The Ottoman City and Its Parts: Urban Structure and Social Order

257 Pages·1991·0.9 MB·English

by  Irene A. Bierman

Subsidia Balcanica, Islamica et Turcica, 3
The Ottoman City and Its Parts
Urban Structure and Social Order
Edited by
IRENE A.BIERMAN
RIFA'ATA.ABOU-EL-HA]
DONALD PREZIOSI
iSTP1NBUL BiLGt
UNIVERSITY LIBRARl
Aristide D. Caratzas,Publisher
New Rochelle,New York
The Ottoman City and Its Parts: UrbanStructure and SocialOrder
Copyright© 1991byAristideD. Caratzas,Publisher
Allrightsreserved. Nopart ofthisbookmaybereproducedin anyform
withoutthe permission inwritingofthe publisher.
AristideD. Caratzas,Publisher
30ChurchStreet, P.O.Box 210
NewRochelle,NewYork 10802
Library ofCongress CataloguinginPublicationData
Editedby Irene A.Bierman, Rifa'atA.Abou-EI-Haj,DonaldPreziosi
Includesbibliographicalreferences andindex
1.Cityplanning-Turkey-History.
2. Cities and towns, Islamic-Turkey-History.
3. Architecture, Ottoman.
I.Bierman,Irene A. II.Abou-El-Haj,Rifa'atA. Ill. Preziosi,Donald.
NA9229.087 1991
307.76'09561-dc20 91-10731 CIP
ISBN: 0-89241-473-1
PRINTEDINTHEUNITEDSTATESOFAMERICA
Contents
Part I: THE CITY AS A WHOLE
Introduction: TheMechanisms ofUrban Meaning 3
DonaldPreziosi
1. Byzantine Constantinople & Ottoman Istanbul: Evolution in a
Millennial Imperial Iconography 13
Speros Vryonis,Jr.
2. The Ottomanization ofCrete 53
Irene A. Bierman
3. Power and Social Order: The Uses ofthe Kanun 77
Rifa' pi A. Abou-El-Haj
PART II:' THE CITY AND ITS PARTS
Introduction: Power. Structure, and Architectural Function 103
DonaldPreziosi
4. Administrative Complexes.Palaces. and Citadels: Changes in the
Loci ofMedieval Muslim Rule 111
Jere L. Bacharach
5. Facades in Ottoman Cairo 129
Olka Bates
6. The Ottoman Sultan's Mosques: Icons ofImperial Legitimacy 173
Howard Crane
Glossary 245
Index 253
Contributors
Rifa'atAli Abou-El-Haj Ottomanhistorian andProfessorofHistory,
California State University, Long Beach
Jere L. Bacharadt ProfessorofIslamic History, University of
Washington, Seattle
UlkiiBates AssociateProfessorofArt History, HunterCollege
ofthe CityUniversity ofNewYork
IreneA. Bierman AssociateProfessorofIslamicArt History, UCLA
Howard Crane Islamicart historian and ProfessorofArt History,
Ohio StateUniversity
DonaldPreziosi ProfessorofArt History, UCLA
Speros Vryonis,Jr. ProfessorofGreekCivilization and Cultureand
Directorofthe Alexander S.OnassisCenterfor
Hellenic Studies, NewYork University
Preface
"Thepresumptionisthatmeaningin the urbanenvironmentisnotcompletelycon
tained in the structures themselves that comprise that environment, but is rather a
complex function ofinterrelations among objects, users, and their historical circum
stances."
These words have their origins in aposition paper circulated in advance of
aconference entitled PowerandStructure intheIslamic Urban Arts,sponsored in
May. 1984 by the Gustave E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern
Studies, the Art History area of the Department of Art, Design, & Art
History, and the School ofArchitecture ofthe University ofCalifornia, Los
Angeles.Duringthe daysofthat conference,alargegroup ofartand architec
tural historians, historians, architects, city planners, and sociologists met to
consider the many ways in which the urban environment was employed to
signify and sustain specifically Islamic ideas and values ofstatecraft, political
legitimacy, religious unity, and social and economic power. The participants
were asked to address the question of how Islamic cities and their parts
engenderedandsustained such values,and howsuch valuesmightbe "legible'
in Islamicarchitectural foundations andstructures.
The present volume is one product of that conference, and consists of
essays commissioned subsequent to the conference on a more focussedtheme
of the historical relationships between political power and specifically
Ottoman Islamicurban structure. Rather than publishing a traditional volume
ofconference proceedings, the editors projected a thematically unified vol
ume made up ofessays by several scholars whose research into the relation
shipsbetween Ottoman political powerand urban structure provides a multi
disciplinarypicture ofthe currentstateofour knowledge ofthe subject.
The resultant collective venture is made up ofsix essays by historians and
art and architectural historians ofthe Ottoman world which present overlap
ping insightsinto the socialhistory ofthe Ottoman cityand itsparts.Many of
the subjectstaken up below in each study reappear in different waysin allsix,
and each essayfurther illuminates, and isin tum illuminated by, the others.
Urban Structure andSocial Orderisdivided into two parts: considerations ofthe
Ottoman city asa whole [part One] and in its component parts [part Two].
viii Preface
Each part ispreceded by an introductory section which identifiescommonly
