Seljuk Code in the Cultural Landscape of Crimea

Kotliar Elena Romanovna PhD in Art History Associate Professor, Department of Visual and Decorative Art, Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University named after Fevzi Yakubov 295015, Russia, Republic of Crimea, Simferopol, lane. Educational, 8, room 337 allenkott@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Khlevnoi Vladimir Aleksandrovich Assistant, Department of Decorative Arts, Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University named after Fevzi Yakubov 295015, Russia, Republic of Crimea, Simferopol, lane. Educational, 8, room 337 allenkott@mail.ru Other publications by this author

One of the main goals of cultural science is to characterize the multidimensional essence of culture, the laws of its dynamics, the characteristics of the types and forms of its manifestation. Among these forms, a special place is occupied by national and ethnic self-identification in the process of philo- and ontogenesis, including moral and ethical, religious, aesthetic norms, features of the semiotic components of the culture of each ethnic group ^{[3, p. 6]}.

This issue becomes especially relevant at the turn of centuries and millennia, when, on the one hand, we are talking about preserving the "idea of culture" against the background of universal globalization, and, on the other, when there is a "clash of civilizations", national identity ^{[3, p. 4-6]}.

The founder of German classical philosophy Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) puts forward theses on the need to create a civil society, which determines the regularity of moral improvement of people who are different in their upbringing, abilities, and social status in his philosophical treatises. The idea of the "morality" of man and society becomes, in his opinion, the highest manifestation of human culture.

The ideas of the cultural unity of mankind were put forward by the outstanding academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, philologist, cultural critic and art critic Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev (1906-1999), who called culture a "home", an "organic whole", the concept of which includes everything that is created by man. ^{[12, p. 91]}.

Introducing the term ecology of culture into the scientific thesaurus, D. S. Likhachev put into it the idea of preserving the socio-cultural space by recognizing the intrinsic value of all its constituent types of culture, in particular, ethnic ones. These ideas follow from his "moral postulates", in particular, about interethnic tolerance: "Morality is what turns the "population" into an orderly society, humbles national enmity, forces the "big" nations to take into account and respect the interests of the "small" (or rather, the small)" ^{[12, p. 94]}.

The ideas of cultural unity, integrity, based not on synthetism, but on the interaction and integration of unique cultural subjects: ethnoses and civilizations, despite the isolation of individual "cultural and historical types", are contained in the work of the Russian culturologist and sociologist, one of the founders of the civilizational approach to history, Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky (1882-1885): "Russia and Europe: A Look at the cultural and political relations of the Slavic world to the Germanic-Romance" ^[4]. Danilevsky called the cultural-historical type or civilization the totality of science, art, religion, political, civil, economic and social development of groups of ethnic groups in a certain territory, the main parameter of the association of which is the kinship of languages. Among the laws of the development of cultural and historical types put forward by the author, the following statement is contained: "A civilization peculiar to each cultural and historical type only reaches completeness, diversity and richness when the ethnographic elements that make up it are diverse - when they, without being absorbed into one political whole, using independence, form a federation or a political the system of states" ^{[3, p. 113]}.

The views of D. S. Likhachev and N. Y. Danilevsky can be projected onto the culture of multinational Russia and Crimea in particular, where the cultures of each of the numerous ethnic groups or groups of closely related peoples represent a unique whole, while not violating the internal cultural boundaries of ethnic identity. Consideration of the dialogue of ethnic cultures of the Crimea is impossible without referring to the concept of "cultural landscape".

The concept of cultural landscape is based on a number of concepts put forward by scientists who have considered it from different angles. Based on the concept of the noosphere by the Russian multidisciplinary scientist-encyclopedist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863-1945), D. S. Likhachev introduced the term homosphere, meaning by it "the sphere of influence and impact on the surrounding world of human activity" ^{[12, p. 91]}. In the studies of D. S. Likhachev devoted to the ecology of culture, the cultural or historical landscape called by him is considered as a natural and cultural territorial complex formed as a result of long-term interaction of nature and man, his economic and socio-cultural activities ^{[12, p. 144]}.

