Empiria Ottomania

Ottoman Lifestyle

2007-07-24T01:24:00.000-07:00

Life in the Ottoman Empire was a mixture of western and eastern life. One unique characteristic of Ottoman life style was it was very fragmented. The millet concept generated this fragmentation and enabled to coexist in a mosaic of cultures. The Capital of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople also had a unique culture, mainly because it laid on two continents.

Some of the basic social structures with Ottoman flavours can be summarized under items such as Coffeehouse, Hammam etc.

Coffeehouse

Story teller at a coffeehouse

Socialization was a very important function in the Turkish culture. The coffee shops were where people gather and exchange information. Coffee was an excuse to bring people from different homes. The first Coffeehouse was opened in 1473 in Istanbul, which is 20 years after the Fall of Constantinople.

With the extension of the Ottoman Empire, such as in the Middle East, since the 16th century, the coffeehouse (al-maqhah in Arabic qahveh-khaneh in Persian or kahvehane or kıraathane in Turkish) has served as a social gathering place where men assemble to drink coffee or tea, listen to music, read books, play chess and backgammon, perhaps hear a recitation from the works of Antar or from Shahnameh.

Play backgammon

Coffee shop

Yalis

At the end of the 17th century, pashas, grand viziers and other distinguished citizens of Ottoman Istanbul began to build themselves elegant villas - yalis - along the shores of the Bosphorus. These served as summer residences, and the styles employed reflected their owners' prestige. Since then, the yalis that have been built have become larger and more elaborate, adopting Baroque, Art Nouveau and modern styles of architecture. Most of them still conform to a traditional plan, making maximum use of the waterfront and, inside, having a large sitting room surrounded by bedrooms.

Yalis were unification of water and plant]]

Hammam

Turkish baths were unique. They had played an important role in Ottoman culture, serving as places of social gathering, ritual cleansing and as architectural structures, institutions, and elements with special customs attached to them. After a long journey, cleaning at a bath was a requirement for every Turkish house. There was a separate water fountain for each patron.

use of running and collected water.

lighting and space organization

Social Spaces

Plants and water were very important in house design	A Turkish street	Turkish family	A street

Social center

The Galata bridge

Parks

Turkish family, at park

Government life

Telling a problem to a public scrivener

Economic Life

Retailers

Armenian & Turkish Retailers

Farmers' Market

On special days farmers brought their production and present them to public. This tradition also extends to the Kurban Bayrami (ar:Eid ul-Adha tr:koor-BAHN bahy-rah-muh) where sheep, camels, etc are sold instead of agricultural products.

Cotton Market at Istanbul

Bazaar

The Grand Bazaar

Devarya, an unknown Ottoman Mint in Eritrea

2007-07-19T05:14:00.000-07:00

Introduction

During the last ten years or so there have been some discussions about an Ottoman copper coin with an enigmatic legend, as to whether this represents the coin's denomination or the name of its mint. The coin concerned is known from perhaps half a dozen specimens present in a few collections. It shows distinct similarities with 16th - 17th century (10th - 11th century AH) Ottoman copper coins from the Yemen and is therefore thought to originate from that part of the world. As it is unknown for any pre-19th century Ottoman coin to have its denomination or value shown as part of its inscription, it may be safely assumed that the inscription on this particular coin represents its mint name, and not its denomination. Having said that, this then leaves us with the identification of the mint name of these coins.

The Coin

The legend in Arabic script on the coin's obverse from the top downwards shows the usual dhuriba (it was struck), where the letter ba forms a horizontally drawn-out line below the letters dha and ra; (dha is used to decribe the Arabic letter that is normally transcribed by a d with a dot below it, which I cannot do in my computer) below this horizontal line of the letter ba there are the naturally unconnected letters: dal-wau-alif-ra-ya; below these letters is the word sanah (year) again in a horizontally drawn-out line, below which there is the year 974, the year of Sultan Selim II's accession.

The coin's reverse shows a hexagram of two superimposed triangles with dots and accents, very similar to the reverse of the large Ottoman copper coins from Malhaz in the Yemen which, incidentally, show the same year.¹⁾ Thus the coins under discussion look like a fraction of the Malhaz coin. See illustrations Fig. 1-5.

The coin's weights are around 2.8 g, its diameter 12-14 mm and its thickness 1-1.5 mm. Its metal composition visually appears to be pure copper. The existing coins are generally fairly well struck

The proper reading (e.g. the letter ra might also be read as zay) and voweling, and therefore the pronunciation of what should be the mint name, appears not to relate to an existing or known topographical name in the Yemen, and has sofar remained an enigma.

Interested numismatists have tried to identify the coin's inscription as dawari, dawariya or dawazia etc. with known names in the Yemen, using historical literature and narrative sources, not only going thorough indexes, but also checking texts. As no corresponding place name is recorded for this coin, an alternative meaning, e.g. the coin's denomination came to mind.

The denomination dawari has apparently been recorded from a 17th century Yemeni source ²⁾ and it is said to be known from an Iranian coin too³⁾, but clear references fail. To solve the enigma, it was suggested that on this coin perhaps the denomination rather than the mint name is shown. So far the reading of this word has remained a problem to which this presentation proposes a fitting solution

Dr. Vladimir Suchý has always insisted that the coin's legend represents its mint name and suggested to attribute it to a so far unknown mint place. In 2000 he published an article in a Turkish numismatic journal on Selim II’ s coinage in Yemen, where he has provided a drawing and a photo of this enigmatic coin and mentioned two of these coins in the Tuebingen collection which originate from the former Album collection.⁴⁾ Since then several more of these coins have come to light in private collections.

During the last five years I have also tried hard to find a proper mint place for this enigmatic coin. It is well known that the Ottomans did not mint copper coins in small villages or unimportant places. The coins should have been minted in important administrative centers. Eventually I came across this relatively unknown place, Devarya or Dawariya, an Ottoman fortress, in today’s Eritrea on the west side of the Red Sea, instead of in Yemen. I found this information in the book ”Habes Eyaleti” by Cengiz Orhonlu⁵⁾. The mint place of this enigmatic coin was Devarya (Dawariya, Debaroa......etc.) without any hesitation.

When I wrote to Dr. Suchy about this discovery, in return he immediately sent me copy of a letter by the late Samuel Lachmann⁶⁾, dated 20th November 1990 (see attached). As you will find in this attachment, Lachmann was not as lucky as I, to read Orhonlu’s book but he had cleverly suggested 15 years before me, that this coin was struck in Debaroa.

Solving the problem

Debaroa was located in present day Eritrea. It was briefly the capital of the Ottoman Habesh Eyalet (province) during the early period (later the seat of that Ottoman administration was moved to Sawakin on present day Sudan's Red Sea coast). It was a fortress named variously as Debaroa, Debarva,and Devarya . In Orhonlu’s book, although the author himself has used Debaroa and Debarva rather than Devarya, in official documents given in the book⁷⁾, the name of Devarya has been used instead of Debarva. Documents have been written with divani calligraphy. In divani line (dal) is written like and sometimes (ti) is used instead of in Ottoman Turkish. But normally as it is the case on the mangir, has been used. Devarya in one official document was written⁸⁾ but in an other one was written⁹⁾. In all cases it is normally read Devarya (Dawariya).

Historical Context

In the middle of the 16th (10th AH) century, as a result of an economic crisis due to a shortage of precious metals (specially gold) in the Ottoman Empire, the Porte followed an active policy of searching for and exploiting sources of wealth in Africa, starting from the Egyptian border southwards to Mombasa in East Africa including today’s Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. The Ottomans decided to establish a province in Habeshistan (Abyssinia / Ethiopia), in order to control the trade in gold, ivory and slaves which were available there in regular supply. The Ottomans started a military action in southern Egypt under the command of Özdemir Pasha, when Khadim Sulayman Pasha was beylerbeyi in Egypt (1524-1535). As a result quite a large portion of this area came under the control of the Ottomans (Qasr Ibrim and Derr in southern Egypt) and later also the port of Sawakin on the Red Sea coast.

On occasion the Ottoman military authorities in Yemen had supported the Muslim Sultanate Adal across the Red Sea with Ottoman soldiers armed with muskets, in their struggle against the Christian Amhara and Tigre rulers of Ethiopia, further to the north, who in turn, had called on Portuguese assistance against the Muslim invaders.

In 1554 (962 AH) the Ottoman army under former Yemeni beylerbeyi Özdemir Pasha started military actions in and managed to take control of the Red Sea ports of Massawa and Arkiko in 1557 (965 AH) in order to counter Portuguese influence there.

“The Ottomans estimated and expected nearly 60.000 sultanis worth in gold in return by establishing a province in Habeshistan". It is also documented that they intended to strike coins, sikke, in the Sultan's name, and mention his name in the khutbah.¹⁰⁾

"The Ottoman Turks under Özdemir Pasha seized Massawa and Arkiko [Harkiko] in 1557 and fought their way up into Hamasien, where they built a fortress at Debarwa, south of Asmara.This provoked strong Tigrayan resistance. The Tigrayans drove the Turks back toward the coast but could not dislodge them from Suakin, Massawa and Arkiko, and the Turks made repeated incursions into northern Ethiopia during the remainder of the century, at times gaining the support of rivals of the [Ethiopian] emperors."¹¹⁾

Devarya (Debarva, Davaro, Debaroa, Debarwa etc.) and its environs were under the control of the Ottomans in 1559. Devarya (Dawariya) had a strategic importance for military action and for controlling the region. The Ottomans built a strong fortress with a big mosque (jam'i) and many mescids (masajid) there. It was a central and strong fortress to keep the spoils safely. After Özdemir Pasha died in Devarya from a serious illness in 1560, the Ethiopians captured Devarya and destroyed everything there. Özdemir's son Uthman Pasha took back Devarya and its environs again from King Minas in 1562. In 1576 the Ethiopians captured Devarya again but the Ottomans took it back again in 1577. In 1579 Sarsa Dengel, King of Ethiopia attacked the Ottomans and took back Devarya again. Devarya was in the hands of the Ottomans again from 1582 till 1588. After this date political relations were established between the beylerbeyi of the Habesh Eyalet and the Ethiopian kings. In the middle of the 18th century the Habesh Eyalet lost its importance as there was not sufficient revenue for its administration.¹²⁾

From the 1820's onwards, a much reduced Habesh Eyalet became part of the Egyptian controlled territories along the western Red Sea coast after Mehmet Ali assumed the rule of Egypt as its Khedive. From the middle of the 19th century the western Red Sea coast ports became much contested territory by the expansionist policies of the European colonial powers (France, Britain, Italy mainly), especially so after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

From the numismatic point of view there is no better attribution for this coin than the Devarya fortress. Clear proof of this would come in new finds of such coins or other denominations / metals for the same mint in Eritrea or Ethiopia. Apart from these copper coins, up to now only one Ottoman gold sultani from the mint of Tacura (Tajoura) is known, presumed by some to be from the western Red Sea region.¹³⁾

General Note

The location of Debarwa / Devarya in present day Eritrea is still known. It is shown as Debaroa, at coordinates 15^o5' North by 36^o 33' (map) East approximately, according to an old map of the area produced by Werner Munzinger in 1862 and published in his book Ostafrikanische Studien (Schaffhausen, 1864). There are several publications by early European explorers of those lands from the middle of the 19th century onwards, who mention the name Debaroa / Debarwa as an existing settlement, but without any further information on its status or condition. However, on Munzinger's map it is shown in extremely small letters, and does not even merit a dot for its exact location, just west of the upper reaches of the river Mareb, which eventually flows into Sudan near Kassala under the name Gash.

The Gurush: A New Ottoman Monetary Unit in the Eighteenth Century

2007-07-19T05:11:00.000-07:00

The seventeenth century had been a period of instability for the Ottoman currency culminating around the middle of the century in the closure of Ottoman mints, the cessation of the production of silver akches and their use as a means of exchange.

The decline of the akche posed serious challenges to the Ottoman administration. Without control over the currency, its control over the economy diminished considerably. Moreover, the disintegration of the monetary system and the increasing reliance on foreign coins had serious political implications. During the second half of the seventeenth century the government thus made numerous attempts at establishing a new currency but these proved to be unsuccessful due to the continuation of wars and fiscal difficulties. After a long interval of inactivity, the mint in Istanbul resumed operations in 1685, producing the small akches and the copper mangir beginning in 1689. Supported by the revenues from this experiment, the government then renewed its efforts to establish a new system around a large silver unit modelled after the European coins circulating in the Ottoman markets since the middle of the sixteenth century.

The first large silver coins were minted in 1690 after the Polish coin isolette or zolota which was imported in large quantities by Dutch merchants during the seventeenth century. These coins were about one third smaller than the Dutch thalers.^[1] Their weight was fixed in standard dirhams (3,20 grams) and they contained 60 percent silver and 40 percent copper. The largest of these weighed 6 dirhams, or approximately 19.2 grams. Later, in 1703, an even larger coin weighing approximately 8 dirhams, or 25-26 grams and its fractions were also minted. It appears that the first large coin of 1690 was intended as a zolota or cedid (new) zolota to distinguish it from the popular Polish coin and not as a gurush or piaster.^[2] Only after larger silver coins began to be minted in the early decades of the eighteenth century, was the new monetary scale clearly established.

