Cypress Tree in Sufısm and its Reflectıons in Turkısh-Islamıc Art

The tree cult, which is among the common symbols of world cultures, continued its existence for centuries in the pre-Islamic Turkish cultural world. The Turks, who preserved their old lives, habits and religious remnants for generations after accepting the religion of Islam, continued to preserve the sacred tree cult in their cultural basins by interpreting it with a new understanding within the framework of the religion they adopted later on.
When it is retraced, the source of cypress motif, which is seen in every field in Turkish-Islamic decoration art, it is understood that it is nourished by, on one hand, the "tree of life" cult in the pre-Islamic Middle East Turkish culture while, on the other hand, by the artistic values inherited from the indigenous civilizations in the wide geography where Turkish art spread. With the acceptance of Islam by the Turks, the cypress tree, which gained new iconographic meanings in Sufi philosophy by being identified with the concepts of "sacred tree" or "tree of paradise" in Qur’an, is found in the repertoire of Turkish-Islamic decoration art, which is an art of contemplation. The cypress tree motif, with its various shape and form features, it revealed a mystical world with its rich iconographic meanings as well as gave an aesthetic appearance to any work of art including this motif.
In this study, evaluations were made in the light of examples about the place of the cypress tree, one of the trees considered sacred among the Central Asian Turks before Islam, in the Turkish-Islamic Sufi thought system and its reflection on the works of art after the Turks accepted Islam.
Keywords: Cypress, Iconography, Sufism, Turkish-Islamic Art.