Fountain of Ahmed III (Üsküdar)
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The Fountain of Sultan Ahmed III in Üsküdar ( tr, Üsküdar III. Ahmet Çeşmesi) is an 18th-century public water
fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or Spring (hydrology), spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. ...
built by
Ottoman sultan The sultans of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı padişahları), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to its dissolution in 1922. At its hei ...
Ahmed III Ahmed III ( ota, احمد ثالث, ''Aḥmed-i sālis'') was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of Sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648–1687). His mother was Gülnuş Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at H ...
in the Ottoman
rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
architecture and situated in the grand square of
Üsküdar Üsküdar () is a large and densely populated district of Istanbul, Turkey, on the Anatolian shore of the Bosphorus. It is bordered to the north by Beykoz, to the east by Ümraniye, to the southeast by Ataşehir and to the south by Kadıköy; w ...
in
Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
, Turkey.


History

Sultan Ahmed III (reigned 1703–1730) commissioned the
sebil A sebil or sabil ( ar, سبيل, sabīl ; Turkish: ''sebil'') is a small kiosk in the Islamic architectural tradition where water is freely dispensed to members of the public by an attendant behind a grilled window. The term is sometimes also ...
, a public fountain to provide drinking water for travellers and running water for praying people's
ritual washing Ritual purification is the ritual prescribed by a religion by which a person is considered to be free of ''uncleanliness'', especially prior to the worship of a deity, and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness. Ritual purification may ...
needs. Completed in 1728–1729, within an era with great importance attached to the construction of many fountains, it was dedicated to the sultan's mother Emetullah Rabia Gülnuş Sultan (1642–1715), who was buried in Üsküdar. The fountain was initially situated directly on the quay at the waterfront of
Bosphorus The Bosporus Strait (; grc, Βόσπορος ; tr, İstanbul Boğazı 'Istanbul strait', colloquially ''Boğaz'') or Bosphorus Strait is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul in northwestern Tu ...
to serve travellers crossing the Strait. During the redesigning of the area in 1932–1933, the fountain was dismantled and relocated to the center of the nearby square next to the Mihrimah Sultan Mosque. It underwent two major restorations. In the first one, during its relocation, the broken parts of the fountain were repaired or replaced. The second restoration took place in 1955, when the structure had to be elevated about to match the square's ground level. The fountain stands today on a two-step high platform in İskele Square at the intersection of Paşalimanı Street and Hakimiyetimilliye Street.


