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Ottoman Gardens Of The Dead And The Stories Who Grow There Summary

2203 Words9 Pages

Lauren Clark
Rough Draft
11/25/14
Butler

Ottoman Gardens of the Dead and the Stories Which Grow There
On the day I die, don't weep.
Don't say she's gone/he's gone.
Death has nothing to do with going away.
The moon sets and the sun sets, but they're not gone.
Death is a coming together.
The human seed goes down into the ground like a bucket, and come up with some unimaginable beauty!
Your mouth closes here and immediately opens with a shout of joy there!
- Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

In looking at the more monumental markers of death which are liberally sprinkled around Istanbul it was in the large cemeteries that it is possible to find the far more interesting stories. Whether on the bank of the Bosporus or secluded behind a smaller mosque …show more content…

In the pre-Islamic Turkish religion death was viewed as the freeing of the soul to ascend to another plane, something which is reflected in the frequent Ottoman literary usage of the analogy of the bird flying from the cage. Even famed mystic poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi refers to the bird as a soul, saying “Meanwhile, I'm like a bird from another continent/ sitting in this aviary. / The day is coming / when I'll fly off.” This sense of flying off to another place, towards a freedom isn’t seen in the Kuran which describes the afterlife and death as merely another step in the stages of life “Everyone shall taste death. And only on the Day of Resurrection shall you be paid your wages in full. And whoever is removed away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise, he indeed is successful. The life of this world is only the enjoyment of deception (a deceiving …show more content…

Through this connection with the imperial family the burial ground at Eyüp is a showcase of the entire lifespan of the Ottoman empire - as it was built by the conqueror and hold the tomb of the pentultimate sultan, Mehmed V, the sultan who led the nation as a figurehead through the first world war before dying in 1918. He is the last Ottoman sultan to be buried in Istanbul, as his successor was buried in Damascus. For the most part however these individuals were buried in the familial tombs and not in the main cemetery. This is indicative of their social status - something which every grave in an Ottoman cemetery showcased - through position, through design, and through epitaph. It is these stories, those which are told through stone and position which so intrigued me during my research.
This look at the slightly lower class (though still wealthy) graves of those who were not of the imperial family in the Eyüp cemetery shows some of the main characteristics of Ottoman cemeteries - the abundance of vegetative growth, in and on the graves, and the highly decorative and visible nature of the tombstones - this one being a late 19th century example showing european influence
A stone discussing the fallen martyrs - supposedly of the skirmishes which came two years before the

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