What Did the Ottoman Tulip Era Mean? 12 Years from 1718 to 1730

The Ottoman Tulip Era refers to the period between the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718 and the Patrona Halil Revolt in 1730. In these years, when Ahmed III was sultan and Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha was grand vizier, peace, entertainment and an opening to the West came to the fore. The period took its name from the passion for tulips that spread from the palace to the common people in those years. This name, however, does not appear in the sources of the time; it was given later.

Quick Summary

The Tulip Era is the twelve-year period between 1718 and 1730.
The name “Tulip Era” was first used by Yahya Kemal, and Ahmed Refik popularized it in 1913.
İbrahim Müteferrika’s printing press was founded in this period, in 1727.
Yirmisekiz Çelebi Mehmed Efendi, who was sent to Paris, played a part in the growth of French influence.
The period ended with the Patrona Halil Revolt in 1730.

What did the Tulip Era mean?
Origin of the name
Ahmed III and Damat İbrahim Pasha
Opening to the West and the embassies
Innovations
Pavilions, gardens and Sadabad
The passion for tulips
The Patrona Halil Revolt
Assessment
Frequently asked questions

What Did the Ottoman Tulip Era Mean?

The Tulip Era describes the years of peace that followed a long period of war. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the Treaty of Passarowitz, signed with Austria and Venice in 1718, marks the beginning of this peace. The period covers the long grand vizierate of Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha. It ends with the Patrona Halil Revolt in 1730.

According to the encyclopedia, these were years in which political, economic and cultural relations with the West were developed. They are also remembered as a time when entertainment and luxury consumption increased. That is why the Ottoman Tulip Era is associated with debates about both innovation and extravagance.

Where Does the Name “Tulip Era” Come From?

According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, 18th-century Ottoman chronicles contain no definition of a period called the Tulip Era. In these years tulips were grown very widely, above all along the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus. For this reason Yahya Kemal Beyatlı was the first to give this period the name Tulip Era.

According to the encyclopedia, the historian Ahmed Refik Altınay published a series of articles under this title in the newspaper İkdam in 1913. Two years later the articles were printed as a book. After that the name spread in history books, and the period came to be understood as an age of pleasure, peace and renewal. Today, too, history books refer to the period by this name.

Ahmed III and Damat İbrahim Pasha

According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, Ahmed III was placed on the throne by rebels during the Edirne Incident of 1703. In the sultan’s early years the Prut Campaign was undertaken in 1711, and the Russian army was defeated. The wars with Austria and Venice, on the other hand, ended with the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718. With this treaty the Ottoman state accepted some territorial losses.

Nevşehirli İbrahim Pasha, who became grand vizier on 9 May 1718 while the peace talks were still under way, is known by the epithet “Damat” (son-in-law) because he was married to the sultan’s daughter. According to the encyclopedia, during his twenty-seven-year reign, and especially during his son-in-law’s grand vizierate, Ahmed III attached great importance to economic and social innovations. The grand vizier, too, was a statesman who loved the arts and gathered poets and artists around him.

Opening to the West and the Embassies

One of the most important aspects of the Ottoman Tulip Era was the embassies sent to Europe. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, envoys were sent to Paris, Vienna and Moscow. These envoys were asked not only to conclude treaties but also to gather information about European diplomacy and military power.

According to the encyclopedia, Yirmisekiz Çelebi Mehmed Efendi, who was sent to Paris to the court of King Louis XV, was deeply impressed by France, above all by its education. The envoy carried what he had seen back to Istanbul. According to the encyclopedia, in this period 500 merchant ships a year sailed between the two countries.

What Innovations Were Made in the Tulip Era?

According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the most important sign of the policy of renewal was the printing press. The press was set up in 1727 in İbrahim Müteferrika’s house in Istanbul, with the support of Said Efendi, the son of Çelebi Mehmed Efendi. The first work printed was the Vankulu Dictionary in 1729.

According to the encyclopedia, a French convert known as Gerçek Davud Ağa founded the first fire brigade, the Tulumbacı Ocağı, at Şehzadebaşı. The naval arsenal was reformed, and ships with three decks began to be built for the first time. An official translation committee was set up to translate important works from the East and the West into Turkish. According to the encyclopedia, the French officer De Rochefort’s attempt at military reform came to nothing, because the reaction of the Janissaries was feared.

Important steps were also taken in the field of culture. According to the encyclopedia, libraries were founded in Topkapı Palace and at the Yeni Cami. A tile workshop was opened in the Tekfur Palace to develop tile-making, and the İznik and Kütahya workshops were repaired. The poet Nedim served as librarian in the palace library. We discussed the artistic milieu of the period in our article on Ottoman sultans and cultural heritage.

