Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City by John Freely, Hilary Sumner-Boyd Read Free Book Online
Authors: John Freely, Hilary Sumner-Boyd
and a tekke, or dervish monastery. The tekke is no longer occupied by dervishes, of course, since their various orders were banned in the early years of the Republic.
THE SUBLIME PORTE
A block beyond the mosque we come to Alemdar Caddesi, the avenue which skirts the outer wall of Topkap ı Saray ı . Just to the left at the intersection we see a large ornamental gateway with a projecting roof in the rococo style. This is the famous Sublime Porte, which in former days led to the palace and offices of the Grand Vezir, where from the middle of the seventeenth century onwards most of the business of the Ottoman Empire was transacted. Hence it came to stand for the Ottoman government itself, and ambassadors were accredited to the Sublime Porte rather than to Turkey, just as to this day ambassadors to England are accredited to the Court of St. James. The present gateway, in which it is hard to discover anything of the sublime, was built about 1843 and now leads to the various buildings of the Vilayet, the government of the Province of Istanbul. The only structure of any interest within the precinct stands in a corner to the right of the gateway. This is the dershane, or lecture-hall of an ancient medrese; dated 1565, it is a pretty little building in the classical style of that period.
Opposite the Sublime Porte, in an angle of the palace wall, is a large polygonal gazebo. This is the Alay Kö ş kü, the Review or Parade Pavilion, from whose latticed windows the Sultan could observe the comings and goings at the palace of his Grand Vezir. One sultan, Crazy Ibrahim, was said to have used it as a vantage point from which to pick off passing pedestrians with his crossbow. The present kiosk dates only from 1819, when it was rebuilt by Sultan Mahmut II, but there had been a Review Pavilion at this point from much earlier times. From here the Sultan reviewed the great official parades which took place from time to time. The liveliest and most colourful of these was the Procession of the Guilds, a kind of peripatetic census of the trade and commerce of the city which was held every half-century or so. The last of these processions was held in the year 1769, during the reign of Sultan Mustafa II.
It might be worthwhile to pause for a few moments at this historic place to read a description of one of these processions, for it reveals to us something of what Stamboul life was like three centuries ago. This account is contained in the Seyahatname , or Book of Travels , written in the mid-seventeenth century by Evliya Çelebi, one of the great characters of old Ottoman Stamboul. Evliya, describing the Procession of the Guilds which took place in the year 1638, during the reign of Sultan Murat IV, tells us that it was an assembly “of all the guilds and professions existing within the jurisdiction of the four Mollas (Judges) of Constantinople,” and that “the procession began its march at dawn and continued till sunset... on account of which all trade and work in Constantinople was disrupted for a period of three days. During this time the riot and confusion filled the town to a degree which is not to be expressed by language, and which I, poor Evliya, only dared to describe.”
Evliya tells us that the procession was distributed into 57 sections and consisted of 1,001 guilds. Representatives of each of these guilds paraded in their characteristic costumes or uniforms, exhibiting on floats their various enterprises, trying to outdo one another in amusing or amazing the crowd. The liveliest of the displays would seem to have been that of the Captains of the White Sea (the Mediterranean), who had floats with ships mounted on them, in which, according to Evliya, “are seen the finest cabin-boys dressed in gold, doing service to their masters who make free with drinking. Music is played on all sides, the masts and oars are adorned with pearls, the sails are of rich stuffs and embroidered muslin. Arrived at the Alay Kö ş kü they meet
THE SUBLIME PORTE
A block beyond the mosque we come to Alemdar Caddesi, the avenue which skirts the outer wall of Topkap ı Saray ı . Just to the left at the intersection we see a large ornamental gateway with a projecting roof in the rococo style. This is the famous Sublime Porte, which in former days led to the palace and offices of the Grand Vezir, where from the middle of the seventeenth century onwards most of the business of the Ottoman Empire was transacted. Hence it came to stand for the Ottoman government itself, and ambassadors were accredited to the Sublime Porte rather than to Turkey, just as to this day ambassadors to England are accredited to the Court of St. James. The present gateway, in which it is hard to discover anything of the sublime, was built about 1843 and now leads to the various buildings of the Vilayet, the government of the Province of Istanbul. The only structure of any interest within the precinct stands in a corner to the right of the gateway. This is the dershane, or lecture-hall of an ancient medrese; dated 1565, it is a pretty little building in the classical style of that period.
Opposite the Sublime Porte, in an angle of the palace wall, is a large polygonal gazebo. This is the Alay Kö ş kü, the Review or Parade Pavilion, from whose latticed windows the Sultan could observe the comings and goings at the palace of his Grand Vezir. One sultan, Crazy Ibrahim, was said to have used it as a vantage point from which to pick off passing pedestrians with his crossbow. The present kiosk dates only from 1819, when it was rebuilt by Sultan Mahmut II, but there had been a Review Pavilion at this point from much earlier times. From here the Sultan reviewed the great official parades which took place from time to time. The liveliest and most colourful of these was the Procession of the Guilds, a kind of peripatetic census of the trade and commerce of the city which was held every half-century or so. The last of these processions was held in the year 1769, during the reign of Sultan Mustafa II.
It might be worthwhile to pause for a few moments at this historic place to read a description of one of these processions, for it reveals to us something of what Stamboul life was like three centuries ago. This account is contained in the Seyahatname , or Book of Travels , written in the mid-seventeenth century by Evliya Çelebi, one of the great characters of old Ottoman Stamboul. Evliya, describing the Procession of the Guilds which took place in the year 1638, during the reign of Sultan Murat IV, tells us that it was an assembly “of all the guilds and professions existing within the jurisdiction of the four Mollas (Judges) of Constantinople,” and that “the procession began its march at dawn and continued till sunset... on account of which all trade and work in Constantinople was disrupted for a period of three days. During this time the riot and confusion filled the town to a degree which is not to be expressed by language, and which I, poor Evliya, only dared to describe.”
Evliya tells us that the procession was distributed into 57 sections and consisted of 1,001 guilds. Representatives of each of these guilds paraded in their characteristic costumes or uniforms, exhibiting on floats their various enterprises, trying to outdo one another in amusing or amazing the crowd. The liveliest of the displays would seem to have been that of the Captains of the White Sea (the Mediterranean), who had floats with ships mounted on them, in which, according to Evliya, “are seen the finest cabin-boys dressed in gold, doing service to their masters who make free with drinking. Music is played on all sides, the masts and oars are adorned with pearls, the sails are of rich stuffs and embroidered muslin. Arrived at the Alay Kö ş kü they meet
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