Jonathan
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Label translation help.
Somebody sent me pictures of an old oud, and I need some help with the translation of the label.
The English letters show little more than "chukian."
Looking at the Armenian portion, I am guessing that the first name is Hagop (I can see H, A, and 3 more letters). Then, if you look at the English
version, while the H and the A are not visible, you can sort of see a G O P. And, I think the last name is something like Kichukian/Kuchukian. The
first letter is a K, the second an i, and the third is a mystery.
There is also writing there in the Arabic/Ottoman script that I can not read.
Sadly, no date, but in the upper left, the Armenian word "tiv", which would generally be followed by the year.
Any thoughts?
There's a cool repair label on there from Hadi Usta.
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Multi Kulti
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Thank you very much Jonathan for posting the pictures.
I would like to know who this maker is.
Someone translated the Ottoman Script and said something about Ottoman Period RUMI or Hicmi...around 1902-1905.Im not sure.
I must say that the resonance of the face of this oud is something new to me...and it is light like a feather.
I post 2 pics of the whole oud.
Nikos
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Multi Kulti
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back of the oud
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al-Halabi
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Your guesses are correct. The first line in Ottoman Turkish says "Agop Kuchukian mamulatinden," literally, "from the works of Agop Kuchukian." (Kuchuk
means small in Turkish.)
On the top right, across from "tiv", is the word "numero," which in Turkish would refer to the serial number of the instrument rather than a date.
The address in Turkish is incomplete, but what is legible reads "... oglu Odalar Kapisi numero 2."
At the end of the address line in Turkish is the date, in which the first three digits 132 are clearly legible and the last digit is torn off or
smudged. The Islamic year 1320 would be 1902-03. So the oud could be dated without knowing the last digit as being from the time period 1320-1329, or
1902-1911. There is also what looks like a Gregorian year at the end of the address in Armenian, but it's hard for me to read it. Maybe another photo
focusing on that area at the bottom right might help arrive at the exact date. All you need is the last digit.
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zalzal
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The arabic letters i guess are
(To be taken as a first approach, not at all sure)
Agup Kujaian M s u la t n d
The other line
Ugli ?? tah l r qi yu s Kr 25 and later 132
May be the hegira year (we are nowadays on 142 something)
Hope more qualified people can contribute better...
(THIS CAME AT THE SAME TIME AS AL HALABI, SO FOLLOW AL HALABI MUCH BETTER THAN ME)
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SamirCanada
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really nice oud.
Do you know what was repaired?
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al-Halabi
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Zalzal, the orthography of Ottoman Turkish can be a bit tricky if you are coming to it from Arabic. The Turks adopted the Arabic script although it
was ill-suited for their language, which has a number of sounds that cannot be accurately represented with Arabic characters or that are read
differently from the way you might think based on Arabic usage. But you made a good try.
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Jonathan
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Very cool. Thank you all.
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maran
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the third letter is the same as the sixth letter - hiun, the 34th letter of the alphabet. when next to ini like that it gives you
the "ü" sound in turkish.
the other armenian part at the bottom is hard to make out, but most likely has to do with the address. the first word looks like "halic" (golden
horn), the last one looks like it could be "kapı'e" (door). can you take another picture without the shadows on that part?
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Multi Kulti
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Ok here are some other fotos
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Multi Kulti
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one more
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al-Halabi
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These larger photos show no Gregorian year, which I initially thought the patches on the right bottom might be. At least the clearer Armenian may help
complete the address, for whatever that is worth.
Maran, the address in Turkish reads "...oglu Odalar Kapisi numero 2" (Gate of the ...oglu Rooms, no. 2). The rest is torn off. How does the address
read in Armenian?
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maran
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much better now. the armenian reads "halici oglu odalar kapisi 2". halicioglu is an area of istanbul, near haskoy i think.
btw if anyone missed it there was a very good program on bbc-turkish a while back on armenian contributions to ottoman music, with commentary by the
musicologist bulent aksoy on hampartzum limonciyan and his "hampartzum nota", tatyos efendi, artaki candan, nigogos aga, and bimen sen, among others.
it also has some udi hrant taksims playing in the background at one point:
Geçmisten günümüze Ermeni bestekârlar
("the armenian composers from past to present")
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al-Halabi
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Thanks, Maran. I was curious about the word missing before oglu in the Turkish address. This solves the puzzle. The area of Halicioglu used to have an
Armenian population and Armenian churches (I visited it briefly once on the way to Eyup across the water). Many Jews and Greeks also used to live in
that general area of Istanbul (in Haskoy, Balat, and Fener). Inf fact, at the time this oud was made the non-Muslim residents and foreigners made up
about 55% of the population of Istanbul, which is an amazing proportion for what was the capital of an Islamic empire.
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Multi Kulti
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Thank you very much guys for the help...next step to find a luthier to restore it (work on the ribs and on the pegs-pegbox).
Nikos
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