Beste Yıldırım – 2014760039

16.01.2015

Hist.58D.01 – Special Topics of Architecture & Identity in 19th

Century

Instructor: Paolo Giraldelli

RESEARCH PAPER

A Historical and Artistic Investigation of the Protestant Cemetery

in Feriköy

“Pancaldi contains the Catholic cathedral, an impressive edifice planted on a

most unfortunate situation. Ferikeui and Chichli evoked but the single memory

of death and graves. There are the chief cemeteries of the Catholic, Protestant,

and Orthodox Greek communities. In the Protestant cemetery, all the nations

holding to the reformed religion, - Germany, Holland, Great Britain, the

Scandinavian States, the United States, - each in its allotted section, inter their

dead, side by side.”1

I. Introduction

This research paper is going to investigate the Protestant

Cemetery in Feriköy with its historical context and stylistic

features that I could observe due to my visit in order to find

some significant nuances about both architecture and identity

1 Grosvenor, Edwin A. Constantinople p.118.1

in the 19th century Ottoman Istanbul. I would like to mention

the site of the cemetery as I could acquire a sense from the

insurance maps of Pervitich for Istanbul, the importance of the

cemetery as both a historical and artistic concrete value, the

missionary activities in the 19th century Ottoman Empire in

order to find the correct connections together with changing

dynamics in the state administration which come from Tanzimat

and Islahat Edicts towards the non-Muslim population of the

empire, and lastly different typical and stylistic features of

the tombs in the cemetery in order to evaluate them as an

artistic element in the visual culture. For this reason, rather

than focusing on a particular period or ethnicity for the

gravestones, I would like to evaluate many different styles

that attract my attention during my visit together with their

various features in terms of the nations and life periods of

their owners.

II. History of the Cemetery

Feriköy Protestant Cemetery (Turkish: Feriköy Protestan

Mezarlığı) is officially called Evangelicorum Commune

Coemeterium which is a Christian cemetery in Istanbul, Turkey.

The cemetery is across the Latin Catholic Cemetery at Feriköy

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neighborhood in Şişli district of Istanbul, nearly 3 km north

of Taksim Square. In Istanbul, all members of the Reformed

Churches belong to the Protestant Cemetery in Feriköy. Burial

sites are being distributed by the Consulate General.

Resembling a museum of funerary art, the cemetery contains

examples of different styles of monuments and memorials from

the 17th century to the present.

In the cemetery there is an information panel which were

taken by a brochure of Brian Johnson in English. Historian

Brian Johnson who works with the American Board in Istanbul

engaged in compiling an accurate a list as possible of the

names and nationalities of those buried at Ferikoy, from its

opening in the 19th century to the present. The same document

of the information panel of the cemetery as in Turkish is in

the library of SALT Galata. Johnson explains the history of the

cemetery in the information panel as: “Since the tenth century A.D.,

when various Italian city-states received permission from the Byzantine emperors to

establish trading colonies along the shores of Golden Horn, Istanbul has been home

to a community of Europeans. Known as Franks, these predominantly Catholic and

Protestant inhabitants have left a distinct imprint on the city’s history. Reminders of

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their presence are clearly visible in the districts of Galata and Pera, the city’s oldest,

and still most vibrant, international quarters.

Yet, some distance away from Beyoğlu’s bustling streets is a spot perhaps

even more evocative of Istanbul’s cosmopolitan character. Absent from travel guides,

the site is the Protestant cemetery, Evangelicorum Commune Coemeterium, located

in the district of Feriköy. Since the mid-1800s, Protestant Christians of many

nationalities and all walks of the life--residents of the city and passers- through alike

—have been interred in this secluded, tree-shaded burial ground. Set along the

cemetery’s pathways, monuments ranging from humble gravestones to elaborate

tombs attest to the cultural richness and diversity linked eternally to Istanbul.

GRAVEYARD of the FRANKS

Prior to the establishment of the cemetery in Feriköy, Protestant dead were

usually buried in the Grand Champs des Morts, one of Istanbul’s largest cemeteries,

located in Pera. Beginning at Taksim and extending eastward towards Dolmabahçe

lay the graves of Muslims, while the area stretching northward was divided into

separate burial grounds for the city’s various Christian communities.

