Private Tour Guide in Istanbul

Kemha Fabric is an old woven fabric. It can be defined as a pile-free silk fabric similar to Atlas and Kutnu fabrics and close to velvet. It was woven with gold and silver wires in the form of embroidery, it is a heavy caftan fabric. Kemha fabrics woven in Istanbul and Bursa are the highest quality and valuable fabrics. The European ones were called "Frengi Kemha".  The total number of Kemha in an index varies between 6000 and 7000. These products, which are expensive weavings called brocade by Westerners, were famous in the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. Later they were also woven on palace looms in Istanbul. They had large patterns embroidered on a single colour and were used as upholstery. In addition, since it is a thick and densely woven fabric, it is generally used for making top caftans.  In the 18th and 19th centuries, as in other fabrics, the quality of these fabrics deteriorated. The warp wires used in weaving decreased, the gold and silver wires were out of ad...

Koca Ragıp Pasha, one of the most important grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, started from the lowest level of the bureaucracy and gradually climbed up the state ladder. After working as a civil servant, bureaucrat, diplomat and governor for years, he became a grand vizier. He started collecting written works as a hobby when he was young. Later on, he donated these books, for which he spent a considerable amount of money, to the library he named after himself. A year before his death, he started to build a library, a school and a fountain. Although this building was completed before, its dome collapsed for an unknown reason. There are people who describe this situation as unlucky. Forty days after the opening of the library, Ragıp Pasha died.  Today, this library is located on the left side of the big asphalt street leading from Bayezit Square to Aksaray. The third verse of Surat al-Bayyine, "Fiha kütübün kayyime", meaning "There are precious books in it", is wri...

  This is the Concubines' and Mistresses' Quarters. The smallest courtyard of the Harem. Due to its location, it is known as both the Female Master's and Concubine's Taşlığı. It is connected to the Karaağalar on one side and to the Valide Taşlığı and the Masters' Chamber on the other. After this narrow and long courtyard, we come to the section where the women of the Harem lived. Emptied food trays were brought to the platforms on this stoneside and servant concubines would collect these trays. On the left side of the gizzard were a row of ablution taps, the entrance to the mosque with a large dome, the staircase door leading to the kalfalar apartment, and the entrance door to the bathhouse ashtray next to it. On the opposite side were the laundry, kitchen, pantry and a room belonging to the head chef. On the right side of the gizzard were the rooms of the first, second and third kadi masters. The fourth door opened to a wide staircase with 52 steps, known as forty ...

It is said that the owner of the works, Drunken İbrahim Efendi, was called by this name not because he drank, but because he walked with a stagger. İbrahim Efendi, one of the great artisans of the period, embroidered these coloured glasses, which changed colour with the li9ht of the sun and the seasons and gave the interior different Views at every moment. The motifs used in these windows reveal the character and artistic understanding of the decorative arts of this region and nation in historical continuity. It is the daylight that reveals the clarity of Islamic architecture, and it is the "Revzen-i Menkuş" Chat adds meaning to the light. The word "rovzen", which means window in Persian, was transformed into the word "revzen" in the Ottoman Empire and they are patterned windows made by placing coloured or colourless glasses.