AYDAAREL

GOTHIC TOWERS AND BAROQUE MIHRABS: THE POST-CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE OF AEGEAN ANATOLIA IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES

The emerge nce of th e great provinc ial dynasties, fam­ lishments in th e western parts of th e empire, in th e Bal­ ilies who had acquire d wealth and power as a effec t kan provinces of Bosnia, Herzegovin a, Alba nia, Epirus, of th e disruption of th e Ottoman minregime, was a phe­ Thessaly, and Macedonia, but so far as is kn own the nomenon to be observed in most parts of the O tto man spread of thi s particul ar type of for tified farm or estate Empire in th e eigh tee n th ce n tury. Most of these new was restricted to th e Balkan s and the and families held vast agrarian estates or f iftliks , which th ey did not characte rize th e eas tern p rovinces. had app ro priated more or less illegally.T hey also owne d In many ins tances these fortified domains had a keep quarters in towns and cities, an d th ey were pat ro ns ofnu­ or residential tower in direct co n nection to th e master's merous religious foundati ons an d public-service works.' house. The towers in th e villages of Ar paz (fig. 2) , Some of th ese families are well known , as is th e case with Kocarh (figs. 4-5), ineb olu in th e province ofAyd in, an d th e Karaosmanoglu cla n whic h co ntrolled Manissa, Yerkesigi near ancien t (fig. 6) are examples. This Ayd in, and Izmir, and th e Cihanoglu family,active in and last tower belonged to th e farm of th e Grand Admiral arou nd Aydin, and whose architec tural pat ro nage pro­ Cezayirli Hasan Pasa. There were also isolated towers, duced a typical family style in th e kitsch mode." suc h as th e one in th e village ofDonduran , near th e Car­ The estates on which th ese families lived were usually ian city of Orthasia, th e tower in , and th e so-called large farmstead s in which th e master's qu arters were for" tified and some times had th e appearance of strong­ holds. Among suc h fortified estates still in the Aegean region, we may cite th e co m plex in th e village of Arpaz, near Nazilli (figs. 1-2) ,3 and th e fortificat ions which belonged to th e Cihanoglu estate in th e village of Cin­ cin, near Aydin (fig. 3) .4 Clearly it was imperative for th e owners of such estates to defend th eir property and to maintain control over th e territory th ey commanded . The emerge nce of th ese provin cial dynasties co inc ided with a period of internal unrest characterized by a surge of banditry and popular rebellions. The Arpaz strong­ hold is associated with th e saga of Atcah Kel Mehmet, a local reb el and bandit active during the reign of Mah­ mud II, who even ru led th e region briefly, with th e sup­ port of th e peasantry, before he was trapped an d exe­ cu ted by government forces." The feudal aspect ofthese for tified installations run by barons, who kept bands of armed men and were often engaged in blo ody co nflicts among th emselves, has an anach ro nistic quality. And yet it should be taken as the co nse que nce and th e physical ex pression of an innova­ Fig. I. View of the Akcay plain and of the village of Arpaz. In the tive system of land property precluding capital fo rm a­ foreground is th e fortified estate known as Beyler Konagi (Resi­ tion in the Ottoman Empire. There were similar estab- dence of the Lords). GOTHIC TOWERS AND BAR OQUE MIHRABS 213

Fig. 3. The buttressed enclosure of the Ciha noglu estate at Cincin, a village in th e province ofAydin.

historical con tingenc ies. The western part ofAsia Min or was conque re d long afte r th e res t of th e peninsula, by Turkmen tribes who had become progr essively sedentary Fig. 2. The Beyler Kon agi at Arpaz. Behind the buttressed remains of as th ey organized themselves into political entities. Soon a stro ng hold rises th e keep which faces the hou se proper.The fortifi­ after, the Turkmen amirates of the Aegean world were cations extend to th e righ t to enclose a series ofcourtyards and mis­ taken over by th e Ottoman s who built a unified state and cellaneo us bu ilding s. imposed a strong administrati on implemented by a cod­ ified land-tenure system and a well-defined fiscal regi me. Mustafa Pasa Tower near Bodrum - th e ancien t Halicar­ The works of Halil ln alcik and Avdo Suceska have dem­ nassus (fig. 7).6These towers seem to have deri ved fro m onstrated that, whenever possible, th e O tto ma n co n­ th e same tradition as th e vernacular tower houses proper qu erors chose not to interfere with th e pre-existing land to th e rural areas of the Aegean world." Their archetype and taxati on systems; th ey were merely adapted to might well be th e rural/ryrgos, th at is, the domestic tower Islamic modalities. By so doing, th ey man aged not to dis­ or sma ll castle which marked th e ce n ter ofsuc h ag raria n rupt th e economic structure already in ope ra tion, and estates as th e Hellenistic lati fundia, the Roman farm, th ey were able to assure th e easy adherence to th e new and th e Byzantine pronoia.8 system of the inhabitan ts of economically potent rural Neither the residential towers nor the fortified areas." This explains th e perm an ence of old settle me n ts domains are ever mentioned in th e manuals ofO tto ma n in th e ar ea - as indicated by th e persistence ofold to po­ archi tec ture; yet th ere is evidence enoug h to indicate nyms - and also th e survival in to th e eigh teenth ce n tury that th e keep was th e main edifice in the ea rlies t Otto­ of certain building types belonging to th e pre-Ottoman man palaces." This raises the question of th e survival of peri od. Obviously a settleme n t which has not needed to pre-Ottoman types, especially in rural areas which have change is a settle me n t that will preserve its existing been less subject to re nova tio n. The similarity between forms of spatial organizati on until a new set of co nd i­ medieval pyrgoiand later Ottoman residen tial towers and tions comes along to make th em obso lete. th eir typological relati on to th e vernacular towe r house Most of th e fortified estates were located near much indicate the persistence of ce rtain types and of th eir older settleme n ts: th e Arpaz estate stands at th e foo t ofa adoption by successive cultures. O bviously th e category hill bearing th e remains of th e Carian town of Harpaza; belongs to th e Mediterran ean tradition and had been another fortified man sion is located in th e village of subjec ted to special promoti on in th e Middle Ages, when lneb olu, th e forme r Neapo lis, in ; and th ere are th e Latin occupation of th e Aegean area -Roman ia as man y others. One also often finds in th e vicinity of settle­ it was termed - instigated a feudal orga nizatio n of the ments with fortified estates, archaic mau soleums of th e co nquered territory." The type must the n have been type usually associated with th e tombs of th e ea rly Turk­ revived again in later Ottoman tim es under parti cul ar ish colonists. For instance, th e mau soleum of Seyh Bilal