Architectural Financing in Ottoman Empire - Despite of Economy Downturn and

its Reflection on Modern-day Turkey.

As the title mentioned above already builds up an interesting image in our
mind in regard of the Ottoman Empire, its economy and architectural culture
(mosques and palaces), this piece of writing may give a new dimension of
thought on how the Ottoman Empire was able to build such wonderful pieces of
architecture despite of economic downturn, and will bring upon questions relating
to the financing and maintenance of those wonders of Istanbul or the Ottoman
Empire. In short, this article written will try to answer all of these questions
mentioned in the best possible way. And to answer that, this writing will start with
a brief history of the Ottoman Empire, then comes on the second phase that is
about the architectural wonders built during Ottoman times, following that we will
turn to the main part of the paper which will try to answer the questions
mentioned above. In the end you are going to read about the current trends in
terms of architectural building specifically about the mosque and current
economic situation prevailing in modern day Turkey. Hence, this writing is going
to focus on different aspects of Ottoman history but mainly on architectural
wonders and the economy.
Ottoman Empire is seen as one of the most important Islamic dynasty in
history (the Lost Islamic History). It was founded under the leadership of Osman
in Northwestern Anatolia in the late thirteenth century. It was one of the longlasting empires in the history. In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by Mehmed
II and was renamed as Istanbul, moreover, this created the capital city of the
Ottoman Empire. The empire was at its peak under the reign of Suleiman the
Magnificent who ruled through 1520-66. During the rule of the Ottoman Empire
and Istanbul as its capital, many developments took place especially in the
constructions of the mosques and the great palaces of sultans.
Lets have a brief information on the architectural expansions during the
Ottoman Empire. At first, whenever we travel around Istanbul we can observe
several mosques and other architectural pieces such as palaces. Mosques were
deemed as an important place for worshipping. Awe-inspiring mosques were
constructed during the Ottoman period. These were then made more beautiful by
adding wonderful pieces of art and amazing architecture. The most famous of
Istanbul mosques built during the Ottoman Empire are the Sleymaniye Mosque,
Nurusomaniye Mosque, Yavuz Selim Mosque, Yeni Mosque, and other significant
ones. But as everything has a phase of fall, thus the Ottoman Empire was faced
with competition and ultimately ended after World War 1. Having seen this
notable development of the Ottoman Empire in past and its influence in mosquebuilding of Istanbul, it would be interesting to note todays reflection of the past.
The upcoming amlca Cami is perhaps the first mosque that rings the bell. This
much-talked-about amlca Cami in Istanbul is believed to be another master
piece on its way to come.
Moreover, after mosques, the second important development in the
architectural phase of the Ottoman Empire were palaces and several palaces
raised which resulted into handful of palaces around Istanbul for sultans. Such
examples of palaces are Topkap, Beylerbeyi, raan, and Adile Sultan Palace.
These palaces also played significant roles, from which one of the important was
governing the Ottoman Empire. All the political operations and decisions were
decided in the palace. Along with it, these palaces also served as a living place
for the sultans. With that its worth mentioning that the importance of palaces

