The Ottoman Court On The Road: Royal Mobility And The Imperial Residences Between Edirne And Istanbul, 1657-1703

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b3199624

This dissertation, while focusing on the itinerant character and rule of the court of Mehmed IV on the one hand, takes as its subject matter the Ottoman palaces, gardens, estates and pavilions that were built, renovated and/or repaired and used around Edirne and particularly between Edirne and Istanbul between 1657 and 1703. It introduces to scholarship, through the use of a vast body of primarily expenserelated archival documents, a number of such royal residences for the first time. While doing this, rather than focusing on the formal and architectural natures of these edifices, it contextualizes them through the perspective of early modern court studies. Known as “the hunter” in classical Turkish historiography, Sultan Mehmed IV is acclaimed for his mobility foremost for this reason, while this mobility manifests itself most clearly in the court’s relocation to Edirne in the second half of the seventeenth century. This study acknowledges itinerancy as an essential characteristic of the Ottoman court in a comparable manner to their contemporary European, Safavid and Mughal courts, and analyses the royal residences it is concerned with in this context. It argues that, beyond simply being hunting lodges, the royal residences in question were built as a result of the court’s needs –foremost of which was that of accommodation while on the road– and thus were a direct and organic outcome of the court’s peripatetic lifestyle. On the other hand, analysis of the court’s itinerancy at this period also uncovers underlying patterns of mobility that hinge on the year 1676, before and after which the court’s movements display differing trajectories. Finally, the dissertation demonstrates further that the construction activities around Edirne at this time display a strong geographical and temporal parallel with the court’s mobility patterns between the two cities, thus underscoring the close relationship between the two phenomena.