Imperial Ottoman

Government · Article

Topkapı Palace

Topkapı Palace in Istanbul: its layout, the four courtyards, the harem, the imperial treasury, and the daily life of the Ottoman court that resided there from 1453 to 1856.

The Topkapı Palace is the principal residence of the Ottoman sultans from the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 until the move to the Dolmabahçe Palace in 1856. The palace was built by Mehmed II the Conqueror between 1459 and 1465, on the Seraglio Point, the promontory that commands the entrance to the Golden Horn. The palace is one of the most visited sites in modern Istanbul, and it is one of the principal monuments of the Ottoman government. The present article focuses on the layout, the principal buildings, the harem, the treasury, and the daily life of the palace in the centuries of its use. For the institutional setting in which the palace operated, see the article on the Sultan and the Imperial Court; for the imperial council that met in the second courtyard, see the article on the Grand Vizier and the Divan.

The Site

The Seraglio Point, on which the palace stands, was the site of the great Byzantine acropolis of Constantinople. The acropolis had contained the imperial palace of the Eastern Roman Empire, the cathedral of Hagia Eirene, the imperial mint, the imperial library, and various other public buildings. The whole complex was enclosed within a fortified perimeter that extended from the sea walls of the Marmara shore to the sea walls of the Golden Horn. The Ottoman palace reused the Byzantine walls, the Byzantine cisterns, and the Byzantine foundations; the principal buildings of the palace were new constructions, built on the cleared site of the old acropolis. The site was exceptionally well chosen: it commanded the entrance to the Golden Horn, it was surrounded by water on three sides, and it was connected to the rest of the city by a single fortified land wall.

The Four Courtyards

The palace was organized into four courtyards, each more private than the last, designed to regulate access to the sultan’s person.

The first courtyard, also called the Birun (the Outer Service), was the only part of the palace to which ordinary subjects had free access. The courtyard contained the imperial mint, the principal bakery, the Aya İrini (Hagia Eirene, the former Byzantine church used as an armory), the outer gardens, and the principal gate of the palace, the Bâb-üs Selâm (Gate of Salutation).

The second courtyard, also called the Divan Meydanı (the Divan Square), was the principal space of the central government. It was entered through the Bâb-üs Saâde (Gate of Felicity) and contained the Divan-ı Hümayun (the domed chamber in which the imperial council met), the Kubbealtı (the audience window of the sultan’s private chamber), the imperial kitchens, the inner treasury, the stables, the dormitories of the Janissary guard, and the Has Oda (the private chamber of the sultan).

The third courtyard, also called the Enderun, was the principal space of the palace school, the Enderun Mektebi, where the most promising students of the devshirme were trained for the senior service of the state. It contained the Arz Odası (the Audience Chamber), the library of Ahmed III, the Sünnet Odası (the Circumcision Room), the Revan and Bagdat kiosks added by Murad IV, and the dormitories of the senior students.

The fourth courtyard, also called the İç Oğlanlar, was the innermost sanctum of the imperial household. It contained the private apartments of the sultan, the Yalı Köşkü (the Water Kiosk), the Mecidiye Köşkü, the harem, the private gardens, and the principal mosque of the palace.

The Harem

The harem, in Ottoman usage, designated the domestic quarters of the imperial household. It occupied a separate, walled enclosure within the third and fourth courtyards, accessed through a single guarded door. The harem housed the female relatives of the dynasty, the concubines of the sultan, the male children of the lineage, and the eunuchs and female servants who attended them. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the harem became one of the most powerful political institutions of the empire, with the valide sultan (the mother of the reigning sultan) presiding over the harem and exercising a substantial influence over court politics. The harem contained more than four hundred rooms, including the Valide Sultan Apartments, the Sultan Apartments, the Kafes (the Cage, where the princes of the blood were confined from the seventeenth century), the harem mosque, the harem baths, and the harem school.

The Imperial Treasury

The imperial treasury (Hazine-i Hümâyûn) was housed in the Has Oda of the third courtyard, in a small domed chamber that was the most secure space of the palace. The treasury contained the principal revenues of the empire, the gifts of foreign ambassadors, the tuğra (the calligraphic monogram of the sultan) used to authenticate imperial documents, the personal jewels of the sultan, the crowns and regalia of the dynasty, and the principal gifts offered to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The contents of the treasury were inventoried in the Hazine Defterleri (the treasury registers), and the most precious items were displayed on the Helvahane (the dessert room) of the third courtyard.

The Palace as Museum

The palace began to lose its central role in the seventeenth century, as the sultans withdrew behind the walls of the harem and the Grand Viziers exercised more direct authority. The palace lost its principal function in 1856, when Abdulmecid I moved the principal residence to the Dolmabahçe Palace, an immense Baroque-Rococo palace built on European models. The Topkapı Palace was preserved as a treasury and museum, and it was opened to the public in 1924 by the Turkish Republic. The museum houses the imperial treasury, the imperial wardrobe, the imperial kitchens, the imperial armory, the imperial library, the Holy Mantle collection of the Prophet, the imperial portraits, and the principal relics of the dynasty. The palace is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, designated in 1985 as part of the historic areas of Istanbul.