Building the Architectural Narrative of the Topkapı Kara Ahmed Pasha Mosque Complex in Early Republican Turkey

Abstract

The Kara Ahmed Pasha Mosque complex in Topkapı, Istanbul, a sixteenth-century monument, is one of the beacons in the architectural historiography created during the early republican period in Turkey. Noted in Mimar Sinan’s autobiographies, the mosque became an academic subject of formalist monographs and research. The early republicans’ formalist construct of the historic complex resonated with the theory of modern architecture. Function was not seen as an autonomous facility that had to be connected with other contextual facets but as an internal force through which architectural form emerged. Hence, Sinan’s devised form for the mosque was merely conceived as the outcome of the chief architect’s rational consideration of function and structure. In return, the formal appreciation of the historic compound devoted itself single-mindedly to the aesthetic properties of architecture and muted contextual analysis as a research inquiry. This essay provides a closer reading of the early republican historiography on the Kara Ahmed Pasha Mosque complex to unveil the formal references that have perpetuated the long-standing understanding of the historic complex.

Keywords

• Kara Ahmed Pasha Mosque complex
• Mimar Sinan
• formalist analysis
• early republican Turkey
• historiography

Topkapı’da bulunan Kara Ahmed Paşa Külliyesi’nin Erken Cumhuriyet Dönemi’nde Mimari Anlatımının Şekillenmesi

Abstract

On altıncı yüzyıl mimari eserlerinden, Topkapı’da bulunan Kara Ahmed Paşa Külliyesi, erken cumhuriyet döneminde üretilen tarih yazımı çalışmalarının odak noktalarından biri olmuştur. Mimar Sinan’ın otobiyografilerinde bahsi geçen külliye, dönemin biçimsel çözümlenmiş monografilerinde ve çalışmalarında yer almıştır. Erken cumhuriyet dönemi aydınları, Kara Ahmed Paşa Külliyesi’ni modern mimarlık teorisi ekseninde biçimsel değerlendirmiştir. Mimari işlev, bağlamsal özelliklerden bağımsız tutulmuş, form içsel bir hüküm olarak tanımlanmıştır. Bu bağlamda, Mimar Sinan’ın Kara Ahmed Paşa Cami için ürettiği mimari form, mimarbaşının kendi rasyonel değerlendirmesi olarak görülmüştür. Böylece, Kara Ahmed Paşa Külliyesi’nin biçimsel analizi estetik hükümlere odaklanmış ve bağlamsal çözümlemeler göz ardı edilmiştir. Bu makale, erken dönem cumhuriyet tarihyazımı kapsamında Kara Ahmed Paşa Külliyesi’ni incelemekte ve artık kemikleşmiş olan biçimsel anlayışını ele almaktadır.

Keywords

• Kara Ahmed Paşa Külliyesi
• Mimar Sinan
• biçimsel analiz
• erken cumhuriyet dönemi
• tarihyazımı

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