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TOPKAPI PALACE/ISTANBUL
THE TOPKAPI PALACE MUSEUM
TOPKAPI SARAYI
Topkapi Palace was home to all the Ottoman sultans until the reign of Abdulmecid I (1839-1860), a period of nearly four centuries. The order for the construction of the Topkapi Palace on the Seraglio Point overlooking both Marmara and Bosphorus was given by Mehmed II after the conquest of Constantinapolis in 1453. The place was then an ancient olive grove. The final form of the first palace covered an area 700m², and was enclosed with fortified walls 1400 meters in length. The walls were pierced by a number of gates, namely the Otluk gate, the Demir gate and the Imperial gate (Bab-i Humayun), and a number of minor angled gates between them. After the reign of Mehmed II the Conqueror, the palace grew steadily to form a city like complex of buildings and annexes, including a shore palace known as the Topkapi shore palace, as it was situated near the cannon gate -Topkapi- of the ancient walls of Istanbul. When the shore palace was burned down in 1863, it lent its name to the great complex we now know as Topkapi Palace. The main portal, the Bab-i Humayun, was suited next to the mosque of Ayasofya (Haghia Sophia Church), and this led a series of four courts surrounded by various structures. The courts, chambers, pavilions and other sections can be viewed at the floor plan of Topkapi Palace.
In this page, you can find pointers to the pictures of illuminated manuscript pages in the museum sections and pictures of sections illustrating the architecture of the palace.
You can visit the pages at the left frame to get more information on the Palace and Museum.
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Accesses to this page since Oct. 1, 1996:
This page is maintained by A. Enis Cetin , Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Bilkent University , Ankara, Turkey
Comments to history@bilkent.edu.tr
E-mail address of the Museum topkapisarayi@atlas.net.tr
The Topkapi Palace Museum Contact and Visiting Information
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Address:
TOPKAPI SARAYI
Sultanahmet, Eminonu
Tel : +90- 212- 512 04 80
Faks : +90- 212- 528 59 91
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Museum hours are 9:30 am - 5:00 pm.
Topkapi Palace is closed on Tuesdays.
Harem section can be visited only by a guided tour and tickets should be purchased separetely.
Entrance fees:
Between $10 to $15 depending on the exchange rate.
Turkish students and soldiers : Free
Entrance fee for the Harem section:
Additional $2 (Only guided tours are allowed in Harem section.)
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Contact address for researchers :
Kultur Bakanligi Anitlar ve Muzeler Genel Mudurlugu,
II. Meclis Binasi, 06100, Ulus, Ankara, Turkey.
Telephone: 90-312-3104960
Fax: 90-312-3111417
Internet: http://www.kultur.gov.tr
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Comments to history@ee.bilkent.edu.tr
Guide to Topkapi Palace
When Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror took Istanbul in 1453, he first ordered the construction of a new palace for this new Ottoman capital, on a site in the district of Beyazit where Istanbul University stands today. But before long, he changed his mind and had a number of buildings constructed on the headland to the southeast. This was to become the palace later known as Topkapi.
The Mysterious Harem
Apart from brief intervals, Topkapi Palace was home to all the Ottoman sultans until the reign of Abdulmecid I (1839-1860), a period of nearly four centuries. Over the years the palace complex underwent constant evolution. Some buildings disappeared, destroyed by fire, earthquakes or demolished to make way for new buildings. The palace was therefore not a single massive building in the western tradition, constructed at one go, but an organic structure which was never static, and reflected the styles and tastes of many periods in many independent units with individual functions.
The last new building to be added to Topkapi was commissioned by Sultan Abdulmecid who abandoned Topkapi for a new palace on the Bosphorus. Neglected thereafter, Topkapi Palace fell into disrepair. After the establishment of the Republic in 1923 it was extensively renovated and transformed into a museum, and ever since has been one of Istanbul's most popular sights. Since Topkapi is so large, only some sections are open to the public.
