Ottomanization and modernization. The architectural and urban development of Bursa and the genesis of tradition, 1839-1914

This study examines modernization and Ottomanization in the Ottoman Empire and the genesis of a neo-Ottoman architectural tradition during the period of reform between 1839 and 1914. The Anatolian Turkish city of Bursa is the focus of an examination of modernization and Ottomanization in the architecture and urban environment in an Ottoman city.; Bursa is an excellent city for this purpose because it has maintained its Turkish identity to the present day and is an important Turkish city. As the first capital of the Empire it defines and embodies the urban and architectural features of an imperial Islamic Ottoman city and reflects the continued pride of the Ottomans in its maintenance as a religious center, and as a symbol of Ottoman imperial glory. The Ottomans developed the city from commercial entrepot to industrial center and, thus, Bursa displays the characteristics of an Ottoman commercial and industrial city. Bursa's location in a fertile valley affords a comfortable existence to the urban inhabitants, and the city's many thermal springs have consistently defined Bursa as a resort center in its idyllic and dramatic setting at the base of a mountain.; Two key personalities are important for Bursa's development into a modern Ottoman city: one is an Ottoman statesmen, Ahmet Vefik Pasa, and the other is a French architect in the service of the sultan, Leon Parvillee. They were part of the cultured elite of reform administrators and foreign advisors who moved freely and comfortably between different parts of the globe, and who defined a modern Ottoman architectural and urban order. Bursa's importance, its patronage, and its near destruction by an earthquake made it the perfect city for development in the nineteenth century. Through modernization and Ottomanization Bursa became a neo-Ottoman urban symbol.