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I am the deck, one card at a time. Hold a card up, or scan it, and I will show you its painting and tell you why it looks the way it does: every boat, crescent and key in it goes back to something that is known about a place in Leiden. Forty-eight cards so far, from The Moon.

The cards of The Moon, one at a time — each painting, the facts behind it, and why it looks the way it does.

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A flower that carries the name of a turban.

A Flower Named After a Hat

A flower that carries the name of a turban.

Card 26 of 48 · The Moon · Leiden

Why this image

A tulip opens with its upper petals wrapped in a patterned turban of cobalt and turquoise, and red poppies stand beside it. The flower's name comes from Turkish: 'tulip' goes back to tülbent, from the Persian dulband, 'turban', because the opening flower put people in mind of one; in Turkish itself it is lale 1. The tulip reached the Netherlands from the Ottoman Empire in 1593 through Clusius, and the first bulbs flowered in the Hortus 2. The poppies are those of Fakir Baykurt's Turkish poem 'Gelincikler', 'Poppies', which went up on a wall at Havikshorst 1 in 2000 and is no longer there 3.

What it draws on · 3

Hortus Botanicus Leiden

tulband

The flower's name comes from Turkish: 'tulip' goes back to Ottoman Turkish tülbent, itself from Persian dulband, meaning 'turban'. The opening flower put people in mind of a turban. In Turkish the flower is not called that at all — there it is lale.

Sources · 3
  • Leiden In Motion: De Diversity Walk — Stichting Güney / Turksarchief.nl
  • Etymonline / Wordhistories — 'turban' and 'tulip' as etymological twins
  • Wiktionary — tulip: Ottoman Turkish tülbent < Persian dulband
Hortus Botanicus Leiden

de tulp uit het Ottomaanse Rijk

The tulip reached the Netherlands from the Ottoman Empire in 1593 through Carolus Clusius; the first bulbs flowered in the Hortus botanicus of Leiden.

Sources · 1
  • Hortus botanicus Leiden
Public Art and Street Art

Gelincikler

One of those poems was Turkish. In 2000 Fakir Baykurt's 'Gelincikler' ('Poppies') went up on the wall at Havikshorst 1, a year after the poet's death. Baykurt (Yeşilova 1929 — Essen 1999) was a writer and trade unionist who wrote novels, stories and children's books. Jan Willem Bruins painted the poppies as three blazing red spheres, large enough to be seen from far off. The poem is no longer there.

Sources · 3
  • Muurgedichten Leiden — 'Gelincikler' (muurgedichten.nl)
  • Straatpoezie.nl — 'Gelincikler – Klaprozen', Fakir Baykurt, Havikshorst 1 Leiden
  • Nederlandstalige Wikipedia — Lijst van muurgedichten in Leiden, nr. 74

Shares its places with · 7

Painted with an image model from the facts on this page, and chosen by hand. City in Motion.

I'd love to know that someone came by — as a number, never a name. May I count your visit? And if an ad brought you here, may I tell that ad it worked?