Architectural Financing in Ottoman Empire- Despite of Economy

Downturn

As the title mentioned above already builds up an interesting image in our

mind in regard of Ottoman Empire, the Economy, and their Architectural culture
(Mosques and Palaces). This piece of writing may give a new dimension of
thought that is how Ottoman Empire was able to build such wonderful pieces of
architecture despite of economic downturn, and will bring upon questions like
about the financing, and maintenance of those wonders of Istanbul or Ottoman
Empire. In short this artefact written will try to answer all of these questions
mentioned in best possible way. And to answer that this piece of writing will start
with a brief history about Ottoman Empire, then comes on the second phase that
is about the architectural wonders build during the Ottoman times, following that
we will turn to the main part of the paper which will try to answer the questions
mentioned above in the best possible way. In the end you are going to read about
the current trends in terms of architectural building specifically about the mosque
and current economic situation prevailing in modern day Turkey. Hence, this
writing is going to focus on different aspect of Ottoman history but mainly on
architectural wonders and the economy.
Ottoman Empire is seen as one of the most important Islamic dynasty in
history. (The Lost Islamic History). It was founded under the leadership of Osman
in Northwestern Anatolia in the late thirteenth century. It was one of the long-
lasting empires in the history. In 1453 Constantinople was conquered by Mehmed
II and was renamed as Istanbul, moreover, this was created as a capital city of
Ottoman empire. Ottoman Empire was at its peak under the reign of Suleiman
the magnificent who ruled through 1520-66. During the rule of Ottoman Empire
and Istanbul as its capital many developments took place especially in the
constructions of the mosques and the great palaces of sultans.
Lets have a brief information on the architectural developments during
Ottoman Empire. At the first whenever we travel around Istanbul we can observe
several mosques and other architectural pieces such as palaces. Mosques were
deemed as an important place for worshipping. Awe-inspiring mosques were
constructed during this period. These were then made more beautiful by adding
wonderful pieces of art and amazing architecture. The most famous of Istanbul
mosques build during Ottoman Empire are Suleymaniye mosque, Nurusomaniye
mosque; Yavuz Selim mosque, Yeni mosque, and other significant ones. But as
everything has phase of fall, thus Ottoman Empire was faced with competition
and was ultimately ended after World War 1. Having seen this notable
development of Ottoman Empire in past and its influence in mosque-building of
Istanbul, it would be interesting to note todays reflection of past. The upcoming
Camlica Cami is perhaps the first mosque that rings the bell. This much talked-
about Camlica Cami in Istanbul is believed to be another master piece on its way
to come.
Moreover, after mosques the second important development in the
architectural phase of Ottoman Empire was palaces whichever build several
times and in the end Istanbul has handful of palaces for sultans. Such examples
of palaces are TopKapi, Beylerbeyi, iraan, Adile Sultan Palace. These palaces
also played a significant role from which one of the important role was governing
Ottoman Empire. All the political operations and decision were decided in the
palace, with that these palaces also served as a living place for the sultans. With
that its worth mentioning that the importance of palaces changed whenever
sultan was changed as some of the sultans build new palaces for themselves to
live in and thus changed the place for political decisions as well. The reason
behind the development of new palaces with the change in sultan can be
identified as to maintain their position in society or showing the power to the
periphery. Nonetheless Topkapi palace was and still considered as one of the
most important palace. In past it was the considered as a parliament in modern
times term and in the present world it serves several purpose such as an
inspiration for students who are studying architecture, a tourist spot for the
tourist, a palace whose walls speak about the Ottoman history, thus have served
the several purpose of various students who are interested or pursuing their
degrees in history department. And there are other several importance of palaces
which just depends upon how a person views that.
Now lets turn towards the particulars for the fall of Ottoman Empire.
There were many reasons that could define the fall of Ottoman Empire. The
following are the reasons behind the fall of Empire- it became less centralized
which resulted in weakened central control, Sultans became less sensitive to
public opinion, the less capable sultans of the 17 th and 18th century took role and
the likes. Besides these reasons the main important cause of decline was
economic situation of the empire. As an empire they need to have a sound
economy to keep its empire running on. Economics, simply defined as study of
production, consumption and transfer of wealth did hold a lot of significance for
the Ottoman Empire. They faced competition from the trade of Americans- and
the products of India and Far East were quite cheap. Additionally there was a rise
in unemployment within the empire and related problems followed. (Ottoman
Empire (1301-1922). BBC News). With that it has been also observed that the
relationship between center and periphery was always a problem for the Empire
and communication plays a vital role in order to have a good economic stable
state. Moreover, this communication problem can also be explained through the
weakened central control.
In addition, despite of economic crisis these grand mosques were build and
were maintained. Regardless of the presence of strong economic crisis these
mosques represents that Istanbul has always been economically strong.
It is also very interesting to see how these grand mosques were financed
and were well looked after; once these buildings were created. Moreover, Mimar
Sinan was one of the main architect and did an amazing contribution towards the
building of mosques. Ottoman Empire economic system was based on three basic
principles that were provisionism, fiscalism, and traditionalism. Provisionism,
derived from provision refers to the act of providing the empire with supply of the