Before entering the outer portal of the palace, let us pause to look at the fountain of Sultan Ahmet III just outside. This lovely baroque building dates from the 18th century and is the most striking example of such "meydan" fountains. On each of the four sides of the fountains is a tap, and at each of the four corners a "sebil" for the distribution of drinking water to passersby. The road leading off to the right
Secret Garden: Topkapi Palace Harem
As visitors enter the door of Topkapi Palace Harem their sense of anticipation is tangible. Even today they envisage the possibility of meeting an odalisque, her long skirt trailing on the ground as she walks. The word harem originates from the Arabic harîm, comprising the concepts of secrecy, inviolability and sacrosanctness that pervade the very walls of this place and marked life here over the centuries that it was a closed book to strangers.
The Mysterious Harem
The harem section of Topkapi Palace was carefully situated so that it could not be seen from the state apartments and the courtyards where public affairs were conducted. Tursun Bey, a chronicler at the time of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror wrote, 'If sems [the sun] had not been a word which in Persian takes the feminine article, even the sun would not be admitted to the harem.' Known in other eastern countries as perde (purdah), zenâne or endrûnr, the royal harem at the Ottoman Palace was known as the Dâr-üs-saâde, or Place of Felicity, while the section of the palace known as the Imperial Harem encompassed both the harem proper, the state apartments of the sultans, the quarters of his household and the pavilions in the fourth courtyard.
The secrecy associated with the royal harem and the harems of upper and middle-class Ottoman houses aroused the keen curiosity of foreign travellers and artists who visited Ottoman Turkey, but their written accounts and pictures of the harem were based for the most part on hearsay. With a few exceptions it was not until the end of the 18th century, during the reign of the enlightened reformist Sultan Selim III (1789-1807) that the architect and draughtsman Melling, Daniel Clark and other artists were admitted to the palace harem to draw from observation instead of imagination.
In 1909, following the deposal of Sultan Abdülhamid II, the Ottoman historian Abdurrahman Seref Bey made a detailed study of the buildings and apartments of the harem, and the women, princesses and princes who lived there. His findings were published as a series of articles in 1910 and 1911 in the historical journal Encümen-i Osmani Mecmuasi. The harem was home to the sultan himself, his mother, wives, daughters, sons, brothers, the high ranking female officials who managed the affairs of the household, hundreds of maidservants, and black eunuchs.
The earliest parts of the harem quarters are the Golden Road, the sultan's private kitchen, and that section known as Eski Hasekiler. The service sections of the harem included kitchen, food cellar, baths, laundry, sick room and the dormitories of the maidservants and black eunuchs. As the population of the harem increased from the end of the 16th century onwards, mezzanines and additional buildings were constructed containing bedrooms for the serving women and self-contained apartments for the wives of the sultan. The 17th century Ottoman writer Evliya Çelebi records that until the late 16th century the harem did not move to Topkapi Palace, although the sultans conducted their daily business there and often spent the night, going occasionally to the Old Palace to visit their wives and children. Sultan Süleyman the Magnificient (1520-1566) took only his wife Hürrem Sultan and some women-in-waiting to this palace, the complete transferral of the harem from the Old Palace taking place during the reign of Murad III (1574-1595). On 24 July 1665, while Mehmed IV (1648-1687), his harem and household were at the palace in Edirne, a great fire broke out at Topkapi Palace, destroying the Palace of Justice, the Council of State, the Treasury, the Land Registry Office, most of the harem from the Carriage Gate to the Apartment of the Sultan's Mother, and the kitchens.
The 17th century Turkish scholar Katip Çelebi wrote in his Takvimü’t-Tevarih that the fire was started by a maidservant who had stolen a ring. Mehmed IV and his mother returned to Istanbul to inspect the situation, and the sultan ordered the construction of a new harem building whose interior walls were entirely decorated with tiles. This was completed in 1668, but since Mehmed IV and his successors who reigned during the second half of the 17th century lived for the most part at Edirne Palace, the harem at Topkapi did not regain its importance until the reign of Ahmed III (1703-1730), a period popularly known as the Tulip Era. European baroque began to influence Turkish art and architecture at this time, and the Tulip Era is characterised by a new naturalistic style which is perhaps most strikingly exemplified by the painted wall decoration consisting of vases of flowers and plates of fruit in the Fruit Room of Ahmed III in the harem.
