Ottoman Glazed Wall Tiles (16th-20th Cent. CE)

The Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman I (Suleiman the Magnificent), ordered the weathered glass mosaics replaced with glazed tiles during the 16th century, but nothing lasts forever. From the 16th till the 20th century, tiles have been replaced time and again, each time with new styles and techniques. This style of tiles didn’t solely exist in the 16th century, but continues on to modern times, and such tiles adorn famous and high-profile buildings across Jerusalem. In the early 20th century, for this special artisan work, the authorities invited David Ohannessian, an Anatolian-Armenian refugee after the events of the Armenian Genocide, to create a special workshop for creating new wall tiles for replacing the existing deteriorating tiles from the exterior walls of the Dome of the Rock.