The new Ottoman gurush was then fixed at 120 akches or 40 paras. The early gurushes weighed six and a quarter dirhams (20.0 grams) and contained close to 60 percent silver. The zolotas were valued at three fourths of the gurush or at 90 akches. The fractions of both the gurush and zolota were then minted accordingly.^[3] Due to wars and continuing political turmoil, however, many coins were minted with sub-standard silver content until the monetary reform of 1715-16. The appearance of sub-standard coinage attracted large numbers of counterfeiters until the 1720s.

By the 1720s a full spectrum of silver coinage had emerged from the gurush down to the para and the tiny akche. While the gurush, zolota and the 20 para piece were used for medium and larger transactions, 1, 5 and 10 para pieces served as petty coinage. By this time, the purchasing power of the akche, valued at one-third of the para, had become too small for most daily purposes.^[4] For this reason, the para, more than the akche, served as the basic unit of account for small transactions. In addition, some copper coinage were minted in Istanbul and eastern Anatolia but their volumes were limited.

As for gold coins, the Ottoman sultani, or sherifi as it was also called, which had remained close to the standards of the Venetian ducat since the fifteenth century was discontinued late in the seventeenth century. In the early part of the eighteenth century, as gold made a comeback in Europe and elsewhere, Ottoman minting activity also resumed. In the place of the sultani, a number of new gold coins called tughrali, cedid Istanbul, zincirli, findik and zer-i mahbub were initiated between 1697 and 1728. All but the last of these started close to the standards of the ducat. Following the practice dating back to the fifteenth century, the government did not attach a fixed face value to these gold coins. Their exchange rates were determined by the markets. In payments to the state, gold coins were accepted at the official rates of exchange.

The eighteenth century until the 1780s was a period of commercial and economic expansion coupled with fiscal stability in most parts of the Ottoman Empire. These favorable conditions as well as the rising supplies of silver helped establish the gurush as the leading unit of account and means of exchange by the middle of the eighteenth century. The emergence of the new unit was accompanied by centralization of mint activity in the core regions of the empire, from the Balkans to Anatolia, as well as Syria and Iraq.

These new coins carried the date of H.1099 (1687-88), the year of accession to the throne of sultan Süleyman II.
Numismatic catalogues incorrectly suggest that the 6 dirham piece minted in 1690 was the first Ottoman gurush and the weight of the Ottoman gurush was revised upwards to 8 dirhams in 1703.
The new unit was also called cedid (new) gurush to distinguish it from the European groschen, most notably the esedi ("lion") gurus or the Dutch thaler which had become emerged a unit of account as well as a medium of exchange for medium and large transactions. See J. Sultan, Coins of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic, A Detailed Catalogue of the Jem Sultan Collection, 2 vols., (Thousand Oaks, California: B and R Publishers, 1977), pp. 196-211.
The daily wage of an unskilled construction worker in Istanbul was approximately 8 paras or 24 akches during the early decades of the eighteenth century.

Ottoman Arts - Miniatures (Oriental style painting)

2007-07-19T05:04:00.000-07:00

Bab-ı Hümayun
Topkapı Palace Libarary
16Th Century

Prince Cem

Reception of ambassadors by Sultan SelimII
From Şehname-i Selim Khan
Topkapı Palace Libarary
16Th Century

Oriental rulers never paid much attentian ta the pra hi-bition on figurative art. The Omayyad and Abbasid caliphs had the walls of their palaces decorated with murals featuring human and animal figures. The magnificent architecture of the Seljuks was adorned with sculpture, and above all in the great palaces of Eastern rulers miniature painting developed. The roots of this type of painting can be traced back to the pre-Islamic period. Miniature painting passed by turn from the Timurid and Türkmen states, to the Safovids of Iran, the Seljuks and the Ottomans.

Sultan Mehmed II was the first Ottoman sultan to display an interest in the art of figurative painting, hiring famous nakkaş and musavvir to execute paintings on some of the palace walls. He was the first to have his portrait painted by a Western artist (Bellini), and started the collection of works by Eastern and Western artists which was later to become known as the Fatih Album.

But Mehmed II’s successors did not take the same interest in figurative painting, and Ottoman miniature painting survived only as the art of book

THE MINIATURE PAINTER

Ottoman miniature paintings are less ornate, have a more straight forward narrative style, and are remarkably realistic in comparison to those of other Eastern countries. As a general rule they depict specific historic events, wars, victories and public festivities in meticulous detail.

The miniaturist - musavvir - ohs cried his subject carefully, closely studying its morphological and spatial characteristics, and graphic structure. Rut he was obliged to represent these an paper using the traditional narrative stereotypes passed down over the centuries. Within this traditional framework the Ottoman miniature painter exercised an unexpected degree of freedom, and in his constant search to portray reality, achieved a highly sophisticated narrative medium.

Marginalised by religious disapproval of human representation, miniaturists suffered from a sense of guilt. They worked only at the palace workshops on orders for the sultan, illustrating his major achievements, campaigns, biographical accounts of the sub tans known as şehname, and public festivities.

Although the emphasis is on historical documentation, the world which the artist observes so closely isa lively and vigorous one which stretches his imagination. In addition to visual documentation of the events of his age -like the press photographers or documentary film producers of our own- the Ottoman miniaturist is also an undiluted artist; even if fate confined his art to the palace and to the book.

GREAT MASTERS OF SMALL PICTURES

Night Attack
From Hubanname-Zenname
Topkapı Palace Libarary

Aslanhane
16th Century
Topkapı Palace Libarary

The first major miniature pointer known to us by name is Sinan Bey, author of the celebrated portrait of Mehmed II (1451-1481). It is thought that this artist may hove been influenced by Western art through acquaintance with the art of Bellini. Famous book illustrations of the same century, are those for Badi-el -Tebrizi’s Dilsizname (Edirne 1455-56), Kulliyat-ı Kátibi and by an anonymous artist for the poet Ahmedi’ s Iskendernâme. It was during these years that an original style of historical depiction emerged.

In the 16th century a very distinctive master painter came to the fore with his famous illustrations far Beyan-i Mendazil-i Sefer-i lrakeyn, describing the places the army passed through during Ottoman campaigns to Iraq. Matrakçı Nasuh el-Silahi was not only historian, writer, calligrapher, and mathematician, but skilled in the martial arts, particularly the sport known as matrak involving the tossing of clubs, and above all an outstanding painter. His paintings ore reminscent of today’s paintings, but have no counterparts eithar in Eastern miniature or the contemporary art of the West.

The reign of Sflleyman the Magnificent was when the şehname as a literary work came into its own, and the Ottoman art of miniature rose to its zenith. Of the five-volume şehname written by the poet Arifi and illustrated by various painters, three volumes stand out as being of particular importance: the Enbiyaname, Osmannâme and Süleymannâme.

The most outstanding years of Ottoman miniature coincide with the reigns of Selim II and Murad II in the second half of the 16th century. The succession of books written by Şehname writer Seyyit Lokman were illustrated by the great miniaturist Nakkaş Osman and other miniature painters working under his direction.

The Zafernâme, Şehnâme-i Selim Han, Sehinşehnâme, Hünernâme and Zübdetü’t-Tevarih are the products of this brilliant epoch. We find the most interesting miniatures of the period in the Surname illustrating the festivities held to celebrate the circumcision of the sons of Murad IlI

Other celebrated illustrated manuscripts of the period are the Siyer-i Nebi on the life of the Prophet Muhammed, and the Eğri Fetihnamesi illustrated by Hasan, famous miniaturist of the reign of Mehmed III.

A later miniature painter of exceptional renown is tevni cognomen for Abdülcelil celebt whose celebrated Surname-i Vehbt and his sensitive portraits and unusual depiction of human figures mark the final peak of this art in the early isth century.

Ottoman Arts - Divan Literature

2007-07-19T05:02:00.000-07:00

When the New Literature (Edebiyat-ı Cedide) arrived in the midigth century it became known as the Old Literature (Edebiyat-ı Kadime). Then such terms as Palace Literature, "Enderun" Literature, Medrese Literature, and "Ommet" Literature were tried, and finally Ottoman Literature, Classical Literature, and Classical Turkish Literature. The term we use taday, Divan Literature, was cained at the beginning af the 20th century by diner Seyfettin and Ali Canip. Divan literature is one facet of the story of Turkish, which has been widely used as a literary language since the 11th century. Theoretically and aesthetically divan literature draws on the Islamic world view, and was shaped under the influence af Persian literature, emerging in the late 13th century and surviving until the second half of the 19th century. In essence and linguistic structure it is Turkish, but makes extensive use of Arabic and Persian words, which like Latin and Greek in Europe were the languages of theology and scholarship respectively.
Throughout the Ottoman period diverse types of literature existed side by side, such as folk literature, which made the most skilful use of Turkish and in its purest farm, tekke literature of the mystic orders, and the literatures of the minority communities in languages including Arabic, Armenian, Syriac and Aramaic. Divan literature was the most "Ottoman" of these, and foremost among the cultural elements which typified the Ottoman identity. Divan literature is the literary equivalent of architecture in the Ottoman world of forms of its domes, arches and colonnades and of the music, miniatures, calligraphy, and decorative arts produced and appreciated in these buildings. In a sense divan literature is the written key to the world of Ottoman forms.	Necati, Picture of album "Divan" by Necati, Suleymaniye Library Collection
"Divan" by Ahmet Pacha, Suleymaniye Library Collection "Divan" by Fuzuli, Suleymaniye Library Collection	*THE DIVAN POET* In the eastern countries emotions and thoughts are expressed most often in poetry. joy, love, grief, melancholy, and all kinds of experiences of life are poured into lines and couplets. It is as if poetry is the most natural form of speech in these lands, where everyone has something of the poet in them. The divan poet was someone raised in Ottoman traditions, literate, and acquainted with the art of poetry. They could be any government official, craftsman, cleric, judge, clerk, soldier, slave or sultan (most of the Ottoman sultans were accomplished poets). They were heirs to a poetry tradition going back centuries, and continued to use its forms, to think according to its rules, and for a lifetime to seek the miracle and alchemy of the word within its framework. Theft poems were first read at gatherings called divan, attended by eminent people, sometimes including the sultan. Subsequently poems by one poet would be compiled into anthologies known as divan after these gatherings. For their subject matter the poems drew on the extensive eastern and Islamic mythology, on religious or secular stories, and on legends. Their narrative was based on a very diverse series of conventional metaphors and puns. Poets never wrote under theft real names, but always used pennames (mahlas), and this anonymity extended to their anthologies, too, which were generally entitled after the poet’s penname, for example the Bakt Divani or the Muhibbi Divani. Nor did the poems themselves have names.
Despite the strict traditional conventions of divan poetry, Ottoman poets often managed to take this form to outstanding heights of literary excellence. In one of his poems, the great sixteenth century poet Raki boasted, In this epoch my words were possessed of sovereignty / The ’kaside’ lode] was presented to me, and the ’gazel’ [lyric poem]. According to an Ottoman Turkish saying, ’The poet is one fourth prophet.

Architectural Patronage of Royal Ottoman Women

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From the beginning of the dynasty, the rulers and members of the elite class built private palaces and public buildings such as mosques, madrasas, hospitals, and caravanserais with waqfs to endow their projects. By providing public spaces for the people of their empire, the elite not only demonstrated their political and social status; they often also expressed religious commitment and drew attention to significant locations in the empire. Architectural patronage was viewed as an important pious act that would earn patrons rewards in heaven. Female patronage began shortly after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453, under the rule of Mehmed I. Female patrons were sometimes sultans' wives, princesses, and most principally, the valide sultans. A unifying characteristic of these female patrons was motherhood; aside from Hurrem Sultan, Suleyman's wife, who was in the midst of her childbearing years when she became an architectural patron, women generally had to be finished with childbearing and rearing to have the seniority status that enabled them to build. Here, we will provide information about a few of the most notable royal women architectural patrons and their projects, but it is important to recognize that there were many more throughout the Ottoman Empire.

Hurrem Sultan (d. 1558)
Hurrem Sultan was the first especially powerful woman of the Ottoman dynasty. She rose to prominence after becoming the first concubine to legally marry a Sultan and move with her family and the harem into the Topkapi Palace in 1534. The extent of her architectural patronage is great, including new buildings as well as restorations. While there were female patrons before Hurrem, none made contributions as extensive and central to the empire; in fact, she was the first female to patronize works in Istanbul, as opposed to solely the provincial towns. Her most significant architectural contribution is known as the Haseki Hurrem Kulliye in Istanbul (1540). Large and centrally located, it was comprised of various religious and social structures: originally, a mosque, madrasa, Quran school (mekteb), and soup kitchen (imaret). In the 1550's she added a hospital for women and a double bathhouse (hammam). This complex helps illustrate that, overall, Hurrem Sultan's significance as a patron lies primarily in the fact that the extent of her visual display of status and power was unprecedented from a woman in the Ottoman dynasty.

Haseki Hurrem Hammam, Istanbul

Mihrimah Sultan (d. 1578)
The daughter of Hurrem and Suleyman, Princess Mihrimah Sultan, was along with her mother, probably the most notable female architectural patron of the Ottoman Empire. Various mosques and charitable foundations in Istanbul were provided by Mihrimah, who devoted a majority of her wealth to architectural patronage. Her mosque (circa 1562-65) at the entrance to Edirne was designed by the most prominent architect of the Empire, Sinan, and is renowned for its architectural innovation. Like Hurrem's complex, it consists not only of a mosque, but also a double hammam, imaret, and madrasa, as well as extensive courtyards and gardens. However, its unique, challenging position on the top of a hill and its unprecedented spaciousness and luminosity make it architecturally remarkable. That such a significant work was patronized by a woman supports the belief that royal women clearly enjoyed some position of authority and opportunity in society. In fact, women's structures were often more innovative than the typically monumental but conservative works by men.

