Fountain of Ahmed III
Encyclopedia
Fountain
A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....
in a Turkish rococo
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
structure located in the great square in front of the Imperial Gate of Topkapı Palace
Topkapi Palace
The Topkapı Palace is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years of their 624-year reign....
in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. It was built under Ottoman sultan Ahmed III
Ahmed III
Ahmed III was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of Sultan Mehmed IV . His mother was Mâh-Pâre Ummatullah Râbi'a Gül-Nûş Valide Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at Hajioglupazari, in Dobruja...
in 1728, in the style of the Tulip period. It was a social centre and gathering place during Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
period Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
.
History
The fountain kiosk of Ahmed III is located in the place of a ByzantineByzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
fountain known as Perayton. The architectural features of the exterior reflect a synthesis of traditional Ottoman and contemporary western styles.
The fountain was depicted on the reverse
Obverse and reverse
Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags , seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse...
of the Turkish 10 lira
Turkish lira
The Turkish lira is the currency of Turkey and the de facto independent state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The lira is subdivided into 100 kuruş...
banknotes of 1947-1952.
Architecture
The fountain is a large square block built with five small domes. MihrabMihrab
A mihrab is semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the qibla; that is, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca and hence the direction that Muslims should face when praying...
-shaped niches decorated in low relief with foliate and floral designs in each of the four façades, each containing a drinking fountain (çeşme). The water is supplied from an octagonal pool inside the kiosk, with circulation space around it for kiosk attendants. On each corner is a triple-grilled sebil (from which an attendant issued cups of water or sherbet, free of charge, from behind a grille).
Above the drinking fountains and niches on each façade and sebil are large calligraphic
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
plates bordered with blue and red tiles. Each plate bears stanzas of a 14-line poem dedicated to water and its donor by Seyyid Hüseyin Vehbi bin Ahmed, the chief judge of Halep and Kayseri. It is read clockwise around the fountain, beginning at the northern sebil. The last stanza of the poem the northwest façade is a chronogram
Chronogram
A chronogram is a sentence or inscription in which specific letters, interpreted as numerals, stand for a particular date when rearranged. The word, meaning "time writing", derives from the Greek words chronos and gramma . In the pure chronogram each word contains a numeral, the natural chronogram...
composed by Ahmed III.
Literature
- Dünden Bugüne Istanbul Ansiklopedisi (1993) Istanbul, Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı I, 116-117.
- Aynur, Hatice and Hakan T. Karateke (1995) III. Ahmed devri Istanbul çesmeleri, 1703-1730. Istanbul, Istanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kültür İşleri Daire Başkanlığı.
- Egemen, Affan (1993) Istanbul'un çesme ve sebilleri: resimleri ve kitabeleri ile 1165 çesme ve sebil. Istanbul, Aritan Yayinevi.
- Kara Pilehvarian, Nuran (2000) Fountains in Ottoman Istanbul. Istanbul, Yapi-Endüstri Merkezi Yayinlari.
- Şerifoğlu, Ömer Faruk (1995) Su güzeli: Istanbul sebilleri. Istanbul, Istanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kültür İşleri Daire Başkanlığı.