Osmanlı saray hadımlarının yaptırdığı mimârî eserler üzerine karşılaştırmalı bir çalışma

This thesis examines the architectural works commissioned by Ottoman court eunuchs between the fifteenth and the eighteenth century, with special focus on Istanbul. As the first study that attempts to evaluate the collective behavior of Ottoman court eunuchs as patrons of architecture, it endeavors to chart particular patterns, trends, similarities, and differences among the works of eunuchs in terms of choice of architectural type, location, size, inscriptions, and decorative elements. Contextualizing individual projects within a historical narrative of eunuch patronage, it explores how the eunuchs? architectural output related to their identities, status, and power, as well as to the conceptions of propriety that informed building commissions. This thesis highlights a hitherto poorly studied part of the history of Ottoman court eunuchs, as it brings to the fore the white eunuch patrons who dominated the period before institutional change in the late sixteenth century allowed the chief black eunuch to emerge as an important figure in court politics. It is argued that the Ottoman court eunuch patronage had two main veins, one dominated by white eunuchs and the other by the chief black eunuch, two distinct eunuch identities which differ from one another on the basis of not only race, but also social origins, employment patterns, career prospects, and probably gender identities.