HISTORY OF TURKISH EBRU

The purpose of this page is not to give an academic overview of the history of Turkish Ebru but to briefly present the personalities who made important contribution to our ebru tradition . 

It is not possible to tell exactly when people started painting  papers using the techniques of ebru which is one of the most important of paper decorating arts. Although it is possible to find ebru papers in the bindings of centuries old books, these cannot be used to date ebru papers as these books may be restored years after they have been written and ebru papers on their bindings may have been used during a later repair. Only ebru papers with a written date on them can be used as evidence for the age of that ebru paper.  Besides the oldest ebru papers dated in this manner are the papers used in Arifi's "Guy-i Cevgan" in the Museum of Topkapi Palace collection which is dated to 1539, two papers in the Library of Istanbul University which were used for two calligraphies of Mir Ali of Herat which are dated to 1539, a paper used for Maliki Deylemi's calligraphies from Ugur Derman's Collection  which is dated to 1554 and three papers used in one of the copies of Fuzuli's book, "Hadikat-us sueda" (Garden of Happiness) which are dated to 1595 can be used as evidence for the history of Turkish ebru. The artists who made the first three ebrus are unknown whereas in the opening page of Fuzuli's book, after the name of the book, "Hadikat-us sueda" in red ink, "Ma Sebek Mehmet Ebrisi" (with ebru of Sebek Mehmet) is written.Three ebru papers with pale colours are used inside  the book and on the last page the date is given as "1004" (1595 ).From the sentence on the first page, we learn that the name of the marbler who has been mentioned as "Sebek" in the booklet "Tertib-i Risale-i Ebri" is Mehmet and  the papers used in this book are made by this marbler. The last page indicates the date that the book has been written. 

We don't have the chance of identifying all of our marblers by name since ebru papers haven't been signed during our history of ebru. The following are the  marblers  who made important contribution to our ebru tradition as mentioned previously.

TRADITION

The Turkish art of ebru which is known to be practiced in Istanbul for more than five hundred years and known as "Turkish paper"  for centuries in the western world certainly has a tradition which is passed from generation to generation by a master and apprentice relationship. The most important evidence that ebru is a Turkish art with origins from Central Asia is its terminology in the Europen languages. The words "battal", "tarakli", get-gel", kumlu" etc. are all used to mean the same thing in almost all countries  where ebru is practiced.

Ebru is an art which cannot be learnt by reading or listening as all other Ottoman Arts. It is extremely difficult as regards to its performance and effected by various parameters which are outside the control of a beginner. In order to overcome all these difficulties and guide the novice marbler to understand what he/she is doing so that technically perfect results are achieved, the guidance of a master is needed. It is seen that there is no marbler without a master and the tradition is passed from generation to generation by a master and apprentice relationship if our history of ebru is examined. Ebru learnt without a master has no relation with our tradition.

One of the most important characteristics of our tradition is the use of  natural earth pigments which belong to the chemical family of metal-oxides and other natural dyeing material all of which are not chemically soluble in water. The primary reason for using earth pigments is that the marblers lived centuries ago had no choice of making dyes other than the nature itself. Later marblers used dyes of the same origin to imitate their predecessors, to continue the tradition in terms of colour and appearance and to make the marbled papers permanent. It will be useful to clarify what is meant by "permanent". During production of ready to use, off the shelf fabricated dyes, various acids and casein are added and by experience, it has been found that these acids burn the paper hence the binding or the calligraphy where ebru is used.

In the restoration of centuries old books, ebru papers made with dyes containing acids can never be used because of the acids in the dyes. Another important reason for using natural earth pigments is that their resistance to light is perfect and their colours never fade. The colours seem to be faded in old ebru papers because the technique then wasn't as perfect as today. 

The nature offers so many colours which are under the sun for millions of years bu never faded. Therefore all kind of natural dying material which is not fading in light, not containing acids and not soluble in water have been used and can be used in traditional Turkish ebru.

