Architecture, Ceremonial, and Power: The Topkapi Palace in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (Architectural History Foundation Book) (Hardcover)

~ Gülru Necipoglu (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Today the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul seems a haphazard aggregate of modest buildings no longer capable of conveying imperial power. Yet it is at once the most celebrated of all Islamic palaces and the least understood. Gülru Necipoglu brings together largely unpublished sources, both written and visual, along with information derived from the architectural remains to uncover the processes through which the meaning of the palace was once produced, before it came to represent a stereotyped microcosm of oriental despotism imbued with the exotic otherness of the East. She relocates the Topkapi in its historical context, a context that included not only the circumstances of its patronage, but the complex interaction of cultural practices, ideologies, and social codes of recognition. Necipoglu focuses on the imperial iconograpy of palatial forms that lack monumentality, axiality, and rational-geometric planning principles to decipher codes of grandeur that are no longer obvious to the modern observer. She reconstructs the architectural and ceremonial impact of the palace through a step-by-step tour of its buildings, demonstrating how the palace was experienced as a processional sequence of separate courts and seemingly disjointed architectural elements that were nevertheless integrated into a coherent whole by passage through time and space. Far more than an analysis of the architectural program of the palace, Architecture, Ceremonial, and Power raises questions and provides answers to fundamental concerns about the ideology of absolute sovereignty, the interplay between architecture and ritual, and the changing perceptions of a building through the centuries, a building that drew upon a wide range of Palatine traditions, mythical, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Romano-Byzantine, and Italian Renaissance. Gülru Necipoglu is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities in the Fine Arts Department at Harvard University.

About the Author

Gülru Necipoglu is Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Art and Director of the Aga Khan Program, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 356 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (January 21, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262140500
• ISBN-13: 978-0262140508
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #471,153 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than 5 stars!, December 9, 2001

By	dndnd (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a very well written historical analysis. Necipoglu takes the Palace as an object to be used to explain/understand the Ottoman State in this period and does not leave out the architectural forms. Attention paid to detail is makes this book very valuable. Beyond that her fluent writing style makes reading this into fun.
A must-have for anyone interested in Ottoman history. Necipoglu does not talk to a specific audience in her writing and I think that exactly makes her writing so fluent. Nevertheless she accomplishes to transmit knowledge and maybe even gives us a glimpse into how knowledge is acquired with her amazing research ability.
Enjoy!