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MESİRE BAHÇELERİ, DÜNYEVİ ALIŞKANLIKLAR: OSMANLI ŞAM’INDA DİNLENCE KÜLTÜRÜ

LEISURE GARDENS, SECULAR HABITS: THE CULTURE OF RECREATION IN OTTOMAN DAMASCUS

Journal Name:

  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Mimarlık Fakültesi Dergisi

Publication Year:

  • 2010
DOI: 
10.4305

Key Words:

Keywords (Original Language):

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Abstract (2. Language): 
Leisure gardens and the culture of recreation associated with them have long been an integral part of urban life in Middle Eastern cities. Yet only little has been uncovered on urban landscape history and associated spatial practices in provincial Ottoman centres. Our knowledge of this aspect of socio-urban life has thus remained limited. This is mainly due to the paucity of information on urban landscape in conventional historical sources, and the disappearance of most gardens from the cities’ fabric during the rapid expansion of modern urbanisation in the nineteenth and twentieth century. This study attempts to shed fresh light on leisure gardens and the culture of recreation in Ottoman Damascus in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. It explore the topic through an unconventional source: an anthology of poems by a leading mystic, ‘Abd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī. Titled the Wine of Babel, this hitherto unexamined source documents the recreational activities of a unique religious personality, whose poetry and other notations offer valuable insights into this vivaciously expressive aspect of urban life. While his notes give us the names of many gardens and places of recreation, which no longer exist, his poetry enable us to gain insights into the aesthetic sensibility of the period. This paper focuses on the aesthetic sensibility revealed in his poetry by tracing, on one hand, the ways in which poetic imageries and figurative expressions were used to map emotive experiences over specific visual fields, and, on another, the role gender played in determining the general aesthetic attitude towards nature and landscape among the educated elite in the Damascene society.
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Abstract (Original Language): 
Mesire bahçeleri ve bu bahçelerle ilişkili dinlence kültürü Orta Doğu şehirlerindeki yaşamın ayrılmaz bir parçası olmuştur. Buna rağmen, Osmanlı vilayet merkezlerindeki kent peyzajı ve bununla ilişkili mekana ait uygulamalar üzerine pek az bulgu açığa çıkarılmıştır. Bunun sonucu olarak, toplum-kent hayatının bu cephesi üzerine bilgimiz sınırlı kalmıştır. Bu durum, temel olarak geleneksel tarihi kaynaklardaki kent peyajı üzerine bilgi yetersizliği ile on dokuz-yirminci yüzyıllardaki modern kentleşmenin yayılımı sırasında bahçelerin çoğunun kentlerin dokusundan yitmiş olmasından kaynaklanmıştır. Bu çalışma, on yedinci ve on sekizinci yüzyıllar Osmanlı Şam’ındaki mesire bahçeleri ve dinlence kültürünü yeni bir ışıkla aydınlatmayı dener. Konuyu sıra dışı bir kaynakla araştırır; bu kaynak öncü bir gizemci olan ‘Abd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī’nin şiir derlemesidir. Babil Şarabı adlı bu daha önce incelenmemiş kaynak, kent hayatının çehresini şiir ve diğer kayıtlarla neşeyle anlatarak sıradışı bir dindar şahsiyetin dinlence etkinliklerini belgeler. Onun notları bugün varolmayan pek çok bahçe ve dinlence yerinin ismini verirken, şiiri dönemin estetik duyarlılığını anlamamızı sağlar. Bu yazı, onun şiirinde açığa çıkan estetik duyarlılığa, bir yandan, özel görsel alanlar üzerine duygulandırıcı deneyimler ortaya çıkartmak için şiirsel imgeler ve mecazi ifadelerin kullanılma yollarını; diğer yandan, Şam toplumunda eğitimli seçkinler arasında cinsiyetin doğaya ve peyzaja yönelik genel estetik tavrı belirlemede oynadığı rolü araştırarak odaklanır.
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