Protestant and Catholic Europeans were interred in the cemetery’s Frankish

section, which stood near the artillery barracks of Selim III, on the summit of a hill

overlooking the Bosphorus. English traveler Julia Pardoe describes the site in an

account of her visit to the Grand Champs des Morts in 1836:

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“The first plot of ground, after passing the barrack, is the grave-yard of the Franks;

and here you are greeted on all sides with inscriptions in Latin; injunctions to pray for the

souls of the departed; flourishes of French sentiment; calembourgs graven into the

everlasting stone, treating of roses and reine Marguerites; concise English records of births,

deaths, ages and diseases; Italian elaborations of regret and despair; and all the common-

places of an ordinary burial-grounds.

Along the edge of this piece of land, a wide road conducts you to a steep descent

leading to the Sultan’s palace of Dolma Batché, the crest of the hill commanding a noble

view of the channel…”

After the establishment of the Protestant cemetery at Feriköy, gravestones and

low monuments from the old burial ground at Pera were transferred to the new site.

Often incised with lengthy inscriptions and adorned with relief carving, these

memorials provide excellent examples of seventeenth and eighteenth-century

funerary art.

A victim of the bubonic plague that swept over the Ottoman Empire in 1837,

George Pulteney Malcom was on his way from India to England when he was struck

with the disease. He died at the home of the English consul general in Constantinople

and was buried in the Grand Champs des Morts. One contemporary account reports

that when the epidemic reached its most virulent stage, Istanbul’s inhabitants

perished at a rate of six to ten thousand per week.

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Chaplain to the British Embassy at Constantinople in the 1820s and 1830s,

Rev. Robert Walsh wrote one of the most detailed descriptions of the Frankish burial

ground at Pera. By his account, the most striking gravestone was sculpted with an

image of funereal cypresses and a horse-drawn chariot, or bier, out of which

protruded Death’s bony arm holding a scythe.2”

Moreover, Johnson mentions further things about the

cemetery in the brochure3: Together with the mid-19th century the northern

part of Taksim started to witness a rapid urbanization. The graveyards of the Franks

were in the area of expansion. In 1853, the Ottoman administration explained that

this region could not be used as a cemetery anymore, for this reason they assigned a

new space near the Military School in Pangaltı for the Catholic and Protestant

communities. This region assigned for both two Christian community started to

become insufficient after 4 years in 1857. In the spring of the same year, in a second

edict by the Sultan Abdülmecid I (1839-61), there are these sentences: “Lütuf ve

merhamet sahibi Padişah cenapları her iki kilisenin mensuplarına eşit davranarak

Protestanlara da yer ayrılması gerektiğini buyurmaktadırlar…” This newly selected

region for the leading Protestant powers of that time, the United Kingdom, Prussia,

the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Hanseatic

League covered an area of more than one hectare at Feriköy, and its cost

(approximately 200.000 kuruş) were paid by the imperial treasure. The first burial of

2 I sent this informational panel. In there, there is the photo of this structure.3 I will the photos of the brochure at the end.

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the new area was made in December 1858 but it officially opened in 1859. The first

burial fee schedule was published in 1858, and in the following years it was

intermittently updated.”4

He also says in an interview of the Turkish Daily News and

in another publication which is The Fountain Magazine, NJ,

2004: “The cemetery is of inestimable historical value. Resembling a museum of

funerary art, it contains examples of different styles of monument and memorial

from the 17th century to the present. (…) If you live in Istanbul, the decisions are

fairly clear-cut. If Muslim, you have available to you virtually all of the cemeteries in

and around the city. For those who are foreigners or belong to one of the minorities

that are protected under the Lausanne Treaty, the cemeteries are separate.

Armenian, Greek Orthodox, Protestant and within the Protestant cemetery, the plots

seemed to be grouped roughly according to different nationalities. And one can see

what an extraordinary mixture the centuries have brought to Istanbul in the Ferikoy

Protestant Cemetery.” He describes the cemetery as: “a typical of

nineteenth-century Western burial grounds, which were essentially designed as

funerary gardens, with monuments to the dead placed among trees and shrubbery

to create an idyllic environment for the expression of one's feelings and sentiments

towards the departed.” According to Johnson: “Stonecutters were mostly

anonymous and local. A few moments bear the names or initials of the carvers, such

as that of 'Koco Pungi,' one of three Greek brothers who worked in the stonecutting4 It’s my own translation from the original brochure in Turkish.

