OTTOMAN EMPIRE-AN EMPIRE RULED OVER THREE CONTINENTS

 The Ottoman gravestones ,which spread over three continents  in the world, are the main  cultural heritage not only in Turkey but also in European countries to give detailed information about the history today. They are also the illimunating written archive documents of some former Ottoman states in Balcan countries  reflecting the historical, social, economical and sociological events in Ottoman period more than six hundred years. The Ottoman gravestones are accepted as the stone libraries that can be learnt a lot of information from the ephitaphs, symbols, figures and marks. For instance, we can learn the types of occupations in Ottoman periods from tombstone headgears whom they were worn and we can learn the meaning of ephitaps  from gravestones what they were in Ottoman society.   Ottoman people , who understood the particular grasp of the intricacies of Islam's message in a good way with  its institutions, traditions and usages in practice, gave  the  big importance in the cemeteries and graveyards. Ottomans revealed the objects that respond to the needs of the people as the works of art in the most beautiful way. In other words, Ottoman art was usually functional. Gravestones , which give the most valuable information about the past as being explored, are the artworks. Ottomans installed the cemeteries and graveyards inside the towns next to the schools, bazaars, lodges, backyards of the mosques as reminding the death everyday in life with the most beautiful expressions on and they tried to prevent the ambition of the world with the most beautiful artworks. Ottoman gravestones are the excellent preachers which begin with Allah as  the only creator, continue with Koranic verses and Hadiths,  express the identity of death person in the grave, give advices to the visitors, the date of death and ends  with blessing.  So the Ottoman cemeteries and graveyards are located in downtowns. The main aim is to remind the death  always and the temporary of the world. The death people need only the blessing so the passers-by or the visitors send their blessing to the death in graves both earning reward and not forgetting the death. How could you remember the death ifyou didn’t pass by a cemetery everyday ?  For this reason the Ottoman gravestones were placed on the pathways, on the roads of the bazaars, backyards of the lodges and the mosques. Ottoman people were supposed to go to the mosques five times a day so they used to pray five times to their dead relatives and ancestors. Ottoman Turks had always lived with their deaths so there is a common word in Turkey that the foreing guests say “ Turks live always with their death people. “ Ottoman gravestones can be divided in four main categories ; 

THE FOUNDATION OF THE STATE-BURSA

It covers the dates between 1299 and 1453 A.D. which is known as the Ottoman state from the foundation  to the conquest of the Adrinople. Bursa was the first capital and most of the tombs & the graves had domed  building with gravestones. The language of the headstones and sarcophaguses  are still Arabic which  Koranic verses & Hadiths are curved as calligraphy on gravestones. The Green tomb, Tophane hill, Emir Sultan shrine and its cemetery and Murat Hudavendigar I shrine, Karabaş-ı Vali, Seyyid Usul, Uftade and Zeyniler are the best examples with graves & headstones of early Ottoman period. The early Ottoman gravestones reflecting the foundation of the state can also be seen in the backyard of Turkish-Islamic art museum. Bursa still is the home of early Ottoman gravestones, shrines with sarcopgahus and cemeteries giving the detailed information about the beginning of a great empire.

 THE GOLDEN AGE-ISTANBUL

When Constantinople was conquered in 1453 by Mehmet II, not only the name of the city was turned into Istanbul, the city of the Muslims, but also Ottoman state was risen up to a big empire and became widespread empire over three continents. Sultan Mehmet II also expanded  the Ottoman protocol, renovated and connected to the new strict rules. Ottoman headgears and careers were devoted to redefining classes. Every profession has started to use its own custom title , colorful clothes, its own headgears with turbans in ranks so these strict rules began using in daily life. When a professional man died, the hat which he used with his cloth alive became his headgear on top of his tombstone. The ephitaphs in Arabic on tombstones were left and a new language began carving on tombstones in Ottoman language which was the mixture of Turkish, Arabic and Persian. The imperial language  was Ottoman both in written documents and on tombstones. When the high-ranking Ottoman officials such as viziers, captains of navy, royal academy staff and dnasty women, their gravestones were made in marble by palace stonemasons in order to protect the level of Ottoman stone art. The gravestones of the those people were numbered and recorded in imperial archieves so Ottomans have kept up with their gravestone arts for centuries. Both Asian and Eurpean sides have splendid graveyards reflect the classical ages of gravestone arts in marble with written inscriptions dated between 1453 and 1876.

ON THE IMPERIAL WAY-EDIRNE

 In 1362 Adrianople, Edirne,  was taken over by the Ottoman troops called as Edirne by the Turk and it became the capital of Ottoman state. The Ottoman state began expanding through Europe & Balcan countries and the main goal was to capture Constantinople as the next step. Ottoman Turks have  created another artwork on gravestones by using tulip style called Edirnekari as to put their seals instead of Arabic influence on funeral traditions. Turkish-Islamic art Museum, Selimiye mosque gravestones exhibition center, Gazi Mihal mosque , Kuşcu Dogan mosque graveyard,  Fatma Sultan cemetry, Muradiye mosque graveyard, Hasan Seazi and Üç Şerefeli mosque graveyard  have the best examples of Edirnekari tombstones with men & women. Edirnekari gravestones are the transition examples  from an expanding state to a large empire.

THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE

The Ottoman empire began falling down after the French Revolution in 1789 A.D the reasons why the deterioration of the military, the growth of the empire in three continents, the difficulty of the central administration and the spread of corruption , the change of new trade routes and so on. In the beginning of the 19th century A.D. military consultants, scientists, artists, craftsmen and architects were invited from Europe  to Istanbul to make the reforms throughout the empire and a big western influence in Ottoman society was started. Foreign schools were opened, French and German began spoken by Ottoman intellectuals, the European way of life was adopted in some certain places and the traditional Turkish-Ottoman rules were left. Of course, the Ottoman gravestone arts were effected badly and millions of people lost their jobs. Calligraphers, stone craftsmen, wood carvers, artisans and others remained unemployed.The western-style large sarcophagus of tombstones began to be made  and traditional methods were  abondened. Çemberlitaş Mahmut II, Eminönü Abdulhamid I, Eyup Sultan  and Zeytinburnu cemeteries, Fatih, Süleymaniye and Vefa Mosques’ backyards are the best examples with full of western types of late Ottoman gravestones, cemeteries, graveyards and shrines made for both Ottoman sultans and grandviziers.

THE GRAVESTONES AND SHRINES SHOWING THE PERIODS