Süleymaniye Camii

Featuring: the enigmatic Ka’aba, singular Dome of the Rock, urban Suleymaniya, Isfahan’s labyrinthine Bazaar, the incomplete Sultan Hasan madrassa, sensuous Alhambra, infinite Cordoba, photogenic Taj Mahal. Extant structures from 7th to 16th century in different regions will be introduced along with concurrent Muslim thinkers, poets, mystics, scientists and architects. As the enigmatic buildings are laden with inscriptions (given the the centrality of Quran and status of calligraphy in Muslim culture), they provide us clues to decipher the monument’s meaning in our attempt to make sense of the past as of the present.

Note: the lecture course was previously taught both at Carleton University, Ottawa and at Jnanapravaha, Mumbai in 2018. This course outline was for the course scheduled for 2020 (postponed due to the pandemic).

Istanbul University, Institute of Biology (currently known as Botany Division), designed with a functionalist style by Swiss-Austrian architect Ernst Egli, was built in 1935 in Süleymaniye. The Institute and (Alfred Heilbronn) Botanical Garden were of great importance to meet necessary technical and architectural aspects of contemporary biology education for the first time in Turkey. The land on which the institute was founded, where Ağa Gate, Bab-ı Meşihat and old Istanbul Girls' High School were located before, has become an important part of the 20th century modern architectural heritage by having a place in the memory of the city with events, structures, people and plants, which emerged under the influence of social and political dynamics in the Republic period. The Institute of Biology located in the ‘Süleymaniye Mosque and its Associated Component Area’, which were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1985, is currently on the agenda as a controversial subject due to the evacuation of the Division and Botanical Garden and their allocation to the Istanbul’s Mufti's Office. This study draws attention to the historical values and current potentials of the building and garden on the basis of preserving the modern architectural heritage.

This study invastigates the contributions of 107 architects to ottoman architecture, who lived during 16th. century. Because there are very little knowledge about these architects. This study depends upon researches made in Ottoman Archive and Topkapı Palace Museum Archive. Therefore, the knowledge about these architects restricted to archive documents. In this research we focused on unknown architects and we aimed to introduce their works. For this reason Sinan and Davud Aga, who were most famous architects in sixteenth century, had been maintained very little. Architects in sixteenth century are not limited to these 107 architects that were introduced in this article.
Key words: Architect, architecture, monuments, mosque, Architects of Hassa, building, salary (ulûfe), citadel.

“Using the cave, the space of contemplation, and the pen, which gave shape to the words of God, H. Masud Taj drew an analogy to the genesis of Muslim architecture and calligraphy. Jnanapravaha hosted Taj, an award-winning architect, professor and calligrapher, for the widely attended series of seminars titled ‘Seven Wonders of the Muslim Civilization’ under the segment of ‘Islamic Aesthetics’. With lectures spread over five evenings, he strung together a vast knowledge of Islamic culture into an incredible narrative spanning religion, commerce, language, the written word and the built environment.”

- S.M. ( JPM Quarterly Jan-March  2019 p.11-14)

*First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Mrs. Seniha Çağıl Erol (granddaughter of Mebus Munir Bey and a dear colleague of my mother), for sharing with me her family archive of documents and photographs, therefore I was able to prepare this paper. Such detailed information about this mansion situated in the core of the area I worked during my dissertation was a real treasure for me. This paper examines, through the history and nearby vicinity of a family mansion, the physical and social environment in Süleymaniye urban zone during and after the 19 th century and how the area changed from being a residential area for the Ottoman and Early Republican elite to an area of slums for the lowest income group and immigrants. Mebus Münir Bey's mansion marks clearly the threshold for the beginning of transformation in the area and determines the socio-demographical rank of the neighborbood by the time the structure itself and the delicate furniture it was housing was sold in an auction in 1948. Süleymaniye Urban Zone, a World Heritage Site since 1985 in the Historical Peninsula of Istanbul, covers the districts of Süleymaniye, Vefa and Vezneciler. The area preserved its authentic urban features more or less without any major change except earthquake and fire damages until the mid of the 20th century. However, it went through certain radical changes in the second half of the 20th century. This paper taking as focal point the mansion of an ex-member of parliament in the Ottoman Assembly, at the same time expands the boundaries of its research to the complete zone in order to understand the problems of preservation in the urban cultural landscape.

Kültür mirası yönetimi, dünyada ve ülkemizde son yıllarda giderek önem kazanan bir kavramdır. Bir kentin kültür mirası, kentin geçmişini oluşturan tüm kültürel katmanlardan oluşur ve bu katmanlar birbirini besler. İstanbul gibi, iki imparatorluğa başkentlik yapmış bir kentte, kültür mirası yönetimi farklı zorluklar ve avantajlar taşımaktadır.

İstanbul’un tarihi geçmişinde önemli yer tutan iki yapı olan, Orta Bizans Dönemi’ne tarihlenen Pantokrator Manastırı ve Osmanlı Dönemi’nde inşa edilen Süleymaniye Külliyesi’nin kuruluşunun ve işleyiş yapısının incelendiği bu çalışmada, iki yapının birer kamusal kurum olarak karşılaştırılması yapılmış ve benzerlikleri üzerinde durulmuştur. Bu bağlamda, bu iki kurum örneği ışığında kültürel devamlılık ve kentsel arkeolojinin önemi vurgulanarak, kentsel hafıza kavramı açıklanmaya çalışılmıştır.