VARNA CASTLE INSCRIPTIONS IN RUSSIA PAVLOVSK PALACE MUSEUM

Abstract

Today, there are many historical artefacts of Ottoman legacy in various museums around the world. The museums in Russia possess quite a rich collection in terms of Ottoman artefacts. One of the museums in this country exhibiting important Ottoman artefacts is Pavlovsk Palace Museum. Pavlovsk Palace is a Russian Empire palace complex built in Pavlovsk province near Saint Petersburg by Russian Czar Pavel I in the 18th century. Today, this structure serves as one of the prominent palace museums of Russia. 12 castle inscriptions brought to Russia “Pavlovsk Palace” from Varna in 1829 was then placed on the wall of the section named “Front Room” or “Turkish Room” when a small-scale “Antiquities Museum” was set up in the “Grand Palace” in 1872. During the Second World War, in January-February 1944, the museum went through a major fire and the inscriptions were partially damaged. After a long time, in 1987, the artefacts in question were restored and began to be exhibited again. Russian sources belonging to the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century give important information on the artefacts in question. However, this information is more about whence and how these were taken to the museum than the content of the inscriptions. Today, the scientific studies on foundation works and military structures legated by Ottoman State are still underway and new information and findings continue to come to light in this sense. First of all, the inscriptions of the Varna Castle are introduced in this study, which touch directly upon the repairments, reinforcements and regulations performed in the city castle during 1818-1820 - the main topic of the article - and are not so well-known. The aim of this study is to introduce and analyse the abovementioned inscriptions and obtain new information on Varna Castle, known as Turkish castle. It is considered that these inscriptions constituting a very valuable document for history alongside with their artistic features will contribute to field-related researches. The Russians occupied the regions until Edirne including the Varna city in 1828-1829 Ottoman-Russian Battles. Plundering and mandatory migrations were observed in the cities, towns and villages seized by the Russians and similar social and economic difficulties were Rusya’nın Pavlovsk Sarayı Müzesi’nde Bulunan Varna Kalesi Kitabeleri 177 Turkish Studies International Periodical For the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic Volume 10/1 Winter 2015 experienced. Similar incidences occurred also in Varna during the occupation years of the Russians. The Russian soldiers plundered the city and the castle and sent a part of the population to Russia. And a great part of the Turkish population fled to Istanbul. The major destruction of the Varna Castle in battle years were also accompanied by the plundering of the Russian soldiers. Possibly, all the precious stuff was plundered in the castle. During the plundering period, some inscriptions of the castle were removed for some reason. These inscriptions were made on behalf of Sultan Mahmud II. and documented the repairment and reinforcement of different parts of the castle. When Varna was again left to the Ottoman sovereignty with the Treaty of Edirne (September 1829) that was concluded with the Russians, the Russians sent 12 inscriptions (and possibly the other stuff they plundered), which were known to belong to the castle, to Saint Petersburg in Russia before leaving the city. The inscriptions were exhibited in a park inside the site of Pavlovsk connected to Petersburg. In 1872, they were moved to the Pavlovsk Palace. Then, they were exhibited here in a section called the Turkish Room. The inscriptions are still exhibited in the Turkish Room of the Pavlovsk Palace today. The historical artifacts exhibited in the Turkish Room consist of inscriptions, six of which have tughras and the other six are written. The tughras in the inscriptions belong to Sultan Mahmud II (1785- 1839). The Sultan’s “legal” pseudonym is written on their sides. Below some tughras, the name of the master who made/wrote the tughra is written. The tughra frames are adorned with herbal motives. Frame and edge adornments are different from each other although not so much. However, the adornments and motives considerably resemble the general character of the period and the other tughra forms and adornments in other artifacts of Sultan Mahmud II. Each of these aforementioned tughras must be located in their actual places as in the Ottoman tradition; that is, on the walls of the Varna Castle, on top of each of the other six written inscriptions. The elaborated and poetic inscriptions were rectangular-shaped and had herbal motives around. Their literary style was Talik. The scripts on the inscription were written in two columns and consisted of different number of couplets. For instance, the inscriptions numbered 152 and 153 were comprised of six verses for each, inscriptions numbered 154 and 156 of ten verses for each and the inscriptions numbered 155 and 157 of twelve verses for each. Moreover, both the date was written through the Abjad Calculation, and the building or repairment date of the digit-related structure was placed in the last couplet of the inscriptions. These dates point at the Hijri years 1233, 1234 and 1235. The texts in the inscriptions give indicative information about the general and physical status, architectural structure of the Varna Castle and the sections which were built or repaired with the Sultan’s instruction. It is realized from the inscription dates that the Varna Castle went through a profound repairment and fortification period between 1818-1829 and various additions were made. It is explained in those poems that different sections and ammunition store of the castle 178 Samettin BAŞOL – Kemal İBRAHİMZADE Turkish Studies International Periodical For the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic Volume 10/1 Winter 201

Özet

Günümüzde dünyanın çeşitli müzelerinde Osmanlı mirasına ait pek çok tarihî eser bulunmaktadır. Rusya'daki müzeler Osmanlı eserleri açısından oldukça zengin bir koleksiyona sahiptir. Bu ülkede Osmanlılara ait önemli eserlerin sergilendiği müzelerden biri de Pavlovsk Sarayı Müzesi'dir. Pavlovsk Sarayı, 18. yüzyılda Rus Çarı I. Pavel tarafından Saint Petersburg yakınlarındaki Pavlovsk ilçesinde inşa edilen bir Rus İmparatorluk saray kompleksidir. Günümüzde bu yapı, Rusya'nın önde gelen saray müzelerinden biri olarak faaliyet göstermektedir. 1829 yılında Varna'dan Rusya'nın "Pavlosk Sarayı"na getirtilen 12 adet kale kitabesi, daha sonra 1872 yılında "Büyük Saray"ın içinde küçük çaplı bir "Eski Eserler Müzesi" kurulduğu sırada "Ön Oda" ya da "Türk Odası" olarak adlandırılan bölümün duvarına yerleştirilmiştir. İkinci Dünya Savaşı sırasında Ocak-Şubat 1944'te müze, büyük bir yangın geçirmiş ve kitabeler kısmen zarar görmüştür. Uzun bir süre sonra 1987 yılında adı geçen eserler restore edilerek yeniden sergilenmeye başlanmıştır. Söz konusu eserler hakkında, 19. yüzyıl sonu ve 20. yüzyılın ilk yarısına ait Rus kaynakları bazı bilgiler vermektedir. Fakat bu bilgiler kitabelerin içeriklerinden çok bunların müzeye nereden ve nasıl getirildikleri ile ilgilidir. Günümüzde Osmanlı Devleti'nin miras bıraktığı vakıf eserler ile askerî yapılar hakkında bilimsel çalışmalar sürmekte ve bu doğrultuda yeni bilgiler, bulgular ortaya çıkmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı da yukarıda söz edilen kitabeleri tanıtmak, çözümlemek ve bu sayede Türk kalesi olarak bilinen Varna Kalesi ile ilgili yeni bilgilere ulaşmaktır. Sanatsal özelliklerinin yanı sıra tarih açısından da çok değerli birer belge niteliği taşıyan bu kitabelerin alanla ilgili araştırmalara katkı sağlayacağı düşünülmektedir