Beste Yıldırım 16.01.

2015

Hist.58D.01 – Special Topics of Architecture & Identity in 19th Century

Instructor: Paolo Giraldelli

RESEARCH PAPER

A Historical and Artistic Investigation of the Protestant Cemetery in Feriköy

“Pancaldi contains the Catholic cathedral, an impressive edifice planted on a most

unfortunate situation. Ferikeui and Chichli evoked but the single memory of death and

graves. There are the chief cemeteries of the Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Greek

communities. In the Protestant cemetery, all the nations holding to the reformed religion, -

Germany, Holland, Great Britain, the Scandinavian States, the United States, - each in its

allotted section, inter their dead, side by side.”1

I. Introduction

This research paper is going to investigate the Protestant Cemetery in Feriköy with its

historical context and stylistic features that I could observe due to my visit in order to find some

significant nuances about both architecture and identity in the 19th century Ottoman Istanbul. I

would like to mention the site of the cemetery as I could acquire a sense from the insurance

maps of Pervitich for Istanbul, the importance of the cemetery as both a historical and artistic

concrete value, the missionary activities in the 19th century Ottoman Empire in order to find the

correct connections together with changing dynamics in the state administration which come

from Tanzimat and Islahat Edicts towards the non-Muslim population of the empire, and lastly

different typical and stylistic features of the tombs in the cemetery in order to evaluate them as

an artistic element in the visual culture. For this reason, rather than focusing on a particular

1
Grosvenor, Edwin A. Constantinople p.118.

1
period or ethnicity for the gravestones, I would like to evaluate many different styles that attract

my attention during my visit together with their various features in terms of the nations and life

periods of their owners.

II. History of the Cemetery

Feriköy Protestant Cemetery (Turkish: Feriköy Protestan Mezarlığı) is officially called

Evangelicorum Commune Coemeterium which is a Christian cemetery in Istanbul, Turkey. The

cemetery is across the Latin Catholic Cemetery at Feriköy neighborhood in Şişli district of

Istanbul, nearly 3 km north of Taksim Square. In Istanbul, all members of the Reformed

Churches belong to the Protestant Cemetery in Feriköy. Burial sites are being distributed by the

Consulate General. Resembling a museum of funerary art, the cemetery contains examples of

different styles of monuments and memorials from the 17th century to the present.

In the cemetery there is an information panel which were taken by a brochure of Brian

Johnson in English. Historian Brian Johnson who works with the American Board in Istanbul

engaged in compiling an accurate a list as possible of the names and nationalities of those buried

at Ferikoy, from its opening in the 19th century to the present. The same document of the

information panel of the cemetery as in Turkish is in the library of SALT Galata. Johnson

explains the history of the cemetery in the information panel as: “Since the tenth century A.D.,

when various Italian city-states received permission from the Byzantine emperors to establish

trading colonies along the shores of Golden Horn, Istanbul has been home to a community of

Europeans. Known as Franks, these predominantly Catholic and Protestant inhabitants have

left a distinct imprint on the city’s history. Reminders of their presence are clearly visible in the

districts of Galata and Pera, the city’s oldest, and still most vibrant, international quarters.

Yet, some distance away from Beyoğlu’s bustling streets is a spot perhaps even more

evocative of Istanbul’s cosmopolitan character. Absent from travel guides, the site is the

2
Protestant cemetery, Evangelicorum Commune Coemeterium, located in the district of Feriköy.

Since the mid-1800s, Protestant Christians of many nationalities and all walks of the life--

residents of the city and passers- through alike—have been interred in this secluded, tree-

shaded burial ground. Set along the cemetery’s pathways, monuments ranging from humble

gravestones to elaborate tombs attest to the cultural richness and diversity linked eternally to

Istanbul.

GRAVEYARD of the FRANKS

Prior to the establishment of the cemetery in Feriköy, Protestant dead were usually

buried in the Grand Champs des Morts, one of Istanbul’s largest cemeteries, located in Pera.

Beginning at Taksim and extending eastward towards Dolmabahçe lay the graves of Muslims,

while the area stretching northward was divided into separate burial grounds for the city’s

various Christian communities.