Above: Exterior view, Mihrimah Sultan Mosque, Istanbul

Right: Interior view of qibla wall

Safiye Sultan and the later Valide Sultans
During the reign of her son, Mehmed III (r. 1595-1603), Safiye's great power as valide sultan marked the beginning of the "Reign of Women" in the Ottoman Dynasty, a period of almost 100 years during which women were arguably the most powerful members of the royal palace. In 1598, she initiated the building of what is known as the Yeni Valide Mosque (or, the New Mosque of the Valide Sultans) in Istanbul, but when Mehmed III died in

Exterior View of Yeni Valide Mosque, Istanbul

1603, Ahmed I took over the throne, sending her off, and the project was left unfinished. Kosem Maypeyker Sultan, Ahmed I's widow, was the next valide sultan to resume the construction of the complex during her son's reign, which began in 1623. Building was again disrupted when she was killed by her daughter-in-law, Hatice Turhan Sultan, who then came to power and continued the project through to its completion in 1665. Like the kulliye of Haseki Hurrem, this significant complex was large and centrally located, made up of various buildings with both religious and social functions. Most interesting about this work, however, is its assymetrical, and thus atypical, layout. Not only was this plan innovative, well-suited to and expressive of the patrons' lifestyles, but the pavilion of the valide sultan (the Hunkar Kasri), and the ramp leading to it, speak of her powerful status and authority. From this building, the layout of the Yeni Valide Mosque gave the valide sultan the power of the gaze; in other words, while as a woman she did not have physical access to all of the surrounding areas, this complex privileged her with visual access, putting her in a more powerful position than her community from whom she was concealed. Therefore, the Yeni Valide Mosque asserts the power that was held by the valide sultans during this period of the Ottoman reign.

Below: The courtyard of the
Yeni Valide Mosque

Above: The sight lines from the Hunkar Kasri extend out in various directions, over the surrounding areas. This illustrates how the complex gave the valide sultan visual access to places that were physically inaccessible.

Public and Private Space for Ottoman Women

2007-07-19T04:59:00.000-07:00

The idea of public and private in Islamic societies can be quite different from western notions of space. The harem and the practice of seclusion were important aspects of life in the Ottoman Empire, but are often misunderstood by westerners. In the Ottoman Empire, social and political life for the upper class occurred solely within private spaces for men as well as women, while poor men and women lived and worked side by side in public spaces. Therefore, an individual's seclusion demonstrated both social and political status, and in no way was seclusion solely a female experience. In fact, the sultan's power was demonstrated through his seclusion within the harem; women were able to gain political and social power according to their proximity to him.

The Ottoman Harem
The term "harem" is derived from the Arabic root h-r-m, which means, among other things, sacred, and is a term of respect referring to religious purity. The harem of an Ottoman household, which was common only among the wealthy, did not simply consist of a male head and his wives, but included children, widowed sisters or mothers, and female servants as well. In the West, it is generally seen as a sexual place of female oppression where women lacked power and men were forbidden. Quite contrary to these beliefs, the harem was a patriarchal support system and the center of family and social life. Family politics, rather than sex, was the main force behind the harem and men and women both occupied the space. The Imperial Harem (harem-i humayun, the harem of the sultan), though similar in idea, was much more complex, and was an extremely organized system of administration and hierarchy.

Unlike structures of western government, where increased power often means increased public profiles, power in the Imperial Harem was linked to seclusion, as it demonstrated one's proximity to the sultan. Over the centuries of Ottoman rule, the sultan became increasingly secluded within the harem and the princes, or future rulers, stayed within its confines as well. This allowed royal women a greater ability to participate in politics. The valide sultan ruled the harem, with much influence over her sons, and played an important role in state affairs between rulers. The valide sultans were so powerful that the later Ottoman period has been referred to by some as "The Age of Women."

The Topkapi Harem
For centuries, the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul was the center of Ottoman politics and it was here, around 1620, that the harem's power hierarchy was developed. Individuals within the harem were divided into three groups: the elite, the administrative, and the rank-and-file services. The harem had at this point grown from a dynastic residence to a training institution for men and women to become the Ottoman elite under the sultan. Boys and girls were sent respectively to the gate and the harem, both slave training institutions. Women and men held administrative positions, and the institution could be seen as two complementary systems - one male and one female - which paralleled each other in governing and managing.

A strong power hierarchy was present among the elite within the harem. An individual's status was demonstrated through authority and wealth, which was distributed accordingly. The valide sultan maintained a superior position over all others. She was followed in status and stipend by the haseki, or favorite concubine to the sultan. The royal concubines were next, followed by the princes and princesses, who were not given much status or particularly large stipends. The sultan's wet nurse, the daye khatun, was considered a member of the family elite, as well as the ketkhuda khatun, who played an important administrative role as the harem stewardess. Both received generous stipends and patronized charitable works which demonstrated their status among the dynastic elite.

The architecture of the Topkapi depicts spacially the ideological power structure and hierarchies of the post-1620 Ottoman harem. Size and opulence (or lack thereof) of living quarters coincided with the rank and stature of the inhabitant, and space within the harem was rigidly controlled. The valide sultan's quarters were centrally situated, as she was the head of the harem and from here could supervise both the family apartments and those belonging to servants and administrators. Her position, and the positions of other administrative women within the harem, exemplifies the powerful roles women in elite Ottoman society were able to play. The harem was the center of political life in Ottoman society, thus the role of women was quite prominent in this effect.

Above: Topkapi Floor Plan. Click on Image for layout descriptions and further information.

Right Top: Chambers of the Royal Wives, Topkapi Palace Harem.

Right Bottom, Sultan's Throne Room, Topkapi Palace Harem.

Ottoman Women and Textiles

2007-07-19T04:54:00.000-07:00

Textile Production

During the Ottoman Empire, the economy was largely based on textile production and trade, which the rulers subsidized and regulated. Carpets, silks, cottons, and other luxury goods comprised the wealth of commodities that through trade, mainly with Europe, led to the maintenance of a healthy economy during the Ottoman Empire. Women played an extremely important role in this textile economy, and the outlet they found in embriodery and cloth spinning allowed for an undeniable amount of power and financial independance in a world dominated by men.
One significant aspect of the Ottoman textile industry involving women was embroidery, both domestic and in workshops. Most of the embroidery in the empire came from the Imperial Harem and other harems of high officials, from the workshops and factories, and from domestic women working independantly in their homes. The latter group was the largest and produced the most unique and intricate works, with a widespread reputation for excellence. Ottoman women in the city centers, confined to their homes by social convention, used embroidery mainly to pass the time, but the beautiful pieces they produced became a source of income as well, thereby allowing them some financial independance. Because these women were often working individually and could support themselves, they actually had the authority and respect to be able to refuse commissions if they so wished, even from the Imperial Palace.

Dress
The skill of embroidery was a major part of the education of young girls in the Ottoman Empire, and as these girls grew and became more adept at their work, they could set up small informal schools to teach younger girls embroidery. This was another way for women to support themselves and be productive in society, properly bringing up the young women and providing a new generation of expert embroiderers. In addition to embroidering, this practice of gathering together provided a social outlet, which allowed them to socialize, gossip, and take tea. Women were not involved simply with embroidery, but also with spinning cotton cloth used both in trade and in their own homes for headscarves, bed linens, towels, and clothes. They invested much time and effort in creating these garments, and thus took great pride in their appearance, using clothing to identify themselves within their society by class and religion. Because women were the ones embroidering the majority of the clothes, they had a direct influence on the fashions of the day. Due to active trade with Europe, many European influences in Ottoman fashion began in the 1700's; there are many accounts of these interactions in traveler's journals and letters. The basic uniform of loose pants (salvar), a loose shirt (gomelek), and robes (entari) started to see European touches of lace collars and cuffs, and would be accessorized with gloves, buttons, and parasols. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the wife of the English ambassador to Turkey, spent two years in Turkey in the early 1700's, and during her stay wrote many letters decribing the clothing and habits of Turkish women:

"The first piece of my dresse is a pair of drawers, very full, that reach to my shoes and conceal the legs...They are of a thin rose colour damask brocaded with silver flowers, my shoes of white kid Leather embrodier'd with Gold. Over this hangs my Smock of a fine white silk Gause edg'd with Emroidery...The Antery is a wastcoat made close to the shape, of white and Gold damask, with very long sleeves....My Caftan of the same stuff with my Drawers is a robe exactly fited to my shape and reaching my feet..." (Halsband 326).

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in Turkish Dress.

Women Costumes in Ottoman

2007-07-19T04:51:00.000-07:00

During Ottoman times, a great distinction was made between the garments that women wore indoors and outdoors. Around the beginning of the 16th century, women's outdoor clothing consisted of ferace (overmantle), yaşmak (light-colored veil), and peçe (black veil). Winter overmantles were made of wool while those worn in summer were of silk. They had full sleeves and wrapped the body very loosely. Opening in the front, their lengths reached the ground. During the 18th century, trimmed collars were added to the overmantle. Over the years, the lengths of the "collars" varied, sometimes reaching as far as the lower hem as during the reign of Mahmud 11. During the second half of the 19th century skirt fronts were cut round and were fastened with a single button. Edges were embellished with pleating. Overmantle colors played an important role during Ottoman times: Muslim women wore red, blue, or green feraces while those worn by non-Muslim women were of paler shades.
Yaşmaks were made from a fine, soft, white fabric and consisted of two parts: one that was wrapped about the head covering it to the eyebrows and another that covered the lower part of the face to just the bridge of the nose.

The çarşaf, a baggy outer garment, is a fairly late addition to the Ottoman woman's wardrobe, having been introduced from Syria after 1872. Made from two long pieces of cloth joined together and fastened in pleats at the waist with a drawstring, it was worn together with a transparent veil over the face. This innovation did not always meet with approval; Sultan Abdiilhamid 11 for example expressly forbade the women of his palace to wear it. The baggy Çarşaf was in some cases replaced by a two-piece affair consisting of a skirt and cape.

Within the home, Ottoman women of the 16th and 17th centuries dressed in ankle-length trousers called şalvar, long-sleeved shifts of a seersucker gauze that reached down to the heels, long-sleeved cardigans, and robes known as kaftan. Open in the front and lacking any trimming, the fullness of the skirts of these robes was increased by the addition of narrow godets from the waist down. This style is common in skirts until the 19th century.

The dresses called üçetek (having a three-panelled skirt) and dörtetek (having a four-panelled skirt) make their appearance in the early 19th century. Another costume consisting of baggy shalwars, a short, tight~fitting jacket embroidered with silver thread, and a sash with embroidered ends bound at the waist was as elegant as it was comfortable to wear. Blouses were made of seersucker or silk and had cuffs and collars trimmed with lace. A type of dress called bindalli made from velvet or satin and heavily embroidered with elaborate patterns in silver and gold braid were indispensable attire for special occasions such as bridal henna-parties.

One result of steadily increasing European influence on the Ottoman Empire was the occasional use of imported European fabrics in the making of traditional woman's garments beginning in the 18th century. During the 19th century, such traditional garments as the üçetek and shalwar are cast aside in favor of costumes influenced by Parisian fashions. Traditional dresses are replaced by close-fitting corseted garments, blouses with long, full sleeves, and long, flounced skirts. Such attire was naturally accompanied by accessories such as silk stockings, fans, gloves, and parasols. The most important garment in any woman's life is her wedding-dress. During every period, wedding-dresses have been made using the most expensive fabrics available according to the prevailing fashion and style. Until fairly late in the 19th century, Ottoman brides dressed in lively colors (red was a particular favorite) at their weddings. The bridal veil was also made of red gauze well into the 19th century and was embroidered with silver and gold braid. European fashions however begin to weigh heavily in the design of Ottoman bridal costumes from about the 1870's onward. While the fabrics are silk, the colors tend to be pastel pinks, blues, and creams. The gowns are made in two parts and have a train while the traditional silver and gold braid embellishments are augmented with lace, pearls, and sequins. During this period, bridal gowns were sometimes worn beneath a matching fur-lined kaftan.In 1898, Princess Naime, daughter of Abdülhamid II, wore a pure-white bridal gown at her wedding. The fashion of the bride's wearing white thus introduced by the court was to influence the rest of Turkish society in the following century.

Ottoman Arts - Nakış (Art of decoration)

2007-07-19T04:41:00.000-07:00

Book gilding with Chinese clouds motifs.

Nakkaþ Hasan Pacha 16th Century

Shield

The discouragement of representative art by Islam led on the one hand to the development of calligraphy, and on the other to graphic forms of expression derived from ancient roots applied to all areas of creative expression.

Decoration of all kinds was known as nakýþ, and applied to every area from architecture to the minor arts, from books to tiles, and fabrics to weapons.

Stylistically, nakýþ cannot be described as originating entirely in the decorative tradition of the Selçuk or Beylik periods, although their influence is visible. Similarly it is not heavily influenced by Persian or Byzantine arts. Instead its main sources of inspiration include the Mon gol Timarids, the Far East and the Turkmen states. Ottoman artists combined these sources of inspiration with their own traditions in a constant process of synthesis, recreating them in original forms

THE NAKKAŞ

The Ottoman visual world took shape in the hands of designer-craftsmen of numerous types referred to as a whole as nakkaþ.

