THE REPRESENTATION OF THE SELJUK AND OTTOMAN PAST IN BRITISH MUSEUMS: A COMPARATIVE CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DISPLAYS AND LABELS

Efeoğlu N.

Uluslararası Orta Doğu’da Din ve Medeniyet Sempozyumu, Konya, Türkiye, 22 - 24 Ekim 2021, ss.28, (Özet Bildiri)

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
  • Basıldığı Şehir: Konya
  • Basıldığı Ülke: Türkiye
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.28
  • Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Museums contain and represent the historical and cultural heritage of societies. In this respect, museums support researchers and provide evidence of historical facts. In other words, museums are primary sources for researchers in understanding cultures and studying their heritage. Therefore, it is important to conduct studies and projects in which museum collections are carefully examined. In the scope of this paper, the collections and displays of three British museums (The British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Museum of Scotland) have been analysed. The features that distinguish these three museums from the others are that they have extensive collections of art of the Islamic lands. A detailed study on Seljuk and Ottoman artefacts in these museums would constitute an important contribution to research on Islamic art and museum studies and allow a comparison to be made in how these artefacts are displayed and interpreted. The main overarching goal is to demonstrate the representation of the Seljuk and Ottoman past in British museums through analysing the museum displays and labels in the three chosen museums. In this paper, the permanent displays of Seljuk and Ottoman materials in three museums (the BM, the V&A, the NMS) is evaluated. To achieve this goal, galleries containing Seljuk and Ottoman artefacts were first identified through the online collections of museums. Afterwards, detailed field research was carried out in three museums and the Seljuk and Ottoman artefacts on display were identified, and these objects and their labels were photographed. Interviews were conducted with museum officials and relevant curators to ask questions that were essential to be known within the scope of the research and that emerged from the observation studies during field trips. As a result, in this paper, Seljuk and Ottoman artefacts exhibited in three British museums have been evaluated in terms of their number, location in the museum, material types, geographical and temporal origins. In addition, information panels and object labels about Seljuk and Ottoman artefacts, and locations and designs of the galleries containing these materials were also included in the evaluation.