Architecture

The fountain was built as a stand-alone structure in the type of a "square fountain" ( tr, meydan çeşmesi) looking like a monument. It has the form of an
octagonal prism In geometry, the octagonal prism is the sixth in an infinite set of prisms, formed by rectangular sides and two regular octagon caps. If faces are all regular, it is a semiregular polyhedron. Symmetry Images The octagonal prism can also b ...
with wide four facades and four narrow corner facades. The octagon plan of the fountain at the base turns into a quasi-square form at the top. The square-pyramid formed
hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
has wide eaves on all sides. The fountain is built by solid white marble with a wooden roof covered by lead sheet. Designed by the court architect
Kayseri Kayseri (; el, Καισάρεια) is a large Industrialisation, industrialised List of cities in Turkey, city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri Province, Kayseri province. The Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality area is comp ...
li Mehmed Ağa in the rococo architectural style of Ottoman Tulip Period (1703–1757), it is adorned with ornamentation. Its design shows similarities with the
Fountain of Ahmed III The Fountain of Sultan Ahmed III ( tr, III. Ahmet Çeşmesi) is a fountain in a Turkish rococo structure in the great square in front of the Imperial Gate of Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. It was built under Ottoman sultan Ahmed III in 1 ...
(1729) and the
Tophane Fountain Tophane Fountain ( tr, Tophane Çeşmesi) is an 18th-century public water fountain built by List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman sultan Mahmud I in the Ottoman architecture, Ottoman rococo architecture and situated in the square of Toph ...
(1732). İt features a faucet inside a
lancet arch Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It ...
in the middle of each facade over a
watering trough A watering trough (or artificial watering point) is a man-made or natural receptacle intended to provide drinking water to animals, livestock on farms or ranches or wild animals. History In Australia, the watering trough is established so ...
to enable for bucket filling, livestock drinking or taking ritual body washing for prayer. The higher-attached faucets over a sink in the four corner facades were designed to spend drinking water for people. In the wall of the main facade, which looks at Bosphorus, there are two semicircular niches on both sides resembling a
mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
's
mihrab Mihrab ( ar, محراب, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "qibla w ...
. A number of relief flower motifs as tulips, roses and
chrysanthemum Chrysanthemums (), sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants of the genus ''Chrysanthemum'' in the family Asteraceae. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia and the center ...
s in vase adorn the structure. Each of the eight corners of the fountain features a
Solomonic column The Solomonic column, also called Barley-sugar column, is a helical column, characterized by a spiraling twisting shaft like a corkscrew. It is not associated with a specific classical order, although most examples have Corinthian or Composite c ...
topped with a
Corinthian order The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...
capital. At the top of the corner facades in between the columns,
muqarnas Muqarnas ( ar, مقرنص; fa, مقرنس), also known in Iranian architecture as Ahoopāy ( fa, آهوپای) and in Iberian architecture as Mocárabe, is a form of ornamented vaulting in Islamic architecture. It is the archetypal form of I ...
, three-dimensional decorations of Islamic architecture, are placed, which transform the octagon plan of the fountain into a square right under the roof. The wooden roof's eaves features carved ornaments over a
cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
encircling the entire structure. On each of the four wide facades, the fountain features an inscription in
Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...
, which was in use in the Ottoman Empire. The inscriptions on three facades are excerpts from verses of three poets, namely the famous Diwan poet
Nedîm Ahmed Nedîm Efendi (نديم) was the pen name (Ottoman Turkish: ﻡﺨﻠﺺ ''mahlas'') of one of the most celebrated Ottoman poets. He achieved his greatest fame during the reign of Ahmed III, the so-called Tulip Era from 1718 to 1730. He wa ...
(1681?–1730), Şakir and Kırımlı Mustafa Rahmi (died 1750), while the inscription on the main facade contains verses inspired by both Sultan Ahmed III and his son-in-law,
Grand Vizier Grand vizier ( fa, وزيرِ اعظم, vazîr-i aʾzam; ota, صدر اعظم, sadr-ı aʾzam; tr, sadrazam) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. The office of Grand Vizier was first ...
Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha ( ota, نوشہرلی داماد ابراہیم پاشا 1662 - 1 October 1730) served as Grand Vizier for Sultan Ahmed III of the Ottoman Empire during the Tulip period. He was also the head of a ruling family wh ...
(1666–1730). The inscription is written in
Jeli Thuluth Jeli Thuluth ( fa, جلی ثلث) is a calligraphic variety of Arabic script. This term was applied to writings in Thuluth ''Thuluth'' ( ar, ثُلُث, ' or ar, خَطُّ الثُّلُثِ, '; fa, ثلث, ''Sols''; Turkish: ''Sülüs'', fr ...
style of
Islamic calligraphy Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting and calligraphy, in the languages which use Arabic alphabet or the alphabets derived from it. It includes Arabic, Persian, Ottoman, and Urdu calligraphy.Chapman, Caroline (2012). '' ...
by Sultan Ahmet III himself, who was also a poet and calligrapher. It was signed as "Ahmed ibn-i Mehmed Han" (Ahmed, the son of Khan Mehmed). The construction date of the fountain can be calculated from the inscriptions by the Abjad system, which assigns numerical values to Arabic letters for purposes of
numerology Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in ...
. The calculated value of AH 1141 in
Islamic calendar The Hijri calendar ( ar, ٱلتَّقْوِيم ٱلْهِجْرِيّ, translit=al-taqwīm al-hijrī), also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or ...
, which was in use in the Ottoman Empire, corresponds to AD 1728–1729.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fountain of Ahmed III in Uskudar Infrastructure completed in 1729 Fountains in Istanbul Ottoman architecture in Istanbul Rococo architecture in Turkey Üsküdar 1729 establishments in the Ottoman Empire