SADÂBÂD THE SOCIAL PRODUCTION OF AN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PALACE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS EVA-MARLENE SCHÄFERES Student number: 107671002 STANBUL BLG UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES MA PROGRAMME IN HISTORY Thesis Advisor: PROF. DR. CHRISTOPH K. NEUMANN 2009 Sadâbâd: The Social Production of an Eighteenth Century Palace and Its Surroundings Sadâbâd: Bir Onsekizinci Yüzyıl Sarayı ve Çevresinin Toplumsal Kurgusu Eva-Marlene Schäfers 107671002 Prof. Dr. Christoph K. Neumann (thesis advisor): .......................................... Prof. Dr. Suraiya Faroqhi: .......................................... Asst. Prof. Dr. Erdem Kabadayı: .......................................... Approval date: 11 June 2009 Total page number: 216 Anahtar Kelimeler Key words 1. Sadâbâd 1. Sadâbâd 2. Kâıthane 2. Kâıthane 3. Toplum tarafından kurgulanan mekân 3. Socially produced space 4. Lâle Devri 4. Tulip Age 5. Mimari tarihi 5. History of architecture ii Abstract of the thesis by Eva-Marlene Schäfers, for the degree of Master of Arts in History to be taken in June 2009 from the Institute of Social Sciences. Title: Sadâbâd: The Social Production of an Eighteenth-Century Palace and Its Surroundings Most modern history writing on Sadâbâd, the summer palace of Ahmed III constructed at Istanbul’s Kâıthane valley in 1722, has regarded the palace as the architectural manifestation of the Tulip Age per se. As a result Sadâbâd has become associated with two stereotypical tropes: firstly, because Sadâbâd was a major location for courtly feasts it is regarded as the place where the Ottoman elite indulged in a luxurious and morally corrupt lifestyle. Secondly, since Sadâbâd is held to be an imitation of French baroque palaces, it has become a symbol for the beginning of Westernization in the Ottoman Empire. This study challenges these assumptions by conceptualizing Sadâbâd as a socially produced space in the Lefebvrian sense. The multi-layered analysis of the palace’s built form, the discourses related to it and the social practices enacted in and around it using Ottoman archival material, chronicles and poetry as well as European travelogues reveals that the dynamic in fact underlying the space of the palace was sultanic visibility and display. As a stage where imperial pomp unfolded during festivities, Sadâbâd served to uphold sultanic legitimacy and to bind lesser power holders to the centre. Moreover, the analysis of architectural discourse shows that Sadâbâd was regarded as an imitation of French models only by European observers. Ottoman observers saw the building on the contrary as the culmination of a Turko- Persian cultural tradition. Furthermore, the meadows surrounding the palace constituted a public space, where moral and social norms were less strictly enforced than in other parts of the city. This spatial analysis of Sadâbâd adds to our understanding of the multiple and even contradictory meanings architecture can carry, as well as throwing a different light on early eighteenth-century Ottoman transformations beyond the stereotypes of Ottoman decline and Westernization. iii Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü’nde Tarih Yüksek Lisans derecesi için Eva-Marlene Schäfers tarafından Mayıs 2009’da teslim edilen tezin özeti. Ba lık: Sa dâbâd: Bir Onsekizinci Yüzyıl Sarayı ve Çevresinin Toplumsal Kurgusu III. Ahmed’in 1722’de Kaıthane’de in a edilen Sa dâbâd’ı konu alan modern tarih yazınının ekseriyeti bu yazlık sarayı Lale devrinin açık bir mimari tezahürü kabul etmektedir. Buna göre Sa dâbâd’a ili kin iki temel önkabul bulunmaktadır: Evvela Sa dâbâd, saray çevresinin tertipledii ziyafetlerin ba lıca mekânı olduundan Osmanlı elitlerinin zevk ve sefahat dü künlüünün simgesi olarak deerlendirilir. kinci olarak ise, Fransız Barok sarayları örnek alınarak in a edildii dü ünüldüünden, Sa dâbâd, Osmanlı mparatorluunun Batılıla ma sürecinin miladı olarak kabul edilir. Bu çalı ma Sa dâbâd’ı Lefebvre’in geli tirdii toplum tarafından kurgulanan mekân (socially produced space) kavramı üzerinden ele alarak söz konusu yakla ımlara kar ı çıkmaktadır. Sarayın mimari özellikleriyle buna ili kin kaynakların ve bu bölgedeki yerle ik ya am alı kanlıklarının, Osmanlı ar ivlerinden, vakayinamelerden, iirlerden ve Avrupalılar tarafından kaleme alınmı seyahatnamelerden yola çıkarak gerçekle tirilecek çok katmanlı bir analizi söz konusu mekânın padi ahın manen ve madden varlıının tecessümü olduunu ortaya koyacaktır. mparatorluun tüm ihti amının enlikler vasıtasıyla sergilendii bir sahne olarak Sa dâbâd padi ahın me ruiyetini vurgulayarak merkezden uzak güçler üzerindeki iktidarın peki tirilmesine hizmet etmi tir. Bununla birlikte, mimari söylem analizinin gösterdii üzere Sa dâbâd yalnızca Avrupalı gözlemciler tarafından Fransız örneklerinin bir taklidi olarak kabul edilmektedir. Halbuki söz konusu dönemin Osmanlı kaynaklarında bu saray Türk-Fars kültür geleneinin bir aheseri olarak deerlendirilmektedir. Üstelik, sarayı çevreleyen mesire yerleri, ehrin dier bölgelerine nazaran toplumsal ve ahlaki baskıların daha az hissedildii bir kamusal alan yaratmı tır. Sa dâbâd’ın böyle bir mekânsal analizi bize, mimarinin tek ba ına verebileceinden daha zengin bir anlayı kazandıracaı gibi erken on sekizinci yüzyıl Osmanlı dönü ümünü Osmanlının çökü ve batılıla ma sürecine ili kin önyargınlardan baımsız bir biçimde deerlendirmemize de yardımcı olacaktır. