Aksaray (Istanbul)

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Aksaray ( Turkish for white palace ) is a neighborhood of Istanbul district of Fatih .

Overview map

Aksaray is a district of Istanbul . It is located between Fatih in the east and Eminonu near the western edge of old Constantinople . It was named after the inhabitants from the Anatolian Aksaray , who were resettled here in the 16th century. Badly affected by city fires, the marginalized district has been affected by traffic plans since the 1950s, which were exclusively in the interests of the overarching metropolis of Istanbul. The traffic axes Vatan Caddesi and Millet Caddesi , established in the 1950s, intersect in Aksaray. The district has been connected to local public transport since the early 1870s and has a tram stop.

history

Late antiquity, Byzantium: Forum Bovis

In antiquity, the Forum Bovis (so called much later) , the 'Ochsenplatz' or 'Ochsenmarkt', a 250 by 300 m square that was probably created in the 4th century, was located on one of the two arms into which the Mese divided, the main road axis in east-west direction of the capital. The square is not to be confused with the Forum Tauri, the bull square.

According to Klaus Kreiser , the place in the Lykos Valley was called Philadelphion in Roman times , but for Raymond Janin these were different places. According to Ernest Mamboury , the Forum Bovis was still recognizable in the 1950s as an empty area that was bordered by high terraces in the north. In the city maps of the 19th century, the forum is no longer indicated as a square, but only as two main streets converge. Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall assumed in 1822 that the "Forum bovis" was "on the site of the Bodrun Djamissi cistern", one of the large cisterns that supplied the water to the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1956, when two main streets were being built, Millet and Vatan Caddesi, two 2 m high columns were discovered in front of the south wall of the Murat Pasha Mosque . On the forum there was a statue of Emperor Constantine and his mother Helena, as well as a silver cross. In the 13th century, the latter was believed to be a reminder of the legendary finding of the cross on which Jesus was executed, a third of which Helena had sent to Constantinople for her son from Jerusalem . If one follows Socrates Scholastikos , it is reminiscent of the struggle for the city, in which allegedly 20,000 pagans were killed, whereupon a silver cross was placed on the place where Constantine's army camped.

On the forum, which served as a cattle market, executions took place in the form of burns in an ox head originally from Pergamon , which had temporarily stood on the hippodrome . Stephan of Persia, the main tax collector under Emperor Justinian II , was burned there, as Nikephorus I and Theophanes report. Numerous legends of saints report corresponding martyrdoms, such as St. Theodosia . At the same time, central, state-organized processions led along the Mese across the square with the greatest possible public splendor.

Ottomans: resettlement, mosque buildings, military district

Murat Paşa Camii, built in 1466

After the conquest by the Ottomans in 1453, residents from the central Anatolian city ​​of the same name were settled in Aksaray - the lack of sources for this quarter could be an indication that there were no more habitable structures there .

From 1466 Murat Pascha († 1472) - he was a member of the palaeological family who converted to Islam and became a vizier under Mehmet Fatih - built the mosque named after him, the Murat Paşa Camii . It still retains the T-shaped floor plan typical of early Ottoman mosques. Its pillars come from ancient buildings. In 1531 another mosque, the Haseki Camii , was built further west by order of Roxelane , Sultan Suleyman I's favorite wife . Since mosques basically formed a külliye (Turkish Imamet), i.e. mosque districts with schools, hospitals and other facilities, a medical station was created from which today's hospital emerged. The settlement of a Tekke , the center of a Sufi brotherhood , under Sultan Bayezid II , which was named Hindĩler after the founder, failed because the founder was unable to find a suitable successor and thus ensure continuity. The Sinan's pupil Davut Ağa , who died of the plague in 1599, built a mosque with a square floor plan in 1593 with the Cerrah Paşa Camii for the eponymous palace surgeon Cerrah Pascha. Finally came Fenari İsa Camisi , previously a Byzantine double church, the Palaiologoi had served as grave lay.

In addition to the mosques, the city's second janissary barracks, called Yeni Odalar (New Regiments) , were built in Aksaray . The name given to the old Forum Bovis comes from the slaughtered animals, which were brought every morning from the slaughterhouses three kilometers west of the city to the barracks: Meydan-i Lahm or Etmeydanı, 'meat place'. On August 22nd, 1782, the worst major fire that destroyed large parts of the city passed through this street. It had taken its exit on the Golden Horn and raged for three days and nights.