Since the early 1990s, special attention has been paid to cultural landscapes in the world as a special type of heritage that ensures the interaction, interpenetration and interdependence of natural and cultural components. In the "Operational Guide for the Implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention", the definition of "cultural landscape" has appeared and its place in the typological series of heritage sites is established. In this document, the term "Cultural Landscape" is understood as the result of "the joint creation of man and nature", the defining role of social, economic and cultural factors, both external and internal, in the interaction of humanity and its natural habitat is noted. With regard to Crimea, this definition seems to us absolutely logical and meets all the main parameters, such as a clear definition of the geocultural region, as well as a demonstration of the distinctive cultural elements of this region.

The Soviet and Russian geographer and classification theory specialist Vladimir Leopoldovich Kagansky (born 1954) presented the cultural landscape as an archetype, which includes a number of aspects, which, in addition to geographical features, interaction and transformation of the environment by man, include images and symbols of the landscape (semiotic component), aesthetic, ethical and sacred components. "A cultural landscape is an earthly space, the living environment of a sufficiently large (self–preserving) group of people, if this space is both integral and structured, contains natural and cultural components, mastered utilitarily, semantically and symbolically" ^[6]. According to the author, the cultural landscape, including cultural and natural components, is dialectical, i.e. it is distinguished by a combination of continuity and discontinuity, productive neighborhood of autonomous components, contact transition zones, coexistence of various population groups. V. L. Kagansky cited a metaphor, presenting the cultural landscape as a "carpet of places", an "iconic text", to comprehend which requires a change of positions, movement in space ^[6].

V. L. Kagansky also drew attention to ethnocultural landscape studies, noting the influence of traditions of various ethnic groups on the development and change of natural lands, the formation of various economic and cultural types, the introduction of each of the individual ethnic groups of their own features into the overall appearance of a single cultural landscape. Thus, we can talk about the cultural landscape, in particular, of the multinational Crimea, as a mosaic structure in which the overall picture is created with the help of many separate ethnic components (culture of mastering nature, languages, everyday and religious traditions, semiotics of art, architectural traditions, etc.) ^[6].

The definition of the concept of "cultural landscape" is impossible without recourse to interdisciplinary research concerning regionalism. The main emphasis in these studies is placed on the study of the development of certain cultural trends within a certain geographical space, conditioned by territorial-administrative, landscape, climatic boundaries, etc. The absolute feature, which is emphasized in research on regional culture, is polyethnicity, polyconfessional, polylinguism of regions.

The works of Dmitry Nikolaevich Zamyatin (born 1962), a geographer and cultural critic, founder of the "Center for Humanitarian Studies of Space of the Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage named after D. S. Likhachev", contain an idea of such an interdisciplinary field of research as humanitarian geography, which initially developed within the framework of anthropogeography, and later – within the framework of economic and socio-economic geography. This branch of science includes cultural landscape studies, figurative (imaginative) geography, cognitive geography, mythogeography, sacred geography ^[5]. The author notes that the center of research activity in humanitarian geography is shifting towards the processes of formation and development of mental constructs. Important for our research is such a direction of humanitarian geography as figurative (imaginative) geography, which studies "the patterns of formation of geographical images, their structures, the specifics of their modeling, methods and types of their representation and interpretation" ^[5]. The conceptual apparatus of imaginal geography includes such terms as local myth, regional identity (regional self-consciousness), cultural landscape, figurative-geographical space, mental-geographical space. The author characterizes the term "geographical image" as a system of interrelated symbols, archetypes and stereotypes that characterize any territory, directly dependent on the degree of development of the culture of this territory, i.e. as an invariant of the cultural landscape. 

D. N. Zamyatin also focuses on the role of various cultural texts in the formation of the geographical image (the term was introduced into the thesaurus of the basic concepts of cultural studies by A. Ya. Flier), both verbal and nonverbal, in particular, visual art, music, architecture, as well as the fundamental importance of local myths in this process. In this context, Crimea is a vivid example of a region with clear geographical boundaries, the cultural landscape of which is formed thanks to the texts of cultures that inhabited earlier and now inhabit it of numerous ethnic groups, as well as their dialogue and polylogue.

The theory of the text of culture – one of the key concepts in this study – was developed on the basis of the works on semiotics of the famous Russian culturologist and semiotic Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman (1922-1993) ^[13], as well as the philosopher, philologist, orientalist Alexander Moiseevich Pyatigorsky (1929-2009).

