Abstract
In the nineteenth century, when a wave of romantic nationalism swept the European continent, members of the Ottoman state began to seek a new basis for defining an “Ottoman citizenry”. From this new social base, they hoped to confront the ideological challenges of the era. That raised the necessity for tools and spaces of legitimation where subjects would get actively involved, be disciplined and transformed into “Ottoman Citizens”. Friday processions (the sultan’s ceremonial public appearances on the occasion of Friday prayers) served as one of those tools in the nineteenth century. Imperial mosques, being the spaces for those processions, were as important as ever. In this paper, I will focus on the Hamidian era (1876-1909) when the stately processions reached their peak in terms of importance but the number of venues decreased to one. The Hamidiye Mosque in Yıldız, which was built within the boundaries of the Yıldız Palace, can be referred to as “the mosque” for that period, since it was Sultan Abdulhamid II’s (r.1876-1909) predominant choice for all stately processions.
What kind of a spatial organization did those processions require? How wide would their effect spread along the city? How did those processions include the elite and the regular Istanbulites? These will be some of the major questions that I will seek answers for.
Mainly I will dwell on two related issues. First, I will address the differences between the premodern and modern imperial mosques of the Ottoman Capital in order to arrive at a general understanding of the spatial and social transformation that they underwent. Second, I will use a case study to suggest how the changing political inclinations affected the spatial organization of the Friday processions.
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