Table Of ContentMurat Gül is an architectural and urban historian who previously
taught at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul and the
University of Sydney, Australia. At present he is an associate
professor at the International University of Sarajevo. In addition
to his academic career, Gül has extensive experience in the fields
of urban planning and heritage conservation and has worked for
various government agencies in Australia.
LIBRARY OF MODERN MIDDLE EAST STUDIES
Series ISBN: 978 1 84885 243 3
Selected titles: for a full list of titles see www.ibtauris.com/LMMES
57. Filming the Modern Middle East: Politics in 79. Occidentalism in Turkey: Questions of Modernity
the Cinemas of Hollywood and the Arab World and National Identity in Turkish Radio Broadcasting
Lina Khatib Meltem Ahiska
978 1 84511 192 2 978 1 84511 653 8
61. The Making of Jordan: 80. Narrating Islam:
Tribes, Colonialism and the Modern State Interpretations of the Muslim World in European Texts
Yoav Alon Gerdien Jonker and Shiraz Thobani (eds)
978 1 84511 138 0 978 1 84511 978 2
62. Identity Politics in the Middle East: 83. The Emergence of Modern Istanbul:
Liberal Thought and Islamic Challenge in Egypt Transformation and Modernisation of a City
Meir Hatina Murat Gül
978 1 84511 135 9 978 1 84511 935 5
63. The New Voices of Islam: 84. Beyond Islam:
Reforming Politics and Modernity – A Reader A New Understanding of the Middle East
Mehran Kamrava (ed.) Sami Zubaida
978 1 84511 274 5 978 1 84885 069 9
68. Arab Media and Political Renewal: 85. The New Arab Journalist:
Community, Legitimacy and Public Life Mission and Identity in a Time of Change
Naomi Sakr (ed.) Jeremy Ginges and Laurence Pintak
978 1 84511 433 6 978 1 84885 098 9
69. Imagining the Arab Other: 86. Reclaiming Women’s Rights in Islam:
How Arabs and Non-Arabs View Each Other The Challenge to Muslim Patriarchy
Tahar Labib Hanaan Balala
978 1 84511 384 1 978 1 84885 118 4
71. The Zaza Kurds of Turkey: 87. The Young Turk Legacy and National Awakening:
A Middle Eastern Minority in a Globalised Society From the Ottoman Empire to Atatürk’s Turkey
Mehmed S. Kaya Erik J. Zürcher
978 1 84511 875 4 978 1 84885 271 6
73. The Arab-Israeli Conflict in the Media: 88. Across the Wall:
Producing Shared Memory and National Identity Towards a Shared View of Israeli-Palestinian History
in the Global Television Era Ilan Pappé and Jamil Hilal
Tamar Ashuri
978 1 84885 345 4
978 1 84511 814 3
89. Cultural Encounters in the Arab World:
74. Desert Voices: On Media, the Modern and the Everyday
Bedouin Women’s Poetry in Saudi Arabia Tarik Sabry
Moneera Al-Ghadeer
978 1 84885 359 1
978 1 84511 666 8
76. Satellite Realms: 90. Palestine Online: Transnationalism,
Transnational Television, Globalization and the Middle East Communications and the Reinvention of Identity
Naomi Sakr Miriyam Aouragh
978 1 86064 688 1 978 1 84885 364 5
78. Israeli Cinema: 91. The Tuareg in a Globalised Society:
East/West and the Politics of Representation Saharian Life in Transition
Ella Shohat Ines Kohl and Anya Fischer (eds)
978 1 84511 312 4 978 1 84885 370
THE EMERGENCE
OF MODERN
ISTANBUL
Transformation and
Modernisation of a City
MURAT GÜL
TAURIS ACADEMIC STUDIES
an imprint of
I.B.Tauris Publishers
LONDON ● NEW YORK
Published in 2009 by Tauris Academic Studies, an imprint of I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright © 2009 Murat Gül
The right of Murat Gül to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the
author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may
not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978 1 84511 935 5
Library of Modern Middle East Studies 83
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Printed and bound in India by Thomson Press
from camera-ready copy edited and supplied by the author
To Ömer
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Key to pronunciation of Turkish characters xi
Introduction 1
1. The Demise of Classical Istanbul 7
2. Istanbul Between the Crimean War and the First World War 40
3. The Neglected City 1923–1933 72
4. Reshaping Istanbul under Kemalist Principles 1933–1950 92
5. Istanbul under Democrat Party Administration 1950–1955 127
6. Istanbul in Menderes’ Hands 1956–1960 140
Conclusion 172
Notes 180
Figure Sources 217
Bibliography 220
Index 230
PREFACE
This book is the end product of extensive research into the planning
history of Istanbul. Since growing up there in the 1970s, I witnessed how
dramatically the city’s social and physical morphology changed over three
decades. However, as an architectural student living in Istanbul my interest
in this subject first emerged during my undergraduate and postgraduate
years at Mimar Sinan University. All the academic and professional activities
I participated in and my private discussions with a variety of scholars
during those years drew me back to the planning history of Istanbul.
Specifically, I wanted to better understand the development of the city in
the early Republican and Democrat Party periods. It was this deep interest
that encouraged me to undertake my doctoral thesis on the planning
history of Istanbul and this book is primarily produced from that research.
Throughout the preparation of the book many individuals, institutions
and organisations have offered a wide range of support, assistance and
encouragement for which I am grateful and happy to acknowledge. My
deepest gratitude goes to Dr John Dee, my friend and colleague in Sydney,
for providing guidance, making critical and valuable suggestions, reviewing
my draft chapters but, above all, for encouraging me when I needed it most.
I am also indebted to Trevor Howells for all his support and for reading
the manuscripts and making valuable suggestions. To Professor İlgi Aşkun
and her colleagues at the Restoration Department of Mimar Sinan Fine
Arts University I owe a debt of gratitude for their kind help in providing
access to the archival material held there. I would specifically like to thank
Dr Mevlude Kaptı for her invaluable assistance with my research. I would
like to thank other individuals from many different places for their generous
support and assistance, including Professor Ataman Demir, Professor
Angus Martin, Dr Aras Neftçi, Dr Bedriye Poyraz, Dr Derin Öncel, Nurhan
Ercan and Megan Haig. I would also like to thank the Librarian and staff
of the former Denis Winston Architecture Library at the University of
Sydney for their friendly support and patience in attending to my endless
interlibrary loan requests. I would also like to thank Jenna Steventon, my