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS NOTE ON SPELLING AND TRANSCRIPTIONS................................................vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE WORK............................... 1 CHAPTER 2: THE LEGACY OF THE TULIP AGE: A HISTORIOGRAPHIC REVIEW........... 11 The Invention of a Historical Period: Ahmed Refik’s Tulip Age ........................ 13 The Tulip Age After Ahmed Refik: From Westernization Towards New Approaches........................................................................................................ 18 Sadâbâd in the Discourse of the Tulip Age........................................................ 21 New Trends: The Re-Evaluation of the Eighteenth Century................................ 23 CHAPTER 3: PHYSICAL SPACE: SPATIAL SETTING AND ARCHITECTURE .................... 26 The Setting: Kâıthane....................................................................................... 27 Sadâbâd Palace................................................................................................. 31 Hâss Odası..................................................................................................... 35 Harem............................................................................................................ 39 Architectural Style ......................................................................................... 43 Garden ............................................................................................................... 46 Ottoman Precedents to Sadâbâd’s Garden Layout ......................................... 54 Historical Continuity and New Trends in Garden Layout................................ 59 Grandees and Commoners: Sadâbâd as an Amphitheatre .................................. 61 CHAPTER 4: MENTAL SPACE I: INFLUENCE OR SADÂBÂD BETWEEN ‘EAST’ AND ‘WEST’ ................................................................................................................. 65 The Embassy by Yirmisekiz Mehmed Efendi..................................................... 68 The Evidence Provided by Marquis de Villeneuve ............................................. 73 Formal Differences from French Models............................................................ 75 Yirmisekiz Mehmed Efendi – A Symptom or an Exception?.............................. 77 Inspiration from ‘the East’: Formal Resemblances and Differences.................... 80 Shared Aesthetics: Turko-Persian Culture .......................................................... 84 Ottomans and Safavids: Political Rivalry – Cultural Rivalry .............................. 85 CHAPTER 5: MENTAL SPACE II: ARCHITECTURAL PERCEPTION ................................... 91 The European Perception ................................................................................... 93 Writing for an Expanding Market: The Genre of the Travelogue .................... 93 The Perception of Sadâbâd Palace................................................................. 99 An Orientalist lieu de mémoire: The Sweet Waters of Europe .......................106 The Ottoman Perception....................................................................................121 The Perception of Sadâbâd Palace................................................................122 Public Space and Erotic Adventures: Kâıthane Valley.................................135 v CHAPTER 6: SOCIAL SPACE: PRACTICE AND USE ............................................................144 The Public Assembling at Kâıthane: Women, Non-Muslims, Dervishes and ‘Riffraff’...........................................................................................................146 A Burgeoning Public in Search for Leisure: Challenges to Social Hierarchies...151 State and Public in Interaction: Sultanic Visibility.............................................154 Visibility in Architecture...............................................................................155 A Culture of Courtly Festivities.....................................................................157 In Search of Allies: Changing Power Relations and 120 Pavilions.....................164 Conspicuous Consumption