Protestant and Catholic Europeans were interred in the cemetery’s Frankish section,

which stood near the artillery barracks of Selim III, on the summit of a hill overlooking the

Bosphorus. English traveler Julia Pardoe describes the site in an account of her visit to the

Grand Champs des Morts in 1836:

“The first plot of ground, after passing the barrack, is the grave-yard of the Franks; and here

you are greeted on all sides with inscriptions in Latin; injunctions to pray for the souls of the departed;

flourishes of French sentiment; calembourgs graven into the everlasting stone, treating of roses and

reine Marguerites; concise English records of births, deaths, ages and diseases; Italian elaborations of

regret and despair; and all the common-places of an ordinary burial-grounds.

Along the edge of this piece of land, a wide road conducts you to a steep descent leading to the

Sultan’s palace of Dolma Batché, the crest of the hill commanding a noble view of the channel…”

3
 After the establishment of the Protestant cemetery at Feriköy, gravestones and low

monuments from the old burial ground at Pera were transferred to the new site. Often incised

with lengthy inscriptions and adorned with relief carving, these memorials provide excellent

examples of seventeenth and eighteenth-century funerary art.

A victim of the bubonic plague that swept over the Ottoman Empire in 1837, George

Pulteney Malcom was on his way from India to England when he was struck with the disease.

He died at the home of the English consul general in Constantinople and was buried in the

Grand Champs des Morts. One contemporary account reports that when the epidemic reached

its most virulent stage, Istanbul’s inhabitants perished at a rate of six to ten thousand per week.

Chaplain to the British Embassy at Constantinople in the 1820s and 1830s, Rev. Robert

Walsh wrote one of the most detailed descriptions of the Frankish burial ground at Pera. By

his account, the most striking gravestone was sculpted with an image of funereal cypresses and

a horse-drawn chariot, or bier, out of which protruded Death’s bony arm holding a scythe.2”

Moreover, Johnson mentions further things about the cemetery in the brochure3:

Together with the mid-19th century the northern part of Taksim started to witness a rapid

urbanization. The graveyards of the Franks were in the area of expansion. In 1853, the Ottoman

administration explained that this region could not be used as a cemetery anymore, for this

reason they assigned a new space near the Military School in Pangaltı for the Catholic and

Protestant communities. This region assigned for both two Christian community started to

become insufficient after 4 years in 1857. In the spring of the same year, in a second edict by

the Sultan Abdülmecid I (1839-61), there are these sentences: “Lütuf ve merhamet sahibi

Padişah cenapları her iki kilisenin mensuplarına eşit davranarak Protestanlara da yer

ayrılması gerektiğini buyurmaktadırlar…” This newly selected region for the leading

2
I sent this informational panel. In there, there is the photo of this structure.
3
I will the photos of the brochure at the end.

4
Protestant powers of that time, the United Kingdom, Prussia, the United States, the

Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Hanseatic League covered an area of more

than one hectare at Feriköy, and its cost (approximately 200.000 kuruş) were paid by the

imperial treasure. The first burial of the new area was made in December 1858 but it officially

opened in 1859. The first burial fee schedule was published in 1858, and in the following years

it was intermittently updated.”4

He also says in an interview of the Turkish Daily News and in another publication which

is The Fountain Magazine, NJ, 2004: “The cemetery is of inestimable historical value.

Resembling a museum of funerary art, it contains examples of different styles of monument and

memorial from the 17th century to the present. (…) If you live in Istanbul, the decisions are

fairly clear-cut. If Muslim, you have available to you virtually all of the cemeteries in and

around the city. For those who are foreigners or belong to one of the minorities that are

protected under the Lausanne Treaty, the cemeteries are separate. Armenian, Greek Orthodox,

Protestant and within the Protestant cemetery, the plots seemed to be grouped roughly

according to different nationalities. And one can see what an extraordinary mixture the

centuries have brought to Istanbul in the Ferikoy Protestant Cemetery.” He describes the

cemetery as: “a typical of nineteenth-century Western burial grounds, which were essentially

designed as funerary gardens, with monuments to the dead placed among trees and shrubbery

to create an idyllic environment for the expression of one's feelings and sentiments towards the

departed.” According to Johnson: “Stonecutters were mostly anonymous and local. A few

moments bear the names or initials of the carvers, such as that of 'Koco Pungi,' one of three

