A lover of history and specultative fiction

Greek (?) statue of a young girl with a dove

ca. 300 BCE

I thought I should note this down before I forget. This page is from chapter 61, but you must have seen this page a lot if you are reading DoD, especially right before they go on a military campaign:

This place is Bâbüssaâde Kapısı (The Gate of Felicity) that separated the inner palace (Enderûn) from the outer palace (Birûn). Beyond that gate is the private residence of the sultan, and no one, except for his personal servants, could freely enter there. For ceremonies, sultan's throne was put in front of that door and he greeted his subjects there. Shinohara-sensei referenced this painting by Konstantin Kapıdağlı, a court painter at the end of the 18th century:

Coronation ceremony of Selim III (1789). He was a cool sultan. I also like the pages/sultan's guard with the pointy hats you see in the far right.

Although this painting depicts an event from 250 years after Suleiman's time, scholars assume that such ceremonial practices haven't changed much. True enough, it's only during Selim III's successor, Mahmut II's reign that the outfits and official practices have really started to change. So Suleiman's ceremonies very likely looked like this. Shinohara-sensei gets another accuracy point. Before the army marched to war, they held ceremonies there. And surely enough, all state officials and soldiers stood in order like that. Foreign ambassadors noted how amazed they were by the absolute silence during these spectacles. They write that among those hundreds of men, no one dared make a sound in the sultan's presence.

The dudes above are my favorites. The ones on the left are like "bruh this hat is killing me, let me take it off while everyone is busy praying", and the ones on the right look like they are about to make out.

Above is Suleiman's coronation ceremony (1520). This is from Arifî's Süleymannâme. And I just ordered a book about Ottoman miniature art because I realized I know nothing about it. On the background of the left image, you can see the same gate. Notice how that guy is prostrating himself before Suleiman and kissing his skirts on the right image? I'll get back to it shortly.

Make do with this pic until I get my ass to Topkapı Palace.

Above, you can see the Bâbüssaâde Kapısı as it stands today. It went through restorations and renovations throughout the years. Do you see the little square encircled with a red rope there? That's where they put the imperial standard/the caliphate standard there before going to war. And I feel special when I go through that gate because I think about how I would be murdered on the spot by the white eunuchs if I tried it in 1530, lol.

And the throne Shinohara-sensei draws for Suleiman looks suspicisouly like an actual golden throne that is displayed in the palace today. However, it dates back to 18th century, so a little bit of anachronism there. They held ceremonies at the same spot even after the imperial family moved out of Topkapı Palace, so I would like to show the throne in action. Sorry that it's in Turkish, but it's a video about the last Ottoman Sultan's coronation. Skip to 7:40 of the video below to see the throne:

I wrote some stuff about real-life counterparts of the things we see in DoD in MangaDex comments before Hombre-kun brought doom upon us. Since old comments are currently inaccessible right now, I wanted to make blog posts about them so they don't get lost forever.

One of the cool details in DoD is that Shinohara-sensei used a "real" portrait of Suleiman I as a model for her volume 13 cover.

DoD's volume 13 cover and Suleiman I's portrait attributed to School of Titian in Venice, currently on display in Vienna. Suleiman wishes he was this hot and nose jobs existed in 1524.

Why """real"""? Because unlike his predecessors like Mehmet II, Suleiman I never sat for any portraits. Having a likeness of yourself painted is in the "Wowowowow, haram!" territory for Muslims, so although he was no adversary to European practices, maybe that's why didn't want his portrait as the caliph of all Muslims? I'm only speculating here. He made public appearances and the face of the sultan was no secret. There are foreigners who saw him, wrote about what he looked like and even drew him (See this book chapter about Suleiman's portraits). So I wouldn't call his existing portraits "imaginary", but they are not "real" either because most artists never even saw him. Suleiman's portraits look similar enough and all those artists couldn't have copied them from the same source, so it's highly likely that's how the real Suleiman looked. Unfortunately, he was no long-haired bishie and Shinohara-sensei was too generous with him :P He was kind of blond, at the very least? Yes, that counts as "blond" in Turkey.

While he didn't have his portrait made, Suleiman wanted to be like his European counterparts in other aspects of royalty. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, he commissioned his own regalia from Venetian jewelers with the help of our favorite Italian lover boy, Alvise Gritti and palace's favorite influencer, Ibrahim: A throne, a scepter, a chain collar, and an epic crown. He had this 4-tiered huge crown-helmet thing made in Venice, bigger than the crowns of European monarchs and even bigger than the Pope's 3-tiered tiara, to show his supremacy. You can see a pattern here: As evidenced by the portrait above and the drawing below, we can safely assume that the dude liked BIG headgear. It is said that he never wore the helmet, but he surely carried it along his European expeditions to show off his bling. Would you mess with a guy who has such a huge crown-helmet thing? You sure wouldn't. Anyway, seeing how he was following the European displays of power of his time, I thought that he would have an official portrait of himself too because that's what all his fellow monarchs did, but Sülo begged to differ. He was too cool for paintings. He would be that guy who never shares selfies on his Instagram today. Actually go read this article on this regalia topic, it's interesting.

He's coming to get your territory! Here is a drawing of the helmet/crown thing from the Met Museum.

Purple-crowned Fairywren (Malurus coronatus), L - female & R - male, family Maluridae, found in northern Australia

Last Witch Hat Monday I drew Biblically Accurate Brushbuddy, this Monday I bring you Biblically Accurate Brushbully!!!

I can't wait to see this angry void noodle animated in a future episode one day!

#witchhatatelier #Δ帽子 #WHA The other half

Painting process

Witch Hat Atelier Manga Spoilers!

Thinking about Qifrey discribing the ink from the Silverwood tree as it's 'literal blood' and brushbuddies looove ink!