
Harem Ghosts: What One Cemetery Can Tell Us About the Ottoman Empire
Type
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 the illustrious Ottomans buried in the tomb’s garden: 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.
Douglas Scott Brookes teaches Ottoman Turkish at the University of California, Berkeley. His other books include The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher: Voices from the Ottoman Harem. Ali Ziyrek, Museum Researcher at the Istanbul Directorate of Tombs, is the author of The Sultan Ahmed Mosque.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Mahmud Quandary
2. More Than a Tomb
Water and Piety
Catafalques and Palls
Furnishing a Tomb
In Foreigners’ Eyes
Pride of the City
3. The Cemetery as Window
The Consummate Sepulchre
The Path to the Tomb
Deciphering Ottoman Tombstones
Gates of Rhyme
The Ottoman Career Ladder
Harem Living
4. The Dynasty in the Tomb
Royalty
Imperial Concubines
5. From Garden to Graveyard .
Meet the Ottomans
Ambassadors
Artists and Artisans
Cabinet Ministers and Grand Viziers
Generals, Admirals, and Governors
National Heroes
Palace Staff and Courtiers
Parliamentary Deputies and Senators
Physicians
Royalty and Nobles
Scholars and Religious Figures
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index