The focal point of this art, from which new ideas stemmed and where the finest artists were trained, was the Palace Nakka5hane or design shop. Here the styles, forms and tastes which were disseminated to the outer most frontiers of the empire were shaped, developed and taught In a sense the Nakkaþhane was the creator of the Ottoman visual identity

Ottoman decorators were involved in the design and application of decorative work in a wide range of fields, and had various names according to their field of specialisotion;

Musavvir nakkaþ executed miniature paintings, and other types of genre and portrait pointing.

Tarrah were responsible for designing the layout of book pages, and also executed pktures of gardens.

Müzehhip executed illumination for books, calligraphic panels and diverse objects.

Cetvelkeş executed the ruled borders of manu-scripts and repaired damaged popes.

Ressam executed ink and brush drawings.

Ottoman nakkaþ learnt the secrets of their art from their masters, just as they had learnt from mas-ters before them, practising what they learnt by means of me5k exercises until their art was an inherent part-their being.

They worked for years in an almost mystic adherence to their art.

Despite this traditional structure which might be assumed to have encouraged inertia, decorators were always receptive to new influences and new materials. Because while being attached to accepted forms and traditions an the one hand, on the other the winds of creative freedom exerted an astonishing effect on this art form.

A Book Review: Ottoman Kitchen

2007-07-19T04:31:00.000-07:00

Nowhere has there ever been a city more famous for its bazaars than Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey. Standing at the gateway from Europe to the East, the once-fabled Byzantine capital became the center of the vast Ottoman Empire, which at the height of its glory spread East-West from Baghdad to Tripoli and North-South from Budapest to Cairo. Every Ottoman city was a shopping center, and as early as the sixteenth century Western travelers wrote of the glories of the bazaars across the Eastern Mediterranean and from beyond.

The Ottoman Kitchen explores the culinary traditions of the region, and offers a collection of practical recipes for up-to-date versions of classic dishes. Interwoven with illuminating tales of history and culture, over 100 photographs are featured-stunning recipe pictures and evocative location shots of modern-day life. Much-traveled recipes include the luscious pastry baklava from Armenia; the egg and lemon sauce known to the Greeks as avgolémono, with its Byzantine origin; and the boregs or pastries for which the Turks have long been famous, modeled on the dumplings of Mongolia and China from where the Turkic tribes came west. Then there are the dishes, such as Circassian chicken and Albanian liver, whose very names denote their origins.

This is food that was brought together in the bazaar and perfected and refined in the palace kitchens of the Ottoman sultans. One of the earliest exponents of fusion cooking, the Ottomans elaborated and refined the culinary traditions of the entire Eastern Mediterranean region to create one of the world's greatest, and most eclectic, cuisines.

http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=364923

Architecture Outside of Turkiye

2007-07-19T04:26:00.000-07:00

Ottoman Period in Jerusalem

Hasan Bey Mosquefrom Jaffa

When the Ottoman Turks defected the Mameluke forces in 1517, Palestine came under the rule of a new empire that was to dominate the entire Near East for the next 400 years. At the outset, particularly during the reign of Sultan Suleiman, known in Arabic as "the Law maker," but better known as Suleiman the Magnificent, Jerusalem flourished. Walls and gates, which had lain in ruins since the Ayyubid period, were rebuilt. The ancient aqueduct was reactivated and public drinking fountains were installed. After Suleiman's death, however, cultural and economic stagnation set in, Jerusalem again became a small, unimportant town. For the next 300 years its population barely increased, while trade and commerce were frozen; Jerusalem became a backwater.

Although the renewal of Jerusalem's Jewish community is attributed to the activity of Nahmanides, who arrived in the city in 1267, the community's true consolidation occured in the 15th and 16th centuries, with the influx of Jews who had been expelled from Spain.

The 19th century witnessed far-reaching changes, along with the gradual weakening of the Ottoman Empire. Political change in Jerusalem and indeed throughout the country was accelerated as part of a policy of Europeanization. European institutions in Jerusalem, particularly those of a religious character, enjoyed growing influence. Foreign consulates, merchants and settlers, grew in numbers and in power

These foreigners brought in their wake many innovations: modern postal systems run by the various consulates; the use of the wheel for modes of transportation; stagecoach and carriage, the wheelbarrow and the cart; and the oil-lantern. These were among the first signs of modernization in the city. By mid-century the first paved road ran from Jaffa to Jerusalem; by 1892 the railroad had reached the city.

The Wall and the Damascus Gate

The Wall and the Damascus

The wall that encloses the present-day Old City of Jerusalem was built in the sixteenth century by the Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent. Originally it had seven gates; an eighth, aptly named New Gate, was added in the late nineteenth century in the wall's northwest sector.

The largest and most splendid of the portals is Damascus Gate. Located on the wall's northern side, it is adjacent to ruins attesting that this has been the site of the city's main entrance since ancient times. The gate's defenses include slits for firing at attackers, thick doors, and an opening from which boiling oil could be spilled on assailants below.

Albania

A Mosque in the Dunavat District

The relationship between the Ottoman State and , Albania began after 1325. Albania became an Ottoman territory during the reign of Murad 11 (1421-1451). The country was divided into "timars" in accordance with the Ottoman economic system. The first known and published Ottoman document is a sanjak-i defter dated 835/1431 (H.Ynalcik, Survey of suret-i defter-i sanjak-i Arnavid, Ankara, 1954). Albania, occupying a much larger region then today, became an independent State in 1912.

Halwati Tekke 1782

The number of buildings dating from Ottoman times and preserved until today are: Fortresses (6), Mosques (IS), Public Baths (4), Bridges (5), Tekke (1), Shops and Trade Centers (4), Aqueducts (1) Clock Towers (1) and Houses. According to the scrutinised wakf documents, the original number of these buildings were as follows. Fortresses (9), Mosques (482), Madrasas (28), Public Schools (1 I 1), Tekke and Zawiyas (144), Public Kitchens (9), Khans (123), Public Baths (18), Shrines (38), Bridges (18) and Fountains (13) (Ayverdi). Most of these buildings were constructed in towns which were at some time or other administrative centers of the sanjak: Kruje, V,lore Berat, Gjirokaster, Elbasan, Korçe, Shkoder, Tepelene and Tirane.

Algeria

BeylerBeyi Palace from Algeria

Algeria occupies almost the same territories today as it. did during the Ottoman period. The renowned Barbarossa Brothers, Arudj and Khayr al-din; volunteered in 922/1516for Ottoman sovereignty in order to protect Algeria from the Spanish attacks in the Mediterranean Sea. After Khayr al-din became the Admiral of the Ottoman Fleet, Algeria was governed first by beylerbeys then by pashas sent from the Capital until the l6th century. A sort of regency was then established first by aghas of military origin by the dominance of beys who ruled with the help of beys autonomously until the French conquest of Algeria in 1837.Examples of Ottoman architectural works can still be found in Algiers, Constantine, Tlemçen and Ouhran. including mainly mosques, mausoleums, palaces, fortresses, barracks, bridges, fountains and aqueducts.This architecture is characterised by clean white exterior walls and block-like volumes common to North Africa. However, the centralised plan of the mosques reflects the innovations of the Capital. Furthermore, certain arche forms, bricks covering roofs, compositions in plasterwork made of flowers stemming from vases and the use of tiles to decorate palaces indicate to what extent the modes and styles of Istanbul penetrated into the regional architecture of Algeria.

Ottoman Works of Calligraphy (MORE)

2007-07-18T16:01:00.001-07:00

Ottoman Works of Calligraphy

2007-07-18T15:46:00.001-07:00

Ottoman Cuisine

2007-07-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

Turkish food ottoman cuisine

The importance of culinary art for the Ottoman Sultans is evident to every visitor of Topkapý Palace. The huge kitchens were housed in several buildings under ten domes. By the l7th century some thirteen hundred kitchen staff were housed in the Palace. Hundreds of cooks, specializing in different categories of dishes such as soups, pilafs, kebabs, vegetables, fish, breads, pastries, candy and helva, syrup and jams and beverages, fed as many as ten thousand people a day and, in addition, sent trays of food to others in the city as a royal favor.

The importance of food has been also evident in the structure of the Ottoman military elite, the Janissaries. The commanders of the main divisions were known as the Soupmen, other high ranking officers were the Chief Cook, Scullion, Baker, and Pancake Maker, though their function had little to do with these titles. The huge cauldron used to make pilaf had a special symbolic significance for the Janissaries, as the central focus of each division. The kitchen was also the center of politics, for whenever the Janissaries demanded a change in the Sultan's Cabinet, or the head of a grand vizier, they would overturn their pilaf cauldron. "Overturning the cauldron," is an expression still used today to indicate a rebellion in the ranks.

It was in this environment that hundreds of the Sultans' chefs, who dedicated their lives to their profession, developed and perfected the dishes of the Turkish Cuisine, which was then adopted by the kitchens of the provinces ranging from the Balkans to Southern Russia, and reaching North Africa. Istanbul was the capital of the world and had all the prestige, so that its ways were imitated. At the same time, it was supported by an enormous organization and infrastructure, which enabled all the treasures of the world to flow into it. The provinces of the vast Empire were integrated by a system of trade routes with refreshing caravanserais for the weary merchants and security forces. The Spice Road, the most important factor in culinary history was under the full control of the Sultan. Only the best ingredients were allowed to be traded under the strict standards established by the courts.

turkish Cuisine

Guilds played an important role in development and sustenance of the Cuisine. These included hunters, fishermen, cooks, kebab cooks, bakers, butchers, cheese makers and yogurt merchants, pastry chefs, pickle makers, and sausage merchants. All of the principal trades were believed to be sacred and each guild traced its patronage to the Prophets and Saints. The guilds prevailed in pricing and quality control. They displayed their products and talents in spectacular floats driven through Istanbul streets during special occasions, such as the circumcision festivities for the Crown Prince or religious holidays.

Following the example of the Palace, all of the grand Ottoman houses boasted elaborate kitchens and competed in preparing feasts for each other as well as the general public. In fact, in each neighborhood, at least one household wouldopen its doors to anyone who happened to stop by for dinner during the holy month of Ramadan, or during other festive occasions. This is how the traditional Cuisine evolved and spread, even to the most modest corners of the country

KAPIKULU CORPS

2007-07-17T06:53:00.000-07:00

It was a corps composed of the infantry, cavalry and technical units. This corpse was commanded directly by the sultan himself.

Before the Kapikulu Corps, the Ottoman Army was composed of the infantry and "müsellem". These units were supported by cavalry, raiders, azabs, voynuks, martolos, cerahors. In the sultanate of Murad I ( 1360-1389) the organisation of the Kapikulu Corps was completed and in the 16th century, it was reorganised. In this structure there were two basic units; the infantry and the cavalry. Novice infantry, the Janissaries, the Cebecis, and the Artillery were forming the infantry. Kapikulu was among the Ottoman institutions in which the Bektashi sect (an Islamic sect) became influential. The allegorical symbols of the Bektasi sect as felt cap or cauldron were adapted into the Kapikulu Corps and the Bektasi dervishes were given membership to the corps.

As the Ottoman borders had extended, new arrangements were made in the Kapikulu Corps. After the conquest of Istanbul an other novice Corps in Gallipoli was organised. Agha Units were added to the Kapikulu Units. The ranks and authorities of the officers were defined. For citadel protection along the borders Volunteer janissaries, cebeci, artillery, miner units were established. The soldiers were trained according to the laws of Devsirme and Penchik (Devsirme is a unit composed by recruited Christen boys trained as the Janissaries). These soldiers could not had leave the army and they were not allowed to marry. All the Kapikulu soldiers formed communities in the barracks named as "oda" (chamber) and each of these communities was divided into groups among themselves.

Responsibilities of the Kapikulu soldiers had been defined very clearly. As a combatant corps they were strongly tied to some rigid rules. These rules were named as "Kavanini Yeniceriyan". The Kapikulus were responsible to protect the borders and security of the cities. Rifle, sword, arrow, shield, lance were the weapons, they have used. Traditionally the first middle of the Corps was accepted as the comrades of the sultan and on the pay days, the sultan had gone to their barracks, in the Janissary Agha uniform and he drank a cup of sherbet on his horse. The Kapikulu salaries were paid in every three months. Some Kapikulu barracks were in Atmeydani, and some were in Sehzadebasi.

The Kapikulu Corps was corrupted from the 17th century. The systems of Devsirme and Penchik lost their functions. The revolts often emerged in Istanbul were usually led by the Kapikulu soldiers. In 1632, Murad IV, restored the corps temporarily andKoprulus had brought discipline again. The reform efforts of Mustafa II, Ahmed III, Selim III were hindered by riots. Finally, in 1826, Mahmud II had abolished the Kapikulu Corps by organising and reforming the technical troops.

Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha

2007-07-04T08:13:00.000-07:00

(Turkish: Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa or Hızır Hayreddin Paşa; also Hızır Reis before being promoted to the rank of Pasha and becoming the Kaptan-ı Derya (Fleet Admiral) of the Ottoman Navy) (c. 1478 – July 4, 1546), was a Turkish privateer and Ottoman admiral who dominated the Mediterranean for decades. He was born on the island of Midilli (Lesbos in today's Greece) and died in Istanbul.