addressed themes, and indicates the specific waysin which the conclusions
and insightsofeach essayaugment and resonatewith those ofthe others.
Many people helped to make this volume possible--some because they
helped bring about the original conference which inspired the present study,
and some because oftheir adviceand counsel on the designand production
of this book. The editors would like to thank Professor George Sabagh,
Director ofthe von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies;Professor
Nikkie Keddie ofUCLA; and Dr. Heath Lowry, Director ofthe Institute for
Turkish Studies,Washington, D.C., which awarded apublication subvention
for the volume.
In addition. specialthanks go to ProfessorSperosVryonis,jr., Director of
the Alexander S. OnassisCenter for Hellenic Studies, New York University,
for hisongoingadviceand encouragement; Mr.Jonathan Friedlander;Robert
H. Gray, former dean of the UCLA College of Fine Arts; UCLA Vice
Chancellor Elwin Svenson; Susan Simsand Emiko Terasaki;and Ethel Sara
Wolper for making the Glossaryand Carel Bertram for making the Index.
Specialthanks must be given to GraceWax. Caroline Kent. and Shannon W.
Morris for typing this manuscript. We would also like to thank Professors
Martin Krampen ofthe Hochschule der Bildende Kunste, Berlin, and Janet
Abu-Lughod ofthe School ofSocialResearch. whose theoretical and critical
contributions to this work at its outset helped define the volume's thematic
unities. The many contributors to the 1984 conference helped us in under
standing the extraordinary diversityand complexity ofurban designand his
tory in the larger Islamicworld. Finally.we wish to thankJohn Emerich of
the Press for his ongoing encouragement and unfailingly good advice in
bringing thisprojectto completion.
Inall the transliterations, we tried to follow the systemadopted by Islam
Ansiklopedisi. The most notable exceptions were: For the Arabic ayn, we
adopted the symbol' asin 'Ali; for hamzah, we adopted the symbol' asin
Dar al-'Imarah.
IRENEA. BIERMAN
DEPARTMENTOF ARTHISTORY, UCLA
RIFA'ATA. ABou-Er.-HA]
DEPARTMENTOF HISTORY, CALIFORNIASTATEUNIVERSITYATLONGBEACH
DONAlDPRFZIOSI
DEPARTMENTOF ARTHISTORY,UCLA
Part I
THE CITY AS A WHOLE
Ihave neitherdesiresnorfears [KublaiKhan declared].
and my dreamsarecomposed either by my mindorby
chance.
Citiesalsobelieve theyarethe work ofthe mind orof
chance [MarcoPolo replies].but neitherthe one northe
othersufficesto holdup their walls.You take delight
notin acity'sseven orseventywonders, but in the
answer it givesto aquestion ofyours.
Orthe question it asksyou, forcingyou to answer.like
Thebes through the mouth ofthe Sphinx.
-Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
Introduction
The Mechanisms ofUrban Meaning
Donald Preziosi
Ifyou were to visit the Athenian Akropolis to examine the great architec
tural remains ofclassical Greece, you wouldmost likelycome upon a curious
anomaly in the symmetrical composition ofthe large gateway covering the
western endofthe Akropolis hill,a buildingknown asthe Propylaia. Asyou
walk through the Propylaia, you may notice that the door and flankingwin
dows ofa room behindthe left (north) portico do not align themselveswith
the intercolumnial spacesofthat portico. This bizarre asymmetry is at odds
not only with the doors ofthe central portion ofthe Propylaia leading onto
the Akropolis platform, but in factalsowith the alignments ofallsuch archi
tectural members in other classical colonnadedstructures.
The asymmetrical facadebelongs to a chamber known in antiquity as the
Pinakotheka, or picture-gallery, referredto by the ancient travellerPausaniasas
housing pictures significant to Athenian history and mythology. Should you
attemptto findaspot where the chamber'sdoor and windows might appearin
their canonically classical position (between the fronting columns), you will
eventually find yourselfat the center ofthe forecourt ofthe Uvshaped
Propylaia, down on the zigzagramp leadingsteeplyup to the Propylaia plat
form.
That spot is at the center ofthe ramp, and at the center ofthe forecourt.
Directly ahead, to the east,you canlook through the largecentral doorwayof
the Propylaia up onto the Akropolis platform. If you were standing at this
point in the latter part ofthe 5th centuryB.C., you wouldsee directly ahead
ofyou through the main Propylaiaentrance the great chryselephantine statue
ofthe Athena promakhos, the patron ofthe Athenian struggle against the
Persians halfa century earlier: the.head ofthis massivegold and ivory statue
would dominate the view into the Akropolis. Ifyou were to turn around, in
the directionofthe gazeofthat statue, you wouldthen seeon the farwestern
horizon the island ofSalamis, the site ofthe Athenian naval victory against
the Persian fleet.