A. Ya Flier, a cultural theorist, chief researcher at the Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage named after D. S. Likhachev (born 1950), understands a cultural text as "a set of cultural meanings expressed in a symbolic form." The author points to the semiotic essence of any cultural phenomena: material, intellectual, artistic, social, since each of them carries information about itself (phenomena, products, processes), as well as about society, time and the region for which this or that process or phenomenon is characteristic. A. Ya. Flier also put forward the postulate that the study of culture outside of textual and semantic characteristics leads to the loss of the subject of study, because culture is inherently always a text. Flier singled out intellectual and artistic works, both verbal and non-verbal, operating in figurative language, into a special group of cultural texts.

Historically, from ancient times to the present, Crimea has been a multi-ethnic region, on the territory of which, due to constant migrations, the interaction of individual national cultures takes place, the formation of a special ethno-cultural field consisting of codes of many different cultures. "Crimea is a multicultural space, irreducible to one foundation, to ethnic one–dimensionality" ^{[3, p. 12]}. The history of Crimea, due to its geographical location on the way from East to West, the intersection of trade routes, has been associated since ancient times with numerous migrations of constantly changing ethnic groups, some of which disappeared, dissolved in the subsequent process of assimilation, the culture of others has been preserved, influenced by integration, in one form or another, however, each ethnic group or an ethnic group, even one that has completely disappeared, has left its mark on the culture of the Crimea. Thus, the unconditional role in the formation of Crimean cultural texts (both mythological component and visual symbolism) belongs to the ancient cultures that replace each other: Cimmerians, Taurians, Alans; cultures that appeared in the Crimea in the era of antiquity: Scythians (Tavroskifs), Greeks, Jews, Sarmatians, Goths; ethnoses that came or formed on the the territories of Crimea in the Middle Ages: Armenians, Crimean Tatars, Turks, Karaites, Crimeans, Italians (Genoese); numerous peoples who came to Crimea in Modern Times, thanks to the development of the Crimean lands by the Russian Empire: first of all, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, as well as peoples of Western and Eastern Europe: Moldovans, Germans, Czechs, Bulgarians, Ashkenazi Jews, Baltic peoples, etc. ^[14].

The large influx of carriers of various ethnic cultures to Crimea influenced the revival of crafts, brought a great variety both to the architectural environment and to the traditions of decorative and applied art, however, the main one should be considered the influence of European Baroque (in decorative items), classicism and Rococo, which has become traditional in Russia, as well as the introduction of Arabic elements from the East, and at the beginning of the twentieth century – the spread of the Art Nouveau style, in which ethnic ornamental elements and images, traditional for the Crimean decor, organically fit in.

Russian philosopher and political scientist Oleg Arshavirovich Gabrielyan (born 1956), considers the main characteristic of Crimea to be its autonomy, due not only to the peninsular nature of the place – topos, but also to its inner essence, idea, stable structure of being – logos. Citing historical examples testifying to the logic of the autonomy of the Crimea, O. A. Gabrielyan notes that the ontological essence of the Crimea is polytextual, "this ecumene with its diversity of cultural worlds gave rise to various Crimean "texts": literary, architectural, toponymic, demographic and many others" ^{[3, p. 21]}. At the same time, the author focuses on the fact that none of these texts concerning both large cultural entities (Scythian, Crimean Tatar, Russian) and more modest ones (Greek, Jewish, Armenian, Bulgarian, German, etc.) has become the dominant cause of universal assimilation.

Based on the theory of French structuralists, Y. M. Lotman put forward the theory of the semiosphere – a closed space consisting of separate cultural layers and texts expressed through symbols. According to Lotman, the semiosphere is distinguished by the existence of a continuum of different texts within common borders, but these internal texts are either related or understandable from each other's point of view, unlike external texts, which require an additional translation mechanism. Thus, the internal diversity and heterogeneity of the content of the semiosphere constitute its unique integrity. Yu. M. Lotman also points to the algorithm for the formation of new texts within the semiosphere, which requires, on the one hand, some similarity of the original cultural codes, and on the other, certain differences between them. From this point of view, the cultures of the Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Krymchaks, as part of the Crimean semiosis, are very characteristic examples of such interaction ^[13].

O. A. Gabrielyan points out an important aspect of the development of the Crimean culture – the Crimean semiosis, i.e. the process of interpreting a sign or the process of generating meaning, indicating the development of numerous cultures on a single territory in conditions of autonomy. The origin of the term "semiosis" meaning "interpretation of symptoms" goes back to ancient Greek physiologists who used it to make a diagnosis. Thus, the analysis of the components of the Crimean culture allows us to conclude about the essential ontological feature of the Crimea – its isolation.