Another important characteristic of traditional Turkish ebru is that the papers used are never treated with alum or anything else and the ebru paper is stripped off the marbling tray such that  no unnecessary size is left on the paper. Ready to use gouache, acrylic or natural whatever dye is used, if the balance between the thickness of the liquid and the amount of water and ox-gall in the dyes is properly achieved, the quality of the resulting ebru is always the same whether the paper is treated with alum or not. The paper has to be washed off to clean the remaining size on the paper if the paper is treated with alum prior to marbling. This results in a huge amount of waste of size. Treating the paper with alum is a method used by inexperienced marblers to get rid of the need of accurately adjusting the amount of water and ox-gall in the dyes. For the reasons given above, the ebru paper is never treated with alum in traditional Turkish ebru.

Another characteristic of traditional Turkish ebru is the designes created. Turkey , ebru is traditionally used in bookbinding and calligraphy. Turkish ebru artists have produced "hatip ebrusu", kumlu ebru", koltuk ebrusu" and "battal ebru" for calligraphers and bookbinders. For the marblers of the nations which don't have an art of calligraphy like us, producing "hatip ebrusu", kumlu ebru" and "koltuk ebrusu"  or flower designs to be used in bookbinding which are admired by the marblers who use other techniques may not mean anything but in order to make Turkish calligraphers and bookbinders able to perform their arts in accordance with our tradition, producing the abovementioned ebru types is also a tradition of Turkish art of ebru.

One other important characteristic of our tradition is related with the shapes. Turkish ebru artist makes his/her own brushes using horse hair. Due to the arrangement of the hair around the rose stick and the curled shape caused by leaving the brush in the dye cup, a special "battal" shape is created on the size. 

This cannot be done with other brushes. Therefore using hand made horse hair brushes is a tradition of Turkish ebru.

THE TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUE

THE DYES

In traditional Turkish Ebru, all kinds of natural dying material which is not fading in light, not containing acids and not soluble in water are used.

The main colours used in Traditional Turkish Ebru are given below ;

All the dyes except Camlıca Soil, Dark Blue and Blue are obtained from hardware dealers whereas Dark Blue and Blue are obtained from herbal shops.  

Various natural colours and their shades are obtained by mixing the above colours in different ratios. 

CAMLICA SOIL    Red soil found in Camlıca Hill of Istanbul.  It gives a tobacco colour when ground.

WHITE              White lead. Pure white lead is used to make white colour. The oily one is added to the neftli (containing turpentine) dyes

BLACK               Lampblack. It cannot be used alone since it has very little mass and must be mixed with Camlıca soil.

YELLOW                Inorganic pigment. Oxide yellow.

RED OCHRE        Inorganic pigment.Oxide red . Red ochre.

BROWN              Inorganic pigment.Oxide brown . There are various shades.

RED                  Organic pigment red. The inorganic pigment red which is obtained by oxidizing cadmium is highly poisonous.

DARK BLUE       Indigo from Lahore in Pakistan. It is like stone but quite brittle. It is an organic dye. Ground into powder. It is a very powerful dye.

BLUE                  Indigo. 

Before adjusting the water and ox-gall in the dyes, the thickness of the size must have been adjusted as described in the following paragraph. There is no exact recipe for the amount of water and ox-gall to be added to the dyes. In order to learn this one must watch a master. 

KITRE ( GUM TRAGACANTH )

Used to increase the density of  water and provides stickiness. White and clean kitre and especially the one which is sold as "fiyor kitre" in herbal shops is preferred. Kitre from different areas of Turkey results in different densities therefore there is not an exact figure for how much kitre must be dissolved in how much water. Every marbler buys enough kitre for one year when fresh kitre arrives in herbal shops in autumn and after a couple of trial and errors finds out the correct ratio. The density of kitre is decided by pulling a stick of approximately pencil thickness and checking the movement of the size. For correct density, the size must remain steady when the stick is taken out. If the size moves forwards this means the thickness of the size  is less than what it should be and if it moves backwards, it is more. Approximately 45-50 grams of kitre depending on the density it provides is added to 8 litres of water and left overnight. This is stirred from time to time to fasten the dissolving time. 3-4 days later, the size is filtered through a bag made of cloth and poured into the marbling tray.

