Bebek: Locations and Periods

Kayra, Cahit. Bebek: Mekânlar ve Zamanlar. İstanbul: Akbank, 1993, 195pp.

ABSTRACT

Bebek: Locations and Periods

Bebek: Mekânlar ve Zamanlar

The author
narrates the history of the neighbourhood of Bebek in the Ottoman period,
placing it within the framework of important internal and external affairs that
affected the Empire.

The book focuses
mainly on the Akıntıburnu and the Bebek-Rumelihisarı coastal lines, without
references to residential areas further inland. It utilises secondary sources
and includes various drawings, old and new photographs of the coast and other
views, as well as plans from all periods.

The author
follows a chronological order in this study, starting from the fifteenth
century and ending with the twentieth century.

When talking
about some of the old buildings on the Bebek coast, he mentions their
occupiers: their first owners, the people who bought them later on and the way
these buildings were demolished. He provides information on plots of land that
once belonged to foundations, which were later turned into residential areas
and sold on to palace employees and important administrators. He also talks
about famous statesmen and leading merchants, such as Ahmet Resmi Efendi,
Pariegar Krikor Efendi and Yusuf Kamil Paşa, who had links to this
neighbourhood between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. The author uses
numerous quotations from Evliya Çelebi, makes references to Şemdanizade’s
History and focuses on registtry from Bostancı to point out the existence of
non-Muslims in the neighbourhood. In the chapter named “Foreigners in
Akıntıburnu”, he mentions that some rich Greek families had moved from
Arnavutköy to Akıntıburnu: it is interesting that he uses the term “foreigners”
when referring to the Ottoman non-Muslim population.

He notes that
small houses were replaced by large mansions in the Tanzimat period and
discusses the ways in which the changing political system affected the
neighbourhood, by giving examples of the new families that moved into the old
houses, the old houses that were stuck between new buildings and the mansions that were demolished. The
author makes use of phone books from 1916 and 1947, to find out who lived in
Bebek at the time.

Written in a
story-book style, this book provides general information on the history of
Bebek.

Feryal
Tansuğ

Translated
by Aysu Dinçer