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industry in the mid- twentieth century. The shop where the Pungis plied their trade

still exists in Galata - in the shadow of the tower. According to the current owner, the

brothers were master masons, whose skill no contemporary local marble worker can

match. The Pungis and other stonecutters of the same caliber have all died or

emigrated from Turkey, leaving little more than a dim memory of their craft and

trade."5

The Urban Expansion in the 19th Century Istanbul

The 19th century Istanbul experienced many changings in

terms of urban regulations and architecture as parallel with

political, cultural, social, economic, and administrative full

of action dynamics. In the book of Zeynep Çelik, The Remaking of

Istanbul, the first chapter, An Architectural Survey of the City, analyzes

the architectural transformations of the city. She draws a

general framework for Pera during the 18th (with the

constructions of the three major Latin churches, Ste. Marie des

Drapiers, St. Antonie de Padoue, and Ste. Trinite and the

establishment of the European community’s own public services

in this period) and 19th centuries while mentioning the

evolution of its physical structure as a European quarter.

5 http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Istanbulhttp://levantineheritage.com/note71.htmhttp://levantineheritage.com/note15.htm

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However, she adds: “The real building boom in Pera occurred

after 1838.”6 Then, she continues to consider the residential

spaces of Pera (Galata, Tepebaşı and Tatavla) with its

surrounding regions: “Non-Muslim cemeteries, the largest being

the Grand Champs des Morts (Tepebaşı) and the Petit Champs des

Morts (Taksim), were scattered throughout these settlements,

creating large open spaces in the urban landscape.”7 In order

to explain other urban developments, she investigates the 1840

map and its filled parts in 1870 with the expansion of Pera to

the north and the northwest. She descripts these changings as:

“The Taksim - Harbiye strip became more densely built during

the Abdülhamit period. By the first decade of the twentieth

century, the Harbiye – Şişli line was turned into a main

artery. Hence, the Taksim – Şişli route, which is marked on the

1840 map as a country road with no concentration along it, was

converted into a residential settlement in about seven

decades.”8 She adds that the main arteries of Pera, Taksim and

6 Çelik, Zeynep., An Architectural Survey of the City, in “The Remaking of Istanbul”, p.30.7 Çelik, Zeynep., The Nineteenth Century Background, in “The Remaking of Istanbul”, p.39.8 Çelik, Zeynep., The Nineteenth Century Background,, in “The Remaking of Istanbul”, p.42.

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Pangaltı were pointed with big and luxurious apartment

buildings by 1900.9

If we look at Pangaltı with a more detailed gaze, Çelik

gives us the 1848 decision to create a new neighborhood that

aims to demographic issues regarding with “the earliest step

taken to promote orderly growth on the northern side of the

Golden Horn.” Because of intolerable population density in the

mid-19th century in Pera, the expansion toward Pangaltı was

inevitable10 and this region “determined the direction of

expansion from Taksim to Şişli.”11 Another plan was about

connecting the new neighborhoods of Pangaltı and Taksim with

Christian cemeteries at the north of the Grand Rue. This

attempt made with a large road “(tarık-ı vaz) between Taksim and

the Military School in Pangaltı, was completed in 1869 and it

was extended to Şişli.”12

In this period, there was a different development about

the places of the cemeteries. Çelik mentions the destruction of

9 Çelik, Zeynep., Architectural Pluralism and the Search for Style, in “The Remaking of Istanbul”, p.137.10 Çelik, Zeynep., Regulatization of Urban Fabric , in “The Remaking of Istanbul, p.68.11 Çelik, Zeynep., Regulatization of Urban Fabric , in “The Remaking of Istanbul, p.69.12 Çelik, Zeynep., Regulatization of Urban Fabric , in “The Remaking of Istanbul, p.69.