His original name was Yakupoğlu Hızır (Hızır son of Yakup). Hayreddin or Khair ad-Din, which literally means "Goodness of the Faith", was an honorary name given to him by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. He became known as Barbarossa (Redbeard) in Europe, a name he inherited from his older brother Baba Oruç (Father Aruj) after Oruç was killed in a battle with the Spanish in Algeria. Coincidentally, this name sounded like "Barbarossa" (Redbeard) to the Europeans, and he did have a red beard.

Background

Hızır was one of four brothers who were born in the 1470s on the island of Lesbos (Λέσβος) to their Muslim Turkish father, Yakup Ağa, and his Christian Greek wife, Katerina. According to Ottoman archives Yakup Ağa was a Tımarlı Sipahi, i.e. a Turkish feudal cavalry knight, whose family had its origins in Eceabat and Balıkesir and later moved to the city of Vardar, near Thessaloniki. Yakup Ağa was among those appointed by Sultan Mehmed II to capture Lesbos from the Genoese in 1462, and he was granted the fief of Bonova village as a reward for fighting for the cause. He married a local Greek girl from Mytilene named Katerina, and they had two daughters and four sons: Ishak, Oruç, Hızır and Ilyas. Yakup became an established potter and purchased a boat to trade his products. The four sons helped their father with his business, but not much is known about the sisters. At first Oruç helped with the boat, while Hızır helped with pottery.

Early Career

All four brothers became seamen, engaged in marine affairs and international sea trade. The first brother to become involved in seamanship was Oruç, who was joined by his brother Ilyas. Later, obtaining his own ship, Hızır also began his career at sea. The brothers initially worked as sailors, but then turned privateers in the Mediterranean to counteract the privateering of the Knights of St. John of the Island of Rhodes. Oruç and Ilyas operated in the Levant, between Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt. Hızır operated in the Aegean Sea and based his operations mostly in Thessaloniki. Ishak, the eldest, remained on Mytilene and was involved with the financial affairs of the family business.

Death of Ilyas, Captivity and Liberation of Oruç

Oruç was a very successful seaman. He also learned to speak Italian, Spanish, French, Greek and Arabic in the early years of his career. While returning from a trading expedition in Tripoli, Lebanon with his younger brother Ilyas, they were attacked by the Knights of St. John. Ilyas was killed in the fight, and Oruç was wounded. Their father's boat was captured, and Oruç was taken as a prisoner and detained in the Knights' castle at Bodrum for nearly three years. Upon learning the location of his brother, Hızır went to Bodrum and managed to help Oruç escape.

Oruç Reis the Corsair

Oruç later went to Antalya, where he was given 18 galleys by Shehzade Korkud, an Ottoman prince and governor of the city, and charged with fighting against the Knights of St. John who were inflicting serious damage on Ottoman shipping and trade. In the following years, when Shehzade Korkud became governor of Manisa, he gave Oruç Reis a larger fleet of 24 galleys at the port of İzmir and ordered him to participate in the Ottoman naval expedition to Puglia in Italy, where Oruç bombarded several coastal castles and captured two ships. On his way back to Lesbos, he stopped at Euboea and captured three galleons and another ship. Reaching Mytilene with these captured vessels, Oruç Reis learned that Shehzade Korkud, brother of the new Ottoman sultan, had fled to Egypt in order to avoid being killed because of succession disputes -- a common practice at that time. Fearing trouble due to his well-known association with the exiled Ottoman prince, Oruç Reis sailed to Egypt, where he met Shehzade Korkud in Cairo and managed to get an audience with the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghawri, who gave him another ship and appointed him with the task of raiding the coasts of Italy and the islands of the Mediterranean that were controlled by Christians. After passing the winter in Cairo, he set sail from Alexandria and frequently operated along the coasts of Liguria and Sicily.

Hızır's Career under Oruç Reis

In 1503 Oruç Reis managed to seize three more ships and made the island of Djerba his new base, thus moving his operations to the Western Mediterranean. Hızır joined Oruç Reis at Djerba. In 1504 the brothers contacted Abu Abdullah Mohammed Hamis, Sultan of Tunisia from the Beni Hafs dynasty, and asked permission to use the strategically located port of La Goulette for their operations. They were granted this right with the condition of leaving one third of their gains to the sultan. Oruç Reis, in command of small galliots, captured two much larger Papal galleys near the island of Elba. Later, near Lipari, the two brothers captured a Sicilian warship, the Cavalleria, with 380 Spanish soldiers and 60 Spanish knights from Aragon on board, who were on their way from Spain to Naples. In 1505 they raided the coasts of Calabria. These accomplishments increased their fame and they were joined by several other well-known Muslim corsairs, including Kurtoğlu (known in the West as Curtogoli.) In 1508 they raided the coasts of Liguria, particularly Diano Marina.

In 1509 Ishak also left Mytilene and joined his brothers at La Goulette. The fame of Oruç Reis increased when between 1504 and 1510 he transported Muslim Mudejars from Christian Spain to North Africa. His efforts of helping the Muslims of Spain in need and transporting them to safer lands earned him the honorific name Baba Oruç (Father Aruj), which eventually - due the similarity in sound - evolved in Spain, France and Italy into Barbarossa (meaning Redbeard in Italian).

In 1510 the three brothers raided Cape Passero in Sicily and repulsed a Spanish attack on Bougie, Oran and Algiers. In August 1511 they raided the areas around Reggio Calabria in southern Italy. In August 1512 the exiled ruler of Bougie invited the brothers to drive out the Spaniards, and during the battle Oruç Reis lost his left arm. This incident earned him the nickname Gümüş Kol (Silver Arm in Turkish), in reference to the silver prosthetic device which he used in place of his missing limb. Later that year the three brothers raided the coasts of Andalusia in Spain, capturing a galliot of the Lomellini family of Genoa who owned the Tabarca island in that area. They subsequently landed on Minorca and captured a coastal castle, and then headed towards Liguria where they captured four Genoese galleys near Genoa. The Genoese sent a fleet to liberate their ships, but the brothers captured their flagship as well. After capturing a total of 23 ships in less than a month, the brothers sailed back to La Goulette.

There they built three more galliots and a gunpowder production facility. In 1513 they captured four English ships on their way to France, raided Valencia where they captured four more ships, and then headed for Alicante and captured a Spanish galley near Málaga. In 1513 and 1514 the three brothers engaged the Spanish fleet on several other occasions and moved to their new base in Cherchell, east of Algiers. In 1514, with 12 galliots and 1,000 Turks, they destroyed two Spanish fortresses at Bougie, and when the Spanish fleet under the command of Miguel de Gurrea, viceroy of Majorca, arrived for assistance, they headed towards Ceuta and raided that city before capturing Jijel in Algeria, which was under Genoese control. They later captured Mahdiya in Tunisia. Afterwards they raided the coasts of Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands and the Spanish mainland, capturing three large ships there. In 1515 they captured several galleons, a galley and three barques at Majorca. Still in 1515 Oruç Reis sent precious gifts to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I who, in return, sent him two galleys and two swords embellished with diamonds. In 1516, joined by Kurtoğlu (Curtogoli), the brothers besieged the Castle of Elba, before heading once more towards Liguria where they captured 12 ships and damaged 28 others.

Rulers of Algiers

In 1516 the three brothers succeeded in liberating Jijel and Algiers from the Spaniards, but eventually assumed control over the city and surrounding region, forcing the previous ruler, Abu Hamo Musa III of the Beni Ziyad dynasty, to flee. The Spaniards in Algiers sought refuge on the island of Peñón off the Moroccan coast and asked Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, to intervene, but the Spanish fleet failed to force the brothers out of Algiers.

Algiers joins the Ottoman Empire

After consolidating his power and declaring himself Sultan of Algiers, Oruç Reis sought to enhance his territory inlands and took Miliana, Medea and Tenes. He became known for attaching sails to cannons for transport through the deserts of North Africa. In 1517 the brothers raided Capo Limiti and later the Island of Capo Rizzuto in Calabria.

For Oruç Reis the best protection against Spain was to join the Ottoman Empire, his homeland and Spain's main rival. For this he had to relinquish his title of Sultan of Algiers to the Ottomans. He did this in 1517 and offered Algiers to the Ottoman Sultan. The Sultan accepted Algiers as an Ottoman Sanjak (Province), appointed Oruç Governor of Algiers and Chief Sea Governor of the Western Mediterranean, and promised to support him with janissaries, galleys and cannons.

Final Engagements and Death of Oruç Reis and Ishak

The Spaniards ordered Abu Zayan, whom they had appointed as the new ruler of Tlemcen and Oran, to attack Oruç Reis from land, but Oruç Reis learned of the plan and pre-emptively struck against Tlemcen, capturing the city and executing Abu Zayan. The only survivor of Abu Zayan's dynasty was Sheikh Buhammud, who escaped to Oran and called for Spain's assistance.

In May 1518, Emperor Charles V arrived at Oran and was received at the port by Sheikh Buhammud and the Spanish governor of the city, Diego de Cordoba, marquess of Comares, who commanded a force of 10,000 Spanish soldiers. Joined by thousands of local Bedouins, the Spaniards marched overland towards Tlemcen. Oruç Reis and Ishak awaited them in the city with 1,500 Turkish and 5,000 Moorish soldiers. They defended Tlemcen for 20 days, but were eventually killed in combat by the forces of Garcia de Tineo.

Hızır Reis, now given the title of Beylerbey by Sultan Selim I, along with janissaries, galleys and cannons, inherited his brother's place, his name (Barbarossa) and his mission.

Later career

Pasha of Algiers

With a fresh force of Turkish soldiers sent by the Ottoman sultan, Barbarossa recaptured Tlemcen in December 1518. He continued the policy of bringing Mudejars from Spain to North Africa, thereby assuring himself of a sizeable following of grateful and loyal Muslims, who harbored an intense hatred for Spain. He captured Bone, and in 1519 he defeated a Spanish-Italian army that tried to recapture Algiers. In a separate incident he sank a Spanish ship and captured eight others. Still in 1519 he raided Provence, Toulon and the Îles d'Hyères in southern France. In 1521 he raided the Balearic Islands and later captured several Spanish ships returning from the New World off Cadiz. In 1522 he sent his ships, under the command of Kurtoğlu, to participate in the Ottoman conquest of Rhodes which resulted in the departure of the Knights of St. John from that island on 1 January 1523.

In June 1525 he raided the coasts of Sardinia. In May 1526 he landed at Crotone in Calabria and sacked the city, sank a Spanish galley and a Spanish fusta in the harbor, assaulted Castignano in Marche on the Adriatic Sea and later landed at Cape Spartivento. In June 1526 he landed at Reggio Calabria and later destroyed the fort at the port of Messina. He then appeared on the coasts of Tuscany, but retreated after seeing the fleet of Andrea Doria and the Knights of St. John off the coast of Piombino. In July 1526 Barbarossa appeared once again in Messina and raided the coasts of Campania. In 1527 he raided many ports and castles on the coasts of Italy and Spain.

In May 1529 he captured the Spanish fort on the island of Peñón that controlled the north Moroccan coast. In August 1529 he attacked the Mediterranean coasts of Spain and later helped 70,000 Moriscos to escape from Andalusia in seven consecutive journeys. In January 1530 he again raided the coasts of Sicily and in March and June of that year the Balearic Islands and Marseilles. In July 1530 he appeared along the coasts of the Provence and Liguria, capturing two Genoese ships. In August 1530 he raided the coasts of Sardinia and in October appeared at Piombino, capturing a barque from Viareggio and three French galleons, before capturing two more ships off Calabria. In December 1530 he captured the Castle of Cabrera, in the Balearic Islands, and started to use the island as a logistic base for his operations in the area.

In 1531 he encountered Andrea Doria, who had been appointed by Charles V to recapture Jijel and Peñón, and repulsed the Spanish-Genoese fleet of 40 galleys. Still in 1531 he raided the island of Favignana, where the flagship of the Maltese Knights under the command of Francesco Touchebeuf unsuccessfully attacked his fleet. Barbarossa then sailed eastwards and landed in Calabria and Puglia. On the way back to Algiers he sank a ship of the Maltese Knights near Messina before assaulting Tripoli which had been given to the Knights of St. John by Charles V in 1530. In October 1531 he again raided the coasts of Spain.

In 1532, during Suleiman I's expedition to Habsburg Austria, Andrea Doria captured Coron, Patras and Lepanto on the coasts of the Morea (Peloponnese). In response, Suleiman sent the forces of Yahya Pashazade Mehmed Bey, who recaptured these cities. But the event made Suleiman realize the importance of having a powerful commander at sea. He summoned Barbarossa to Istanbul, who set sail in August 1532. Having raided Sardinia, Bonifacio in Corsica, the Islands of Montecristo, Elba and Lampedusa, he captured 18 galleys near Messina and learned from the captured prisoners that Doria was headed to Preveza. Barbarossa proceeded to raid the nearby coasts of Calabria and then sailed towards Preveza. Doria's forces fled after a short battle, but only after Barbarossa had captured seven of their galleys. He arrived at Preveza with a total of 44 galleys, but sent 25 of them back to Algiers and headed to Istanbul with 19 ships. There he was received by Sultan Suleiman at Topkapı Palace. Suleiman appointed Barbarossa Kaptan-ı Derya (Fleet Admiral) of the Ottoman Navy and Beylerbey (Chief Governor) of North Africa. Barbarossa was also given the government of the Sanjak (Province) of Rhodes and those of Euboea and Chios in the Aegean Sea.