At the same time, the idea of cultural unity in a multinational society is impossible without a productive ethno-cultural dialogue, which in turn forms a unique semiotic space of the multinational Crimea. According to the Russian philosopher and culturologist D. S. Berestovskaya (1934-2020): "Spiritual comprehension of the essence of other cultural worlds, carriers of other cultural values, comprehension of the "codes" of diverse pictures of the world, cultural texts is the basis of mutual understanding, dialogue and polylogue of cultures" ^{[3, p. 12]}.

The famous existentialist philosopher Martin Buber (1878-1965), who substantiated the theory of dialogue in art (artistic culture) as a kind of spiritual experience, for which it is necessary to understand the language of art, the "soul of culture", as a special sacrament, addressed the characteristic of the concept of dialogue of cultures. The Soviet and Russian philosopher, cultural critic, cultural historian Vladimir Solomonovich Bybler (1918-2000), in turn, considered dialogue to be "the optimal form of human communication" both in everyday life and in the perception of art. The Soviet and Russian philosopher, culturologist, author of studies on the theory of value, the history of culture and aesthetics, Moses Samoilovich Kagan (1921-2006), expanded the concept of dialogue, pointing to the dialogue between the past and the future, nature and culture, the West and the East as examples. The philosopher puts forward the idea of multidimensional dialogue, calling dialogue a condition and a way of existence of culture and man.

In the monograph "Dialogicity of the holiday" by D. S. Berestovskaya and the Russian culturologist Olga Vladimirovna Bryzhak (born 1959), two directions of dialogue development are characterized: diachronic – provoking changes (worldviews, values) over time, and synchronous – the development of dialogue in a single socio-cultural space. As part of the synchronous development of the dialogue, its subjects are various social groups: generations, subcultures, etc. The most important subjects of such a dialogue are ethnic groups, especially those whose history is closely connected with the common compact territory of residence ^{[2, p. 41]}. In the case where there are numerous "contact zones" within the borders where information intersects, such borders serve as a "translation" of cultural texts originating from one ethnic group, as a subject of dialogue, into a language ("culture code") understandable to another subject. Thus, the dialogue of ethnic groups within these borders generates the emergence of a single semiotic space in which there are both differences between individual subjects (ethnoses) and their common features are formed. The closely related codes of the culture of the peoples of the Crimea, formed over the centuries, are a clear example of such a dialogue.

"The problem of dialogue as a paradigm of the modern socio-cultural process and as a phenomenon peculiar to the cultural situation of Crimea" ^{[2, p. 37]} is an important aspect of the topic of this study. In the conditions of modern globalization, the blurring of the facets of national and ethnic cultures caused by the universal spread of "mass culture" through the means of communication, primarily the Internet, and on the other hand, the substitution and transformation of ethnic and religious values and the formation of socially dangerous trends in a multinational society leading to disasters (in particular, terrorism is such a manifestation) the issue of peaceful and constructive interethnic and interethnic dialogue is particularly acute. This trend is noted by the Russian sociologist Felix Vasilyevich Lazarev (born 1938).

The dialogue of cultures, mutual study of texts of each other's cultures, as interaction, leads to understanding and acceptance of each other (tolerance) and at the same time to the formation of their own identity, i.e. it is a necessary condition for the optimal development of each of the subjects (ethnic groups) and the further development of the cultural landscape as a whole.

Important aspects of this study are the identification of individual texts and codes of ethnic cultures and their elements in the general multilingual space of the Crimean ecumene, as well as the fixation of their visual and meaningful transformation as a result of the inevitable mutual influence in the process of long-term coexistence in close proximity.

"The goal of the Crimean culturologists is to search for ways and means of peaceful interaction and mutual enrichment of the cultures of the peoples of the Crimea, to determine the specifics of the cultural landscapes of the Crimea, distinguished by historical value and diversity" ^{[3, p. 19]}.

The Seljuks were descendants of the Turkic peoples, the Gokturks, who lived in the steppes between southern Mongolia and northern China and engaged in nomadic cattle breeding ^[9]. The Gokturks converted to Islam during the early Arab conquests, during the caliphate towards the end of the seventh century.

Around 1000, one of the Turkic leaders, Seljuk Bey, united the Oghuz tribes around him and moved through Afghanistan to Persian Khorasan. This date is considered the birth of the Great Seljuk Sultanate. They conquered all of Persia and founded a powerful state that threatened the Islamic Abbasid dynasty and the Eastern Roman Empire in the west. In the new sultanate, the Turks were a successful military power, and the Persians were excellent organizers of cultural and governmental affairs.

