Istruzione coranica
1890.
Step into a quiet corner of an Ottoman madrasa, where a scholar in a flowing green robe gestures emphatically while teaching the Quran to a seated student. The student, lost in thought with his hand on his chin, seems to be absorbing every word against a backdrop of stunning blue Iznik tiles. Osman Hamdi Bey, a fascinating Ottoman polymath who founded Istanbul's first archaeology museum, painted this scene with incredible precision. Unlike many Western 'Orientalist' painters who imagined the East from afar, Hamdi Bey was depicting his own culture using the rigorous academic techniques he learned in Paris, making this a genuine insider's view of 19th-century life.
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