Major fires, reconstruction plans based on western models

In 1856 a major fire destroyed large parts of Aksaray. More than 650 buildings were destroyed. This massive destruction was of considerable importance for urban development as a whole, since an inventory was made for the first time after the disaster and a systematic rebuilding was decided. This is considered a turning point in the history of the metropolis. The Italian architect Luigi Storari was to take over the planning and execution. The narrow, winding streets were to be replaced by wider, straight streets. At the point where the north-south road, which connected the Golden Horn with Yenikapı , and the west-east connection, the Aksaray Caddesi, crossed, a square based on the European model was created. At the same time, the numerous dead ends were removed and the Aksaray Caddesi, the district's most important traffic axis, was widened to 9.5 m. With these changes, often oriented towards Paris, a process was ushered in that has changed all of Istanbul to this day.

On September 18 and 19, 1865, the biggest fire in Istanbul's history destroyed large parts of the old town within 32 hours. In 1868 an orphanage was built in the neighborhood. Many of the badly damaged houses were still empty in 1879. This catastrophe increased the trend towards wide roads accessible to fire brigades and police and to switching from wood to stone as building material for the houses. In 1869 four main routes were to be created: one from the Golden Horn, more precisely from the foot of the Unkapanı Bridge , to Ortaköy , a second from Aksaray in a long arc over the oldest core city to Eminönü, a third from Aksaray to the Golden Gate (Yedikule) and one fourth from Aksaray westwards to Topkapı, a city gate in the Theodosian Wall . With the exception of the connection to the Golden Horn, these axes were provided with trams until 1896, Eminönü-Aksaray had been running since 1872 - with horse-powered drives. To build this tram, which was supposed to run in both directions, the street was widened, which was accompanied by the demolition of numerous houses.

The Pertevniyal Valide Sultan Camii was built in neo-Gothic style as one of the two mosques under Sultan Abdülaziz by 1873 . It was later cited as an example of a neo-Turkish school, defamed by others as "ugly" and neither Arabic, nor Turkish, nor Gothic.

On July 23 and 24, 1911, another conflagration struck the district, this time destroying 2,400 houses. About 3,000 shops, 15 bakeries, 16 mosques, three public baths and two schools were also destroyed. Now, according to plans by the French André Auric, a 50 m wide street was to connect Aksaray with Yenikapı.

Road construction, marginalization

The construction of the major traffic axes, the Ordu, Vatan (opened in 1957 with a width of 60 m) and Millet, brought Aksaray to the center of car traffic in the growing metropolis. The east-west connection was completed in the 1950s over a width of 30 m. Several blocks of houses were completely demolished. There was also the connection to the district via Ataturk Boulevard .

Around 1954, Aksaray was considered the “cheapest” district, which in turn attracted many impoverished migrants. With the massive increase in immigration from the 1960s onwards, Aksaray was frequently visited by Roma , Kurds , Iranians, Afghans , Africans and residents of Bangladesh . The district became a transit station for refugees on their way to Europe, so that countless hotels were built here. But in the 1990s the Turkish government began to treat migration more restrictively. Many of the refugees, including those from the Middle East, stayed in the city longer than planned. Both human trafficking and drug trafficking increased, as did prostitution .

The Aksaray underground shopping arcade

At the same time, industrial production grew, for example that of trucks, which began in Turkey in 1958 and took off with the founding of Mercedes-Benz Türk in 1967, which produced buses. The Daimler-Benz AG had 36% of the shares, Mengerler Ticaret 32 and Has Otomotiv also 32%. Overall, motorized traffic, especially car traffic, increased dramatically. While the population of Istanbul increased from 1.3 to 1.5 million between 1955 and 1960, the number of cars doubled from 17,000 to 35,000, comparatively small numbers that soon rose sharply. An underground shopping arcade (Turkish: Yeraltı Çarşısı ) was built in Aksaray , along with bars and discos . The Tramvay and Hafif Metro have a stop in Aksaray. One station further is Yenikapı, from where ferries have always operated to the Asian part of Istanbul.