The Seljuks made Isfahan their capital and conquered Baghdad in 1055. The language of their communication was Persian. With the new leader Alpaslan, the Seljuks moved west and began their first conquests in Asia Minor. They soon clashed with the Roman army and won the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. This success opened the gates for them to Asia Minor, where there were already several Arab settlements.

Alpaslan returned to his capital Isfahan, but was killed a year later. Alpaslan's nephew Suleiman took advantage of the lack of leadership, escaped from prison, gathered a group of Turkmen followers and moved west to infiltrate Byzantine Anatolia. In 1081, they proclaimed Nicaea (Iznik) in the northwest as their capital. These were the first Turkic settlements in Asia Minor, the so-called Rum Sultanate.

Around 1096, the first crusaders arrived in Asia, who expelled the Seljuks from Nicaea on their way to Palestine. The next capital of the Seljuks was Iconium (Konya). The Seljuks of Rum brought Persian-Islamic culture to Asia Minor. The Christian and Greek-speaking population began to turn into a predominantly Muslim and Turkish/Persian-speaking population. The new Seljuks were not great warriors like their Seljuk ancestors, but settled as civilized peoples within a full-fledged sultanate ^[9].

The glorious Seljuk dynasty of Rum existed until the Mongol invasion of Anatolia. In 1243, the Mongols defeated the Seljuks in the Battle of Kos-Dagh and became the new rulers of Anatolia ^[9]. After 1277, the Turks became vassals of the Ilkhan, a successful Mongol dynasty that established its own empire under Hulagu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. By the end of the XIII century, some Turkmen tribes, which became independent principalities called Beyliks, reduced the influence of the Seljuks. Some residents of the Beyliks even turned away from mainstream Islam and joined mystical and revolutionary sects such as Alevites and Bektashi. This event marked the end of the Seljuk dynasty in Anatolia around 1300.

The Seljuks largely experienced the influence of Persian civilization and became carriers of Persian culture. Thus, the newcomers from Anatolia represented the Persian-Islamic culture, and intermarriage with the indigenous Christian population led to the transformation of a nomadic tribe from Central Asia into an ethnos famous for its culture and art. The Seljuk artifacts included mosques, mausoleums, caravanserais, madrasas and even a shipyard in Alaya (Alanya).

Since the integration of the Turks into Islamic culture, a synthesis of several cultural vectors has been gradually taking place: nomadic Turkic, Arabic, as well as Byzantine culture. This combination of different traditions led to the formation of a special kind of architectural and decorative-applied art, called the "Seljuk style". This style became widespread in Iran, Transcaucasia, Asia Minor, as well as in the Crimean Tatar monuments of the period of the formation of the Crimean Khanate ^{[9, 15]}. The style of Crimean architecture was influenced by the fine art of the Koni Sultanate – a local variant of the Seljuk style, and such common elements as a variety of knots and plaits – "Seljuk chain", "rosettes", etc. Most researchers studying ornamentation believe that the star-shaped rosettes characteristic of the Seljuks, formed by polygonal grids, indicate their Arab-Islamic origin. The Seljuk style was also influenced by Byzantine, Armenian and even Greco-Roman art.

Considering that in the Middle Ages groups of people were identified mainly by their religion, and the definition of national identity was not developed until the end of the XVIII century, most Seljuk ornamental artifacts are usually identified as Islamic. This practice, of course, leads to the loss of natural identity, and we cannot draw a definite conclusion about the sources of artistic creativity, whether it was based on Islamic or pre-Islamic traditions.

There are a number of philosophical theories among researchers of Seljuk (and Islamic in general) ornamentation. According to one of them, the decoration of an object itself is described as a space divided into many separate elements that are applied in an arbitrary way and can just as well be turned over or replaced by each other. It is believed that this method of decoration reflects the theory of atomism: the theological explanation of reality, according to which everything that exists consists of individual particles. In accordance with this, a theory was put forward about an artist who is free to construct a composition from the elements of nature in any way he sees fit, and the more arbitrary this method is in comparison with reality, the better. This principle corresponds to the famous oriental type of decoration "horror vaqui" – "fear of emptiness", meaning dense ornamentation of the plane with small segments.