Greek brothers who worked in the stonecutting industry in the mid- twentieth century. The shop

where the Pungis plied their trade still exists in Galata - in the shadow of the tower. According

to the current owner, the brothers were master masons, whose skill no contemporary local

4
It’s my own translation from the original brochure in Turkish.

5
marble worker can match. The Pungis and other stonecutters of the same caliber have all died

or emigrated from Turkey, leaving little more than a dim memory of their craft and trade."5

The Urban Expansion in the 19th Century Istanbul

The 19th century Istanbul experienced many changings in terms of urban regulations and

architecture as parallel with political, cultural, social, economic, and administrative full of

action dynamics. In the book of Zeynep Çelik, The Remaking of Istanbul, the first chapter, An

Architectural Survey of the City, analyzes the architectural transformations of the city. She

draws a general framework for Pera during the 18th (with the constructions of the three major

Latin churches, Ste. Marie des Drapiers, St. Antonie de Padoue, and Ste. Trinite and the

establishment of the European community’s own public services in this period) and 19th

centuries while mentioning the evolution of its physical structure as a European quarter.

However, she adds: “The real building boom in Pera occurred after 1838.”6 Then, she continues

to consider the residential spaces of Pera (Galata, Tepebaşı and Tatavla) with its surrounding

regions: “Non-Muslim cemeteries, the largest being the Grand Champs des Morts (Tepebaşı)

and the Petit Champs des Morts (Taksim), were scattered throughout these settlements, creating

large open spaces in the urban landscape.”7 In order to explain other urban developments, she

investigates the 1840 map and its filled parts in 1870 with the expansion of Pera to the north

and the northwest. She descripts these changings as: “The Taksim - Harbiye strip became more

densely built during the Abdülhamit period. By the first decade of the twentieth century, the

Harbiye – Şişli line was turned into a main artery. Hence, the Taksim – Şişli route, which is

marked on the 1840 map as a country road with no concentration along it, was converted into

5
http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Istanbul
http://levantineheritage.com/note71.htm
http://levantineheritage.com/note15.htm
6
Çelik, Zeynep., An Architectural Survey of the City, in “The Remaking of Istanbul”, p.30.
7
Çelik, Zeynep., The Nineteenth Century Background, in “The Remaking of Istanbul”, p.39.

6
a residential settlement in about seven decades.”8 She adds that the main arteries of Pera,

Taksim and Pangaltı were pointed with big and luxurious apartment buildings by 1900.9

If we look at Pangaltı with a more detailed gaze, Çelik gives us the 1848 decision to

create a new neighborhood that aims to demographic issues regarding with “the earliest step

taken to promote orderly growth on the northern side of the Golden Horn.” Because of

intolerable population density in the mid-19th century in Pera, the expansion toward Pangaltı

was inevitable10 and this region “determined the direction of expansion from Taksim to Şişli.”11

Another plan was about connecting the new neighborhoods of Pangaltı and Taksim with

Christian cemeteries at the north of the Grand Rue. This attempt made with a large road “(tarık-

ı vaz) between Taksim and the Military School in Pangaltı, was completed in 1869 and it was

extended to Şişli.”12

In this period, there was a different development about the places of the cemeteries.

Çelik mentions the destruction of cemeteries to make way for roads because of their occupation

of the gardens of mosques and külliyes, and their distribution through the city as placed in the

centers of neighborhoods. She considers this issue as a very controversial situation because of

the decision to regularize the urban fabric with an unavoidable question of whether to remove

the cemeteries or to build over them.13As related to this issue, we know that many tombs in the

Grand Champs des Morts (Tepebaşı) and the Petit Champs des Morts (Taksim) were moved to

Şişli in order to make an expanded regularization, and also a public garden in Taksim square in

1864 and this was completed in 1869.14 One of the regions in Şişli for this move was Feriköy

Protestant Cemetery. As related to this issue I have thought over the “cultural separation” term