changed whenever the sultan changed, as some of the sultans built new palaces
for themselves to live in and thus changed the place for political decisions. The
reason behind the development of new palaces with the change in sultan can be
identified as to maintain their position in society or showing the power to the
periphery. Nonetheless, Topkap palace was and still considered as one of the
most important palaces. In past it was considered as a parliament in modern
terms and in the present world it serves several purposes; such as an inspiration
for students who are studying architecture, a tourist spot for tourists, a palace
whose walls speak about the Ottoman history, thus has served several purposes
for students who are interested or pursuing their degrees academia. And there
are other several importance of palaces which just depends upon how a person
views that.
Now lets turn towards the particulars for the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
There were many reasons that could define the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The
main cause of decline was economic situation of the empire. And the following
could be stated for financial crisis: unsuccessful borrowing policies, Wrong money
policies, lack of defined tax policies and etc. Besides the reasons mentioned
above, as an empire they needed to have a sound economy to keep its empire
running. Economics, simply defined as study of production, consumption and
transfer of wealth, did hold a lot of significance for the Ottoman Empire. They
faced competition from the trade of the Americas and the products of India and
Far East were quite cheap. Additionally, there was a rise in unemployment within
the empire and related problems followed. With that it has been also observed
that the relationship between center and periphery was always a problem for the
empire, as communication plays a vital role in order to have a good economic
stable state. Moreover, this communication problem can also be explained
through the weakened central control.
Hence, in order to solve these economic crisis prevailing within the empireOttoman Empire took a lot of initiatives such as borrowing from economically
developed countries which was mainly Europe at that time. During the reform era
the empire used to debase the coin which resulted into a costly method in the
end for the empire. As this system created a lot of economic uncertainty within
the empire which resulted into higher inflation and decreased tax revenue. With
that during the same period an important development took place that was the
birth of first Ottoman Central Bank, which was established in London in 1856. The
reason behind this development was to control foreign exchanges which would
provide the empire with stable exchange rates, in addition to that this bank was
created with the help of domestic bankers and obliged to have foreign investors
in this project. And the sole reason of having foreign investors was due to have
easiness in obtaining foreign loans. (Ozekicioglu S. and Ozekicioglu H.)
In addition, despite of economic crisis, these grand mosques were built and
maintained. Regardless of the presence of strong economic crisis these mosques
represent that Istanbul has always been economically strong. In order to make
the statement more clear- we can interpret from the above written subsection
that empire always had money whether it was in the form of loan or in terms of
their own tax revenue. It was just about the empire handled money and how it
was used. Moreover, from now onwards this writing piece is going to give a
possible answer to the question of how money was used.
At the first instance we know already know palaces had been regarded as
political center during the Ottoman Empire, such as Dolmabahe Palace. It is
interesting to note that the construction of this palace was started in 1843 and
completed in 1856. During the same time period Ottoman Empire was subject to

Crimean war and required funds in order to fight. Until 1854 the empire
application towards obtaining a foreign loans was being rejected. But nonetheless
they received their first foreign loan in 1855. Despite of having this loan the loan
was not used for the war expenses but it was used in other places. (Ozekicioglu
S. and Ozekicioglu H.) And its highly likely that maybe it has been used in the
construction of Dolmabahe Palace. As the empire was badly defeated by the
hands of Russia and empire lost its control over Black sea.
It is also very interesting to see how these grand mosques were financed
and were well looked after, once these buildings were created. Moreover, Mimar
Sinan was one of the main architects and did an amazing contribution towards
the building of mosques. The Ottoman Empires economic system was based on
three basic principles that were provisionism, fiscalism, and traditionalism.
Provisionism, derived from provision refers to the act of providing the empire with
supply of the necessary goods at cheap rates and of good quality. Fiscalism is
defined as the policy of maximizing the treasury income. And traditionalism is
defined as the tendency to preserve existing conditions and look after the past
models when changes occurred. (Agoston Gabor and Masters Bruce, p. 192).
Thus, by analyzing the base of economy we can judge how capital accumulation
would have taken place during the Ottoman Empire and these mosque projects in
Istanbul were funded.
Let us take the example of the Sleymaniye Mosque, which is located in
Fatih one of the most famous and revenue generating area of Istanbul. This
mosque was built by Sultan Suleiman. It was started in 1550 and ended in 1558,
taking almost 8 years to build such an amazing mosque. It just requires a few
clicks on a web browser to see the images of this mosque and be admired by the
art and architecture used in it. In addition to that it was 16 th century when
Ottoman Empire started facing economic downturn. Moreover, the construction of
these mosques gives accountants, economists, and other financial world experts
to think about the costs and analyze financial and economic aspects on such
buildings, as we all know that we have to give up the benefits of something in
order to gain benefits of other things. Furthermore, the construction of mosques
would have required a lot of money which could have been spent on other
aspects, as there were many other projects needed by the empire. One of the
fine alternate of this expenditure would have been making the empire capable of
producing their own cheap goods, and be less dependable.
Now, let us analyze the workers needed and how much they accounted for
the total cost of the construction of this mosque. According to a report, it is
stated that 298 workers worked on the construction of the mosque, who
performed various tasks. Moreover, they accounted for 54.84% from the total
cost of the mosque, while the reaming percent was distributed among other
laborers which were working on the project. The total cost of this mosque
according to present value is 333,000,000 TL or 208,125,000 Euros. (Yk
Sleyman, erli Ylmaz, and Yk Canan, p. 5-6). This huge amount was
financed by taxation, funding from the treasury, loans from Galata bankers and
etc. People did pay money for these constructions as their economy was based
on traditionalism, thus they respected the traditions. Moreover, their economy
was based on fiscalism as well, thus revenue generated from the exports may
have been invested in the construction of mosques and other public works during
the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
Henceforth, the last fact which can make the above reasoning more strong
is through by looking at figure 1 (Appendix) it could be observed that the empire
obtained a lot of foreign borrowing during 1854-1874. Approximately for about 20