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cemeteries to make way for roads because of their occupation of

the gardens of mosques and külliyes, and their distribution

through the city as placed in the centers of neighborhoods. She

considers this issue as a very controversial situation because

of the decision to regularize the urban fabric with an

unavoidable question of whether to remove the cemeteries or to build over

them.13As related to this issue, we know that many tombs in the

Grand Champs des Morts (Tepebaşı) and the Petit Champs des

Morts (Taksim) were moved to Şişli in order to make an expanded

regularization, and also a public garden in Taksim square in

1864 and this was completed in 1869.14 One of the regions in

Şişli for this move was Feriköy Protestant Cemetery. As related

to this issue I have thought over the “cultural separation”

term of Kostof (he calls it as “a standard urban behavior”)15

because as we know that the district of Beyoğlu (Galata, Pera,

Taksim) was mainly called with its hybrid identity, for this

reason this expansion of Pera to Şişli could be a result of a

conscious enterprise to keep the non-Muslim community and even

their deaths in a new extended region instead of the old13 Çelik, Zeynep., Regulatization of Urban Fabric , in “The Remaking of Istanbul, p.60-61.14 Çelik, Zeynep., “Regulatization of Urban Fabric” , in The Remaking of Istanbul,p.69.15 Kostof, Spiro,. “Urban Divisions”, in The City Assembled: the Elements of Urban Form Through History, p.106.

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quarters of the city. After the completion of the road and the

garden in 1869, the expansion continued until 1910. This urban

development in the Ottoman capital was influenced by the

Western models especially by the cemetery reformers of Europe.

III. History of the Protestant Missionary Activities in

the 19th century Ottoman Empire

As related to the topic of the Protestant Cemetery, the

Protestant missionary activities in the Ottoman Empire and

especially in Istanbul during the 19th century is very

important in order understand the historical significance of

the Protestant as a non-Muslim community and also of the

cemetery. Regarding this I read some successfully written

thesis and articles that I stated in the bibliography part. By

the way of these secondary sources, I realized that the

missionary activities of the Protestants in the Ottoman

territory both in Istanbul and Anatolia were successfully

conducted in a well systematically way. According to Özgür

Yıldız, the 19th century Ottoman Empire was a country of the

Bible for many missioners. Thus, he refers to the words of Ömer

Turan Kocabaşoğlu: “Turkey is the key of Asia in terms of missionary activities.”

Yıldız continues that for this reason the Ottoman Empire was

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invaded by many groups of the missioners. In the first half of

the 19th century, The Protestant missioners accelerated their

actions in many part of the empire. The most effective

foundation in these actions is American Board Committee.16

Catherine Murphy is another significant name for this

research because of her thesis, Application of Protestant Missionary

Theology: The American Board’s mission to Eastern Turkey 1839-1870. Firstly, I

would like to give place to the conditions of the Protestants

by the way of her work: “Influenced by various themes in nineteenth-

century American theology like scripturalism, revivalism and an accent on the

individual, the missionaries interpreted Protestantism for Armenian Christians by

selecting the aspects they felt important to convey. They introduced the idea of

religion as a voluntary choice in order to gain converts which resulted in a

questioning of authority within the Armenian Orthodox Church. After establishing a

separate Protestant millet, the missionaries believed they had initiated an "Armenian

Reformation." In order to preserve and propagate this religious event, which marked

a major change from the earlier strategy of "revival from within," the missionaries

began to establish indigenous and self-sufficient Armenian Protestant

institutions.”17This part shows us the Eastern side of the same

16 Yıldız, Özgür., TÜRKİYE’DE AMERİKAN PROTESTAN MİSYONERLERİNİN FAALİYETLERİ ÇERÇEVESİNDE BURSA SUBESİ (İSTASYONU) 1834–1928, p.16.-17.17 Murphy, Catherine. Application of Protestant Missionary Theology: The American Board’s mission to Eastern Turkey 1839-1870, p.1.

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story, however this time the target group was especially

Armenians.

