Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace: The Emerald of the Ottoman Empire

by

Luis E. Basurto

HONR 3388

Dr. Buckman

April 18, 2013

Turkey is unique in many different things including gastronomy, architecture, commerce, and history. Even though Turkey is the continuation of the Ottoman Empire, it also has a heterogeneous set of elements that have been derived not only from Ottoman but Byzantine, Greek, Roman, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian traditions. As a result of the long history in the territory, diverse historical factors play an important role in defining modern Turkish culture.

As previously mentioned, architecture plays a really important role in Turkey because it gives a hint of the long rich history this place has. London has Buckingham Palace, Russia has the Kremlin, France has Versailles, and in Turkey the Topkapi Palace stands tall. Topkapi was the residence of sultans, royal families, and administration of the Ottoman Empire for more than 400 years.

Background

In 330 A.D., the Roman emperor Constantine I established Constantinople in the geographic area that used to be a Greek town called Byzantium. Under the reign of Theodosius, paganism was outlawed and Christianity was made the official religion of the state. By Theodosius’s death in 395 A.D, the eastern and western provinces had ideologically grown apart, and the Roman Empire was in effect divided in two.

Then, all the eastern half of the Roman Empire came to be known as the Byzantine Empire. In the year 476 A.D., Rome fell and Constantinople emerged as the sole religious and cultural capital of the Roman Empire. Due to numerous raids and invasions, the Byzantine Empire grew weak, leading to its fall in 1204. Even though the territory was reclaimed by the Byzantines, they found a weak and drastically reduced empire. The Osmanlis (better known as Ottomans) were successful in bringing the Byzantine Empire to a definite end in 1453 by the hand of Mehmet the Conqueror.

Research done by John Carswell...