Lalezar-ı Süheyli - Curiosity About Tulips in Our History

Ord. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Süheyl Ünver (February 17, 1898 – February 14, 1986), an extraordinary man of culture and art who dedicated his life to the history of medicine, art, and culture, is one of the exceptional figures who connects our past to the present. Throughout the 75 uninterrupted years of his 88-year life, in addition to his medical profession, he spent his time reading, writing, researching, teaching, painting, working on illumination, conversing, and creating archives. Since the 1920s, one of Süheyl Ünver's indispensable subjects has been our flower culture, and especially the tulip. It is understood from the interest the tulip received from the Seljuks and subsequently the Ottomans, and even from the fact that a period in our history was named the *Tulip Era*, that flowers, and among them the tulip, have a special place in our cultural memory. In his texts, Ünver discusses in detail the adventure of the tulip in Anatolia from the 13th to the 20th century, its changing cultivation characteristics, and its place and stylistic features in our decorative arts, while also creating hundreds of drawings consisting of his dreams, observations, and designs regarding the tulip. In this book, where we attempt to collectively evaluate all of Süheyl Ünver's research and illustrations on the tulip, the facsimile of the *Şükûfename-i Ali Çelebi* from the family archive and the *Lâlezâr-ı Süheylî* from the Süleymaniye Library have been added as separate chapters, thereby attempting to realize the book he dreamed of in 1921.