For both the Western and the Eastern parts of the mission

and its actions American Board of Commissioners for Foreign

Missions (ABCFM) was very affective. Its formative period was

between the years of 1839 and 1870. “The ABCFM was a voluntary

society, a type of organization that had resulted from the United States’ separation

of church and state, and thus was operated and funded independently of the

government or a single church. The missionaries were interpreters of Protestantism

for Armenian Christians and as such they selected aspects of Christianity that they

thought were important to convey.”18

The 19th century is a really suitable period to spread

their ideas with its more flexible atmosphere than the old

times due to the Tanzimat Era and its privileges which were

especially related to “religious freedom” and “equality for all

subjects regardless of religion”. Murphy says that in this

atmosphere American missionaries started to their work in order

to convert others to the Protestant faith. Even though they

were viewed with suspicion by the Eastern Churches and

naturally the Ottoman government, they did not hide their ideas

18 Murphy, Catherine. Application of Protestant Missionary Theology: The American Board’s mission to Eastern Turkey 1839-1870, p.1.

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for Islam and even if they did not often directly evangelize

Muslims, they did openly express the desire to see them

eventually converted.19

Apart from this activities, the Ottoman state was open-

minded in the issue of construction of cemeteries and churches

for its non-Muslim citizens (the understanding of millet/dhimmi in

the old form). Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis show a

remarkable approach which could be helpful to understand the

state’s attitude against the Non-Muslims in the introduction

part of their book: “The legal traditions and practices of each community,

particularly in matters of personal status-that is, death, marriage, and inheritance-

were respected and enforced through the empire.”20 Therefore, despite the

fear or the anxiety of the state in the issue of the missionary

activities, these constructions was able to continue in a way.

Gerosimos Augustinos mentions that not only American but

also British Protestants envisioned a two-phased plan to bring

the "pure doctrine" of Christianity to the peoples of the

Ottoman Empire. As related to the other missionary activities

apart from Americans, the study of Ferida Haboubi is remarkable

19 Murphy, Catherine. Application of Protestant Missionary Theology: The American Board’s mission to Eastern Turkey 1839-1870, p.6.20 B. Braude, B. Lewis, “Introduction”, in B. Braude, B. Lewis, eds., Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire. The Functioning of a Plural Society, 1982, vol I: 1.

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because of its content about the missionary activities of

Anglo-Saxon organizations which developed commercial and

diplomatic institutions in the Ottoman Empire in order to reach

their aim.21 Again in the side of Americans, Levi Parson and

Pliny Fisk as the first representatives of the American Board,

arrived in Smyrna in January 1820. After working for gaining a

working knowledge of the local languages, they prepared to

evangelize Muslims and Jews and "take their message to people

in traditional churches.”22

It is mentioned in the thesis of Devrim Ümit that by 1829,

the American Board was not the only American missionary

organization operating in the Ottoman lands. There are also

some other foundations like “The American Bible Society, the

American Baptist Missionary Union, the American Episcopalians,

the Ladies' Greek Committee of New York, and the Female Society

of Boston and Vicinity for Promoting Christianity among the

Jews were also functioning in various regions of the Ottoman

Empire”.23 Together with the increased American Protestant

21 Haboubi, Ferida. “Anglo-Sakson Protestan Teşkilatlarının Türkiye’deki Faaliyetleri (1950-2000)”, Birinci Bölüm: Osmanlı Döneminde Misyonerlik Faaliyetleri, pp. 1-2.22 Augustinos, Gerasimos. "Enlightened" Christians and the "Oriental" Churches: Protestant Missions to the Greeks in Asia Minor, 1820–1860, p.131.23 Ümit, Devrim. The American Protestant Missionary Network in Ottoman Turkey, 1876-1914: Political and Cultural Reflections of the Encounter,

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missionary activities in the Ottoman Empire and the emergence

of a local Protestant community within the Armenian subjects of

the state; Ümit states that the Ottoman sultan, by the way of

the intermediaries of William Goodell and Sir Stratford

Canning, the British ambassador to Istanbul, issued an imperial

degree (ferman) recognizing the Protestant community in the

Empire. After that in 1850 another imperial decree granted the

native Protestants millet status. After the abolishment of the

millet system with Islahat Fermanı in 1856, Protestants

maintained their rights as the citizens (tebaa-yı Osmani) of

the Ottoman state.24

All of these political and social developments show that

the establishment of this cemetery and the donation of this

land are much related to the historical conditions of the time

which were affected by the foreign powers, changing mentality

of the state an increased communication of the missioners’

activities in the Ottoman Empire. On the subject of the

influence and intervention of the foreign powers in the issues

of administration of the non-Muslim citizens of the Ottoman

p.46.24 Ümit, Devrim. The American Protestant Missionary Network in Ottoman Turkey, 1876-1914: Political and Cultural Reflections of the Encounter, p.48-49.