The second theory of the justification of Seljuk artistic creativity is its reduction to the concept of "universal" geometry, understood as a manifestation of the theological principle of unity in diversity. The geometric principle and the infinite variety of its artistic applications become a metaphor for the presence of the divine principle in a multitude of creations. According to this theory, it is believed that the source of works of art is nature and its inherent symmetry and rhythms. Mathematics, as a reflection of the laws of nature, is a means of manifesting the "divine order" in our physical world. Order and proportions are considered as cosmic laws, the processes of which a person seeks to comprehend with the help of arithmetic, geometry and harmony. Geometry and numbers, as mathematical expressions, are given a qualitative and symbolic dimension.

According to this theory, the general characteristics of the unity of Islamic, including Seljuk art, are best expressed in the geometry of the arabesque, the Arabesque becomes the "essence of Arab consciousness" and Islamic creativity as such. Arabesque achieves a universal quality in which every aspect of creativity, including Arabic, literary art, Arabic poetry, architecture and calligraphy, becomes Arabesque in itself. Geometric ornamentation and grid construction – the basics of Arabesque – are compared with the use of verbal units of the language.

As for the decoration of architecture, the researcher Lisa Golombek introduces the idea of "the decor of architecture as textiles". The ornament decorates the architecture, highlighting its individual parts, by analogy with the fabric, the pattern of which emphasizes individual parts of the body in a suit, like fitted or draped clothing. Geometric patterns stretch across the surfaces of walls and around corners, and bands of Arabesque inscriptions and knots enter and exit solids and voids, linking whole ensembles together.

In the semiotic universe of the Seljuk ornament, numbers and their corresponding quantitative ornamental elements (the number of rays of a starry or floral rosette, a pattern segment, etc.) have an important meaning.:

1 – Creator, creation; point as the quintessence of energy;

2 – Intelligence, information transmission; segment as the personification of a section of the path;

3 – Soul, spirit; triangle as a symbol of the structure of the living world;

4 – Matter; square as a symbol of inviolability, steadfastness, the four parts of the world and the four seasons;

5 – Nature; the pentagram as an image of the five senses;

6 – The body; hexagram as the personification of the six sides, turns of the body; "the seal of Daoud (David)";

7 – The universe; the heptagram means 7 visible planets, 7 days of the week;

8 – Equality; octagram as symmetry, symbol of Rub Al Hizb (the separator of the chapters of Hizb in the Quran);

9 – The beginning of the world; according to legend, it means the number of elements of the body, minerals, animal and plant world standing at the beginning of creation;

10 – Sacred Tetraktis;

12 – Zodiac;

28 – The number of phases of the moon;

360 – The number of sunny days.

The corresponding number of elements of the ornament is considered to carry a certain meaning, or several meanings, which is important in the case of Islamic ornament, since the ban on the image of animals and people encourages to convey meanings allegorically, through abstract symbolism, that is, through semantic codes of art.

The emergence and development of the Seljuk style in Crimea is associated with the resettlement of the Armenian diaspora after the Seljuk conquests from the middle of the XI century and the Mongol seizure of Armenia in the middle of the XIII century ^{[1, p. 8]}. During the excavations of Feodosia (Kafa), architectural details were found depicting rosettes, Seljuk chains of various configurations, with nodes with rosettes in the middle included in them, plant borders made of acanthus leaves. A separate characteristic example of the use of the Seljuk style was the Armenian khachkars (Fig. 1) – index steles depicting "flourishing crosses" consisting of a Seljuk ornament of simple and complex plaiting, turning into palmettes and semi-palmettes ^{[1, pp. 50-51, 63]}.

Fig. 1. Armenian khachkar from the Church of St. Sergia,

Kafa (Feodosia), 1429

Examples of Seljuk ornamentation in the Crimea also include durbe Hadji Giray (Fig. 2), durbe Dzhanyke Khanum on Chufut-Kale, a large basilica on Mangup ^[7]. The peculiarity that distinguishes the style of the ornaments of the "Seljuk chain" in the design of the durbe portals in Bakhchisarai is two parallel straight lines, which form five links due to crossing each other. In the design of the entrance to the mausoleum of Hadji Giray, parallel lines form two additional ring links. On both sides at the base of the chain are placed two characteristic knots, widely spread in the Islamic world and interpreted as a "knot of long life" or "knot of happiness". Such a knot in a number of examples turns into a floral ornament ^[8].