For more than ten years, kitre which is very cheap but not suitable for ebru is being imported from Iran hence the production of kitre by local means is getting smaller everyday. Therefore, instead of kitre, any kind of substance which increases the thickness of water like sahlep ( root of Orchis Mascula ), imported sahlep (a synthetic substitue for sahlep which is very expensive), carrageenan moss or methyl cellulose can be used. The density of any one of these substitutes is adjusted in the same way as kitre. However it must be noted that surface tensions of various substances are quite different hence they result in differenet ox-gall ratios in the dyes although their thicknesses are made equal.

OX-GALL

In order to be able to float the dyes on the surface of the size, ox-gall which contain surface active acids is added to them. Ox-gall obtained from slaughterhouse is put in a metal cup which is placed in another cup containing boiling water. The ox-gall is left in boiling water for approximately 20 minutes and blood and other organic material on the surface is taken off. It can be used after cooled down to room temperature.

TRAY

Made of galvanized steel. On the long edge which is close to the marbler, a cylinder with a diameter of 2-3 mm. is welded to prevent the ebru to be spoiled when being stripped off the tray. Dimensions of the tray are determined by the dimensions of the paper to be marbled. The height is normally 5-6 cm. The shorter edge is made equal to the shorter side of the paper and the longer edge is made approximately half a centimeter longer than the paper's long side.

PAPER

First quality acid-free paper is preferred. Paper gets weak when it is wet therefore it must be thick or strong enough to let the marbler to take it off the tray. The suitable thickness is 80-90 gr. In Turkish ebru TRADITION, the paper is never treated.

BRUSHES           

Turkish ebru artist makes his/her brushes himself/herself. The brushes are made by fixing the horse hair around a stick.  When tieing the hairs no knots are used. Due to the arrangement of the hair around the stick and the curled shape caused by leaving  the brush in the dye cup, a special "battal" shape is created on the size. This cannot be done with other brushes.  

NEFT ( TURPENTINE )

Used for making "neftli ebru".  Natural turpentine is preferred. The turpentine is added drop by drop to the dye which is to be used for "neftli ebru" until the desired result is achieved. The brush used for the colour which contains turpentine is not used for a plain colour until cleaned properly.

COMBS 

Every marbler must make his/her own combs with various tooth spacings. The combs are made by fixing thin wires or needles on a piece of wood. The length of the wood is made a little bit shorter than the length or the width of the tray. 

NEEDLES 

For dropping dyes on the size or for making hatip or flower figures one should have needles with different thicknesses.

HOW TO MAKE EBRU

The density of kitre or equivalent in the marbling tray is adjusted as explained above. Before starting, the floating ability of every dye is checked because one of the two parameters which effect the floating ability, the ox-gall is an organic material and looses its strength by time whereas the thickness of kitre which is also an organic material either increases due to further dissolving or decreases due to ageing. There is not a receipe for adjusting the amount of water and ox-gall in the dyes although this is very important. This can only by

learnt by watching a master. 

BATTAL EBRU   

Made by sprinkling dyes using brushes over the size. The design on the size resembles marble. Although it is the simplest form of ebru in terms of the process, it is the most difficult if one considers the result i.e. the marble-like pattern. All the ebrus are started with "battal" except "kumlu". The battal ebru is an indicator of proficiency of a marbler because if the correct balance between the thickness of the size and the amount of ox-gall and water in the dyes cannot be reached, either the battal doesn't resemble marble or the dyes are removed from the surface of the paper when it is stripped off the tray. Western marblers treat their papers with alum prior to marbling in order to get rid of this problem.  Battal ebru is used around calligraphy and inside the bindings of books.

SOMAKI EBRU 

It is a battal ebru but made by squeezing the last colour before sprinkling. Resembles the marble of Somaki region of Turkey. Somaki ebru is used around calligraphy and inside the bindings of books.

