Urban Transformation of a 19th Century Ottoman City: Bursa under the Impacts of Tanzimat Reforms

Abstract

In order to modernize and secularize its traditional institutions, the Ottoman government embarked on a western-inspired reform process –Tanzimat- that started in the 18th century at administrative and military areas and continued throughout the 19th century in a variety of fields. The modernization of the cities was one of the major concerns of Tanzimat reforms that affected the traditional spatial characteristics of Ottoman cities from the 19th century. Bursa, which had continued its importance for centuries as a religious, cultural and commercial center in Ottoman geography, became the focus of Tanzimat’s modernization reforms, after 1840’s. The earliest impacts of these reforms were seen as industrial changes leading to new factory districts around traditional commercial center of the city. This transformation process was followed by the opening of new arteries, formation of new residential quarters and the emergence of new building types around this center that altered the traditional urban fabric of Bursa in the second half of the 19th century. Within this context, this paper aims to reveal the spatial continuities and transformations in the 19th century urban fabric of Bursa by means of comparing the spatial elements and urban relations before and after the implementations of Tanzimat reforms.