Fig. 2. Durbe Khan Haji Giray, Bakhchisarai.

The later use of Seljuk ornaments is associated with the formation and spread of the south–coast palace type of buildings - palaces, mansions, dachas and hotels. The Art Nouveau style, widespread in the late XIX – early XX centuries, was an example of a kind of eclecticism, a mixture of architectural styles and the use of their elements in an arbitrary composition. Talented architects who worked in the Art Nouveau era in the Crimea created projects that reflected the wishes of customers in accordance with their cultural and ethnic component, but the presence of impeccable taste of architects allowed them to avoid dissonance and create harmonious and unusual ensembles ^[8]. A huge contribution to the creation of the style of south-coast Crimean architecture was made by the "architect of the highest court", the author of the famous Livadia Imperial Palace Nikolai Petrovich Krasnov. His authorship belongs to a large number of palaces and mansions in the Crimea. Nikolai Krasnov skillfully used characteristic techniques of various styles in the decoration of buildings, including the extremely common Seljuk. In particular, thanks to his works, Seljuk ornamentation has become considered one of the characteristic features of the Crimean architectural landscape ^[11].

Examples of the use of the Seljuk style in the works of N. P. Krasnov include the palace "Dulber" of Grand Duke Pyotr Nikolaevich Romanov in Koreiz (Fig. 3, 4), the dining room of the palace of Prince Felix Yusupov in Koreiz, the dacha "Victoria" of the Prime Minister of the Crimean regional government Solomon of the Crimea in Feodosia (Fig. 7-12), the bank of the Mutual Credit Society "Golden Calf" in Simferopol (Fig. 5, 6), the Bayan Cinema Arch (now the T. G. Shevchenko Cinema), etc.

Fig. 3. The Palace "Dulber" of Grand Duke Pyotr Nikolaevich Romanov in Koreiz. Architect N. P. Krasnov. 1897

Fig. 4. The Palace "Dulber" of Grand Duke Pyotr Nikolaevich Romanov in Koreiz. Architect N. P. Krasnov. 1897 Fragment of the entrance.

Fig. 5. The building of the bank of the Mutual Credit Society "Golden Calf", Simferopol. Architect N. P. Krasnov. onethousandninehundredthirteen

Fig. 6. The building of the bank of the Mutual Credit Society "Golden Calf",

Simferopol. Architect N. P. Krasnov. 1913 Fragment.

Fig. 7. Villa "Victoria" S. S. of Crimea, Feodosia.

Architect N. P. Krasnov. onethousandninehundredfourteen

Fig. 8. Villa "Victoria" S. S. of Crimea, Feodosia.

Architect N. P. Krasnov. 1914 Fragment.

Fig. 9, 10. Villa "Victoria" S. S. of Crimea, Feodosia.

Architect N. P. Krasnov. 1914 Fragments.

Fig. 11, 12. Villa "Victoria" S. S. of Crimea, Feodosia.

Architect N. P. Krasnov. 1914 Fragments.

In the designated works of Nikolai Krasnov, he applied such elements of Seljuk ornamentation as multilevel chains, rosettes, solid plaits and rapports, as well as patterns of geometric elements in the form of stars and complex multipath figures. In the design of the Dulber Palace, these are mainly geometric elements of ornament, whereas, for example, in the decoration of the Golden Calf bank, geometry is combined with phytomorphic and zoomorphic symbols. The symbolism of certain elements could be used by modern architects both in their historical interpretation and being endowed with new meanings. At the same time, the architect boldly mixed elements traditional for Seljuk ornaments with elements of other ethnic groups. For example, the image of a lion in a cartouche in the mesh rapport of the villa "Victoria" of Solomon of the Crimea means in the Jewish reading a symbol of power, indicating the post he holds as head of the regional government ^[10]. The symbol of an eagle or a griffin has the same meaning (Fig. 11, 12).

Thus, with the advent of the Seljuk style in Crimea, it became widely used in the architectural decor not only of Islamic peoples, but was also perceived by representatives of other ethnic groups and faiths. The elegant decorativeness of the Seljuk ornaments could not be more consistent with the Crimean style of architecture of palaces, villas and mansions, giving the buildings an openwork lightness and at the same time a parade that was actively used by modern architects. Due to such a wide spread, a number of researchers consider the Seljuk style of decoration one of the most characteristic distinguishing features of Crimean modern and postmodern architecture.