Private and Royal Life in the Ottoman Palace

by İlber Ortaylı

Topkapi Palace was the official and primary residence of the Ottoman sultans for almost four centuries of their 624-year reign. This illustrated guide to Topkapi Palace (the heart of a vast transcontinental empire until the mid-nineteenth century) explores Ottoman history, as it relates to specific sections of the palace.

Ortayli, a famed Turkish historian and scholar, introduces the audience to the outer and inner sections of the palace as well as the family quarters, providing them with profound background information about their functions, architecture and decorations. His references to the palace customs, people, and particular events present the reader with a living history.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

159 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2008

About the author

İlber Ortaylı (born 21 May 1947), is a leading Turkish historian, professor of history at the Galatasaray University in Istanbul and at Bilkent University in Ankara. Since 2005 he has been the head of the Topkapı Museum in Istanbul.

As the son of a Crimean Tatar family who fled Joseph Stalin's persecution and deportation, he was born in a refugee camp in Bregenz, Austria on 21 May 1947 and came to Turkey when he was 2 years old. Ortaylı attended elementary school and St. George's Austrian High School in İstanbul and then Ankara Atatürk High School. He graduated from Ankara University Mekteb-i Mülkiye (Faculty of Political Science) and completed his postgraduate studies at the University of Chicago under Professor Halil İnalcık and at the University of Vienna. He obtained his doctorate at Ankara University in the Faculty of Political Sciences. His doctoral thesis was Local Administration in the Tanzimat Period (1978). After his doctorate, he attended to the faculty at the School of Political Sciences of Ankara University. In 1979, he was appointed as associate professor. In 1982, he resigned from his position, protesting the academic policy of the government established after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état. After teaching at several universities in Turkey, Europe and Russia, in 1989 he returned to the Ankara University and became professor of history and the head of the section of administrative history.

İlber Ortaylı is widely known as a polyglot. Apart from Turkish, he also speaks German, Russian, English and French.

He has published articles on Ottoman and Russian history, particular emphasis on cities and the history of public administration, diplomatic, cultural and intellectual history. In 2001, he collected the Aydın Doğan Foundation Award. He is a member of the Foundation for International Studies, the European-Iran Examining Foundation and the Austrian-Turkish Academy of Sciences. A biographical book on İlber Ortaylı, "Zaman Kaybolmaz: İlber Ortaylı Kitabı," was published by Nilgün Uysal in 2006.

■Tanzimat'tan Sonra Mahalli İdareler (Provincial administration after Tanzimat) (1974)
■Türkiye'de Belediyeciliğin Evrimi (Evolution of manucipality in Turkey; with Ilhan Tekeli, 1978)
■Türkiye İdare Tarihi (Administrative history of Turkey) (1979)
■Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda Alman Nüfuzu (German influence in the Ottoman Empire) (1980)
■Gelenekten Geleceğe (From tradition to the future) (1982)
■İmparatorluğun En Uzun Yüzyılı (The longest century of the Empire) (1983)
■Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e Yerel Yönetim Geleneği (Local administration tradition from Tanzimat to the Republic) (1985)
■İstanbul'dan Sayfalar (Pages from Istanbul) (1986)
■Studies on Ottoman Transformation (1994)
■Hukuk ve İdare Adamı Olarak Osmanlı Devletinde Kadı (Kadıs as a legal and administrative figures in the Ottoman State) (1994)
■Türkiye İdare Tarihine Giriş (Introduction to the history of Turkish administration) (1996)
■Osmanlı Aile Yapısı (Family structure in the Ottoman Empire) (2000)
■Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda İktisadi ve Sosyal Değişim (Economic and social change in the Ottoman Empire) (2001)
■Osmanlı Barışı (Ottoman peace) (2004)
■Osmanlı’yı Yeniden Keşfetmek 1 and 2 (Rediscovering the Ottoman Empire) (2006)
■Kırk Ambar Sohbetleri (Kırk ambar conversations) (2006)
■Eski Dünya Seyahatnamesi (Travelogue of the old world) (2007)

Reviews

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short little book but very clear. It explains all the areas of Topkapi Palace in the clearest and simplest way possible and I really appreciated it since the palace is so big it is quite difficult (to me at least) sometimes to understand where was what.

The high quantity of phorographs was also very nice!! It really helped to better understand which rooms the author was talking about.

[Özlem Kayabaşı · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarayı adım adım gezsem bu kadar bilgi sahibi olamazdım sanırım. Başarılı ama sıkıcı olmayan tasvirler kitabı hızla okutuyor.

[Zeynep · Rating 4 out of 5]

ilber hoca adeta elimizden tutup oda oda, taslik taslik gezdirirken bir yandan da saray tarihini, siyasi ve sosyal hayatini anlatiyor.

[Ozan Pektas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gereksiz kelimelerden uzak son derece bilgilendirici ve Topkapı Sarayını bir kez daha ayrı bir gözle ziyaret için ilgi uyandırıcı bir kitap. Bürokrasi, Otorite ve Harem gibi klişe başlıklı satırlar beklerken ritüeller, gerçek hayat kesitleri, monarşinin zarif önleri ve sarayın kurumsal yapısı gibi kendini okutan ve son derece akıcı nitelikte bir kitap.

[Muhsin Ulusoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Osmanlılar konusunda ilk danışılması gerekenlerden olan İlber Ortaylı'nın kült eseri. Zamanında müzenin müdürlüğünü de yapmış olan İlber Hoca, hanedanlığın saray yaşantısıyla ilgili bilgileri neredeyse ilk elden sunduğu bu kitapta aynı zamanda müze durumundaki sarayın rehberliğini yapmakta.

[Mavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

İlber hocama saygım sonsuz tarih okumayı severim ama çok fazla mimari bilgi vardı beni çokça sıktı. Yine de bu büyük hocayla aynı çağda yaşamak güzel.