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Empire and their rights, the article of M. Crinson is related

to the British effect in the early British buildings in the

19th century together with the effects of the Crimean War on

the Crimean Memorial Church in Istanbul.

IV. The Gravestones and Tombs in the Cemetery: The Stylistic

Features

In the cemetery there are many different tombs and

gravestones that have different forms and stylistic features,

various inscriptions, and diverse decorative elements. For this

visit is my first real observation to a Christian cemetery, I

have experienced some different perceptions and emotions due to

its reminder nature about the death, and also its content of

many sentimental and artistic components. Even though I am sure

that there are some other styles and forms that I was not able

to realize due to the limited time, I would like to classified

some gravestones and tombs that I have an opportunity to offer

them as visual.

1.) Table Stones: These are large horizontal gravestones

which supported above ground. They provide more space for

long inscriptions. It is known that they generally were

used for prominent citizens as memorials. The horizontal

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position results in surface erosion making the stones

difficult to read.25 I have two table stone examples with

different stylistic features (Fig. 1 and fig.2). One of

them (fig.1) belongs to an Ottoman soldier.

In addition, under this categorization I want to add two

different horizontal examples which are similar with the

sarcophagus (fig.3 and fig.4). Especially in the figure 4,

there are interestingly feet of an animal like lion under the

tomb.

2.) Tripartite shape: This tripartite shape called as

three-lobed was by far the most popular of those used in

the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. By the

middle of the eighteenth century, many new and innovative

shapes began to emerge. It is said that the transition in

shape was accompanied by an increase in height. 26 I saw

many examples in tripartite shape but they are far from

the traditional shape, they have a much more modern

outlook (Fig. 5, fig. 6, and fig.7).

25 FROM (http://www.capecodgravestones.com/styles.html)26 “Early American Gravestones”, Introduction to the Farber Gravestone Collection by Jessie Lie Farber, American Antiquarian Society, 2003.From: http://www.davidrumsey.com/farber/Early%20American%20Gravestones.pdf

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3.) Cross Shape: I saw many examples in the shape of

cross. Some of them are simple, but some of them have

decorative elements (Fig. 8, fig.9, fig.10, fig.11,

fig.12, and fig.13). Also I saw a different example which

is a mix of cross which resembles the wood and stone which

is under the stone (fig. 14). It also has a broken branch

of a flower like rose which symbolizes a life cut short.

It was usually seen on a younger person's gravestone.

4.) Obelisks Shape (starting mid 1800's): On the contrary

with horizontal table stone shapes, there are some

vertical gravestones which resemble tall obelisk shaped

monuments. They began to appear in the mid 1800's. They

often display several names including earlier deaths like

in the fig.15. Furthermore, the obelisk (fig.16, fig.17)

are decorated with some structures like jug, pitcher or

globe. It can be said that they represent virtue.

5.) Column: I saw a few column shaped gravestones. It is

accepted that it symbolizes mortality. Especially a draped

or broken column (fig.18) represents the break in earthly

to heavenly life and a youth death. 27

27 http://www.graveaddiction.com/symbol.html20

All these different shapes of gravestones have various

decorative and symbolic elements. I would like to classify them

with symbolic meanings:

1.) Urn: According to a common idea in the 1700's urns

began to appear on gravestones in place of the winged

skulls and winged heads. The urns were accepted as the

precursors to the urn and willow motif which replaced

winged images in the 1800's. This well carved urn stands

out in bold relief. Urn (fig.15 fig.16) symbolizes the

soul of the dead person.

2.) Flowers, Branches, Wreaths 1800 – 1880: The second

most common element that I encountered is the floral

motifs. For example I saw in some gravestones that there

are some flowers which form a circle like a wreath. In

this issue, it is known that circle symbolizes eternal

life- no beginning, no end, and wreath symbolizes victory in

death.

Also, there are some ivy forms (fig.9, fig.11, fig.14,

fig.18). They symbolize undying friendship, faithfulness,

and memory. As one of the most common flower rose

symbolizes beauty.

