Pendant with Fishes and Amulets - Catalogue Entry
The Ottoman Empire ruled from 1299 to 1922, in this time they built lavish buildings and adorned luxurious jewelry. Gold was a particularly important material that symbolizes luxury and wealth. In particular, the Ottoman Sultan and his wives owned many pieces of gold jewelry to show off their wealth and power. Different types and styles of jewelry have different meanings and are intended to be worn in different ways. The Topkapi Palace, the home of the Sultan and his wives, housed many important artifacts from other empires that they conquered as well as ornate and beautiful jewelry, weapons, and textiles. The Topkapi Palace houses the epitome of luxury, any items found inside the walls of the Palace are sure to be not only expensive but significant to the empire’s royalty.
Bridal jewelry was very common for wealthy women to wear and to offer as their dowry. The Pendant with Fishes and Amulets is a golden pendant adorned with fish charms and amulets. Both fish and amulets are symbols of fertility and are given to women on their wedding day to promise them a comfortable pregnancy and a happy and healthy child.[1] Fish may have been chosen to represent fertility due to their high fecundity, and by dressing the bride with fish there was hope that more royal offspring would be produced in the near future. In the 18th- century the most important thing a woman could do was to have many children, in particular male children to strengthen the bloodline of the Sultan. If a woman was infertile, they were useless to the empire, as they did not hold any important roles and were mostly just a baby machine to satisfy the royal bloodline. Women have a lower status than men and were subjected to male supervision, a man was allowed to marry four women and have as many female slaves as he pleased, and the offspring from all his wives and slaves belong to the man of the house, not the mother who bore the child.[2] However, women were not allowed to marry men who had an inferior status to them, but the same was not true for men who could marry whomever they please.[3] When deciding whom the princesses be married off to, they selected loyal men who were educated by the finest schools.[4] Although these men were hand-picked for the princess, the children of the son-in-law were not recognized as part of the royal bloodline, they were considered family socially but not on paper, sons of sons count but not sons of daughters.[5] Marriage was very important in Ottoman culture, similar to the circumcision ceremonies, weddings celebrated the strength of the empire.
Grand public weddings were held in the Hippodrome in the early 18th century, this is the same place where the Sultan would make very few but very special public appearances.[6] These weddings were very luxurious and were public spectacles to increase public appreciation for their rulers and to boast about the money and luxury of the empire. However, during the second half of the 18th century, there was a change to more private ceremonies and receptions for royal weddings. Although these royal marriages were still important, the switch to private ceremonies made them even more luxurious and mysterious. Commoners did not have access to the weddings, the mystery of what could be going on behind palace walls grew within the community and made the weddings even more desirable and luxurious. The image of the empire being strong and magnificent was very much at the top of the priority for the Ottoman Empire. This could be why royal women were dressed so luxuriously, even though they did not hold any important roles besides bearing children. In marriage, the husband would trade something expensive called the mahr, which was likely jewelry or money, with his new wife in exchange for ownership of her sex organs.[7] Money is how women were controlled and owned, they did not even own their own body parts or their offspring, but they did own a luxurious shiny object, but to those in the community of lower status, this was desirable and hoped for, regardless if they would have their own bodily autonomy. Another popular form of marriage payment in the Ottoman tradition is the bride’s dowry that is held in reserve for her husband, called the jihaz, which was a gift from the bride’s father to the husband-to-be and was worn on the day of the wedding.[8] The pendant with fishes and amulets was likely part of a jihaz arrangement where the pendant served to protect the bride but to also be a financial reserve for her husband.
Wealthy women had an important role in the Ottoman Empire, especially the Sultan’s mother, daughters, and wives, and this was to make babies and expand the Ottoman bloodline. Men were considered powerful and most jewelry was made to be worn by a man, the most beautiful and expensive stones adorned men’s jewelry and arms.[9] Since women’s jewelry was less common and in general less extravagant, when women wore extravagant jewelry or were gifted jewelry it was for a special occasion and very luxurious. Therefore, the most lavish item a woman owned was more than likely her wedding jewelry, which also served as her dowry. The royal weddings were intended to honor the princess, and even though she will no longer technically be a part of the royal family, there were many lavish gifts and ornate decorations to honor and celebrate the princess.[10] A major part of the royal weddings was the bride’s apparel. The pendant with coins, pictured to the right, is very similar to the pendant with fishes and amulets and was also likely a piece of a bride’s headdress. The pendant is also from Turkey in the 18th century and was likely used for the same purpose. The coins on the pendant have the tughra of the Ottoman Sultan Selim III, which was intended as a symbol of luck and protection similar to the fish and amulet charms.[11] Bridal jewelry was intended to protect the bride and to encourage an easy childbirth and high fertility to produce more children to serve the Sultan. This was done through symbols like the coins and fish, as well as colors like turquoise and red stones. This phenomenon can be observed with the bridal pendant and ring pictured to the right. Both the pendant and the ring are also from 18th-century Turkey and were used as bridal jewelry. The pendant has a large red stone in the center, which represents the blood of childbirth and the bloodline of the empire, and the surrounding turquoise stones were thought to be a protective symbol.[12] Likewise, the ring pictured to the right, is also made of gold with red and turquoise stones and was worn as a part of a luxurious bridal outfit. Protection of the bride was very important to Ottoman culture, not only to ensure healthy babies but to suggest that the Ottoman’s had a strong bloodline that could be carried on for generations.
