Harem Ghosts

by Douglas Scott Brooks, Douglas Scott Brooks, Ali Ziyrek

In vivid and engaging style, Douglas Brookes uses the royal tomb of Sultan Mahmud II as a window onto the past, exploring the insights the tomb reveals about Ottoman culture in its splendid last decades. Woven into the tale are the life stories of the Turkish royals and harem concubines interred in the mausoleum and of the illustrious Ottomans buried in the tomb’s not just the statesmen, admirals, generals, and palace eunuchs who ran the Ottoman Empire, but also the musicians, artists, and poets who shaped its cultural life. The first in-depth study of Istanbul’s most prestigious burial ground, Harem Ghosts leads the reader through the enchanting site that began as the tomb for one monarch but evolved into the national pantheon of the Ottoman Empire―“the Ottoman Westminster Abbey”―at the heart of the city.

330 pages, Hardcover

First published September 12, 2015

Reviews

[Fusun Dulger charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a fabulous Ottoman History book through description of the graves of the Sultan Mahmud II Tomb Complex. I love Ottoman History, I have been a number of times in Istanbul, always visiting historical sites and didn't even know this one existed. I will definitively visit it next time I go.
It is a "living" history, pun intended, of Sultans, their wives, daughters, viziers, famous poets and men of Ottoman Times.
Absolutely fascinating.

[Mills College Library]

956.015 B8725 2016