Rustem - Ottoman Baroque: the architectural refashioning of eighteenth-century Istanbul

NVER RSTEM

THE ARCHITECTURAL
REFASHIONING OF
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ISTANBUL

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Princeton and Oxford

Copyright 2019 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR press.princeton.edu

Jacket illustrations: (front) Nuruosmaniye Mosque, Istanbul, 174855, detail of the carved semivault over the main entrance (photograph courtesy of Dick Osseman). (back) View of the Ayazma Mosque, skdar, Istanbul, 175861. By Ne and Duparc after Antoine Ignace Melling (detail), from Melling, Voyage pittoresque de Constantinople et des rives du Bosphore (Paris, Strasbourg, and London: Treuttel et Wrtz, 1819). Etching on paper. Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven.
Illustrations in front matter:
p. ii, detail of
Illustrations in chapter openers:
p. 20, detail of
All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rstem, nver, author.
Title: Ottoman Baroque : the architectural refashioning of eighteenth-century Istanbul / nver Rstem.
Description: Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018013416
ISBN 9780691181875
eISBN 9780691190549 (ebook)
Version 1.0
(hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Architecture, OttomanTurkeyIstanbulHistory18th century. | Architecture, BaroqueTurkeyIstanbulHistory18th century. | Architecture, BaroqueInfluence.
Classification: LCC NA1370 .R88 2019 | DDC 724/.160949618dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018013416

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

Published with the financial assistance of The Barakat Trust

Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from the Millard Meiss Publication Fund of CAA

Illustrations in this book were funded in part or in whole by a grant from the SAH/Mellon Author Awards of the Society of Architectural Historians

Designed by Jo Ellen Ackerman/

Bessas & Ackerman

For my parents

Contents

viii

xi

Like the buildings that inspired it, this book would not have come into existence without the involvement of numerous people and institutions over many years. It is my pleasure to thank them here for their generosity and support. I owe my greatest debt of gratitude to Glru Necipolu and David Roxburgh, whose unwavering guidance and encouragement have shaped every aspect of this project since its inception, and whose exemplary scholarship and mentorship continue to inform my work more generally. Edhem Eldem and Tlay Artan have contributed immeasurably to my understanding of the eighteenth-century Ottoman Empire, never hesitating to share with me their knowledge and resources. Outside the realm of Islamic studies, Ewa Lajer-Burcharth convinced me of this projects wider relevance and spurred me to explore more fully its cross-cultural scope and implications. My interest in the Ottoman Baroque was first sparked by Doris Behrens-Abouseif, who has remained a steadfast mentor since my earliest days as an undergraduate.

I am grateful also to the many other individuals whose input and advice have helped to make my arguments clearer and my text more readable. My friends Guy Burak, Tim Stanley, and Alyson Wharton-Durgaryan graciously read and offered expert comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. For their instructive perspectives on specific aspects of the project, I thank Sebouh Aslanian, Timur Hammond, Maximilian Hartmuth, Yavuz Sezer, Nir Shafir, and Alexander Wielemaker. I received further feedback from audience members and participants at various lectures and conferences, and thanks are due especially to Nebahat Avcolu, Serpil Bac, Persis Berlekamp, Zeynep elik, Suraiya Faroqhi, Shirine Hamadeh, Kishwar Rizvi, and Zeynep Yrekli for their valuable questions and suggestions, and to Walter Feldman and Selin nlnen for inviting me to present my work. At multiple stages of this project, I have benefited from the expertise and help of Hatice Aynur, Sussan Babaie, Anna Contadini, Yorgos Dedes, Ahmet Ersoy, Finbarr Barry Flood, Paolo Girardelli, Renata Holod, Cemal Kafadar, Selim Kuru, Leslie Peirce, Nasser Rabbat, Andrs Riedlmayer, Eleanor Sims, Kristel Smentek, Zeren Tannd, Baha Tanman, Derin Terziolu, Wheeler Thackston, and Hans Theunissen. Christiane Gruber in particular has been a strong advocate of my work, and I owe much to her encouragement. I am likewise indebted to the anonymous readers who reviewed the manuscript for Princeton University Press and made constructive suggestions for its improvement. Any mistakes or shortcomings are my own.

Several institutions and organizations have supported me in the course of researching and writing this book. Much of my foundational fieldwork was carried out in Istanbul as a Junior Fellow at Ko Universitys Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (RCAC, now ANAMED), whose then director, Scott Redford, enthusiastically nurtured my project. Additional research trips to Turkey and France were funded by the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University, the Damon-Dilley Fund of the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, and The Barakat Trust. The process of transforming the project into a book began in earnest during a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Columbia University, where I received a great deal of support from Holger Klein and Avinoam Shalem. Thanks to the generosity of Sadeq Sayeed, I was able to continue working on the manuscript as the Fari Sayeed Fellow in Islamic Art at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where I enjoyed the advice and friendship of Polly Blakesley, Kate Fleet, Deborah Howard, Jean Michel Massing, Charles Melville, and Firuza Melville. My current institutional home of Johns Hopkins University has proved extraordinarily supportive during the projects final stages, and I should like to offer my special thanks to Rebecca Brown, Stephen Campbell, and Marian Feldman for their outstanding mentorship; to the students in my Ottoman Baroque seminar for their perceptive questions and observations; and to Ashley Costello for all of her administrative assistance.

My research was greatly facilitated by the help and goodwill of many people at various archives, libraries, museums, and institutions. I should like to thank in particular Zeynep Atba, Curator of Manuscripts at the Topkap Palace Museum Library, who went out of her way to provide me with digital images when the library itself was inaccessible; the staff of the Nuruosmaniye Mosque, who let me see parts of the complex normally closed off to the public; and Murat Sav of the Directorate of Charitable Foundations in Istanbul, who gave me permission to photograph the Nuruosmaniyes courtyard during its restoration.