The passion for garden flowers became evident everywhere, on clothing, furnishings and in architectural decoration, and extending even to the names of the harem women, who began to be given melodious Persian names like Laligül (Ruby Rose) and Nazgül (Shy Rose) that suggested they were as beautiful and graceful as flowers. Later in the 18th century, rococo, with its delicate colour schemes and light romantic motifs, began to influence Turkish art, and the Pavilion of Osman III built on a terrace facing the Hünkâr Sofasi (Throne Room of the Harem) and the gracefully decorated wooden structures known as the Gözdeler Dairesi (Apartment of Favourites) above the Golden Road are typical of this later style. Life in the royal harem was very different from that imagined by Europeans. As an institution in Ottoman society the harem reflected the secluded privacy of family life. The cariyes or maidservants who served the women of the household were trained and educated in the skills and accomplishments thought appropriate for women at the time, and after a certain number of years in service allowed to marry. In the royal harem, under the guidance of the sultn's mother or the principal officer of the harem household, a woman known as the chief treasurer, the girls were taught to read and write, play music, and the intricate rules of palace etiquette and protocol. Very few were honoured even by the privilege of waiting at the sultn'sg table, and still fewer became royal wives. After nine years of service the harem girls were given their manumission document, a set of diamond earrings and ring, a trousseau and some gold as their marriage portion, and suitable husbands found for them. They were renowned for their good breeding and for their discretion, never being known to reveal any intimate details about the royal family to outsiders. Nevertheless, graffiti on the harem walls shows that not all cariyes were contented with their lot: 'Dilferib whose heart burns / Is wretched / O God / Alas alas.'
Written by H. Canan Cimilli who is a researcher and Keeper of the Harem at Topkapi Palace Museum
Various Sections of the Topkapi Palace
The exterior and interior sections from the Topkapi Palace buildings are presented in this page. Most of the photos depict valuable tiles and wall paintings. The exact places of the buildings within the palace can be found at the floor plan of Topkapi Palace.
The Sadirvanli Taslik. The marble used for the door- and window-frames is from the quarries of the Proconnessos on the island of Marmara which in Antiquity provided practically all the grey and white marble used in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Meskhane gate, going down to the palace music room.
The Karaagalar Kogusu (Black Eunuchs' barracks): portico. The tile inscriptions are Koranic.
The Kadiefendis' sitting room, showing the low platform below the windows as it would originally have been, upholstered with cushions and bolsters.
The Kadiefendis' sitting room, fireplace, detail of chimney-piece.
The Valide Sultan's apartments, one of the principal reception rooms with an upper tier of windows and panels of landscapes and seascapes in Westernizing style, with Baroque or Rococo painted swangs, rincaeux and architectural motifs in trompe l'oeil.
The Valide Sultan's bed chamber, with seventeenth century tile panels and gilt wooden canopy.
The Hunkar Sofasi (Throne Room): probably built by Sinan for Murad II (1574-95), but was radically redecorated and altered in the reign of Osman III (1754-7). The scene shows the apex of the arches, the supporting side vaults and the tips of the pendentives.
The Hunkar Sofasi (Throne Room), viewed from the sitting area for the Harem ladies, showing the tall mirrors set between Neo-Classical pilasters.
The Has Oda (Privy Chamber) of Murad III (1574-95), showing the painted dome on the pendentives and an upper tier of windows of coloured glass. The windows are double glazed for the Istanbul winter.
The dining room of Ahmed III, showing the painted stucco fireplace and chimney-piece, with windows to either side in embrasures overlooking the courtyard of Osman III.
The Princes' apartments: the second hall, showing the upper windows of coloured glass with tile panels between, and a blue and white Koranic tile frieze below them.
The Princes' apartments or Cifte Kasirlar, viewed from the Gozdeler Tasligi (Favourites' Courtyard) looking towards the Golden Horn.
The Gozdeler Tasligi (Favourites' Courtyard), with the favourites' quarters to the right, above the portico.
Detail of one of the tile panels displayed on the Altin Yol; like the panel
The Hirka-i Saadet apartments, interior view. The tile panels are mostly seventeenth century.
