Leiden University Student Repository

Wielemaker, Alexander Frans (2015)

The Taksim water network, 1730-33. Political consolidation, dynastic legitimization, and social networks

Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)

The implementation of the Taksim water network was initiated near the end of the reign of Ahmed III, but was interrupted as a consequence of the Patrona Revolt in September 1730. The uprising brought about the deposal of Ahmed III in favor of his nephew Mahmud I who continued the Taksim project sometime after the unrest in the capital was suppressed. The water network supplied the neighborhoods of Kasımpaşa, Galata, Tophane, Fındıklı, and Kabataş, and was primarily financed from the privy purse of Saliha Valide Sultan. In addition, the queen mother selected a number of wealthy and loyal dignitaries to invest in the project by means of a monumental fountain. The fountain network confirmed the social contract that was negotiated between the sultan and his favorites, and put the social network of the former at the center of a "negotiated empire". The Taksim water project sheds new light on the concept of centralization in historiography, and expands our understanding of the processes...Show moreThe implementation of the Taksim water network was initiated near the end of the reign of Ahmed III, but was interrupted as a consequence of the Patrona Revolt in September 1730. The uprising brought about the deposal of Ahmed III in favor of his nephew Mahmud I who continued the Taksim project sometime after the unrest in the capital was suppressed. The water network supplied the neighborhoods of Kasımpaşa, Galata, Tophane, Fındıklı, and Kabataş, and was primarily financed from the privy purse of Saliha Valide Sultan. In addition, the queen mother selected a number of wealthy and loyal dignitaries to invest in the project by means of a monumental fountain. The fountain network confirmed the social contract that was negotiated between the sultan and his favorites, and put the social network of the former at the center of a "negotiated empire". The Taksim water project sheds new light on the concept of centralization in historiography, and expands our understanding of the processes through which wealth, power, and prestige were regulated in Ottoman society.Show less

Taksim

Ottoman history

Mahmud I

Ahmed III

Tulip Age

Eighteenth century

Fountain architecture

Water infrastructure

Negotiated empire

Ottoman dynasty

Ottoman Baroque

Saliha Valide Sultan

Hekimoglu Ali Pasa

Author

Wielemaker, Alexander Frans

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Turkish studies

Supervisors

Theunissen, H.P.A.

ECTS Credits

30

Language

en