Niki Gamm
ISTANBUL
The largest collections of Ottoman tents are to be found in Istanbul at Topkapı Palace and the Military Museum. Comparatively speaking, there are many Ottoman tents in public and private collections in Europe; a few were gifts from the Ottoman sultans but many were the spoils of war.
Ottoman tents came in all sizes and shapes. There were various tents for different purposes.
One rarely sees tents in Turkey today – unless there’s been a disastrous earthquake, a flood of refugees from another country or it’s the month of Ramadan. Yet tents were such an important part of Ottoman culture and a way to stay in touch with the Turks’ nomadic past.
It is hard to imagine the tent cities that travelers during the Middle Ages wrote about in which thousands of people actually lived. The closest today are the tents set up by the Saudis for pilgrims coming to Mecca. Tents were used among the Ottomans for weddings, ceremonies and receptions. And consider that Ottoman armies on the move might consist of 100,000 or more soldiers and officials as important as the sultan and grand vizier at the top. Not only that, the tents were duplicated so one set could be taken ahead one day’s march and set up; when the officials and soldiers arrived, everything would be ready for them. Three camels would be necessary to carry a tent that weighed over one ton.
The largest collections of Ottoman tents are to be found in Istanbul at Topkapı Palace and the Military Museum. Comparatively speaking, there are many Ottoman tents in public and private collections in Europe; a few were gifts from the Ottoman sultans but many were the spoils of war. For instance, the entire Ottoman encampment before the walls of Vienna in 1683 was captured when the Turks were defeated by a relief force and fled. It has been recorded that 60,000 tents were among the spoils. And again in 1716, the entire army encampment was taken following the disastrous defeat at Petrovaradin (in today’s Serbia). What was likely part of the grand vizier’s tent is in a Vienna museum today. When the Turks captured the city of Istanbul in 1453, it has been estimated that there were only 38 men looking after the sultan’s tents but by 1700, as many as 2,000 men were assigned to take care of the imperial tents.
Thanks to the research of Professor Dr. Nurhan Atasoy, people now know a great deal about Ottoman tents. They came in all sizes and shapes. Some could hold several hundred men. There were tents for horses, cooking, eating, bathing, praying, going to the toilet and supplies. Each tent gave some indication of what its function was, meaning that a tent which had an opening on top was likely used for cooking. Toilet tents, meanwhile, had roofs colored an off-red. Some tents were round with only a center pole for support in the middle and poles on the side that held the tent material taut. Other tents were rectangular and could be several meters in length with two or more central poles and shorter poles holding the sides of the tents up and out. Some of the top-level officials and especially the sultan would have awnings over the front entrance where they could receive people, eat and watch entertainment. The tents for the sultans and other major officials were enclosed in a wall made of fabric that symbolized the walls that would have encircled their palaces for defense.
Tents used on campaign had two layers – an outer layer with a plain, thick material to keep out the elements and an interior layer that would be highly decorated. The floors would likely be covered with reed mats – none have survived, however – and the mats covered with carpets or material that had been decorated in some way. The decorations on the roof of the tent and the sides were done in such a way as to take advantage of the structure of the tent. Panels on the side, for instance, would fit between each of the supporting poles. The top of the decoration would be an arch and decorated material that covered and concealed the poles fit so that they appeared to be columns supporting the arches.
The designs on the inner tent walls were worked on silk or satin and the embroidery was some of the finest examples of this art among the Ottomans. The depictions were of flowers and floral arrangements in vases, rosettes and oil lamps, often on a red or gold background. Often the embroidery threads were of gold or silver and these were accompanied by appliqué images cut out and gilded so as to catch the light from lanterns and lamps lit in the interior of the tent.
Since war campaigns took months, it’s not surprising that the Ottomans wanted to surround themselves with memories of home.
(Source: www.hurriyetdailynews.com )