The entrance to the Hirka-i Saadet apartments viewed from the Terrace of Sultan Ibrahim (1640-8).
The Revan Kosk, erected in 1045/1635-6 to commemorate Murad IV's victorious campaign in Transcaucasia, was otherwise known as the Sarik Odasi (Turban Room).
The Baghdad Kosk, built in 1048/1638-9 to commemorate Murad IV's re-conquest of Baghdad, viewed across the terrace of Sultan Ibrahim (1640-8), with the Iftariye (Breakfast Arbour), built by him soon after his accession, where he would break the fast in Ramadan - when the weather was good.
The Baghdad Kosk: the portico, showing marble paneling in Cairene Mamluk style.
The Baghdad Kosk; interior, showing the inlaid and encrusted cupboards and window-shutters and the all over tile-work of the upper walls, the pendentives and the soffits of the arches.
The Baghdad kosk: (left) detail of a seventeenth-century tile panel (one of the finest in the building), copying the prototype on the Sunnet Odasi of Sultan Ibrahim; (right) earlier cuerda seca tiles lining the wall-niches, the decorative wooden frame of which is inlaid with ivory, tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl.
Historical Information on The Topkapi Palace Museum
Istanbul's history dates back to 633 B.C. when Doric settlers from Megara founded a small, commercial colony here that became known as Byzantion. Two major constraints dictated the siting of ancient cities: topography and strategic considerations. The site of this new town was located at the tip of a peninsula that commanded three waterways. With the formal establishment of the polis, a city wall measuring five kilometers in length and having twenty-seven towers was built as protection. Within the walls, a hill within the walls was selected as its acropolis. This was the first of the city's eventual seven hills - apparently a topographical "must" for legendary ancient cities.
Continuous expansion and growth resulted in several transformations of the city's appearance. The first major one took place in 196, during the reign of the Roman emperor Septimus Severus. This involved the rebuilding of the land wall. Another Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, transformed the city into a great metropolis that he renamed Constantinopolis. This city was to become the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. In 412 with the aim of creating a new metropolis to serve as the capital of his empire, Emperor Theodosius undertook the fourth major expansion of the city and rebuilt the landwalls.
In the course of the centuries, palaces were built, abandoned, demolished, and rebuilt. Most of these overlooked the Sea of Marmara. Thus the Emperor Justinian (565-578) was making a radical and - for the city - fateful change when he decided to locate his new palace (Blachernae) at a place where the seawalls of the Golden Horn met the landwalls cutting across the peninsula. By the time of Alexius Comnenus (1061-1118), Blachernae was officially designated the imperial residence and all the other Byzantine palaces were abandoned.
Two thousand one hundred forty years after the foundation of the city, a young Ottoman sultan conquered the city at the age of twenty-three. Mehmed the II, given the name Fatih "Conqueror" in honor of his victory, made his conquest the capital of his vigorous, expanding empire. With his ambitions for world domination, he chose as the site of his administrative center and residence the very same place on which the original city was founded: a coincidence, perhaps, but more likely a reaffirmation of the rules of locational determinism; for even the length of the surrounding walls and the area they contained were close to those of ancient Byzantion.
At the time of his conquest, Sultan Mehmed encountered an impoverished city with a population of a mere forty thousand souls who lived scattered about in isolated residential sections set amidst cultivated fields. The site he chose for his palace was typical: a hill covered with an olive grove, presumably several abandoned monastic structures, chapels, and bathhouses, and a small residential district by the sea.
This was the beginning of an unprecedented scheme of grandiose proportions which became synonymous with Ottoman cultural and administrative history. More than a residential complex for the royal household, the new palace was to become the pivotal institution for the planning and decision-making institutions of a far-flung empire and it remained so from the late 15th century to the middle of the l9th.
With its "irregular, asymmetric, non-axial, and un-monumental proportions" as some European travelers described it, Topkapi Palace was certainly quite different from the European palaces with which they were familiar whether in terms of appearance or of layout. But it was also fundamentally different from oriental or Islamic palaces even though they might have had similar patterns of spatial organization. In fact, Topkapi was a sui generis microcosm, a paradise on earth or "to borrow a term from Ottoman palace terminology" The Palace of Felicity.