Kaptan-ı Derya of the Ottoman Navy

In 1534 Barbarossa set sail from Istanbul with 80 galleys and in April he recaptured Coron, Patras and Lepanto from the Spaniards. In July 1534 he crossed the Strait of Messina and raided the Calabrian coasts, capturing a substantial number of ships around Reggio Calabria as well as the Castle of San Lucido. He later destroyed the port of Cetraro and the ships harbored there. Still in July 1534 he appeared in Campania and sacked the islands of Capri and Procida, before bombarding the ports in the Gulf of Naples. He then appeared in Lazio, shelled Gaeta and in August landed at Villa Santa Lucia, Sant'Isidoro, Sperlonga, Fondi, Terracina and Ostia on the River Tiber, causing the church bells in Rome to ring the alarm. He then sailed south, appearing at Ponza, Sicily and Sardinia, before capturing Tunis in August 1534 and sending the Hafsid Sultan Mulei Hassan fleeing. He also captured the strategic port of La Goulette.

Mulei Hassan asked Emperor Charles V for assistance to recover his kingdom, and a Spanish-Italian force of 300 galleys and 24,000 soldiers recaptured Tunis as well as Bone and Mahdiya in 1535. Recognizing the futility of armed resistance, Barbarossa had abandoned Tunis well before the arrival of the invaders, sailing away into the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he bombarded ports, landed once again at Capri and reconstructed a fort (which still today carries his name) after largely destroying it during the siege of the island. He then sailed to Algiers, from where he raided the coastal towns of Spain, destroyed the ports of Majorca and Minorca, captured several Spanish and Genoese galleys and liberated their Muslim oar slaves. In September 1535 he repulsed another Spanish attack on Tlemcen.

In 1536 Barbarossa was called back to Istanbul to take command of the naval attack on the Habsburg Kingdom of Naples. In July 1537 he landed at Otranto and captured the city, as well as the Fortress of Castro and the city of Ugento in Puglia.

In August 1537, Lütfi Pasha and Barbarossa led a huge Ottoman force which captured the Aegean and Ionian islands belonging to the Republic of Venice, namely Syros, Aegina, Ios, Paros, Tinos, Karpathos, Kasos and Naxos. In the same year Barbarossa captured Corfu from Venice and once again raided Calabria. These losses caused Venice to ask Pope Paul III to organize a "Holy League" against the Ottomans.

In February 1538, Pope Paul III succeeded in assembling a Holy League (comprising the Papacy, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Republic of Venice and the Maltese Knights) against the Ottomans, but Barbarossa defeated its combined fleet, commanded by Andrea Doria, at the Battle of Preveza in September 1538. This victory secured Turkish dominance over the Mediterranean for the next 33 years, until the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

In the summer of 1539 Barbarossa captured the islands of Skiathos, Skyros, Andros and Serifos and recaptured Castelnuovo from the Venetians, who had taken it from the Ottomans after the battle of Preveza. He also captured the nearby Castle of Risan and later assaulted the Venetian fortress of Cattaro and the Spanish fortress of Santa Veneranda near Pesaro. Barbarossa later took the remaining Christian outposts in the Ionian and Aegean Seas. Venice finally signed a peace treaty with Sultan Suleiman in October 1540, agreeing to recognize the Turkish territorial gains and to pay 300,000 gold ducats.

In September 1540, Emperor Charles V contacted Barbarossa and offered him to become his Admiral-in-Chief as well as the ruler of Spain's territories in North Africa, but he refused. Unable to persuade Barbarossa to switch sides, in October 1541, Charles himself laid siege to Algiers, seeking to end the corsair threat to the Spanish domains and Christian shipping in the western Mediterranean. The season was not ideal for such a campaign, and both Andrea Doria, who commanded the fleet, and the old Hernan Cortes, who had been asked by Charles to participate in the campaign, attempted to change the Emperor's mind but failed. Eventually a violent storm disrupted Charles' landing operations. Andrea Doria took his fleet away into open waters to avoid being wrecked on the shore, but much of the Spanish fleet went aground. After some indecisive fighting on land, Charles had to abandon the effort and withdraw his severely battered force.

In 1543 Barbarossa headed towards Marseilles to assist France, then an ally of the Ottoman Empire, and cruised the western Mediterranean with a fleet of 210 ships (70 galleys, 40 galliots and 100 other warships carrying 14,000 Turkish soldiers, thus an overall total of 30,000 Ottoman troops.) On his way, while passing through the Strait of Messina, he asked Diego Gaetani, the governor of Reggio Calabria, to surrender his city. Gaetani responded with cannon fire, which killed three Turkish sailors. Barbarossa, angered by the response, besieged and captured the city. He then landed on the coasts of Campania and Lazio, and from the mouth of the Tiber threatened Rome, but France intervened in favor of the Pope's city. Barbarossa then raided several Italian and Spanish islands and coastal settlements before laying siege to Nice and capturing the city on 5 August 1543 on behalf of the French king Francois I. He later landed at Antibes and the Île Sainte-Marguerite near Cannes, before sacking the city of San Remo, other ports of Liguria, Monaco and La Turbie. He spent the winter with his fleet and 30,000 Turkish soldiers in Toulon, but occasionally sent his ships from there to bombard the coasts of Spain. The Cathedral of St. Mary in Toulon was transformed into a mosque for the Turkish soldiers, and Ottoman money was accepted for transactions by the French salesmen in the city.

In the spring of 1544, after assaulting San Remo for the second time and landing at Borghetto Santo Spirito and Ceriale, Barbarossa defeated another Spanish-Italian fleet and raided deeply into the Kingdom of Naples. He then sailed to Genoa with his 210 ships and threatened to attack the city unless it freed Turgut Reis, who had been serving as a galley slave on a Genoese ship and then imprisoned in the city since his capture in Corsica by Giannettino Doria in 1540. Barbarossa was invited by Andrea Doria to discuss the issue at his palace in the Fassolo district of Genoa, and the two admirals negotiated the release of Turgut Reis in exchange for 3,500 gold ducats. Barbarossa then successfully repulsed further Spanish attacks on southern France, but was recalled to Istanbul after Charles V and Suleiman had agreed to a truce in 1544.

After leaving the Provence from the port of Île Sainte-Marguerite in May 1544, Barbarossa assaulted San Remo for the third time, and when he appeared before Vado Ligure, the Republic of Genoa sent him a substantial sum to save other Genoese cities from further attacks. In June 1544 Barbarossa appeared before Elba. Threatening to bombard Piombino unless the city released the son of Sinan Reis who had been captured 10 years earlier by the Spaniards in Tunis, he obtained his release. He then captured Castiglione della Pescaia, Talamone and Orbetello in the province of Grosseto in Tuscany. There he destroyed the tomb and burned the remains of Bartolomeo Peretti, who had burned his father's house in Mytilene the previous year, in 1543. He then captured Montiano and occupied Porto Ercole and the Isle of Giglio. He later assaulted Civitavecchia, but Leone Strozzi, the French envoy, convinced Barbarossa to lift the siege.

The Turkish fleet then assaulted the coasts Sardinia before appearing at Ischia and landing there in July 1544, capturing the city as well as Forio and the Isle of Procida before threatening Pozzuoli. Encountering 30 galleys under Giannettino Doria, Barbarossa forced them to sail away towards Sicily and seek refuge in Messina. Due to strong winds the Turks were unable to attack Salerno but managed to land at Cape Palinuro nearby. Barbarossa then entered the Strait of Messina and landed at Catona, Fiumara and Calanna near Reggio Calabria and later at Cariati and at Lipari, which was his final landing on the Italian peninsula. There he bombarded the citadel for 15 days after the city refused to surrender, and eventually captured it.

He finally returned to Istanbul, and in 1545 left the city for his final naval expeditions, during which he bombarded the ports of the Spanish mainland and landed at Majorca and Minorca for the last time. He then sailed back to Istanbul and built a palace on the Bosphorus, in the present-day district of Büyükdere.

Retirement and Death

Barbarossa retired in Istanbul in 1545, leaving his son Hasan Pasha as his successor in Algiers. He then dictated his memoirs to Muradi Sinan Reis. They consist of five hand-written volumes known as "Gazavat-ı Hayreddin Paşa" (Memories of Hayreddin Pasha). Today they are exhibited at the Topkapı Palace and Istanbul University Library. They are prepared and published by BKY-Babıali Kültür Yayıncılığı as "Kaptan Paşa'nın Seyir Defteri" (The Logbook of the Captain Pasha) by Prof. Dr. Ahmet Şimşirgil, a Turkish academic. They are also fictionalised as "Akdeniz Bizimdi" (The Mediterranean was Ours) by M. Ertuğrul Düzdağ.

Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha died in 1546 in his palace in Istanbul.

Legacy

Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha established Turkish supremacy in the Mediterranean which lasted until the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. But even after their defeat in Lepanto, the Ottoman Turks quickly rebuilt their fleet, regained Cyprus and other lost territories in Morea and Dalmatia from the Republic of Venice between 1571 and 1572, and conquered Tunisia from Spain in 1574. Furthermore, the Turks ventured into the northern Atlantic Ocean between 1585 and 1660, and continued to be a major Mediterranean sea power for three more centuries, until the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz, when the Ottoman fleet, which had 21 battleships and 173 other types of warships, ranked as the third largest naval force in the world after the British and French navies (see the main article History of the Turkish Navy).

However, during these centuries of great seamen such as Kemal Reis before him; his brother Oruç Reis and other contemporaries Turgut Reis, Salih Reis, Piri Reis and Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin Reis; or Piyale Pasha, Murat Reis, Seydi Ali Reis, Uluç Ali Reis and Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis after him, few other Turkish admirals ever achieved the overwhelming naval power of Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa.

His mausoleum is in the Barbaros Park of Beşiktaş, Istanbul, where his statue also stands, right next to the Turkish Naval Museum. On the back of the statue are verses by the Turkish poet Yahya Kemal Beyatlı which may be translated as follows:

Whence on the sea's horizon comes that roar?
Can it be Barbarossa now returning
From Tunis or Algiers or from the Isles?
Two hundred vessels ride upon the waves,
Coming from lands the rising Crescent lights:
O blessed ships, from what seas are ye come?

(translation by John Freely in Strolling through Istanbul, p. 467, Sev Yayıncılık, 1997)

Barbaros Boulevard starts from his mausoleum on the Bosphorus and runs all the way up to the Levent and Maslak business districts and beyond.

In the centuries following his death, even today, Turkish seamen salute his mausoleum with a cannon shot before leaving for naval operations and battles.

Several warships of the Turkish Navy and passenger ships have been named after him.

What is Madrasa?

2007-07-01T22:25:00.000-07:00

The word "madrasah" also exists in many Arabic-influenced languages such as Urdu, Hindi, Farsi, Turkish, Kurdish, Indonesian, Malaysian and Bosnian. In the Arabic language, the word مدرسة implies no sense other than that which the word school represents in the English language, such as private, public or parochial school, as well as for any primary or secondary school whether Muslim, non-Muslim or secular. Unlike the understanding of the word school in British English, the word madrasah refers in American English to a university-level or post-graduate Islamic school. The correct Arabic word for a university, however, is Jami'ah. The Hebrew cognate "midrasha" also connotes the meaning of a place of learning. There are some madrasah-like institutions also in North America and in Europe. A Madrasah complex in The Gambia A typical madrasah usually offers two courses of study: a "hifz" course; that is memorisation of the Qur'an (the person who commits the entire Qur'an to memory is called a hafiz); and an 'alim course leading the candidate to become an accepted scholar in the community. A regular curriculum includes courses in Arabic, Tafsir (Qur'anic interpretation), shari'ah (Islamic law), Hadith (recorded sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad), Mantiq (logic), and Muslim History. Depending on the educational demands, some madrasahs also offer additional advanced courses in Arabic literature, English, and other foreign languages as well as science and world history.

People of all ages attend, and many often move on to becoming imams. The certificate of an 'alim' for example, requires approximately twelve years of study. A good number of the huffaz (plural of hafiz) are the product of the madrasahs. The madrasahs also resemble colleges, where people take evening classes and reside in dormitories. An important function of the madrasahs is to admit orphans and poor children in order to provide them with education and training. Madrassahs may enroll female students; however, they generally study separately from the men. There are examples of all-female madrassahs.

In South Africa, madrasahs play an important role in giving after-school religious instruction to Muslim children who attend government, or private non-religious schools. However, increasing numbers of more affluent Muslim children attend full-fledged private Islamic Schools which combine secular and religious education. Among Muslims of Indian origin, madrasahs also used to provide instruction in Urdu, although this is far less common today than it used to be.

History

Madrassa Osman ef. Redžović in Visoko, Bosnia was rebuilt shortly after Bosnian war. It is now a modern school with mosque, and has plans for further expansions

Madrasahs did not exist in the early period of Islam. Their formation can probably be traced to the early Islamic custom of meeting in mosques to discuss religious issues. At this early stage, people seeking religious knowledge tended to gather around certain more knowledgable Muslims; these informal teachers later became known as the shaykhs; and these shaykhs began to hold regular religious education sessions called 'majalis'.