Personalities

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carolus du Fresne Du Cange: Historia Byzantina duplici commentario illustrata prior familias ac stemmata imperatorum Constantinopolitanorum, cum eorundem augustorum nomismatibus, & aliquot iconibus, praeterea familias Dalmaticas et Turcicas complectitur; alter descriptionem urbis Constantinopolitanae, qualis extitit sub imperatoribus christianis , Venice 1729, p. 69 already compiled the ancient sources ( digitized version of the 1729 edition ); Digitized from the Paris edition, 1680 .
  2. ^ Klaus Kreiser : History of Istanbul. From antiquity to the present , Beck, Munich 2010, p. 74.
  3. ^ Raymond Janin: Constantinople Byzantine. Développement urbain et répertoire topographique , Institut français d'études byzantines, Paris 1964, p. 69. The location of the Philadelphion is assumed differently, mostly near the Şehzade Camii . Cf. Raymond Janin: Du Forum Bovis au Forum Tauri. Étude topographique , in: Revue des Études Byzantines 13 (1955) 85-108.
  4. ^ Ernest Mamboury: The Tourists' Istanbul , translation by Malcolm Burr, Çituri Biraderler Basimevi, Istanbul 1953, p. 74.
  5. ↑ Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall: Constantinopolis and the Bosporos , Hartleben, 1822, p. 114.
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Müller-Wiener : Pictorial dictionary on the topography of Istanbul. Byzantion, Konstantinupolis, Istanbul up to the beginning of the 17th century , Wasmuth, Tübingen 1977, p. 254.
  7. ↑ Chronica regia Coloniensis (sub annorum 1238-1240), p. 203 and Georg Waitz [Hrsg.]: Monumenta Germaniae Historica , [Scriptores]: Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum , 18, Hannover 1880, p. 203 .
  8. ^ Averil Cameron, Judith Herrin: Constantinople in the Early Eighth Century , Brill, 1984, p. 127.
  9. ↑ This was already asserted by Louis de Sivry, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Champagnac (ed.): Dictionnaire géographique, historique, descriptif, archéologique des pèlerinages anciens et modern , Migne, 1859, p. 521.
  10. ^ Raymond Janin: Constantinople Byzantine. Le developpement urbain , Paris 1964, p. 71.
  11. ^ Victor T. Cheney: A Brief History Of Castration , AuthorHouse, Bloomington, 2006, p. 95.
  12. ↑ Sofia Kotzabassi : The Hagiographical Dossier of Saint Theodosia of Constantinople , de Gruyter, 2009, p. 21.
  13. ↑ Çiğdem Kafescioğlu: Constantinopolis / Istanbul. Cultural Encounter, Imperial Vision, and the Construction of the Ottoman Capital , Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009, p. 192.
  14. ^ Walter Hotz: Byzanz, Konstantinopel, Istanbul , Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1978, p. 125.
  15. ^ Dina Le Gall: A Culture of Sufism: Naqshbandis in the Ottoman World, 1450-1700 , State University of New York, 2005, p. 35.
  16. ^ Cem Behar: Neighborhood in Ottoman Istanbul, A: Fruit Vendors and Civil Servants in the Kasap Ilyas Mahalle , State University of New York Press, 2003, p. 55.
  17. ^ Zeynep Çelik: The Remaking of Istanbul. Portrait of an Ottoman City in the Nineteenth Century , University of California Press, 1993, p. 53.
  18. ^ Zeynep Çelik: The Remaking of Istanbul. Portrait of an Ottoman City in the Nineteenth Century , University of California Press, 1993, p. 55.
  19. ↑ Nazan Maksudyan: Orphans and Destitute Children in the Late Ottoman Empire , Syracuse University Press, 2014, p 79th
  20. ↑ Cem Behar: Neighborhood in Ottoman Istanbul. Fruit Vendors and Civil Servants in the Kasap Ilyas Mahalle , State University of New York Press, 2003, p. 54.
  21. ^ Zeynep Çelik: The Remaking of Istanbul. Portrait of an Ottoman City in the Nineteenth Century , University of California Press, 1993, p. 144.
  22. ^ Zeynep Çelik: The Remaking of Istanbul. Portrait of an Ottoman City in the Nineteenth Century , University of California Press, 1993, p. 150.
  23. ^ Alan Duben, Cem Behar: Istanbul Households. Marriage, Family and Fertility, 1880-1940 , Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 34.
  24. ^ Murat Gül: The Emergence of Modern Istanbul. Transformation and Modernization of a City , Tauris Academic Studies, 2009, Paperback, IB Tauris 2012, p. 70.
  25. ^ Murat Gül: The Emergence of Modern Istanbul. Transformation and Modernization of a City , Tauris Academic Studies, 2009, Paperback, IB Tauris 2012, p. 154.
  26. ^ Murat Gül: The Emergence of Modern Istanbul. Transformation and Modernization of a City , Tauris Academic Studies, 2009, Paperback, IB Tauris 2012, p. 152.
  27. ↑ Pırıl H. Atabay: Belonging to the City, Rural Migrants in Modernizing Chicago and Istanbul , ProQuest, 2008, p. 187, note 87.
  28. ↑ Asker Kartari, Klaus Roth: German-Turkish Communication at the Workplace in Turkei , in: Horst Kopp (Ed.): Area Studies, Business and Culture. Results of the Bavarian Research Network Forarea , LIT, Münster 2003, pp. 128–140, here: p. 131.
  29. ↑ Çağlar Keyder: Istanbul. Between the Global and the Local , Rowman & Littlefield, 1999, p. 175.

Coordinates: 41 ° 0 ′ 36 ″  N , 28 ° 57 ′ 10 ″  E