Spectacle, Entertainment, and Recreation in Late Ottoman and Early Turkish Republican Cities

The short lived Tulip Era breathed a new life into Ottoman social life and novel elements of art, architectureand new spaces of leisure and entertainment that both men and women could participate and enjoyemerged during the early 18th century. Later, during the 19th century, triggered by the state policies toestablish closer relationship with European states, as well as by the royal urge to be seen and felt by theirsubjects more intensively and more interactively, these novelties in social life were predominantly adoptedand instrumentalized by the ruling elite and found their reflection in major urban centers of the empire. Withthe emulation of the ruling elite by various classes and due to an increasing social mobility among classes,the new forms of entertainment and recreation gradually permeated into the rest of the society and ended uphaving a long-term impact on the Ottoman society. Hence, during the 19th century, a modern urban life in Ottoman cities has emerged, shaped by these newforms of recreation and entertainment and by new regimes of visibility. Ripping open of their traditionalnuclei in the second half of the 19th century, these urban centers accommodated -along with new trade,financial, industrial and residential facilities- different types of entertainment and recreation, ranging fromopera to cinema and from concerts to sports. Thus the late-Ottoman cities witnessed the emergence of newarchitectural and urban facilities, such as theatres, opera houses, clubs, performance halls, sports fields,and public parks. These spaces of entertainment and spectacle represented the modernizing face of theempire and also embraced by the Republican elite after the foundation of the young Turkish Republic.These public/social spaces were utilized for the making of the modern Turkish nation. This edited volume offers an analysis of the forms and spaces of spectacle, entertainment, and recreationduring the late Ottoman and early Republican eras. Each article focuses on different forms on spectacle,entertainment or recreation in varied cities of Ottoman Empire or Republican Turkey. The edited volumeaims not only to shed light on how such urban or architectural spaces were developed and shaped, but alsoto scrutinize their impact on social, cultural, urban life in the modernizing Ottoman Empire and RepublicanTurkey. Part of the Critical Studies in Architecture of the Middle Eastseries.