WOOD MASTER ALİ ÖNDER FROM GÜRÜN AND HIS WORKS

Abstract

Wood art is one of the arts products, starting from the early periods of Turkish-Islamic art. The
origin of wood is the Arabic hasebin (wood, timber) and its plural wood. It means wood material
and timber used for production purposes. The beginning of the use of wood with its durability and
texture, needs of people, has led to the emergence of woodworking in architecture, art history and
handicrafts. It has changed and developed in the historical process. The samples found in the
kurgans in the Altai show that the Central Asian Turks were interested in wood. The first examples
of Islamic architecture in Syria, the wooden works of the Umayyad’s and later the Abbasids bear
the traces of woodwork of the period. The Seljuk’s were also interested in wood, and the Ottomans
brought woodworking to the highest level. They created works such as pulpit, mihrap, lectern,
Qur'an case, drawer and coffin from wood used in architecture as building materials. Mihrab is a
word derived from the root of harp, meanings the Arabic palace, the harem, the sultan's throne is
located place, the statue cell of the Christian saints, the arbor, the pavilion, the high place, the head
of the assembly. In the historical course, it became the name of the place where the imam stood in
mosques. The pulpit, the stepped architectural element in mosques to be seen better and to be heard
better while giving a sermon, is the word is derived from the root nebr meaning raising. It’s the
place you go up gradually. Kürsü is Kürsi in Arabic means a chair that is placed on top of each
other or formed from various parts and sat on. In Anatolia, the art of wood maintains its importance
with cultural interaction and changes until today. With the use of technological innovations, today
the number of masters who produce handicrafts has decreased considerably. In this study,
information has been given about Ali Önder, one of the masters who set his heart on this work, and
the construction stages of the pulpit, lectern and mihrap he prepared, and about the wooden art.
Önder was born in 1933 in the Gürün district of Sivas. He started to learn woodworking from his
father at the age of seven, and has been continuing his professional life, for 35-40 years by making
mihrab, pulpits and lecterns. Önder does not charge for the works he prepared for mosques, was
awarded the International Goodness Award given to seven people from different parts of the world
by the Turkish Religious Foundation.