About Tugra

Ottoman Sultan Tugras

Readings of Tugras

Text of Tugras

Marvellous Tugra

Most Famous Tugra

Own a Tugra

Our Different Studies

Write to Us

 TUGRA

A Tugra (or tughra) is an outstanding calligraphic  imperial design, monogram or a kind of signature of the Ottoman Sultans. It bears the names of the sultan and his father and  the prayer  “ever victorious” in most of them. For example: the tugra content of Suleyman the Magnificient is “Suleyman shah bin Selim shah han el-muzaffer daima”. A tugra was not written by the sultans personally, but personnel called nisanci, tughrakesh or tughranuvis were in charge of doing this work. Also tugras were carved on some sultan’s seal. The earliest Ottoman tugra belongs to 2nd Ottoman Sultan Orhan Gazi.
A tugra belonging to first Ottoman Sultan Osman Gazi has not been encountered yet to this date. So there were 36 Ottoman Sultans but 35 sultan tugras. The tugras were used on various places and objects throughout Ottoman Empire.
It became a form of Ottoman-Arabic calligraphy and after completing its official role, became the possession of history (1).
Today it is kept alive by calligraphers for artistic purposes. Initially tugras were used on official documents (e.g. fermans: order of sultan) to give formality, but later on they are seen on coins, flags, stamps, official monuments, official buildings, ships, mosques and palaces as a symbol of sovereignty.
The tugra, on it’s own, It’s peculiar to the Turks. The form of the tugra is peculiar to itself.  Neither is anything similar to the tugra, nor is the tugra similar to anything else... While preserving the form of the familiar tugra; to reconcile the  name of the sultan with this form is a difficult art. To view the evolution of tugras  with repeating and changing parts from Orhan Gazi’s to Sultan Vahideddin is very interesting. As a symbol the tugras are seen at the top of documents not at the end... (2).
Although the word “tugra” comes from earlier times than Ottomans, and similars were used in previous Turkish states, Ottoman tugras has no common sites with formers other than name similarity. The writing style of the words “Orhan” and “Osman” in the tugra of the second Ottoman Sultan Orhan Gazi formed the skeleton for subsequent tugras.
After the tugras evolved as a monogram, the calligraphers entered the artistic dimension and tried to write better and better tugras. Other than tugras for sultans, verses from the Holy Quran, hadiths, prayers and the names of individuals etc. were written in the form of artistic tugra pictures.
After acceptance of the  tugra of a sultan, its content and form was static throughout his sultanate. Of course there were small differences between tugras from one hand to another. Finding the owner of the tugra on an official Ottoman document is very helpful in determining the approximate date of the document. So much so that nuances within a sultan’s own tugra over time can often provide a date within a particular reign.
Reading Ottoman sultan tugras became possible with gathering all tugras available. By the way, extensive work by Suha Umur is worth of appreciation and was an excellent guide in our work. Hereby, we mention him with our best wishes.

PARTS of a TUGRA

1-Stand: The base of the tugra that includes the main text.

2-Eggs: (Beyze; Arabic: egg): Two ellipsoid curves on the left side of tugra.

3-Tughs: Three extensions at the upper part, like the letter �elif� in Arabic. They are not always the letter �elif�. Sometimes they are not a letter. Pennant like curves beside  the tughs are called �zulfe� (Arabic: fringe).

4-Arms: two parallel arms starting from the eggs and running to the right side of the tugra.

In some tugras the pseudonym of the sultan may be seen at the upper right area.

Anonymously three tughs represents the sovereignity of Ottoman Empire over three continents and small and big eggs represent sovereignity over Black and Mediterranean sea.

Two eggs (Beyze) and three tughs are found in an evolved tugra. If the text content of the tugra does not provide these needs, additional unrelated figures may be included in some tugras. These are used to keep the classical form of the tugra and to provide similarity with earlier examples. They have no meaning but are for artistic effect to complete the form.

Reference:

 1-Umur S. Osmanl� Padi�ah Tu�ralar�. Cem Yay�nevi. �stanbul,1980.

2-Boydas N. Osmanl� Tu�ralar�na Ele�tiri A��s�ndan Bir Bak��.

www.tugra.org 2002