SPLASH AND SPECTACLE: THE OBSESSION WITH FOUNTAINS IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ISTANBUL

Abstract

This verse, composed by the court poet Vaslf Bey at the close of the eighteenth century, belongs to a large body of popular Ottoman lore centering on fountains. Here an anxious mother warns her unwed daughter of the dangers that lurk on a trip to the fountain, a necessary daily routine for ordinary people at that time,2 but also one that provided a pretext for men and women to meet and, in this mother's mind, thereby an opportunity to get into mischief. In one of the traditional Nasreddin Hoca stories, the central character slaps his daughter before she even goes to the fountain in anticipation of the dangers the errand invokes. When asked about his reasons the Hoca explains, "What's the use of slapping her after the jar breaks?" Vasif's verse also reminds us that this was a time when fountains were ceasing to be innocuous little structures and were instead celebrated as objects of architectural splendor and as focal elements in a flourishing culture of middle class recreation. These "minor" edifices are seldom regarded by modern architectural historians as anything more than necessary appendages to more imposing structures such as mosques and madrasas, 3 but in the eighteenth century, they were a central feature of visual and literary representations of Istanbul. As buildings, they turned into the most lavish of public monuments and became a predominant obsession among an expanding number of rich patrons.