1512 AD. The Hünername is a history of the Ottoman sultans, composed at the end of the sixteenth century. Divided in two volumes, they are illustrated with more than eighty-nine paintings, all by Nakkaş Osman and his atelier at the Ottoman court. The similarities between the two scenes are striking, and combined with the high quality execution of the current painting, it is probable to suppose that our painter used Nakkash Osman's version as a model.

Active during the last quarter of the sixteenth century, Nakkaş Osman was a court painter who illustrated several manuscripts, from the Shahnameh by Firdausi (one of his earliest) to the Siyar-i nabi.

The text on the reverse of the painting discusses Selim’s appointment and dismissal of Yunus Pasha as governor of Egypt following the Ottoman conquest in 1517 and the sultan’s decision to have the Pasha executed en route to Syria. For these events, see Michael Winter, 'The Ottoman occupation', pp.504-5, in Carl F. Petry (ed.), The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume I: Islamic Egypt, 640-1517, Cambridge, 2008, pp.490-516. 

The leaf probably comes from one of the numerous Selimnames glorifying the events of the reign of Selim I. For a discussion of this literary corpus, see H. Erdem Cipa, The Making of Selim. Succession, Legitimacy, and Memory in the Early Modern Ottoman World, Bloomington, 2017, pp.140-4.