Established in 859, Jami'at al-Qarawiyyin (located in Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque) in the city of Fas (Fez), it is considered the oldest madrasah in the Muslim world.

During the late Abbasid period, the Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk created the first major official academic institution known in history as the Nizamiyyah, based on the informal majalis (sessions of the shaykhs). Al-Mulk, who would later be murdered by the Assassins (Hashshashin), created a system of state madrasahs (in his time they were called, the Nizamiyyahs, named after him) in various Abbasid cities at the end of the 11th century.

During the rule of the Fatimid and Mamluk dynasties and their successor states in the medieval Middle East, many of the ruling elite founded madrasas through a religious endowment known as the waq'f. Not only was the madrasa a potent symbol of status but it was an effective means of transmitting wealth and status to their descendents. Especially during the Mamluk period, when only former slaves could assume power, the sons of the ruling Mamluk elite were unable to inherit. Guaranteed positions within the new madrasas thus allowed them to maintain status. Madrasas built in this period include the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan in Cairo.

Madrasahs in South Asia

Madrasahs in India

In India, there are around 30,000 operating madrasahs. It is assumed that a majority of these schools follow the Deobandi school of thought. One of the most famous of these is Darul Uloom Deoband (Dar al-'Ulum), located in Deoband, a small town located in the Indian state Uttar Pradesh. In 1986, the Indian government expedited a project to modernize madrasahs by introducing other subjects including science, mathematics, English, and Hindi. Madrasah education is always provided for free. As a result, the madrasahs often have a multifarious student enrollment, including some Hindus and Christians.

Madrasahs in Pakistan

There are more than 10,000 madrasahs currently (as of 1998?) operating in Pakistan. It is estimated that one to two million children are enrolled in madrasahs. Some media reports say that only 0.3 percent of Pakistani school age children are enrolled in traditional madrasahs. This is according to Pakistan's 1998 Population Census The World Bank Group. The 1998 Population Census found only 150,000 children. Orphans, migrants, and part-time students may explain the discrepancy. Regardless, percentage wise, the madrasah enrollment is relatively insignificant. There has been considerable intellectual disagreement about the linkages of madrassahs to conflict in Pakistan. A study conducted in 2005 by Saleem Ali for the United States Institute of Peace attempts to clarify some of these concerns by providing a detailed empirical comparison of rural and urban madrassahs (currently this study is being updpated and expanded as a book (expected to be completed in 2007), though an earlier draft is available online . The project also included a web video on such schools titled Children of Faith.

MURAD 1st's LETTER to GAZI EVRANOS

2007-06-30T08:00:00.001-07:00

CRUSADES AGAINST THE TURKS: 1371 A.D

2007-06-30T07:57:00.001-07:00

When Byzantine Emperor appealed to him, Pope Urban V sent out a call to the crowned heads of Europe. A Crusade against Turks was assembled with King Asmodeus of Savoy as leader who came with a fleet and an army. When routed by the Turks, the Balkan powers joined together and under the command of the King of Serbia attacked Turkish positions. A battle was fought in 1371, in which the Serbs and their allies were defeated and Murad annexed Macedonia. Murad now sent raiding parties even to Albania and Greece and became so powerful in the Balkans that John Palaeologus, the Byzantine Emperor at last became a vassal of the Turkish Sultan.

The Bulgarian Czar, Shishan II, even though he had allied himself with Murad by giving his sister in marriage, was forced by the remaining Balkan states, the Serbians and Bosnians, to make one more effort to stop the advance of the Turks. He raised a large army and the Christians allies won a battle at Vedin but were made to retreat soon afterwards. Now came another alliance and all the Balkan states under the command of King Lazar of Serbia made a combined attack. A great battle was fought at Kossovo on 20 June, 1389. The Turks broke the ranks of allies and inflicted a crushing defeat on them. Prince Bayazid succeeded Murad and following up the victory of Kossovo, he compelled the King of the Serbs to ask for peace. He entered Wallachia, now Rumania, and made its Prince to pay him tribute. The whole of Bulgaria now came within the growing Turkish Empire.

AKINCI (AKINJI) IMAGES

2007-06-30T07:39:00.001-07:00

AKINCI (AKINJI)

2007-06-30T07:28:00.000-07:00

Akıncı (literally, "raider", plural: Akıncılar) was an irregular light cavalry of the Ottoman Army and of earlier Turkic nations. They were one of the first divisions to face the opposing military and were known for their prowess in battle.

Their main purpose was to demoralise the opposing army and put them in a state of confusion and shock. They could be likened to a scythe in a wheat field. They would basically hit the enemy with arrows. When attacked in melee, they would retreat while still shooting backwards. They could easily outrun heavy cavalry because they were lightly armed and their horses were bred for speed as opposed to strength. Akıncı forces carried swords also, so that in a field war, they could face the enemy first and fight melee.

Because of their mobility Akıncı were also used for reconnaissance and as a vanguard force to terrorize the local population before the advance of the main Ottoman forces.

Akıncı forces were led by certain families. Best known Akıncı families were Malkoçoğlu, Turhanlı and Mihalli.

OTTOMAN ART (1299-1923)

2007-06-30T07:24:00.000-07:00

Osman, leader of a group of Turks living in and around Söğüt in northwestern Anatolia during the late Seijuk period, declared his independence towards the end of the 13th century. This was followed by a period of rapid expansion and conquest and by 1326 he made Bursa the capital of his domains. His successors, known as "Osmanlis" or "Ottomans", continued Osman's successful campaigns. In 1361 their capital was relocated to Edirne. In 1453, Osman's sixth successor, Mehmed II, conquered Istanbul making it the capital of the Ottoman Empire which was, by the middle of the 16th century, to extend as far as Asia and North Africa and incorporate much of southeastern Europe.

One of the most distinctive characteristics of Ottoman art from its earliest years is that patterns and styles designed by court-employed artists ofthe Ehli Hiref organization were employed by craftsmen and artisans in all the metalwork, ceramics, tiles, fabrics, and carpets that were made to order for the court. As a result of this practice, there developed a unique and uniform "courtly style". In works of the Early Ottoman period, the most widely-used decorative motifs were rumis enriched with stylized hatayi blossoms, palmettes, and lotuses on floral scroll and geometric compositions. Cloud bands also begin appearing during the late 15th century.

The first half of the 16th century was witness to the development of the Classical Ottoman style. The chief painter to the court of Süleyman I was Şahkulu and under his tutelage there developed a courtly style known as "saz" whose principal elements are hatayi blossoms and large serrate leaves that twist and rum among which birds and fantastic creatures are occasionally placed at random. The triple-dot "çintemanis" representing a leopard's spots and the pairs of wavy lines or clouds representing a tiger's stripes become prevalent during this period.

Under the direction of an artist by the name of Kara Memi, who became head of the court studios towards the middle of the 16th century, naturalist floral designs consisting of tulips, roses, hyacinths, fruit trees in blossom, and cypresses begin to appear and become the distinctive theme of Ottoman art. These naturally-executed flowers were employed according to specific compositional frameworks adhering to the principles of symmetry and infinitely-extensible patterns. Motifs are set individually on diagonally-arranged axes, on vertically-extending floral scroll, and in inedaltions.

During the 17th century Ottoman art suffered a decline. During the so-called "Tulip Period" of the early 18th century, an effort was made to reverse this and recapture some of the magnificence of the 16th century. As a result of increased relations between the Ottointn Empire and the west during this period, the influences of European art begin to make themselves felt: the floral motifs of the Classical period are now arranged in bouquets while an attempt is made to capture the effects of light and shade by means of tonal gradations. Dishes of fruit, landscapes with perspective, and scenes depicting celebrations and styles of dress (characteristic of the work of the miniaturist, Levni) are among the most popular themes of this period.

As a result of steadily-increasing interest in European art and life-styles during the late 18th century, there emerged a style of art known as "Turkish Rococo" that was widely employed incorporating garlands of flowers, large acanthus leaves, baskets and dishes full of fruit, ribbons and bows, oyster shells, and cornucopia that were used extensively in a wide range of applications in everything from architecture to minor handicrafts.

Istanbul Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum

2007-06-29T07:33:00.000-07:00

Turkish and Islamic Works Museum is the first Turkish museum covering the Turkish and Islamic art works wholly. The establishment works that have been started at the end of 19th century have been completed in 1913 and the museum has been opened for visit in the soup kitchen building located in Süleymaniye Mosque complex, which is one of the most important works of Mimar Sinan, with the name of “Evkaf - ı İslamiyet Müzesi” (Islamic Foundations Museum). After the announcement of the republic, it has taken the name “Turkish and Islamic Works Museum”.

The museum has been moved to İbrahim Pasha Palace from the soup kitchen building in 1983. Ibrahim Pasha Palace, which is one of the most important samples of 16th Century Ottoman civil architecture samples is on the stages of the historical hippodrome, the history of which goes back to the Roman Period. This building, the precise construction reason and date are not known, has been presented to İbrahim Pasha by Kanuni Sultan Süleyman in 1520, who would be his grand vizier for 13 years.

İbrahim Pasha Palace, which is claimed to be bigger and more magnificent than Topkapı Palace by the history has been the stage of many weddings, feasts and celebrations as well as rebellions and turmoil and called with the name of İbrahim Pasha after the death of this person in 1536. It has been used by other grand viziers, and had functions such as barracks, embassy palace, register office, Janissary band house, sewing workshop and prison.

The palace located around four big internal courtyards has been made of stone in contrast with many Ottoman civilian buildings, most of which are wooden, therefore it could reach today and has been repaired between the years 1966 - 1983 and has been born again as the new building of Turkish and Islamic Works Museum. The section, which is used as a museum today is the big ceremony hall of the palace and the 2nd courtyard surrounding it, which have been the subject of all Ottoman miniatures of the palace and the gravures and tables of Western artists.

Turkish and Islamic Works Museum has been awarded with the Special Jury Award of Museum of the Year Competition of the European Council in 1984 and with the prize given by European Council - Unesco for its studies for making the children love the culture inheritance.

Turkish and Islamic Works Museum, that is among the important museums of the world in its class has works from almost all periods and all types of Islamic art with its collection exceeding forty thousand works.

Carpet Section

The carpet section forming the richest collection of carpet art in the world had a separate importance and caused the museum’s being famous as a “Carpet Museum” for long years. The museum has the richest carpet collection of not only Turkey, but also the world. Besides rare Seljuk carpets, prayer rugs and animal figured carpets belonging to the 15th centuries and the carpets produced in Anatolia between the 15th - 17th centuries and called as “Holbein Carpet” in the West inspired by the geometrically figured or kufi writing are the most valuable parts of this section.

Turkish and Islamic Works Museum carpet collection that became richer with Iranian and Caucasian carpets and famous Uşak and palace carpet samples is a reference, which the ones carrying out a serious research on the carpet art in the world must apply to.

Hand Writings and Calligraphy Section

Koran - ı Kerims constituting a big part of the writing collection of Turkish and Islamic Works Museum from 7th century to the 20th century come from a large geographical region where Islam has spread over.

It is one of the rare collections, where Emevi, Abbasi, Egypt and Syria Tulunoğulları, Fatımi, Eyyubi, Memluk, Moğol, Türkmen, Seljuk, Timuri, Safavi, Kaçar and Anatolian Principalities and Ottoman calligraphy creations can be observed all together.

Among the hand writings, except Korans, there are books (some of them with pictures) written about various subjects and these draw attention both in terms of their writing styles and their coatings.

Imperial edicts, warrants bearing the signatures of Ottoman sultans, the sultan’s signatures each of which is a work of art, Turkish and Iranian miniature writings make Turkish and Islamic Works Museum one of the most important museums of the world.

Section of Wooden Works

The most important parts of this collection are the samples of Anatolian Wood art of 9th - 10th century.

Besides the unique parts that remained from the Anatolian Seljuks and principalities, mother - of - pearl, ivory, tortoiseshell ornamented wooden works of the Ottoman Period, unique samples of inlaying art, Koran part cases, bookrests, drawers are the interesting parts of this rich collection.

Stone Art Section

Stone works belonging to Emevi, Abbasi, Memluk, Seljuk, Ottoman periods, some of which have motifs and some of which have figures, but all of which have writings have been gathered in Turkish and Islamic Works Museum. Unique and elite samples of stone art of Seljuk Period, grave stones on which hunting scenes, fairy creatures such as sphinx, griphon, dragon, early - period stone works with kufi writings, inscriptions written in different methods that are projections of Ottoman calligraphy art are important both in quality and in quantity.

Section of Ceramic and Glass

In this collection consisting mostly of the ceramic works found in the excavations made between 1908 - 14, the ones from Samarra, Rakka, Tel Halep, Keşan are in the first ranks.

It is possible to see the stages of Early - Islamic Period ceramic art in the collection of Turkish and Islamic Works Museum. The mosaic, mihrab and wall encaustic tile samples belonging to the Anatolian Principalities and Seljuk Periods and the plaster ornaments of Konya Kılıçaslan Palace constitute another important part of the collection. Ottoman encaustic tile and ceramic art samples end with near - period Kütahya and Çanakkale ceramics.

The glass collection starts with the 9th century Islamic glass art samples and includes 15th century Memluk candles, Ottoman period glass art samples.

