Publication Date
Its construction began in the 9th / 15th century, under Sultan Mehmed II (his second reign: 855-886 / 1451-1481), and the last annexes were added during the reign of Sultan Abdul Majid (reigned 1255-1277 / 1839-1861) in the 13th / 19th century.
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID
monument;ISL;tr;Mon01;24;ar
Library Location
Istanbul, Türkiye
Date
Its construction began in the 9th / 15th century, under Sultan Mehmed II (his second reign: 855-886 / 1451-1481), and the last annexes were added during the reign of Sultan Abdul Majid (reigned 1255-1277 / 1839-1861) in the 13th / 19th century.
Notes
Topkapi Palace (originally known as the Imperial Palace, New Imperial Palace or New Palace) was built on a plot of land on the Istanbul Peninsula overlooking the Golden Horn on one side, and the Bosphorus Strait and the Sea of Marmara on the other. The wooden palace built during the reign of Sultan Mehmed II behind Topkapi (literally meaning Cannon Gate), which is the oldest gate of the palace overlooking the sea, was burned and its name was given to the 'New Palace'. The palace is surrounded by the Sultanate Walls, and its main entrance is the Imperial Gate on the side opposite Hagia Sophia. There is a general similarity between the design of this palace and the Edirne Palace, as it occupies an area of 700,000 square meters. The construction of the palace began under Sultan Mehmed II and was completed during the reign of subsequent rulers, until it took the form of a huge complex of buildings. Topkapi Palace lacks the central organization seen in many palaces. This group of buildings, instead of being architecturally consistent, expanded like a small city whose elements were exposed to the changes of time. During the reign of Sultan Mehmed II, the palace plan expanded to include three main courtyards and huge gates. The first courtyard, known as the Parade Court, is entered from the Imperial Gate, the main gate of the palace, where the church of Hagia Irini was built. Many buildings were also constructed here for different purposes, but none of them exist anymore. The first courtyard is open to the second courtyard, known as the Diwan Square, through the reception gate, which is also called the middle gate. The basic buildings of the palace are the kitchens, the royal stables, the rooms of the state councils, the Iwan of Justice, and finally the inner palace area, which can be entered through the Gate of Happiness or the Gate of the White Eunuchs. Among the important buildings of the third courtyard are the official reception hall in which the Sultan receives ambassadors and ministers, the Sultan’s private chamber in which the Prophet’s cloak was later kept, the Mehmed II suite, and the Ahmed III library. There is a corridor with a slight slope leading to the fourth courtyard, which includes multi-functional wings that include distinctive examples of Ottoman architecture, such as the Baghdad and Revan wings built by Murad IV (r. 1032-1049 / 1623-1640), and the circumcision chamber built by Ibrahim I (r. 1049-1058 / 1640-1648). The last building added to Topkapi Palace is the Majidi Pavilion, built by Sultan Abdul Majid (1255-1278/1839-1861). There is the harem wing, where the Sultan and his family live, which is like an independent city within the palace; the oldest part of it that is still standing dates back to the reign of Murad III (982-1003/1574-1595). There is an inscription on one of the entrances to the harem wing, the Carriage Gate, which opens onto the second courtyard, adjacent to the chambers of the state councils, and bears the date 995/1588. The modifications and additions made to Topkapi Palace over time reflect, on the one hand, the decorative styles of the various eras to which it belongs, and, on the other hand, they provide evidence of the diversity of building forms that the palace witnessed. Topkapi Palace shows us the distinctive characteristics of the Ottoman court and the architectural style intended for housing over an extended period of time until the construction of the Dolmabahce Palace in the middle of the 13th / 19th century, which was the residence of the Ottoman sultans from Mehmed II to Abdulmejid, and became a museum in the year
Sample Text
“Topkapi Palace” within Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;tr;Mon01;24;ar