NEFTLI BATTAL 

Made by selecting the last colour of a battal ebru from a colour  in which turpentine is added. Neftli ebru is used around calligraphy and inside the bindings of books.

SERPMELI BATTAL   

It is a battal ebru on which Camlıca toprağı or other light colours sprinkled in little spots.  Serpmeli battal is used around calligraphy and inside the bindings of books.

GEL-GIT EBRUSU 

The battal ebru is stirred in directions parallel to the edges of the tray in a back and forth manner.Used around calligraphy.

SAL EBRUSU   

Gel-git is stirred in a random manner. Sal ebrusu is used around calligraphy and inside the bindings of books.

TARAKLI EBRU  

A comb is applied on a gelgit ebrusu in the direction perpendicular to the last movement in gel-git. If desired, may be stirred in a random manner. Used for inner borders around calligraphy.

ZEMIN EBRUSU

The same dye is divided into three jars one containing more ox-gall than the other and turpentine is added to the third jar. A battal ebru is made using these dyes. A light colour like Camlıca toprağı, gray or light blue can be used instead of the dye which contain turpentine. This is an ebru on which Hatip and flower figures are made.    

HATIP EBRUSU  

First a zemin ebrusu is made. For a tray with dimensions 35x50 cm., 20 drops of the same dye are dropped on the size in equal distances such that there are 5 along the length and 4 along the width of the tray. A second colour is dropped onto the first drops. The number of colours dropped concentrically may be increased as desired. These concentric circles are shaped using a needle. The different figures made in this manner are called yurek ( heart ), tarakli yurek ( combed heart ), Cark-ı felek, yonca ( clover ), yıldız ( star ) etc. Hatip ebrusu is used around calligraphy, inside the bindings of books and in  koltuk spaces of calligraphies.

CICEKLI EBRU 

Green dye is dropped on a zemin zemin ebrusu and shaped into the stems and leaves of flowers using a needle of suitable thickness. The dye of the flower colour is dropped at the tips of the stems and these are shaped into flowers using needles. Two identical flowers are made if the ebru is to be used inside the binding of a book. Very beautiful tulips, daisies, poppies, carnations, violets and hyacinths have been made by Necmeddin Okyay and Mustafa Düzgünman.

KOLTUK EBRUSU  

Very small flowers are made instead of Hatip figures in Hatip ebrusu. Used in koltuk spaces of calligraphies.    

KUMLU EBRU  

Towards the end of kitre, a dye which is usually Lahor Cividi with water and ox-gall less than normal is dropped to the same point ( or points ) either at the center or at one edge of the tray such that the surface is completely filled with dye. The dye cracks and resembles sand. Sometimes the cracks are in a shape of "V". Such an ebru is called kilcikli ebru ( fishbone ebru ). Used for the inner borders of calligraphies.

BULBUL YUVASI   

On a battal ebru with gradually smaller drops, a needle is applied such that a spiral is made for every hatip figure in hatip ebrusu. Bulbulyuvası ( Bird's nest ), is used as outer border around calligraphies.

HAFIF EBRU       

It is a şal ebrusu with dyes which contain water and ox-gall more than normal. Made for calligraphers.

CALLIGRAPHY with EBRU

The inventor of calligraphy with ebru is Necmeddin OKYAY. At the beginning, he used to prepare the stencil of the calligraphy and glue it on the paper using gum Arabic. Later he realized that the places on the paper which has gum Arabic on do not accept dyes and started to write with gum Arabic instead of ink as he was one of the leading calligraphers of his time. The most famous of the calligraphies in the Turkish ebru history made using this technique is the ta'lik Lafza-i Celal ( name of God ). 

The best method of producing calligraphy with ebru for the marbler who is not a calligrapher is to prepare the stencil of the calligraphy and glue it on the paper with a weak adeshive. The stencil of  KULLU MEN  `ALEYHA FAN of Hamid AYTAC which can be seen in the GALLERY is given below.

MINIATURE with EBRU

The miniature with ebru whose examples are seen in the history of ebru is also made using the stencil technique. A new stencil is prepared for every area to be marbled.

PICTURES