Tulipomanis:si penggila tulip

Bunga tulip memang cantik dan bermacam -macam warna. Kat bawah ni ada gambar -gambar tulip semasa sesi berjalan ke Istanbul pada  April lepas.Jom jamu,cuci dan nikmati kecantikan tulip.

  Di era Uthmaniyyah ada era  di panggil Lale Devri atau dalam Bahasa Melayu di terjemah sebagai Era Tulip.Di beberapa buah negara Tulip merupakan bunga rasmi.Kalau tak salah,Iran,Belanda  dan Turki.Kalau  ada kesalahan fakta,sila betulkan ye.

    Tulip atau lale dalam bahasa Turki juga  di kenali Laleh dalam bahasa Parsi.Katanya asal perkataan laleh itu dari rupa  tulip yang seakan serban.Jadi kata akar  Parsinya ialah dulben.Kalau Latin dikenali sebagai tulipa.

"From Sultans of the Ottoman Empire and Dutch Merchants of the Golden Age, to gardeners today, the tulip has captivated people around the world for centuries. This fascinating flower has inspired artists and brought great wealth and even economic ruin to people who have fallen under its spell."

  Kata-kata ini  di salin dari Amsterdam Tulip Museum,bagi menggambarkan Tulip sepanjang zaman.

A tulip, known as "the Viceroy", displayed in a 1637 Dutch catalog.

  Tulip di komersilkan pada  era Uthamaniyyah beratus-ratus tahun sebelum Belanda mengenali Tulip.Pada zaman kegemilangan Tulip, spesies-spesies bunga tulip di rekodkan sebagai khazanah negara.Menurut cerita,bukan rekod ye,Tulip dihadiahkan oleh Sultan dari empayar Uthmaniyyah ke Belanda  dan beberapa  negara lain.Ini merupakan sejarah bagaimana Tulip boleh sampai ke Barat.

Gambar diatas menunjukkan perladangan tulip secara komersil di Belanda.Di Belanda juga  Tulip dijadikan sebagai komoditi.

Kat bawah ni kita  baca versi kedua  macamana tulip sampai ke Eropah.

In 1554, Ambassador Busbecq came to the court of Süleyman the Magnificent as the envoy of Austrian Emperor and was struck by the varieties and the vibrancy of flowers in the Ottoman imperial capital. He wrote: We saw everywhere an abundance of flowers... The Turks are so fond of flowers that even the marching troops have their orders not to trample on them. Busbecq was especially astonished to see the tulip, a flower unknown to Europeans. He took some bulbs with him back to Vienna where, in 1559, the Swiss botanist Konrad Gesner saw garden tulips for the first time, and the first picture of the tulip, which he described as a big reddish flower similar to a red lily, appeared in his Book of Garden Flowers in 1561. Later the celebrated Dutch botanist Clusius obtained a number of bulbs from Busbecq, developed many new varieties - and in a few decades, tulips had triumphantly fired the European imagination. In the 1630, a craze often referred to as Tulipomania swept through Holland. Vagaries of the tulip trade resulted in vast fortunes made or lost. Yet, the aesthetic experience of tulips has endured in Holland for more than 350 years now. The Tulip Ottomania erupted as the second decade of the 18th century drew to a close. Ottomans were breeding their own varieties and importing dozens more from Holland and elsewhere. By the mid 1720s they had close to 900 varieties each bearing a special name. A later document states that there were as many as 1.750 varieties. Some were sold for 1.000 gold pieces each. When a foreign ambassador brought but lost a special new breed intended as a gift for the Sultan, town criers strolled through İstanbul streets offering a huge reward, a fortune, to finder. It was never found – or never turned in. But the creative spirit as well as the excesses of the Age dwarfed the tulip fields. Festivals were held lasting the proverbial 40 days and 40 nights. İstanbul, the ancient city that already boasted of 25 centuries of sovereign history, kept vibrating with the sounds, sights and pleasures of the revelries organized for its wealthy residents and sometimes for the entire populace. A chronicler reports that 1.500 cooks prepared for 100.000 people a day sumptuous food made of 16.000 chickens, geese and turkeys and 15000 cauldrons of meat pilav were consumed. At night 15 to 25 thousand lanterns illuminated the city and 5000 to 7000 firecrackers decked the skies. Music, dance, mock battles, comedy, acrobatics, magic shows, javelin games, torch pageants- an inexhaustible diversity of entertainment. During the day, parades with fascinating floats and displays went through the ancient hippodrome and some of the main avenues. Guilds of artisans, one after another presented their works and wares. The whole city was enchanted. The spirit of the age revelled in new lilting compositions, in miniature paintings (particularly those by the greatest stylist Levni), in dazzling decorative arts, in erotic and hedonistic poetry, especially the cheerful verses of Nedim (who rhapsodised: Let’s laugh and play, let’s enjoy the world to the hilt.) In about twelve years, the Tulip Age gave new direction and brave new dimensions to many Ottoman arts. This was also the period which intensified relations with Europe. İstanbul witnessed the emergence of European architectural styles-and Ottoman influence would lead to the European fad that came to be known as Turquerie. The Tulip Age also ushered in the printing press for the publication of books in the Turkish language. Impetus was given to science, libraries, translation, and intellectual exploration. All the merriment in the world could not distract the poverty-stricken people. Too much circus and not enough bread led to a plebeian uprising, and the Sultan was toppled. In 1730 the Tulip Age came to an abrupt end. But the glory of its arts endures - and the love for tulips. By Prof. Talat S. Halman

 Dari cik Tulopomania.