WHAT IS EBRU?
Ebru Art – The Turkish Paper
Murat Özdemir | November 16, 2011
Akkase Ebru by Alpaslan Baboglu - Calligraphy by Osman Özcay, 2004
Video: https://av.tib.eu/media/23284
Ebru refers to the art of marbling or painting on water. It is considered one of the defining arts of the golden age of the Ottoman Empire. Various color mixtures are applied onto a prepared tray (“tekne”) filled with thickened water (“kitre”) and manipulated into ornaments, calligraphy, floral patterns, or other designs using special brushes made of rosewood and horsehair.
A sheet of paper is then pressed onto the painted image until the colors are absorbed. The final artwork is dried and smoothed. The exact origins of Ebru art remain largely unknown. The earliest historically verified example is dated to 1519. However, it is believed that Turkish Ebru had already reached its peak by this time, suggesting that its origins may date back to the 8th or 9th century.
The Persian term “ebri” roughly translates to “heavenly color.” Consequently, Ebru artists were called “ebrizen” until the 20th century. Some masters believe the term originates from “abru,” meaning “water surface.” However, this theory is largely refuted in the historical treatise “Tertib-i Risale-i Ebri” from 1608. In the West, Ebru is referred to as “Turkish Paper” or “Turkish Marbled Paper,” while in the Arabic world, it is known as “varaku’l-mücezza” (veined paper). Some historians suggest that the origins of Ebru trace back to the Central Asian region of Turkestan. Turkish masters specifically point to Bukhara, the former center of Islam in present-day Uzbekistan.
The declining popularity of Ebru art was influenced by the lost wars during the empire’s decline and the associated economic and cultural concessions made to victorious powers. During Sultan Mehmet II's reign in the 15th century, there were still 500 artists working in the palace; by the end of the Ottoman Empire, this number had dwindled to only 40. During this period, Ebru painting spread to European countries such as France, Spain, and Italy, where it was adopted into European artistic traditions as “Turkish Paper.”
Ebru painting is a complex and challenging art form that requires experience and patience. It is said that mastering it allows an artist to enter a state of religious ecstasy similar to the whirling dervishes, achieving a perfect harmony of peace and spiritual enlightenment. Classical Ebru artists approach each painting with great reverence, preparing themselves with Islamic rituals and prayers:
In the name of Allah, the Almighty and All-Knowing! With your infinite power, with your hidden blessings in the patterns of creation, protect this ignorant one, who cannot even interpret the patterns forming in this tray, from his own ego! Protect me from my desire to equate myself with you and from doubting your eternal existence, O Exalted One! Bless the poor with the gift of silence! Mark my work before the tray with the Dhikr (prayer ritual) and accept it as a sign of my servitude! Grant me strength!