8
Çelik, Zeynep., The Nineteenth Century Background,, in “The Remaking of Istanbul”, p.42.
9
Çelik, Zeynep., Architectural Pluralism and the Search for Style, in “The Remaking of Istanbul”, p.137.
10
Çelik, Zeynep., Regulatization of Urban Fabric , in “The Remaking of Istanbul, p.68.
11
Çelik, Zeynep., Regulatization of Urban Fabric , in “The Remaking of Istanbul, p.69.
12
Çelik, Zeynep., Regulatization of Urban Fabric , in “The Remaking of Istanbul, p.69.
13
Çelik, Zeynep., Regulatization of Urban Fabric , in “The Remaking of Istanbul, p.60-61.
14
Çelik, Zeynep., “Regulatization of Urban Fabric” , in The Remaking of Istanbul, p.69.

7
of Kostof (he calls it as “a standard urban behavior”)15 because as we know that the district of

Beyoğlu (Galata, Pera, Taksim) was mainly called with its hybrid identity, for this reason this

expansion of Pera to Şişli could be a result of a conscious enterprise to keep the non-Muslim

community and even their deaths in a new extended region instead of the old quarters of the

city. After the completion of the road and the garden in 1869, the expansion continued until

1910. This urban development in the Ottoman capital was influenced by the Western models

especially by the cemetery reformers of Europe.

III. History of the Protestant Missionary Activities in the 19th century Ottoman

Empire

As related to the topic of the Protestant Cemetery, the Protestant missionary activities

in the Ottoman Empire and especially in Istanbul during the 19th century is very important in

order understand the historical significance of the Protestant as a non-Muslim community and

also of the cemetery. Regarding this I read some successfully written thesis and articles that I

stated in the bibliography part. By the way of these secondary sources, I realized that the

missionary activities of the Protestants in the Ottoman territory both in Istanbul and Anatolia

were successfully conducted in a well systematically way. According to Özgür Yıldız, the 19th

century Ottoman Empire was a country of the Bible for many missioners. Thus, he refers to the

words of Ömer Turan Kocabaşoğlu: “Turkey is the key of Asia in terms of missionary

activities.” Yıldız continues that for this reason the Ottoman Empire was invaded by many

groups of the missioners. In the first half of the 19th century, The Protestant missioners

accelerated their actions in many part of the empire. The most effective foundation in these

actions is American Board Committee.16

15
Kostof, Spiro,. “Urban Divisions”, in The City Assembled: the Elements of Urban Form Through History,
p.106.
16
Yıldız, Özgür., TÜRKİYE’DE AMERİKAN PROTESTAN MİSYONERLERİNİN FAALİYETLERİ
ÇERÇEVESİNDE BURSA SUBESİ (İSTASYONU) 1834–1928, p.16.-17.

8
 Catherine Murphy is another significant name for this research because of her thesis,

Application of Protestant Missionary Theology: The American Board’s mission to Eastern

Turkey 1839-1870. Firstly, I would like to give place to the conditions of the Protestants by the

way of her work: “Influenced by various themes in nineteenth-century American theology like

scripturalism, revivalism and an accent on the individual, the missionaries interpreted

Protestantism for Armenian Christians by selecting the aspects they felt important to convey.

They introduced the idea of religion as a voluntary choice in order to gain converts which

resulted in a questioning of authority within the Armenian Orthodox Church. After establishing

a separate Protestant millet, the missionaries believed they had initiated an "Armenian

Reformation." In order to preserve and propagate this religious event, which marked a major

change from the earlier strategy of "revival from within," the missionaries began to establish

indigenous and self-sufficient Armenian Protestant institutions.”17This part shows us the

Eastern side of the same story, however this time the target group was especially Armenians.

For both the Western and the Eastern parts of the mission and its actions American

Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was very affective. Its formative

period was between the years of 1839 and 1870. “The ABCFM was a voluntary society, a type

of organization that had resulted from the United States’ separation of church and state, and

thus was operated and funded independently of the government or a single church. The

missionaries were interpreters of Protestantism for Armenian Christians and as such they

selected aspects of Christianity that they thought were important to convey.”18

The 19th century is a really suitable period to spread their ideas with its more flexible

atmosphere than the old times due to the Tanzimat Era and its privileges which were especially

related to “religious freedom” and “equality for all subjects regardless of religion”. Murphy

17
Murphy, Catherine. Application of Protestant Missionary Theology: The American Board’s mission to
Eastern Turkey 1839-1870, p.1.
18
Murphy, Catherine. Application of Protestant Missionary Theology: The American Board’s mission to
Eastern Turkey 1839-1870, p.1.

