This research examines gravestones (levh-i mezar) from a few selected Ottoman graveyards (hazires), Seyyid Nizam, Eski Topkapı and Dedeler. These gravestones contain text that serve to express emotional experiences throughout the Ottoman Empire's 'stagnation' phase in the 17th century and early 18th century, when the so-called 'decline' period began. Ottoman gravestones provide insight into Ottoman death culture, with their diversity representing all strata of society. These culturally and aesthetically rich gravestones were handed down through generations and evolved into a symbol of Ottoman identity. These tombstones are multi-dimensional archive artifacts that offer light on national culture and history, bearing the work of several artists. They are one-of-a-kind tools that transmit the beliefs, worries, anxieties, pleasures, and a variety of emotions of individuals who shared the same air and lived in the same places. They also reflect the deceased person's social life and economic standing. The skilled craftsmanship in the forms of the gravestones and their location in significant areas of the city contribute to understanding the physicality ascribed to the ritual by the Ottomans. The stones, as a textual source, provide evidence of Ottoman after-death rituals. Previous works have focused on the texts found on these gravestones, but they have only touched on how they influence and inform us of the emotions of the people who encounter them. This study therefore contributes to this gap. Gravestones for this study were chosen according to the emotional relevance of their texts to death and how much the feeling of death could be read from these stones. I intend to discuss the parametric changes that gravestone emotional experiences underwent in Istanbul. This is achieved through an analytical approach that seeks to categorize the emotions that the grievers expressed in their texts as a result of factors such as the loss of a child, premature death, longing, pride, and sorrow, amongst others. This analysis suggests, through certain similarities, that these texts were elaborated from a primary source, which remains unknown. This research extends Rosenwein’s works on ‘generations of feelings’ by giving us an Ottoman perspective and, thus, a better idea of how they lived and their culture in this period.