FROM A COURTYARD TO A SQUARE: TRANSFORMATION OF THE BEYAZIT MEYDANI IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY İSTANBUL
Journal Name:
- Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Mimarlık Fakültesi Dergisi
Keywords (Original Language):
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Abstract (2. Language):
After a short city survey on the sultan’s mosques (selâtin camileri) in the
Historical Peninsula, a person, even not very familiar with the traditional
fabric of İstanbul, may be stunned by the fact that the exterior courtyard of
the Beyazıt Mosque is missing. How did a traditional courtyard turn into
an open city square and what was the significance of this transformation?
This study is devised to shed light on this issue.
Traditionally, Ottoman sultan complexes (külliyes) are organised around
two courtyards following each other: an exterior courtyard and an interior
courtyard. Mehmet II (Fatih), Beyazıt II, and Süleyman I built grand külliyes
on the Historical Peninsula in almost a century from 1459 to 1550s (2).
Each of these great religious and political monuments of the empire had
two courtyards conforming with the building tradition of the Empire (3).
Although Süleymaniye (külliye of Süleyman I) and Fatih (külliye of Mehmet
II) preserved their courtyards, Beyazıt Mosque, as part of the külliye of
Beyazıt II, lost its exterior courtyard (4). Architectural historians generally
did not pay enough attention to the absence of the exterior courtyard of the
Beyazıt Mosque (5). However, the courtyard of a mosque had an important
place both in terms of the organisation of social life and the architecture of
a Sultan Mosque. As Evliya Çelebi noted, not only the interior space of the
mosque but also the courtyards of it were named with the word “harem”.
Even the terminology, which was used to define a courtyard, expresses
the specificl meaning of this space with connotations of ‘privacy’. The use
of the words of “harem” or “harîm” expresses a sensibility to the meaning
of a courtyard of a mosque in the society (6), as it can be exemplified
in the attempt of reconstruction of the harîm of the Beyazıt Mosque a
hundred years later. Sedat Hakkı Eldem proposed to reconstruct the lost
exterior courtyard back in 1939-1940 (7). During 1950s the Prime Minister
Menderes was observed to lead extensive reconstructions in İstanbul.
The government of the Demokrat Party by Menderes, was using Eldem’sproject (8) and supporting his proposal for the harîm of the Beyazıt Mosque.
They claimed in a propaganda book of reclaiming the “harîm” to the
mosque and aimed “meeting this holy area with tranquility” once more
(9) in their reconstruction program. The constructions in the square took
several years and were discussed widely in the newspapers. During these
constructions Beyazıt Meydanı changed a lot but the harîm of the Beyazıt
Mosque was never re-built.
How did the harîm or the introvert (enclosed) space belonging to the
mosque become an exterior public space? The disappearance of the exterior
courtyard (i.e. harîm) and merging of it with the square (meydan) outside
is the main focus of this paper. Its transformation from a traditional inner
courtyard into an open-public square will be observed. It should be noted
that this change indicates a very early example of transformation of urban
space in the history of modernisation of İstanbul. The research begins with
the attempt to clarify the role of the abolishment of the Janissary Corps in
this transformation process at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
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Abstract (Original Language):
Bu araştırma, 19. yüzyılın ikinci yarısına ağırlık veren yaygın görüşün
aksine, İstanbul kent mekânının 19. yüzyılın başlangıcından itibaren
dönüşüme uğradığını vurgulamaktadır. 1826’da Yeniçeriliğin kaldırılması
(Vak’a-i Hayriyye) ile II. Mahmud imparatorluk üzerinde otoritesini
yeniden kurmakla kalmadı, Yeniçerilerin başkent üzerindeki izlerini de
yok etti. Beyazıt Meydanı’nın, Seraskerlik (yeni ordunun idari merkezi)
Meydanı’na dönüşümü bu erk mücadelesini yansıtan özel bir örnek oluşturur. Yeniçeriliğin kaldırılması ile Beyazıt Meydanı yeni ordunun
merkezi ve askeri törenlerin prestijli bir kamu sahnesi olmuştur.
Erkin kamusal görünümüne mekân sağlamak dönüşümün ilk hedefi
idi. Bu Beyazıt Camisi’nin, harem olarak da adlandırılan, Osmanlı cami
mimarisinin önemli bir parçası olan dış avlusu pahasına biçimlendi.
Burada dış avlunun yıkımı yalnızca kent ve mimarlık adına değil sosyal
ve politik açıdan da önemlidir. Dış avlunun zaman içinde yıkımı, vakıf
arazisi olan cami avlusundan, kamusal meydana, başka bir ifade ile içten
dışa dönüşüme işaret eder. Araştırma eldeki görsel ve yazılı kaynaklara
dayanarak bu dönüşümün nasıl gerçekleştiğini ortaya koymaya
çalışmaktadır.
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