9
says that in this atmosphere American missionaries started to their work in order to convert

others to the Protestant faith. Even though they were viewed with suspicion by the Eastern

Churches and naturally the Ottoman government, they did not hide their ideas for Islam and

even if they did not often directly evangelize Muslims, they did openly express the desire to see

them eventually converted.19

Apart from this activities, the Ottoman state was open-minded in the issue of

construction of cemeteries and churches for its non-Muslim citizens (the understanding of

millet/dhimmi in the old form). Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis show a remarkable

approach which could be helpful to understand the state’s attitude against the Non-Muslims in

the introduction part of their book: “The legal traditions and practices of each community,

particularly in matters of personal status-that is, death, marriage, and inheritance- were

respected and enforced through the empire.”20 Therefore, despite the fear or the anxiety of the

state in the issue of the missionary activities, these constructions was able to continue in a way.

Gerosimos Augustinos mentions that not only American but also British Protestants

envisioned a two-phased plan to bring the "pure doctrine" of Christianity to the peoples of the

Ottoman Empire. As related to the other missionary activities apart from Americans, the study

of Ferida Haboubi is remarkable because of its content about the missionary activities of Anglo-

Saxon organizations which developed commercial and diplomatic institutions in the Ottoman

Empire in order to reach their aim.21 Again in the side of Americans, Levi Parson and Pliny

Fisk as the first representatives of the American Board, arrived in Smyrna in January 1820.

19
Murphy, Catherine. Application of Protestant Missionary Theology: The American Board’s mission to
Eastern Turkey 1839-1870, p.6.
20
B. Braude, B. Lewis, “Introduction”, in B. Braude, B. Lewis, eds., Christians and Jews in the Ottoman
Empire. The Functioning of a Plural Society, 1982, vol I: 1.
21
Haboubi, Ferida. “Anglo-Sakson Protestan Teşkilatlarının Türkiye’deki Faaliyetleri (1950-2000)”, Birinci
Bölüm: Osmanlı Döneminde Misyonerlik Faaliyetleri, pp. 1-2.

10
After working for gaining a working knowledge of the local languages, they prepared to

evangelize Muslims and Jews and "take their message to people in traditional churches.”22

It is mentioned in the thesis of Devrim Ümit that by 1829, the American Board was not

the only American missionary organization operating in the Ottoman lands. There are also some

other foundations like “The American Bible Society, the American Baptist Missionary Union,

the American Episcopalians, the Ladies' Greek Committee of New York, and the Female

Society of Boston and Vicinity for Promoting Christianity among the Jews were also

functioning in various regions of the Ottoman Empire”.23 Together with the increased American

Protestant missionary activities in the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of a local Protestant

community within the Armenian subjects of the state; Ümit states that the Ottoman sultan, by

the way of the intermediaries of William Goodell and Sir Stratford Canning, the British

ambassador to Istanbul, issued an imperial degree (ferman) recognizing the Protestant

community in the Empire. After that in 1850 another imperial decree granted the native

Protestants millet status. After the abolishment of the millet system with Islahat Fermanı in

1856, Protestants maintained their rights as the citizens (tebaa-yı Osmani) of the Ottoman

state.24

All of these political and social developments show that the establishment of this

cemetery and the donation of this land are much related to the historical conditions of the time

which were affected by the foreign powers, changing mentality of the state an increased

communication of the missioners’ activities in the Ottoman Empire. On the subject of the

influence and intervention of the foreign powers in the issues of administration of the non-

22
Augustinos, Gerasimos. "Enlightened" Christians and the "Oriental" Churches: Protestant Missions to the
Greeks in Asia Minor, 1820–1860, p.131.
23
Ümit, Devrim. The American Protestant Missionary Network in Ottoman Turkey, 1876-1914: Political and
Cultural Reflections of the Encounter, p.46.
24
Ümit, Devrim. The American Protestant Missionary Network in Ottoman Turkey, 1876-1914: Political and
Cultural Reflections of the Encounter, p.48-49.

