Üsküdar Cemetery

Graveyard in Uskudar, Walsh, Scenery of the Seven Churches 1838.jpeg

“The Great Cemetery of Scutari,” by Thomas Allom, from Robert Walsh’s Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor, 1838-9, between pp. 12 and 13.

This late nineteenth-century illustration by British architect and topographical illustrator, Thomas Allom, shows the oldest and largest cemetery of Istanbul: the 700-year-old, historic and monumental Karacaahmet Mezarlığı, named after a warrior companion of Orhan I, and located on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, in the Üsküdar district, which was formerly known as Scutari. A vast, hilly, and wooded area, Karacaahmet is made up of avenues shaded by long rows of fragrant and lush cypress trees, beneath which the ground is dotted with slim, engraved marble tombstones leaning in various directions, due to the weight of the stone sinking into the earth, and the disturbance of earthquakes. Many of the Ottoman gravestones, each unique to the deceased person represented, feature epigraphs in strong relief and a carved rendering of some traditional headwear, such as a turban or fez; women’s graves were marked by a crowning floral motif rather than a hat. The highly distinctive markers range from simple forms to elaborately carved styles, depending on what the family could afford to commission. Istanbulites used their beautiful cemeteries not only as places in which to lay their dead to rest and grieve their loss, but also as garden-like park settings in which to gather, stroll, enjoy the scenery, and even picnic. In Allom’s illustration, which depicts the funereal aspect of Karacaahmet for Western European viewers, we see a veiled female mourner laying flowers on a grave in the foreground, and further back, a funeral procession winding down the path, in the shadows of the tall cypresses.

Photo source: https://twitter.com/oart7218/status/1287034263683178496/photo/3

Sources:

Thomas Allom and Robert Walsh, “The Great Cemetery of Scutari,” Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor: Illustrated (United Kingdom: Fisher, Son & Company, 1839): p.12-13. Accessed through Google Books: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Constantinople_and_the_Scenery_of_the_Se/bh5fAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

Aykut Erkal and Hakki O. Ozhan, “Value and Vulnerability Assessment of a Historic Tomb for Conservation,” The Scientific World Journal, Volume 2014, Article ID 357679 (07 July 2014), https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/357679

Godfrey Goodwin, “Gardens of the Dead in Ottoman Times,” Muquarnas, 1988, vol. 5 (1988): p. 61-69, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1523110