COMMON LIFE SPACES, DIFFERENT WORLDS: NON-MUSLIM GRAVE MONUMENTS IN 19TH CENTURY İSTANBUL 19th century was a time when non-Muslim communities living under Ottoman rule went through important political, social and cultural changes....
moreCOMMON LIFE SPACES, DIFFERENT WORLDS: NON-MUSLIM GRAVE MONUMENTS IN 19TH CENTURY İSTANBUL
19th century was a time when non-Muslim communities living under Ottoman rule went through important political, social and cultural changes. Substantial political reforms that took as model Western World’s institutions and law in principle from government to social life, gave non-Muslim communities important privileges and rights. Besides, Greek, Armenian and Jewish communities, from the mid-century played an important role as intermediates for western economic practices in the Ottoman Empire. And due to period’s conditions, non-Muslims, practising in trades as jewellers, merchants and bankers that could bring considerable income, became more important and rich.
The improvement of non-Muslims’ socio-economic conditions have increased the interactions with the West in social and cultural life. This effected the minority bourgeoisie in their daily lives; from clothing to domestic living conditions, to their tastes, and in many other ways of life and the way of West and its culture became dominant.
The graveyards belonging to Christian communities in İstanbul have many examples of grandiose grave monuments with sculptural decoration that show this cultural interaction with the West. The wish of Greek, Armenian or Levantine communities to have monumental grave monuments like those in Europe created the conditions for artisans mainly from their own communities to create such sculptural art work. The demand was such that in some cases, the design or even sculptural work could only be completed by bringing in examples from European workshops and artists.
On the other hand, the Westernization we can see in every field of life, was not absorbed thoroughly by every layer in the cosmopolitan Ottoman population. Even though the Ottoman Sultans of the 19th century were ordering from European sculptors statues of animals to be placed in palatal gardens, in the public monuments the sponsored, no sculptural work was used. This was mainly influenced by the fact that the Sultan and other important public figures of the times did not wish to oppose long established rules of Islamic way of living and thus were more conservative to have figurative decorations on public monuments. At the same time, the Muslim graveyards of the period, including the grave monuments of public figures still were made with traditional styles and decorations. Thus it may be said that the Westernization was mainly followed by non-Muslim communities.