11
Muslim citizens of the Ottoman Empire and their rights, the article of M. Crinson is related to

the British effect in the early British buildings in the 19th century together with the effects of

the Crimean War on the Crimean Memorial Church in Istanbul.

IV. The Gravestones and Tombs in the Cemetery: The Stylistic Features

In the cemetery there are many different tombs and gravestones that have different forms

and stylistic features, various inscriptions, and diverse decorative elements. For this visit is my

first real observation to a Christian cemetery, I have experienced some different perceptions

and emotions due to its reminder nature about the death, and also its content of many

sentimental and artistic components. Even though I am sure that there are some other styles and

forms that I was not able to realize due to the limited time, I would like to classified some

gravestones and tombs that I have an opportunity to offer them as visual.

1.) Table Stones: These are large horizontal gravestones which supported above ground.

They provide more space for long inscriptions. It is known that they generally were used

for prominent citizens as memorials. The horizontal position results in surface erosion

making the stones difficult to read.25 I have two table stone examples with different

stylistic features (Fig. 1 and fig.2). One of them (fig.1) belongs to an Ottoman soldier.

In addition, under this categorization I want to add two different horizontal examples which

are similar with the sarcophagus (fig.3 and fig.4). Especially in the figure 4, there are

interestingly feet of an animal like lion under the tomb.

2.) Tripartite shape: This tripartite shape called as three-lobed was by far the most popular

of those used in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. By the middle of the

eighteenth century, many new and innovative shapes began to emerge. It is said that the

25
FROM (http://www.capecodgravestones.com/styles.html)

12
 transition in shape was accompanied by an increase in height. 26 I saw many examples

in tripartite shape but they are far from the traditional shape, they have a much more

modern outlook (Fig. 5, fig. 6, and fig.7).

3.) Cross Shape: I saw many examples in the shape of cross. Some of them are simple, but

some of them have decorative elements (Fig. 8, fig.9, fig.10, fig.11, fig.12, and fig.13).

Also I saw a different example which is a mix of cross which resembles the wood and

stone which is under the stone (fig. 14). It also has a broken branch of a flower like rose

which symbolizes a life cut short. It was usually seen on a younger person's gravestone.

4.) Obelisks Shape (starting mid 1800's): On the contrary with horizontal table stone

shapes, there are some vertical gravestones which resemble tall obelisk shaped

monuments. They began to appear in the mid 1800's. They often display several names

including earlier deaths like in the fig.15. Furthermore, the obelisk (fig.16, fig.17) are

decorated with some structures like jug, pitcher or globe. It can be said that they

represent virtue.

5.) Column: I saw a few column shaped gravestones. It is accepted that it symbolizes

mortality. Especially a draped or broken column (fig.18) represents the break in earthly

to heavenly life and a youth death. 27

All these different shapes of gravestones have various decorative and symbolic elements. I

would like to classify them with symbolic meanings:

1.) Urn: According to a common idea in the 1700's urns began to appear on gravestones in

place of the winged skulls and winged heads. The urns were accepted as the precursors

to the urn and willow motif which replaced winged images in the 1800's. This well

26
“Early American Gravestones”, Introduction to the Farber Gravestone Collection by Jessie Lie Farber,
American Antiquarian Society, 2003.
From: http://www.davidrumsey.com/farber/Early%20American%20Gravestones.pdf
27
http://www.graveaddiction.com/symbol.html

13
 carved urn stands out in bold relief. Urn (fig.15 fig.16) symbolizes the soul of the dead

person.

2.) Flowers, Branches, Wreaths 1800 – 1880: The second most common element that I

encountered is the floral motifs. For example I saw in some gravestones that there are

some flowers which form a circle like a wreath. In this issue, it is known that circle

symbolizes eternal life- no beginning, no end, and wreath symbolizes victory in death.

Also, there are some ivy forms (fig.9, fig.11, fig.14, fig.18). They symbolize undying

friendship, faithfulness, and memory. As one of the most common flower rose

symbolizes beauty.