The Ottoman Empire wanted to be viewed as the epitome of luxury and power. The Topkapi Palace housed many fine jewels, porcelain, exquisite textiles, ornate decorations, and expensive jewelry. These riches rarely left the palace except for in the case of the princess’ dowry, this emphasized the juxtaposition between the Sultan’s palace and the rest of the empire.[13] The staging of royal weddings and grand public displays of bridal gifts enhanced the public desire for luxury items.[14] The luxurious Topkapi Palace grew in popularity, and it served to represent the opulence and might of the Ottoman Empire. The glitz and glamour of the Ottoman princess’ jewelry and dress emphasize their value to the empire, as essential property and to be something to talk about, the princesses were beloved regardless of their lack of power. Bridal jewelry was an important aspect to Ottoman culture, it served to protect the bride in childbirth as well as to show off her status in the empire.
[1] “Pendant with Fishes and Amulets, Part of a set,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/881762?deptids=14&what=Gold&ft=*&offset=0&rpp=40&pos=30
[2]Colin Imber, “Women, Marriage, and Prosperity,” in Women in the Ottoman Empire: Middle Eastern women in the early modern era, 82.
[3] Imber, “Women, Marriage, and Prosperity,” 87.
[4] Suleyman Inan, “Political Marriage: the Sons in Law of the Ottoman Dynasty in the Late Ottoman State,”Middle Eastern Studies 50, no. 1, 63.
[5] Inan, “Political Marriage,” 63.
[6] Tulay Artan, “Royal Weddings and the Grand Vizirate,” in Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires, 384.
[7] Imber, “Women, Marriage, and Prosperity,” 87.
[8] Imber, “Women, Marriage, and Prosperity,” 88-89.
[9] Marylin Jenkins and Manuel Keene, “Late Medieval Jewelry,” in Islamic Jewelry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 106.
[10] Inan, “Political Marriage,” 64.
[11] “Pendant with Coins, one of a pair,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/881765?deptids=14&when=A.D.+1600-1800&where=Turkey&what=Jewelry&ft=*&offset=0&rpp=40&pos=9
[12] “Pendant,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/881757?deptids=14&when=A.D.+1600-1800&where=Turkey&what=Jewelry&ft=*&offset=0&rpp=40&pos=8
[13] Beyza Uzan and Nina Macaraig, “Scenting the imperial residence: objects from the Topkapı Palace Museum collections,” The Senses and Society 17, no. 1, 78.
[14] Tulay Artan, “Eighteenth Century Ottoman Princesses as Collectors: Chinese and European Porcelains in the Topkapi Palace Museum,” Ars Orientalis 39, no. 1, 124.
Works Cited
Artan, Tulay. “Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Princesses as Collectors : Chinese and European Porcelains in the Topkapı Palace Museum.” Ars Orientalis (2010) 39.
Artan, Tulay. “Royal Weddings and the Grand Vezirate: Institutional and Symbolic Change in the Early Eighteenth Century.” Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires, (2011): 339–99.
İnan, Süleyman. “Political Marriage: The Sons-in-Law of the Ottoman Dynasty in the Late Ottoman State.” Middle Eastern Studies 50, no. 1 (2014): 61–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2013.849698.
Jenkins, Marilyn, and Manuel Keene. Islamic Jewelry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982.
“Pendant with Coins, One of a Pair.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/881765?deptids=14&%3Bwhen=A.D.%2B1600-1800&%3Bwhere=Turkey&%3Bwhat=Jewelry&%3Bft=%2A&%3Boffset=0&%3Brpp=40&%3Bpos=9.
“Pendant with Fishes and Amulets, Part of a Set.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/881762?deptids=14&%3Bwhat=Gold&%3Bft=%2A&%3Boffset=0&%3Brpp=40&%3Bpos=30.
“Pendant.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/881757?deptids=14&%3Bwhen=A.D.%2B1600-1800&%3Bwhere=Turkey&%3Bwhat=Jewelry&%3Bft=%2A&%3Boffset=0&%3Brpp=40&%3Bpos=8.
Uzun, Beyza, and Nina Macaraig. “Scenting the Imperial Residence: Objects from the Topkapı Palace Museum Collections.” The Senses and Society 17, no. 1 (2022): 68–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/17458927.2021.2020613.
Zilfi, Madeline C., and Colin Imber. “Women, Marriage, and Prosperity.” Essay. In Women in the Ottoman Empire: Middle Eastern Woman in the Early Modern Era, 82–89. Leiden: Brill, 1997.