Topkapi may be considered a trans-cultural focal point in which a holistic civilization was created from the nomadic culture of Turkish tribesmen whose forefathers had set out from Central Asia and reached Asia Minor with stopovers in Persia and Mesopotamia. Within the historically short period of two centuries, the Ottomans rose from a small, feudal principality to become a major -the major- world power, yet at the same time they possessed a court tradition and culture of their own that was over a thousand years old. Undoubtedly Topkapi involved a synthesis of Byzantine elements but what grew up on the peninsula by the Golden Horn cannot possibly be divorced from its predecessors in Ottoman history.
With their conquest of Bursa in 1326, the Ottomans developed a new (for them) concept of a palace situated within a citadel in their new capital. Although no definite historical information is available about this palace's formal and functional organization, it may be assumed that it was here that the social organization and components of future palaces were shaped.
During the period of the empire's early formation and expansion (particularly during the conquest of the European territories called Rumeli) the concept of an established administrative capital had - for geopolitical reasons - to be flexible. Following his capture of Dimetoka in 1362, Murad I ordered the construction of a palace there and until 1368, that city served as the empire's temporary capital. The early sultans perforce developed the concept of keeping the center of administrative power moving as dictated by the mobility of military power.
Although Edirne was also conquered in 1362, and became the center of the administration of the empire's Rumelian territories, it did not become the formal capital until 1368, following the completion of a new palace built there. At the same time, Bursa remained a capital in its own right. Thus we see that the earlier empire was one in which there was a plurality of administrative focal points.
The first palace to be built in Edirne (which later became known as Eski Saray "Old Palace") was located in a place called Kavak Meydanl, the spot where Selimiye mosque was to be built in the 16th century. During the brief reign of Celebi Musa (1411), the palace grounds, in the form of a square, were protected by a wall fifteen meters high which turned it into an urban citadel. We have almost no detailed information about this palace's formal or functional organization or its architectural features.
Since it was originally the custom in the Ottoman empire for princes of the line to serve as provincial governors in cities like Kutahya, Amasya, and Manisa, palaces -whether new ones or reconstructions of existing ones- were built in such places for them to reside in.
Back in Edirne, work on the construction of a new palace began in 1447 on the banks of the Tunca river. It was not completed until 1457, by which time Mehmed II had already occupied the throne for six years and Istanbul for four.
After the conquest of Istanbul in 1453, a new palace for the Ottoman house was built within the walls of the city at a place called Forum Tauri. It replaced an abandoned monastery there. Also referred to in old Ottoman sources as Eski Saray, this palace covered a rather large area. Sultan Mehmed did not, however, live there much, preferring to take up residence in Edirne between campaigns.
When Istanbul was declared the empire's formal capital however, Eski Saray acquired the status of the sovereign's residence. Mehmed lived there until about the middle of the 1470's, by which time he had realized that he needed to construct a new palace whose grandeur and magnificence were more in accord with his imperial ambitions as evinced in the title "Ruler of the Two Seas and the Two Continents" that he assumed.
Within the remarkably short span of only ten years, four palaces were built in succession. It was probably this more than anything else that firmly established the roots of the extraordinary spatio-social evolutionary process that was to become the Ottoman palace tradition. The developmental stages of these palaces clearly define the royal house's developing conceptualization of what a palace should be: seat of government and imperial residence. The elements of this duality mutually influenced and transformed each other affecting the spatial and functional components of the Ottoman palaces until the early 18th century. The stages in this development may be summarized as:
Edirne Yeni Sarayi whose modifications and successive extensions undertaken in different stages and periods led to the evolution of residential and administrative units often with the same private and ceremonial functions and even with the same names. Thus this palace exhibits important parallels with the new palace in Istanbul.
Istanbul Eski Sarayi which, though originally intended as the Ottoman residence, was to play a vital role, as the "Women's Palace" in the development and spatial transformation of what was to become the new palace's Harem. While this palace served initially as the residence of the sultan's immediate family (mother, wives, and children), it later became the residence of all the womenfolk of deceased sovereigns. It thus serves as a parallel and external model for the official Harem of the new palace.