necessary goods at cheap rates and of good quality. Fiscalism is defined as the
policy of maximizing the treasury income. And traditionalism is defined as the
tendency to preserve existing conditions and look after the past models when
changes occurred. (Agoston Gabor and Masters Bruce, p.192). Thus, by analyzing
the base of economy we can judge how capital accumulation would have taken
place during Ottoman Empire and these mosque projects in Istanbul were funded.
Let us take the example of Suleymaniye mosque which is located in Fatih-
one of the most famous and revenue generating area of Istanbul. This mosque
was built by Sultan Suleyman. It was started in 1550 and ended in 1558 it took
almost 8 years to build such an amazing mosque. It just require few clicks on a
Web browser to see the images of this mosque and be admired by the art and
architecture used in this mosques. Moreover, the construction of these mosques
gives accountants, economists, and other financial world experts to think about
the cost and analyze financial and economic aspects on such buildings. As we all
know that we have to give up the benefits of something in order to gain benefits
from other things. Furthermore, the construction of mosque would have required
a lot of money which could have been spent on other aspects. There were many
projects needed by the Empire. One of the fine alternate of this expenditure
would have been making Empire capable of producing their own cheap goods,
and be less dependable.
Now, let us analyze the workers needed and how much they were
accounted from the total cost of the construction of mosque. According to a
report it is stated that 298 workers worked on the construction of mosque who
performed various tasks moreover, they accounted for 54.84% from the total cost
of the mosque. While the reaming percent was distributed among other labor
classes. The total cost of this mosque according to present value is 333,000,000
TL or 208,125,000 Euros. (Yk sleyman, Ierli Ylmaz, and Yk Canan, p. 5-
6). This is a huge amount and was financed by taxation, finance taken from
treasury, loans were taken from Galata bankers and etc. People did pay money
for these construction as their economy was based on traditionalism, thus they
respected the traditions. Moreover, their economy was based on fiscalism as well
thus revenue generated from the exports may have been invested in the
construction of mosques and other public works during the rule of Ottoman
Empire.
Finally lets return towards our present-day Istanbul. The most current
issue is the construction of Camlica Camii by Turkish President Erodgan. It has
been one remarkable announcement by the President moreover, there have been
some objections towards the construction of the mosque. But we have to look at
the cost and how this proves that Istanbul is economically strong. According to
Huffington post words as stated:
Officially, the government did not instigate the project, but it has given the
land and Erdogan's personal endorsement. The cost is estimated at over
100 million lira, or 43 million euros, to be paid for by donors - code, the
opposition says, for businessmen out to curry favor with the government.
As the cost has been stated above in the quote and currently Turkey is
developing economy. Keeping the respect of religion- rather than again
continuing the old Ottoman tradition of building mosques as they dont generate
much revenue for the economy. Despite of being a place to pray- nowadays they
are just a symbolic representation and such representation are already present in
the modern day Turkey. It wont be wrong when saying that it would be better for
Turkey to use its money wisely or invest in those projects which are going to
result in strong economy, better living standard for the residents, and much
more.
Moreover, last year there has been Halkbank corruption scandal and there
were accusations of large sum of money being illegally taken by the Government
officials. And in order to prevent the depreciation of Turkish Lira the government
decided to increase the interest rates which have given rise to inflation and other
related consequences like unemployment. On top of that we have also observed
a decrease in foreign direct investment (FDI) after this incident with that it has
been observed that inflow have decreased and outflow has increased. (Gne
Kmrcler, Hurriyet, Feb 2015). And this could be simply explain through an
concept that is whenever a country raises its interest the investment is going to
be decreased due to increase in the cost of capital borrowing. Moreover, a normal
science of inflow and outflow of money and everyone is well aware about that
that is whenever outflows are more than inflows that results in a deficit.
Interestingly similar developments took place in the Ottoman Empire as well
which brought it down. Is history repeating itself? But still Istanbul is going for
this project and might take loans from developed world in order to full fill the
projects financial need.
Hence, this proves that no matter how worse economic crisis Istanbul
faces, they are going to continue their tradition of building giant mosques with
amazing art and its architecture. Even though they have to rely on the donor
money (as mentioned in Huffington) which could well be the loan from the
developed countries. These could cost a lot to economies in future as seen
during the fall of Ottoman Empire. Such as increase in Inflation, unemployment
which creates resistance between government and its local people. Moreover,
one more point to be noticed is that these mosques were also build in commercial
areas thus which generated revenue for the business around the mosque. And
that earned revenue was used as a charity by those local business man which
also somehow shows the circulation of money within the economy.

References

Agoston Gabor and Masters Bruce. The Encyclopedia of Ottoman Empire. United
States of
America. An imprint of Infobase Publishing, 2009.
Ottoman Empire (1301-1922). BBC News. 2009-09-04. Web.
Prime Minister Erdogan Wants To Build Turkey's Biggest Mosque in Istanbul.
Huffington Post.
12/02/2012. Web.
Yk sleyman, Ierli Ylmaz, and Yk Canan. Construction of Suleymaniye
Mosque In
Istanbul and Cost Accounting. (1550-1557). Page 5-6. Web.
The lost Islamic History http://lostislamichistory.com/the-decline-of-the-ottoman-
empire-part-1/.
Direct Investment inflow in Turkey decreases, outflow increases. Hurriyet Daily
News.
February 2015. Web.