Pavilions, Gardens and Sadabad

In this period the shores of the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn filled with pavilions and palaces. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the most important of these was the Sadabad Palace at Kağıthane, which was completed in two months. Both banks of the Kağıthane stream were lined with white pavilions. According to the encyclopedia, the place became a kind of answer to Versailles near Paris.

According to the encyclopedia, the influence of European architecture began to appear in buildings constructed to plans brought from France. In decorative art, the Baroque and Rococo styles made themselves felt. The Fountain of Ahmed III in front of the Bab-ı Hümayun gate of Topkapı Palace is the most famous work of this period. Dams were also built to bring water from the Belgrade Forest to Istanbul.

According to the encyclopedia, the other famous pavilions included the Emnabad, Ferahabad, Hümayunabad and Şerefabad palaces.

The Passion for Tulips

The tulip became the symbol of the period’s entertainments and festivities. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, 839 varieties of tulip were grown in these years, and competitions were held for new varieties. When the price of tulip bulbs rose sharply, the government issued an edict in October 1722. According to the encyclopedia, a fixed price was set for tulips to prevent speculation. The tulip also became one of the most beloved motifs in Ottoman decorative art.

On summer nights, festivities called çırağan were held. According to the encyclopedia, lamps were lit among the tulips, and candles on the backs of tortoises walking through them. The painter Jean-Baptiste van Mour and the miniaturist Levni depicted the life of this period in their works. Floristry became a profession, and books called “şükufename” were written.

How Did the Ottoman Tulip Era End?

The palace’s immoderate spending and new taxes provoked a reaction among the people. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, broad sections of society, above all the ulema and the Janissaries, were unhappy with this situation. According to the encyclopedia, however, the real cause of the revolt was political. In the east, losses were being suffered in the wars with Iran.

According to the encyclopedia, the Ottomans had been defeated by Iran in the war of 1726. Nadir’s recapture of Hamadan and Tabriz set the opposition in motion. The new taxes imposed for the campaign became “the last straw”. We described the Iranian wars of this period in our article on the Ottoman–Iranian wars.

Finally, in 1730, an uprising broke out under the leadership of Patrona Halil. According to the encyclopedia, Ahmed III had his son-in-law İbrahim Pasha and İbrahim’s two sons-in-law strangled and handed them over to the rebels. He was then forced to leave the throne to his nephew Mahmud I. The rebels destroyed the tulip gardens and the pavilions. We discussed the revolts of this period in our article on rebellions in the Ottoman Empire.

How Is the Ottoman Tulip Era Assessed?

For a long time the Tulip Era was described only as a period of pleasure and extravagance. Today, however, it is also seen as the first period in Ottoman history in which efforts to get to know the West began. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the question of renewal was discussed seriously for the first time in the anonymous “Islahat Takriri” (Memorandum on Reform). According to the encyclopedia, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the wife of the English ambassador, also writes that inoculation against smallpox was practised in Istanbul.

The social life of the period was described by Seyyid Vehbi in his Surname and by the poet Nedim in his poems. The printing press, the libraries and the translation work are lasting traces that it passed on to later periods. That is why the Ottoman Tulip Era is regarded as one of the first steps of Ottoman modernization.

Frequently Asked Questions

Between which years did the Ottoman Tulip Era take place?

It took place in the years between the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718 and the Patrona Halil Revolt in 1730.

Who gave the Ottoman Tulip Era its name?

The name was first used by Yahya Kemal Beyatlı. It spread through the historian Ahmed Refik’s articles of 1913 and his book printed in 1915.

When was the printing press founded in the Tulip Era?

İbrahim Müteferrika’s printing press was founded in 1727. The first book printed was the Vankulu Dictionary in 1729.

What is Sadabad?

It is the palace built in two months at Kağıthane through the efforts of Damat İbrahim Pasha. It was the most famous venue for the entertainments of the Tulip Era. The palace stood on the bank of the Kağıthane stream.

Conclusion

The Ottoman Tulip Era is the period of peace, entertainment and renewal between 1718 and 1730. The founding of the printing press, the embassies and French influence are the most lasting traces of these years. The palace’s extravagance and the defeats in Iran, however, led to the Patrona Halil Revolt. Although the entertainment side of the period came to an end, the efforts to open up to the West continued in later years. In this respect the period prepared the ground for later reform efforts.