In his capacity as chief planner of his capital, Mehmed II set out the structure of the state with its own organizational philosophy, inter- related institutions, and ceremonial orders (including the ethics, manners, and rituals that ultimately became traditions) as well as the physical environment of the capital in which all its integrated institutions were located in designated zones and districts.
Mehmed II's Kanunname (literally "Book of Laws") lays down what are essentially the schematics for his prospective global empire- the "Third Rome". But although all its institutions are described in detail and were to be located somewhere within the urban context, the sultan's intentions with regard to matters of location and organization are not clearly known; only some vague assumptions can be made on the basis of the known duality of function.
Although he originally selected as the site of his palace a location that was thoroughly urban, he later chose to relocate it to another that was (at the time) relatively remote and isolated. His motives in this cannot be precisely discerned. Did he anticipate the separate (or integrated) primary function of the new palace as a private domain or residence or as a ceremonial domain that would be fitted out with the administrative functions of the state?
Another related, and unresolved, problem was why Yedikule, which was designed and built in accordance with the most sophisticated concepts of military architecture of the day, was to function solely as an imperial treasury. What purpose did he originally envision this structure serving? Compared with this, his intentions and aims in the construction of his kulliye (multi-functional complex) in the modern-day district of Fatih are clear and well formulated: it was here that the class of civil servants who would serve the state and make scholarly and technological contributions to its progress were to be educated.
All the palaces built (or completed) during the reign of Mehmed II exhibit the same spatial order based on the principle of interconnected courtyards, each located in clearly defined public, semi-public, and private zones. These courtyards were arranged according to hierarchical considerations with their shapes being determined by topography rather than precise geometric or orthogonal principles. The number of these courtyards was flexible: there had to be at least two but could be as many as nine, as in the case of the Edirne place. Only five of them, however, were given the designation meydan (square) or taslik (courtyard) according to the particular palace's terminology.
Palaces evolving around courtyards in the course of their historical development existed in both oriental and occidental cultures long before the Ottoman experiment. Spatial organization principles considering courtyards as "unit spaces" constituted a common design vocabulary that quite often was implemented as both an integrating and segregating spatial constraint.
The use of walls and courtyards and of clear and strong transitions between and among them is one way of expressing domains. The spatial system of a palace (or of any other structure for that matter) is an expression of a human behavioral system. In this context, unwanted behavior and interaction that can be prevented (or controlled) through rules (manners, hierarchies, avoidance) can be reinforced through architecture that creates areas (zones) that are arranged hierarchically and occupied by various groups creating a balance of power among them, which in turn makes it possible to create the "system" through which group identities are formed, maintained, and integrated.
It is for this reason that all the legendary palaces that are formed around a system of courtyards -Beijing or Forbidden City, Delhi, Akra, Fatehpur Sirki, and Alhambra- exhibit striking spatial/organizational similarities. Since an absolute ruler's philosophical vision of what should be the administrative and residential constituents evolved around a common behavioral system and tradition, they naturally reflect similar sources and guiding principles.
Today Topkapi Palace functions as a museum and only a very small part of its original domain and environment can be appreciated. The ravages of time have resulted in the destruction (by fire) and the demolition (through new building) of many of its original structures. Despite this, the original 15th century spatial organization based on a triple courtyard order that integrates, segregates, and defines the palace's residential, ceremonial, and functional requirements has remained remarkably intact.
These individual requirements led to the formation of homogeneous, self-contained clusters that evolved around smaller courtyards since this was dictated by the formative systems of the social and functional groups, corps, classes, and institutions that occupied them. These clusters are not isolated, however, but are linked to and aligned with the main courtyards creating a self- contained microcosm that perfectly mirrors the state it housed.
That then defines the methodology of this book. By analytically exhibiting the spatial hierarchy of the palace, reconsidering its order and the successive stages of its transformation, we shall endeavor to expose the present state and past of this unique world, the Palace of Felicity.
The text is extracted from the book "Topkapi: the palace of felicity" by Ahmet Ertug and Ibrahim Koluk,
© Ertug & Koluk
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