Princely doodling in the 15th century

In a book recently published, through sketches and drawings, one catches a glimpse into the mind of a young Fatih Sultan Mehmed as a schoolboy with big dreams Doodling has been around for centuries, maybe millennia; at its simplest, it is defined as sketching aimlessly or mindlessly. In spite of this "art" form, there does not seem to be an equivalent word in Turkish, just a definition. So that is why people were astonished when several doodles were released to the public in Turkey in the mid-20th century as the work of Prince Mehmed (1432-1481), the son of Sultan Murad II who later replaced his father on the throne and became known as Fatih Sultan Mehmed.

A page from S. Ünver's book, Fatih'in Defteri.

Prince Mehmed with his father Sultan Murad II.

The doodles are line drawings, soot and glue ink on high-quality paper. It has 180 pages and is 21.5 x 28.5 cm. Apparently, it was originally in loose-leaf form with a red leather binding that was added during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (r. 1876-1909). In the course of the binding process, some pages were cut short.

The subjects are varied, although the ones that first catch the eye are the sketches of men's heads. They include Muslim and non-Muslim men, but no women. Each is an individual - one with a beard and turban, a second with a cap, another with ears that stick out and so on. No one knows who these men were, although there is some speculation that some of them were the foreigners at court.

The Perso-Arabic Ottoman script and the Greek alphabet are reproduced as if the writer were intending to practice them or had written them down in order to show off his mastery. Fatih Sultan Mehmed is known to have spoken Turkish and Greek and had a thorough...