Metal Art Section

Turkish and Islamic Works Museum Metal Art Collection starting with the unique samples belonging to the Great Seljuk Empire period and mortar, censer, long - spouted ewer, mirror and dirhems constitute an important collection with the door knockers of Cizre Ulu Mosque and 14th century candelabrums ornamented with constellation and planet symbols, which have an important place in Islamic metal art.

Among the Ottoman metal art samples starting from the 16th century and reaching the 19th century, there are silver, brass, tombac (ornamented with valuable stones) crests, candles, rose water cans, censers, washtub / ewer sets.

Ethnography Section

Ethnographic parts collected for long years have found the possibility of being exhibited with the transfer of Turkish and Islamic Works Museum to İbrahim Pasha Palace.

The youngest part of the museum is exhibited in this collection, consisting of carpet - kilim looms collected from various regions of Anatolia, wool painting techniques, public weaaving and ornamenting art samples, clothes in their regional enhancements, house goods, hand arts, hand art instruments, nomad tents exhibited in places special to them.

Address: Ibrahim Pasa Sarayi At Meydani 46, Sultanahmet
Operating days and hours: Closed Mondays / 09.00 - 17.00

PREPARATIONS, SIEGE and FINAL ASSAULT for the CONQUEST

2007-06-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sultan Mehmed II, whose great grand-father Bayezid I had previously built a fortress on the Asian side of the Bosporus called Anadolu Hisarı, now built a second castle outside the walls of Constantinople on the European side, which would increase Turkish influence on the straits. An especially relevant aspect of this fortress was its ability to prevent help from Genoese colonies on the Black Sea coast from reaching the city. This castle was called Rumeli Hisarı; Rumeli and Anadolu being the names of European and Asian portions of the Ottoman Empire, respectively. The new fortress is also known as Boğazkesen which has a dual meaning in Turkish; strait-blocker or throat-cutter, emphasizing its strategic position. The Greek name of the fortress, Laimokopia, also bears the same double-meaning.

Constantine appealed to Western Europe for help, but his request did not meet the expected attention. Ever since the mutual excommunication of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in 1054, the Roman Catholic west had been trying to re-integrate the east; union had been attempted before at Lyons in 1274 and, indeed, some Paleologan emperors had been received in the Latin Church since. Emperor John VIII Palaeologus had attempted to negotiate Union with Pope Eugene IV, and the Council held in 1439 resulted in the proclamation, in Florence, of a Bull of Union. In the following years, a massive propaganda initiative was undertaken by anti-unionist forces in Constantinople and the population was in fact bitterly divided. Latent ethnic hatred between Greeks and Italians stemming from the events of 1204 and the sack of Constantinople by the Latins, also played a significant role, and finally the Union failed, greatly annoying Pope Nicholas V and the Roman Catholic church.

However, even if he had been more eager to help, Pope Nicholas V did not have the influence the Byzantines thought he had over the Western Kings and princes, and these had not the wherewithal to contribute to the effort, especially in light of France and England being weakened from the Hundred Years' War, Iberian Kingdoms being in the final part of the Reconquista, the internecine fighting in the German Principalities, and Hungary and Poland's defeat at the Battle of Varna of 1444. Although some troops did arrive from the city states of what today is the north of Italy, the Western contribution was not adequate to counterbalance the Ottoman strength.

The army defending Constantinople itself totalled about 7,000 men, 2,000 of whom were foreigners, mostly from Venice and Genoa (which had vested interests in the city); it also included a number of western adventurers. The city had about 20 km of walls (Theodosian Walls: 5.5 km; sea walls along the Golden Horn: 7 km; sea walls along the Sea of Marmara: 7.5 km), probably the strongest set of fortified walls in existence at the time. The Ottomans, on the other hand, had a larger force. It was thought to number around 100,000 men, including 20,000 Janissaries; recent estimates span between 80,000 soldiers and 5,000 Janissaries and 150,000 soldiers, including mounted troops and 6,000-10,000 Janissaries. Contemporary witnesses of the siege provide higher numbers for the military power of the sultan (Nicolò Barbaro: 160,000; the Florentine merchant Jacopo Tedaldi and the great logothete George Sphrantzes: 200,000; the cardinal Isidore of Kiev and the archbishop of Mytilene Leonardo di Chio: 300,000). Mehmed also built a fleet to besiege the city from the sea (partially manned by Greek sailors from Gallipoli). Contemporary estimates of the strength of the Ottoman fleet span between about 100 ships (Tedaldi), 145 (Barbaro), 160 (Ubertino Pusculo), 200-250 (Isidore of Kiev, Leonardo di Chio) to 430 (Sphrantzes).

On April 5, as the sultan himself arrived with his last troops, the defenders took up their positions. Constantine and his Greek troops guarded the Mesoteichon, the middle section of the land walls, where they were crossed by the river Lycus. Guistiniani was stationed to the north of the emperor, at the Charisian Gate and the Myriandrion; later during the siege, he was shifted to the Mesoteichon to join Constantine, leaving the Myriandron to the defense of the Bocchiardi brothers. Minotto and his Venetians were stationed in the Blachernae palace, together with Teodoro Caristo, the Langasco brothers, and archbishop Leonardo di Chio. To the left of the emperor, further south, were the commanders Cataneo, with Genoese troops, and Theophilus Palaeologus, who guarded the Pegae Gate with Greek soldiers. The section of the land walls from the Pegae Gate to the Golden Gate (itself guarded by a certain Genoese called Manuel) was defended by the Venetian Filippo Contarini, while Demetrius Cantacuzenus had taken position on the southernmost part of the Theodosian wall. The sea walls were manned more sparsely, with Jacobo Contarini at Stoudion, a makeshift defense force of Greek monks to his left hand, and prince Orhan at the Harbour of Eleutherius. Péré Julia was stationed at the Great Palace with Genoese troops; cardinal Isidore of Kiev guarded the tip of the peninsula near the boom. The sea walls at the southern shore of the Golden Horn were defended by Venetian and Genoese sailors under Gabriele Trevisano. Two tactical reserves were kept behind in the city, one in the Petra district just behind the land walls and one near the Church of the Holy Apostles, under the command of Lucas Notaras and Nicephorus Palaeologus, respectively. The Genoese Alviso Diedo commanded the ships in the harbour.

The Ottomans employed a Hungarian (other sources report German) engineer called Urban who was a specialist in the construction of cannons, which were still relatively new weapons. He built an enormous cannon, nearly twenty-seven feet (more than 8 m) in length and 2.5 feet (about 75 cm) in diameter, which could fire a 1200 lb (544 kg) ball as far as one mile. It was dubbed "the Basilic". Although the Byzantines also had cannons, they were much smaller and their recoil tended to damage their own walls. Urban's cannon had several drawbacks, however. It could hardly hit anything, not even as large as Constantinople; it took three hours to reload; the cannon balls were in very short supply; and the cannon collapsed under its own recoil after six weeks (this fact however is disputed, being only reported in the letter of archbishop Leonardo di Chio and the later and often unreliable Russian chronicle of Nestor Iskinder).

Another expert that was employed by the Ottomans was Ciriaco dei Pizzicolli, also known as Ciriaco of Ancona, traveller and collector of antiquities.

Siege and final assault of the city

Sultan Mehmed II planned to attack the Theodosian Walls, the intricate series of walls and ditches protecting Constantinople from an attack from the west, the only part of the city not surrounded by water. His army encamped outside the city on the Monday after Easter, April 2, 1453.

Having previously established a large foundry approximately 150 miles away Mehmed now had to undergo the painstaking process of transporting his massive pieces of artillery. The largest of these was said to have been accompanied by a crew of 90 oxen and over 400 men. Prior to the siege of Constantinople it is known that the Ottomans held the ability to cast medium-sized cannon, yet nothing near the range of some pieces they were able to put to field. Instrumental to this Ottoman advancement in arms production was a somewhat mysterious figure by the name of Urban. The master founder imediatley tried to peddle his skills to the city's invaders. . Guaranteeing Mehmed that he could cast cannons powerful enough to break down the greatest fortifications ever constructed, every resource was placed at his fingertips. In a move of unprecedented technicality, working in a makeshift foundry, Urban pushed the limits of his art and cast what was likely the largest contemporary gun ever made—27 feet long and large enough for a full grown man to crawl into. The creation of such a weapon was such a feat for its time that it took on an air of religious reverence. Urban's accomplishments in dealing with such fine tolerances on such a massive scale place his work as one of the greatest engineering feats of the time yet nothing is certainly known about his demise. For weeks Mehmed's massive cannon fired on the walls, but it was unable to sufficiently penetrate them, and due to its imprecision and extremely slow rate of reloading the Byzantines were able to repair most of the damage after each shot.

Meanwhile, Mehmed's fleet could not enter the Golden Horn due to the boom the Byzantines had laid across the entrance, and indeed had not made a real attempt at doing so; its main task was to prevent any ships from outside from entering the Golden Horn. On 20 April, however, a small flotilla of four Christian ships managed to slip in after some heavy fighting, causing embarrassment to the Sultan. To circumvent the boom, Mehmed ordered the construction of a road of greased logs across Galata on the north side of the Golden Horn, and rolled his ships across on 22 April. This succeeded in stopping the flow of supplies from Genovese ships and demoralized the Byzantine defenders. On the night of 28 April, an attempt was made to destroy the Ottoman ships already in the Golden Horn using fire ships, but the Ottomans had been warned in advance and forced the Christians to retreat with heavy losses. From then on, the defenders were forced to disperse part of their forces to the Golden Horn walls, causing defense in other walls to weaken.

The Turks made numerous frontal assaults on the wall, but were repelled with heavy losses. From mid-May to 25 May, the Ottomans sought to break through the walls by constructing underground tunnels in an effort to sap them. Many of the sappers were Serbians sent from Novo Brdo by the Serbian Despot. They were placed under the rule of Zaganos Pasha. However, the Byzantines employed an engineer named Johannes Grant (who was said to be German but was probably Scottish), who had countertunnels dug, allowing Byzantine troops to enter the tunnels and kill the Turkish workers. The Byzantines intercepted the first Serbian tunnel on the night of 16 May. Subsequent tunneling efforts were interrupted on 21, 23, and 25 May, destroying them with Greek fire and vigorous combat. On 23 May, the Byzantines captured and tortured two Turkish officers, who revealed the location of all the Turkish tunnels, which were then destroyed.

Mehmed offered to raise the siege if they gave him the city. When this was declined, Mehmed planned to overpower the walls by sheer force, knowing that the weak Byzantine defenders would be worn out before he ran out of troops.

On May 22, 1453, the moon, symbol of Constantinople, rose in dark eclipse, fulfilling a prophecy on the city's demise. Four days later, the whole city was blotted out by a thick fog, a condition unknown in that part of the world in May. When the fog lifted that evening, "flames engulfed the dome of the Hagia Sophia, and lights, too, could be seen from the walls, glimmering in the distant countryside far behind the Turkish camp (to the west),". This was interpreted by some as the Holy Spirit departing from the Cathedral.

On the morning of May 29 the attack began. The first wave of attackers, the azabs (auxiliaries), were poorly trained and equipped, and were meant only to kill as many Byzantine defenders as possible. The second assault, consisting largely of Anatolians, focused on a section of the Blachernae walls in the northwest part of the city, which had been partially damaged by the cannon. This section of the walls had been built much more recently, in the eleventh century, and was much weaker; the crusaders in 1204 had broken through the walls there. The Ottoman attackers also managed to break through, but were just as quickly pushed back out by the Byzantine defenders. The Byzantines also managed for a time to hold off the third attack by the Sultan's elite Janissaries, but the Genovese general in charge of the land troops, Giovanni Giustiniani, was grievously wounded during the attack, and his evacuation from the ramparts caused a panic in the ranks of the defenders. Sources hostile towards the Genoese (such as the Venetian Nicolò Barbaro), however, report that Giustiniani was only lightly wounded or not wounded at all, but, overwhelmed by fear, simulated the wound to abandon the battlefield, determining the fall of the city. Giustiniani was carried to Chios, where he succumbed to his wounds a few days later.

Some historians suggest that the Kerkoporta gate in the Blachernae section had been left unlocked, and the Ottomans soon discovered this mistake (there was no question of bribery or deceit by the Ottomans; the gate had simply been overlooked, probably because rubble from a cannon attack had obscured or blocked the door). The Ottomans rushed in. Constantine XI himself led the last defense of the city, and throwing aside his purple regalia, led the final charge against the oncoming Ottomans, dying in the ensuing battle in the streets, like his soldiers.

Soon the first enemy flags were seen on the walls. The Emperor and his commanders were trying frantically to rally their troops and push back the enemy. It was too late. Waves of Janissaries, followed by other regular units of the Ottoman army, were crashing throught the open Gate, mixed with fleeing and slaughtered Christian soldiers. Then the Emperor, realizing that everything was lost, removed his Imperial insignia, and followed by his cousin Theophilus Palaeologus, the Castilian Don Francisco of Toledo, and John Dalmatus, all four holding their swords, charged into the sea of the enemy soldiers, hitting left and right in a final act of defiance. They were never seen again. Now thousands of Ottoman soldiers were pouring into the city. One after the other the city Gates were opened. The Ottoman flags began appearing on the walls, on the towers, on the Palace at Blachernae. Civilians in panic were rushing to the churches. Others locked themselves in their homes, some continued fighting in the streets, crowds of Greeks and foreigners were rushing towards the port area. The allied ships were still there and began collecting refugees.