Tulip Period (1718-1730): Ottoman Culture and Elite Leisure

The Tulip Period (Lale Devri) was a stretch of about twelve years, from 1718 to 1730, when the Ottoman court in Istanbul enjoyed relative peace and a burst of artistic and architectural activity. It is associated with Sultan Ahmed III and his grand vizier and son-in-law Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha. Gardens, waterside palaces, poetry, miniature painting, a printing press and new diplomatic contacts with Europe mark the era, which ended in a violent popular revolt.

Background

The Ottoman Empire had suffered serious defeats in the late 17th century. After the failed siege of Vienna in 1683, the Treaty of Karlowitz of 1699 cost it Hungary and other lands. A new war with Venice and Austria in 1714–1718 ended with the Treaty of Passarowitz in July 1718, which surrendered Belgrade to the Habsburgs while confirming the Ottoman recovery of the Morea (the Peloponnese) from Venice.

Ahmed III, who had reigned since 1703, appointed İbrahim Pasha grand vizier in May 1718. İbrahim, born in Nevşehir in Anatolia, had married the sultan’s daughter Fatma Sultan the year before. He governed for the next twelve years and sought to avoid costly wars in Europe, giving the capital a long period of stability.

İbrahim Pasha placed relatives and allies in key posts and arranged marriages that tied leading families to the dynasty. His long tenure gave the government continuity, but it also concentrated wealth and patronage in a small circle around the sultan, a fact that later fed popular resentment.

Culture of gardens and palaces

The most famous feature of the era was a fashion for pleasure and display among the Ottoman elite. Tulips, which had been prized in the Ottoman world for centuries, became the object of intense cultivation. New varieties were bred and named, and the government at times fixed the prices of the most prized bulbs. Evening garden parties were lit by candles and lanterns; a much-repeated anecdote, of uncertain reliability, tells of tortoises carrying candles among the flower beds.

Members of the dynasty and leading officials built waterside mansions and kiosks along the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn. The best known was Sa’dabad, a palace complex built in 1722 at Kağıthane, at the head of the Golden Horn, with canals, cascades and gardens. In 1728 the sultan built the elegant Fountain of Ahmed III outside the main gate of Topkapı Palace, and new public fountains appeared across the city.

The fashion was not limited to the palace. Officials, merchants and wealthy townspeople copied the court’s pastimes, and excursions to the meadows of Kağıthane became popular with wider sections of Istanbul society. Contemporary moralists and later critics complained that such outings mixed men and women in public and wasted money, and these complaints became part of the period’s image.

Poetry, painting and printing

The poet Nedim (died 1730) celebrated the parties, gardens and outings to Sa’dabad in lively verse that is still read in Turkey. The painter Levni (died 1732) moved Ottoman miniature painting in a new direction with single-figure studies and with the illustrations to the Surname-i Vehbi, a book recording the festivities for the circumcision of the sultan’s sons in 1720.

The period also saw the founding of the first Ottoman press printing books in Turkish with Arabic letters. Ibrahim Muteferrika received permission in 1727, and his first book, an Arabic–Turkish dictionary, appeared in 1729. Libraries were founded, translation committees were set up, and a fire brigade was organised in Istanbul in 1720.

Ahmed III himself was an accomplished calligrapher, and in 1719 he founded a library inside the Topkapı Palace that still stands in the third courtyard. İbrahim Pasha also endowed libraries, schools and mosques, including buildings in his home town of Nevşehir. A committee of scholars was appointed to translate Arabic and Persian classics, and some works were translated from European languages.

Contacts with Europe

Ottoman interest in Europe took new forms. In 1720 Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi was sent as ambassador to France, the first long Ottoman embassy to Paris. He stayed until 1721 and wrote an account of what he saw, including the palaces and gardens of Versailles and Marly. His report circulated widely in Istanbul. His son, Mehmed Said Efendi, who accompanied him, later helped Ibrahim Muteferrika to found the printing press.

The Ottoman government also kept close contacts with European diplomats in Istanbul. Envoys of France, Britain, the Dutch Republic and Austria reported on court life, and European travellers and painters such as Jean-Baptiste Vanmour depicted Ottoman ceremonies, costumes and daily scenes for audiences in Europe.

Older histories presented the Tulip Period as the first Ottoman “Westernisation”. Modern historians, including Can Erimtan, argue that this view was shaped by 20th-century Turkish debates and that the era’s culture also looked to Persian and Ottoman models. The European influence was real but selective.

Politics and war in the east

The peace in Europe was not matched in the east. When Afghan forces took the Safavid capital in the Fall of Isfahan in 1722, the Ottomans invaded western Iran. A treaty with Russia in 1724 divided Iran’s north-western provinces between the two powers, and the Ottomans occupied Tabriz, Hamadan and other cities.

These gains were short-lived. From 1729 the Persian commander who later became Nader Shah began driving the Ottomans out. News of losses, combined with resentment at heavy taxes, rising prices and the conspicuous spending of the elite, fed discontent among artisans, shopkeepers and janissaries in Istanbul.

The end of the Tulip Period

In September 1730, while the sultan and his ministers were preparing a campaign against Iran, a former janissary named Patrona Halil led an uprising in Istanbul. Rebels demanded that İbrahim Pasha and other ministers be handed over. Ahmed III had İbrahim executed, but was still forced to abdicate in favour of his nephew Mahmud I. Parts of Sa’dabad and other pleasure palaces were plundered.

The Patrona Halil revolt did not reverse every innovation. The printing press continued to operate, and later sultans rebuilt Sa’dabad. But the name of the era became linked with extravagance and its sudden collapse.

Myths and facts

• Myth: People in Istanbul called their own age the Tulip Period. Fact: The name was coined in the early 20th century, notably by the historian Ahmed Refik.
• Myth: The era was only about pleasure. Fact: It also saw diplomacy, library foundations, translations, a fire brigade and the first Ottoman Turkish press.

Key people

• Ahmed III (1673–1736): sultan from 1703 to 1730, a patron of calligraphy, architecture and poetry.
• Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha (c. 1666–1730): grand vizier from 1718 to 1730 and the leading figure of the period.
• Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi (died 1732): ambassador to France in 1720–1721.
• Nedim (died 1730): court poet of the era.
• Levni (died 1732): court painter.

Timeline

• 1718, May: Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha becomes grand vizier.
• 1718, 21 July: The Treaty of Passarowitz ends war with Austria and Venice.
• 1720: Festivities for the circumcision of Ahmed III’s sons; Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi leaves for France.
• 1722: The Sa’dabad palace at Kağıthane is completed.
• 1723: Ottoman forces invade western Iran after the fall of Isfahan.
• 1727: Ibrahim Muteferrika is licensed to print books.
• 1728: The Fountain of Ahmed III is built outside Topkapı Palace.
• 1730, 28 September: The Patrona Halil revolt begins; Ahmed III abdicates days later.

Why it matters

The Tulip Period showed the Ottoman court experimenting with new tastes, new technologies and new ways of looking at Europe. Its sudden end also revealed the tension between elite consumption and the hardships of ordinary people in the capital, a tension that shaped Ottoman politics for the rest of the 18th century.