Chapter 4 - The Men and Boys in the Garden: Courtiers, Eunuchs, and the Palace Milieu

Summary

The small grounds around the Hamidiye Tomb, within the stone-and-grillwork walls that define their perimeter, were intended from the beginning to become a graveyard too. Such was Ottoman custom, to inter elite figures of state, or high-ranking members of the palace and the Imperial Harem, or their close relatives, in the gardens surrounding imperial tombs and mosques. Providing a burial ground for the men and women in their service constituted an act of benevolence on the part of Ottoman monarchs, and symbolised the care exhibited by the reigning House for its subjects. This aspect of Ottoman court culture contrasts starkly with court practice among European dynasties, which never buried palace staff in the grounds around royal tombs or crypts.

But if burying courtiers in the garden around one's tomb constituted an expected act of royal benevolence, Abdülhamid failed to measure up to it. During his reign only one person was buried in the garden around his tomb: his Grand Vizier, Silâhdar Mehmed Pasha, leaving us to conclude that Abdülhamid did not consider anyone else to warrant burial around his tomb, certainly none of his palace and harem staff. Those burials began only after his death, as his successor, Selim III, began to authorise burials here of high-ranking men and women from Abdülhamid's court. Following Selim on the throne, Mustafa IV, certainly Mahmud II, and Abdülmecid, used the Hamidiye grounds to bury men and women of high rank at their own courts.

All of the ladies and gentlemen buried here had occupied senior positions at Topkapı Palace, with the exception of the six males and three females buried here because they were close relatives of senior officials whom the palace wished to honour. Per Islamic custom, the graves (and the tombs inside the mausoleum) are aligned perpendicular to the qibla axis, so that the deceased, laid on his or her right side, faces toward Mecca. Here is the Muslim principle of egalitarianism in death, as all graves in a Muslim cemetery line up with one another at least in orientation, if not in neat rows.