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The Tomb of Mahmud II (II. Mahmud Türbesi), the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, is located in the Çemberlitaş area of Istanbul. It’s a short walk along the Divan Yolu from Sultanahmet.
Introduction to the Tomb of Mahmud II
The Tomb of Mahmud II was built by Ottoman Armenian architects Hovannes and Boğos Dadyan shortly after the Sultan’s death in 1839. It sits on land donated by his sister, Esma Sultan, who owned a mansion on the plot.
The tomb is covered in marble and entered via a long corridor. It has eight sides and is topped by a dome decorated with relief garlands and flowers. The crystal chandelier was a gift from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Great Britain. There are also two clocks that were gifts from Napoleon III, Emperor of France.
18 members of the Ottoman Royal Family are buried in the Tomb of Mahmud II along with two other Sultans, Abdülaziz and Abdülhamid II. Other burials include Esma Sultan (1778-1848), the sister of Mahmud II; Bezmiâlem Valide Sultan (1807-1853), wife of Mahmud II and mother of Abdülmecid I; Abdülaziz’s sons Yusuf İzzeddin Efendi (1857-1916) and Mehmed Şevket Efendi (1872-1899); and Şadiye Sultan, the daughter of Abdülhamid II.
A further 11 family members are buried in the Tomb of Nevfidan Kadın, which is an extension attached to the left side of the corridor. They include six consorts of Mahmud II as well as two consorts and two children of Abdülaziz. The tomb is named for Nevfidan Kadın (1793-1855), a chief consort of Mahmud II. She was loved and respected by the surviving children of Mahmud II.
Biography of Mahmud II
Sultan Mahmud II (b. 1785, Constantinople – d. 1839, Çamlıca) was the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (r. 1808-1839). He was one of the most effective Sultans. He’s best known for abolishing the Janissaries and switching the official headgear from the turban to the fez.
Mahmud II enacted several military, administrative, social, and fiscal reforms that were later carried out by his sons in the Tanzimat period. He ordered the execution of Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory V in 1821 in retaliation for the Greek Revolution, and later lost Greece in a long and bloody war.
Biography of Abdülaziz
Buried next to Mahmud II is his son, Abdülaziz (b. 1830, Constantinople – 1876, Constantinople). As the 32nd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (r. 1861-1876), he oversaw one of the empire’s greatest periods of prosperity. Along with being a talented composer and literature lover, Abdülaziz was the first Sultan to ride in a train car and visit Western Europe.
Abdülaziz issued the Empire’s first postage stamps and established what became the Istanbul Archaeology Museums. He modernized the Ottoman Navy, making it the 3rd largest in the world. Due to increasing public debt, Abdülaziz was deposed on May 30, 1876, and either murdered or committed suicide at Çırağan Palace only six days later.
Biography of Abdülhamid II
The third Sultan buried in the tomb is Abdülhamid II (b. 1842, Constantinople – d. 1918, Beylerbeyi), the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (r. 1876-1909). Although he exerted effective control over the state, Abdülhamid II oversaw the biggest period of the Empire’s decline. He was very fond of opera and poetry and lived a very secluded life at Yıldız Palace.
Abdülhamid II was nicknamed the Red Sultan and Abdül the Damned due to massacres against Armenians and Assyrians that took place during his rule. He was also strong advocate of Pan-Islamism. He befriended Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, which led to a dangerous alliance of the two empires during World War I. Abdülhamid II was deposed and imprisoned in 1909 after the Young Turk Revolution. He lived out the rest of his life in Beylerbeyi Palace.
Cemetery at the Tomb of Mahmud II
The courtyard in front of the Tomb of Mahmud II was converted into a cemetery in 1861. It contains the graves of politicians, writers, and poets, mostly from between 1840 and 1920. The tombstones are some of the best examples of Ottoman stonework.
Burials in the cemetery include authors Ziya Gökalp (1876-1924) and Muallim Naci (1850-1893); Hekim İsmail Pasha (1807-1880), governor of Crete, Izmir, Aydın, and Thessaloniki; and Said Halim Pasha (1865-1921), Grand Vizier and one of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide.
One of the most interesting burials is that of Ertuğrul Osman (1912-2009), the 43rd head of the Imperial House of Osman. He was fourth in line to the throne when the Ottoman Empire was dissolved. and would have served as Sultan from 1994 until his death. Ertuğrul Osman was the grandson of Abdülhamid II and is known as “the Last Ottoman”.
Nearby is Osman Nami Osmanoğlu (1918-2010), an Ottoman prince and son of Ayşe Sultan and another grandson of Abdülhamid II.
