Sarayda Osmanlı tütsüleme gelenekleri: Topkapı Sarayı buhurdanları

This thesis examines Ottoman olfactory traditions in residential spaces through a group of incense burners in the Topkapı Palace Museum collections and contextualizes the objects within their multisensory settings. This study aims to explain various connotations of olfactory practice in residential spaces, and to do so it will focus on the Topkapı Palace as a case study. Islam attributes great importance to "pleasant" scent, and Muslim society used perfume and fragrances frequently in both public and residential spaces, such as mosques, tombs, and houses. The Ottomans were no exception. Visual sources depict censers in residential spaces such as mansions of Ottoman elites and the sultan. In addition, primary sources describe the olfactory practices in the Ottoman society. Today, the Topkapı Palace Museum contains incense burners in six different sections of the collection. The present survey does not aim to present a quantitative survey of censers, but rather to compile and describe in greater detail the published thirty censers in order to offer some general conclusions on their form, function, and symbolic meaning. Therefore, this research will hopefully contribute to the study of Ottoman smellscape by bringing new perspectives to the meaning of olfactory usage in residential spaces in the Ottoman world. Keywords: Incense burner, Ottoman olfactory practices, smellscape, Topkapı Palace