years and the amount had kept increasing as years went on. And there is high
possibility that these funds available from these loans have been used to build
some wonderful pieces of architecture as the most of the mosques and palaces
were built in during this period of time. Moreover, it also leads us to one more
deduction that is the main purpose of these loans were fulfilled for which the
loans were taken. (Ozekicioglu S. and Ozekicioglu H.)
Finally, lets return towards our present-day Istanbul. The most current
issue is the construction of amlca Cami, by Turkish President Erdogan. It has
been one remarkable announcement by the President. Moreover, there have
been some objections towards the construction of the mosque. But we have to
look at the cost and how this proves that Istanbul is economically strong.
According to Huffington Post as stated:
Officially, the government did not instigate the project, but it has given the
land and Erdogan's personal endorsement. The cost is estimated at over
100 million lira, or 43 million euros, to be paid for by donors code, the
opposition says, for businessmen out to curry favor with the government.
As the cost has been stated above in the quote, Turkey is currently a developing
economy. Keeping the respect of religion again continuing the old Ottoman
tradition of building mosques as they dont generate much revenue for the
economy. They are just a symbolic representation and such representations are
already present in the modern day Turkey. It wont be wrong when saying that it
would be better for Turkey to use its money wisely or invest in those projects
which are going to result in strong economy, better living standards for residents,
and much more.
Moreover, last year there has been the Halk Bank corruption scandal and
there were accusations of large sum of money being illegally taken by the
government officials. And in order to prevent the depreciation of Turkish lira, the
government decided to increase the interest rates which have given rise to
inflation and other related consequences like unemployment. On top of that we
have also observed a decrease in foreign direct investment (FDI) after this
incident. It seems that inflow has decreased and outflow increased. (Gne
Kmrcler, Hrriyet, Feb 2015). And this could be simply explained by means of
whenever a country raises its interest rates, the investment is going to be
decreased due to increase in the cost of capital borrowing. Moreover, a normal
science of inflow and outflow of money mentions that whenever outflows are
more than inflows, it results in a deficit. Remarkably, every person is aware about
such a simple concept but still people prefer to have deficit despite of knowing
their economic situations. And this could be explained with the intention
maintaining their legacy. Interestingly, similar developments took place in the
Ottoman Empire as well, which brought it down. Is history repeating itself? But
Istanbul is still going for this project and might take loans from the developed
world in order to fulfill the projects financial need.
Hence, this proves that however worse the economic crisis Istanbul faces,
they are going to continue their tradition of building giant mosques with amazing
art and its architecture. Even though they have to rely on the donor money (as
mentioned in Huffington), which could well be the loan from the developed
countries as well. These could cost a lot to economies in future as seen during
the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Such as increase in inflation and unemployment,
which creates resistance between government and its local people. Moreover,
one more point to be noticed is that these mosques were also build in commercial
areas, thus generated revenue for the business around the mosque. And the

earned revenue was used as a charity by those local business man that also
somehow shows the circulation of money within the economy.

References
Agoston Gabor and Masters Bruce. The Encyclopedia of Ottoman Empire. United
States of
America. An imprint of Infobase Publishing, 2009.
Prime Minister Erdogan Wants To Build Turkey's Biggest Mosque in Istanbul.
Huffington Post.
12/02/2012. Web.
Yk Sleyman, erli Ylmaz, and Yk Canan. Construction of Suleymaniye
Mosque In
Istanbul and Cost Accounting. (1550-1557). Page 5-6. Web.
The lost Islamic History http://lostislamichistory.com/the-decline-of-the-ottomanempire-part-1/.

Direct Investment inflow in Turkey decreases, outflow increases. Hurriyet Daily

News.
February 2015. Web.
Ozekicioglu S. and Ozekicioglu H. First borrowing period at Ottoman Empire
(1854-1876):
Budget policies and consequences. Web.
http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/128673/2/03_V3_BEH_TURKEY_Sed
aOzekicioglu_HalilOzekicioglu_d_ac.pdf

Appendix