Turks: a Journey of a Thousand Years, 600-1600

Abstract

‘Turks’ (Royal Academy, 2005) is presumably based on the same principle as the Royal Academy's spectacular exhibition, ‘Aztecs’ (2002–3), which introduced an entire civilization through its sculptures of gods and instruments of ritual practices. But it cannot achieve the same powerful impression because there are too many disparate objects identified as Turkic. Taking 600 AD as its starting point means that the Far Eastern features of things Turkic are very prominent, including much art regularly classed as ‘Chinese’. Ending at 1600 AD permits the exhibition to conclude with Süleyman the Magnificent, as if everything had been working up towards this highpoint. But it is almost impossible to sustain a direct link between the Asian Turkic groups and the Ottomans. Indeed, the historical chronology promised on page 38 of the lavishly-illustrated catalogue turns out to be blank – there is no attempt to create a time-line connecting the earliest with the latest so-called Turks.