“gönül âyînesini mir’ât-ı iskenderle bir tutmam / derûnumdan çıkardum şimdi ben zîrâ ki dünyâyı” -hâleti
(i do not equate the mirror of the heart with alexander’s mirror / for at present, i have drawn worlds out from within myself)
when i first came across this verse during a lecture on divan literature, i wondered about the depth hidden meaning behind it. later, i learned a legend that there was a lighthouse by the sea in alexandria, and it was a mirror on the top of it, which is called âyîne-i iskender. this mirror was said to guide ships from great distances. it was also attributed with a spiritual power, believed to reveal liars and those with impure hearts. the magic of this mirror, unlike ordinary mirrors, lay in its ability to reflect images from both sides. according to sufi philosophy, only those with hearts purified by the love of god could access the reflections on both sides. liars—or those whose hearts were not pure—could only see a single face of the mirror, reflecting their own image but revealing nothing beyond.¹
this legend demonstrated the relationship between the mirror, the viewer, and the reflected object that is far more mystical than i had imagined. mirror is not merely a tool for reflecting beauty; but it is also an agent, capable of loosening the boundaries between the visible and the unseen, between the observer and the observed.
this âyîne-i iskender project aims to show the intertwined essence of representation and reality, underlying the passive and the active roles of the mirror.
- Yusuf Çetindağ, Ayna Kitabı (Mirror Book) (İstanbul: İstanbul Kitabevi, 2009), 85.