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3.) Books, Bibles, 1800 – 1880: There is a general

comment that the Bible or book is often used on the

gravestones of ministers or clergymen. However, it is

sometimes found on gravestones of very devoted religious

people also. Especially books may also represent a

person's good deeds and accomplishments being recorded in

the book of life.28 I realized only one example in the

cemetery (fig.19).

4.) Human &Angel and Animal Forms 1800 – 1890: In this

cemetery I did not realize any animal form excepting from

the feet of an animal under a horizontal tomb but there

are many human forms with wings like angels or babies. I

found a sad female form extending on the gravestone

(Fig.20). On her cloth there is a very aesthetic drapery

because it symbolizes mourning.29

Angel: I saw some angel forms which were known as a guide to

heaven as woman and baby angels (Fig. 21, Fig.22 and Fig.23)

who are regarded as agents of God. In tombstones weeping angels

are very common in order to emphasize the emotion of pain, loss

and sorrow. Most angel gravestones can also include some

28 http://www.graveaddiction.com/symbol.html29 http://www.graveaddiction.com/symbol.html

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symbols like praying hands, heart, roses, dragonflies, tear

drop, clouds, sacred text and cross. Especially, angel is a

guide to heaven. In the Protestant faith, Saint Matthew, one of

the four evangelists, was often represented as a winged man but

I did not encounter such a form in this cemetery.

5.) Sword: In a horizontal gravestone I saw two swords

(Fig.1). It is known that sword represents martyrdom.

Also, crossed swords are often seen on the gravestones of

veterans, especially officers.

6.) IHS: When I firstly saw this sign in the mid of a cross

shaped gravestone (Fig.8), I supposed it like a dollar sign.

After I researched it, I found some different

interpretations, for example IHS stands for the first three

letters of Jesus' name in the Greek alphabet. Here is

another meaning for IHS, contributed by Jim Miller: This

symbol also stands for "in hoc signo", Latin for "by this

sign we conquer", referring to the cross.30

7.) Square and Compass (Fig. 21): It is agreed that they

usually found on gravestones belonging to members of the

Freemasons (Masons).

30 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_hoc_signo_vinces23

It is necessary to mention that as a historical approach in

the earlier times the gravestones were used only by the middle

and upper classes. However, after the emergence of the new

Protestant faith, even lower classes started using grave

markers for commemorating the life of a person.

Materials31

On the subject of material, I mainly saw marble and stone

gravestones. Also a gravestone made by granite in a modern

sense attracted my attention (Fig. 24)

Inscriptions

There are many different inscriptions in different languages

such as Armenian, Turkish, English, German, Hungarian, and

Japanese (Figure 25) and so on. Some special words, poetries,

phrases and holy words from the Bible are written on the

gravestones.

V. A Separated Section: The Armenian Part of the Cemetery

(Fig. 26 & fig.27)32

31 http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wicemetp/types.htm32From http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Istanbul

24

In the cemetery, all gravestones from different nations

are actually in different sections which are determined by the

signboards, but all of them coexist together with each other.

However, the Armenian section was separated by a wall from the

main cemetery, since Armenians were regarded as "Ottoman

subjects". In this small section, it is found that there are

also some graves belonging to Greek and Turkish Protestants.

VI. Conclusion

In this research paper, firstly I targeted give a well-

researched history about the Protestant Cemetery at Feriköy.

When I ask a question to Prof. Giraldelli about the tombs of

the Christians, he offered me this research topic. Thanks to

his suggestion and this research paper, I had an opportunity

to visit a cemetery of a non-Muslim community in Istanbul at

first time in my life. This experience became very fruitful

in order to gain a perspective about the funerary art and

visual culture around this issue. For this reason, apart

from some determined symbolist meanings of the decorative

elements of the tombs and gravestones, I wanted to mention

my subjective observations about them. Secondly, within the

25

historical framework, I tried to offer a mini comparative

background about the missionary activities in the Ottoman

Empire in the focus of the Protestants. As we repeat again

and again in our seminar courses, the art and architecture

have many keys to open the doors of the secret or unseen

questions of the past which are about both the big issues

about the state policies and also some small subjects that

are related to the burial process of a person who is from a

minority in a state.

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31