3.) Books, Bibles, 1800 – 1880: There is a general comment that the Bible or book is often

used on the gravestones of ministers or clergymen. However, it is sometimes found on

gravestones of very devoted religious people also. Especially books may also represent

a person's good deeds and accomplishments being recorded in the book of life.28 I

realized only one example in the cemetery (fig.19).

4.) Human &Angel and Animal Forms 1800 – 1890: In this cemetery I did not realize

any animal form excepting from the feet of an animal under a horizontal tomb but there

are many human forms with wings like angels or babies. I found a sad female form

extending on the gravestone (Fig.20). On her cloth there is a very aesthetic drapery

because it symbolizes mourning.29

Angel: I saw some angel forms which were known as a guide to heaven as woman and baby

angels (Fig. 21, Fig.22 and Fig.23) who are regarded as agents of God. In tombstones weeping

angels are very common in order to emphasize the emotion of pain, loss and sorrow. Most angel

gravestones can also include some symbols like praying hands, heart, roses, dragonflies, tear

28
http://www.graveaddiction.com/symbol.html
29
http://www.graveaddiction.com/symbol.html

14
drop, clouds, sacred text and cross. Especially, angel is a guide to heaven. In the Protestant

faith, Saint Matthew, one of the four evangelists, was often represented as a winged man but I

did not encounter such a form in this cemetery.

5.) Sword: In a horizontal gravestone I saw two swords (Fig.1). It is known that sword

represents martyrdom. Also, crossed swords are often seen on the gravestones of

veterans, especially officers.

6.) IHS: When I firstly saw this sign in the mid of a cross shaped gravestone (Fig.8), I supposed

it like a dollar sign. After I researched it, I found some different interpretations, for example

IHS stands for the first three letters of Jesus' name in the Greek alphabet. Here is another

meaning for IHS, contributed by Jim Miller: This symbol also stands for "in hoc signo",

Latin for "by this sign we conquer", referring to the cross.30

7.) Square and Compass (Fig. 21): It is agreed that they usually found on gravestones

belonging to members of the Freemasons (Masons).

It is necessary to mention that as a historical approach in the earlier times the gravestones

were used only by the middle and upper classes. However, after the emergence of the new

Protestant faith, even lower classes started using grave markers for commemorating the life of

a person.

Materials31

On the subject of material, I mainly saw marble and stone gravestones. Also a gravestone

made by granite in a modern sense attracted my attention (Fig. 24)

30
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_hoc_signo_vinces
31
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wicemetp/types.htm

15
 Inscriptions

There are many different inscriptions in different languages such as Armenian, Turkish,

English, German, Hungarian, and Japanese (Figure 25) and so on. Some special words, poetries,

phrases and holy words from the Bible are written on the gravestones.

V. A Separated Section: The Armenian Part of the Cemetery (Fig. 26 & fig.27)32

In the cemetery, all gravestones from different nations are actually in different sections

which are determined by the signboards, but all of them coexist together with each other.

However, the Armenian section was separated by a wall from the main cemetery, since

Armenians were regarded as "Ottoman subjects". In this small section, it is found that there are

also some graves belonging to Greek and Turkish Protestants.

VI. Conclusion

In this research paper, firstly I targeted give a well-researched history about the

Protestant Cemetery at Feriköy. When I ask a question to Prof. Giraldelli about the tombs

of the Christians, he offered me this research topic. Thanks to his suggestion and this

research paper, I had an opportunity to visit a cemetery of a non-Muslim community in

Istanbul at first time in my life. This experience became very fruitful in order to gain a

perspective about the funerary art and visual culture around this issue. For this reason, apart

from some determined symbolist meanings of the decorative elements of the tombs and

gravestones, I wanted to mention my subjective observations about them. Secondly, within

the historical framework, I tried to offer a mini comparative background about the

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From http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Istanbul

16
missionary activities in the Ottoman Empire in the focus of the Protestants. As we repeat

again and again in our seminar courses, the art and architecture have many keys to open the

doors of the secret or unseen questions of the past which are about both the big issues about

the state policies and also some small subjects that are related to the burial process of a

person who is from a minority in a state.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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18
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20