Topkapi Palace

[See more at: http://turkradio.us/topkapi/ ]

x0x Topkapi Palace

By Prof. Dr. METIN AND

Administrative center of the Ottoman Empire, Topkapi
Palace was also its hub of art and culture.

Topkapi Palace was not only the home of the sultans but
also the empire's administrative center and the seat of
its legislative, judicial and executive functions. At
the same time it was also an academy of fine arts where
artists plied their trade, and a conservatory where the
arts of music and dance were taught and performances
and concerts organized.

This miniature city which housed thousands of people
suffered numerous fires and earthquakes over time, and
its damaged structures were repaired and restored.
Displayed in the palace were the porcelains, jewels,
carpets, inscriptions, paintings, miniatures and even
weapons, back as spoils of military conquests.

EUROPEAN WITNESSES OF OTTOMAN SPLENDOR

After Fatih Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror took Istanbul,
a palace was constructed on the spot where the central
building of Istanbul University stands today.

When this palace soon proved unable to meet the needs
of the imperial administration, however, it was decided
to build a new one. The site of the former Byzantine
acropolis was chosen, bounded by the Golden Horn,
Seraglio Point and the Sea of Marmara, and the area was
closed off from the city by walls. The Audience Hall,
the Privy Chamber, the Treasury and the Public Records
Office were all built here. Although the exact date of
construction of the new palace is not known for
certain, it is estimated to have been built between
1472 and 1478.

Not only did the 16th century sultans have additional
structures erected during this period when the empire
was at its zenith but later sultans had damaged
buildings repaired in various styles. This activity
continued until the 19th century, with the result that
it is instructive to compare engravings and paintings
of Topkapi Palace in the 16th century with its
appearance today. We can also catch glimpses of various
sections of the Palace in the 16th century from
surviving manuscripts illuminated with miniatures.

The most important of these are in the first volume of
a book entitled the Hunername, housed in the Topkapi
Palace Library. We have included here three miniatures
from this volume, as well as miniatures showing the
Pavilion of Murad III from the first volume of the
Sahinsahname, which depicts scenes from the life of
that sultan. We have also made selections from three
volumes of paintings by European artists of the time,
two in the Austrian National Library, the other in the
Dresden State Library. The artists who made these
paintings, some of them historians, were members of the
embassy delegations of the so-called Holy League or
Habsburg Empire. Both their drawings and their writings
are reliable sources of detail.

AT THE COURT OF MURAD III

The miniature depicting the First Gate (Imperial Gate),
the First Court, and the Second or Central Gate (Gate
of Salutation), indicates that the First Gate was
apparently covered in tiles in that period.

This detail is not however apparent in the picture
taken from the Vienna album, in which the dome of Hagia
Eirene is visible. The armory depicted in the miniature
showing the tiles was used as a weapons depot, and next
to it stood the Firewood Depot. The small structure on
the right was a 120-bed hospital known as the Enderun
Hospital or Hall of the Sick. The pavilion at the top
was the Pavilion of Justice, where petitions submitted
by the common people were processed.

Through the Second Gate (Gate of Felicity) one passes
into the Second Court, the Court of Justice or Court of
the Imperial Council. The palace kitchens are located
behind the wooden porticoes on the right-hand side of
the miniature depicting this section. On the left is
the Court of the Imperial Council, also known as the
Kubbealti, literally `Under the Dome'. Here too is the
Sultan's Pavilion, from which the padishahs followed
the proceedings of the council of state.

The padishah who is watching the seven Kubbealti vezirs
and the Grand Vezir--in the center dressed in
white--from the Sultan's Pavilion must be Murad III.
The building adjacent to the Sultan's pavilion is the
Public Records Office. Money was stored in the large
earthenware jars in the Outer Treasury next to the
Kubbealti. Depicted with gazelles in the miniature, the
Second Court, where lions and tigers were occasionally
allowed to roam, was never entered on horseback.

THE GATE OF FELICITY

The Third Court is entered through the Third Gate or
Gate of Felicity.

Guarded by the White Eunuchs, it was also known as the
Gate of the White Eunuchs, or the Audience Gate since
it led to the Audience Hall.

Ceremonies such as coronations and the handing of the
imperial standard to the Grand Vezir before he set off
for war were held in front of this gate. Sections of
the First and Second Courts are depicted in one of the
miniatures from the Dresden album.

Captives brought back from a military campaign are
shown about to pass through the Second Gate. At the top
left is the Pavilion of Justice.

brought by an embassy delegation are carrying them
through the gate.

The miniature depicting the Audience Hall is taken from
the Vienna album. The ceiling decorations here, the
tiles that half encase the walls, the carpet on the
floor, the windows, and the sofa and the cushions on it
all reflect the refined taste of Ottoman art. The
sultan seated in the right-hand corner is Murad III and
the younger man to his right is, with great
probability, his son and successor, Mehmed III.

PRIVY GARDENS DOWN TO THE SHORE

The Third Court, which constituted the inner palace,
was also known as the Enderun Court. A plan of it shown
in a miniature from the Hunername depicts the facades
of the buildings lying flat on the ground in the
horizontal plane. The dense group of buildings in the
background is the Harem.

The red rectangle at the entrance is the Audience
Chamber, which was the sultan's reception hall. In the
Third Court are the Pavilion of the Conqueror (the
Inner Treasury), the Privy Chamber (where the Sacred
Relics are exhibited today), the Dormitory of the
Expeditionary Pages and, behind it, the Meskhane or
School of Music. Musicians, singers, dancers, poets,
barbers and miscellaneous servants were trained in the
Dormitory of the Expeditionary Pages. Also visible here
are the Imperial Gardens, which extended from outside
the walls all the way down to the sea. Meanwhile the
miniature in the first volume of the Sehinsahname shows
the facade of the Harem and, in front of it, the
Pavilion of Murad III with its garden.

There is also a panorama of Istanbul in the Vienna
album which accurately depicts all the buildings from
Sarayburnu (Seraglio Point) up to the quarter of Eyup.
We have chosen here a view of Topkapi Palace from the
Golden Horn, a miniature in which a portion of the
Haghia Sophia is visible in the upper right corner.

Topkapi Palace was used by the Ottoman dynasty until
the 19th century when they settled into new palaces on
the Bosphorus. Following the proclamation of the
Republic, this magnificent palace, in which we can
literally read the history of the empire, was converted
into a museum at the behest of Ataturk on 3 April 1924.

Just to be correct, Topkapi Palace is in Europe, not Asia.
--
"There's no such thing as Free Parking!"
Larry Gould