Western Influences on the Ottoman Empire and Occidentalism in the Architecture of Istanbul

Abstract

This article portrays the initial century of Westernization in Ottoman culture by studying the architectural developments of the eighteenth century. The political and cultural center of the Ottoman Empire was the ancient city of Istanbul, located between two continents. Because of Istanbul’s location, the study of its culture and architecture sheds light on how the Islamic world took over ideas from the Christian West. Much research has been done on Orientalism, but the material culture of the Ottoman response to Europe during the eighteenth century has not yet been the topic of a comprehensive study, in spite of some important preliminary studies. Relevant background research on social evolution and institutions in Turkey and its Arab provinces in the eighteenth century has been done by Hamilton A. R. Gibb and Harold Bowen; Dogan Kuban’s work, the first extensive study of an architectural style that is best described as Ottoman baroque, catalogs Ottoman buildings with baroque and rococo elements; Ayda Arel examines texts written by Western travelers about Ottoman Turkey and its architecture; Bernard Lewis offers a general survey of the contact between the Muslims and the West from the earliest Islamic age to the twentieth century, touching upon many aspects of cultural life; Serim Denel contextualizes the urban characteristics of Istanbul in the eighteenth and, primarily, the nineteenth century by discussing building