Abstract:

The word ihtifal has the meaning of an elaborate and public remembrance ceremony held with a large crowd. When the chronology of the remembrance ceremony is taken into consideration, it was observed that it was organized under the heading of “remembrance ceremony” for the conquest of İstanbul, the remembrances of the deaths of important literary, historical and religious personalities, and the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, and that they were commemorated with comprehensive or small meetings, for which a program was determined previously by a committee. To the extent that it is known, the first literary remembrance ceremony was organized about Sheikh Gâlib in 1912. Whereas, the subject of this article was composed of the Sadabad Day Remembrance Ceremony, which was different in subject from the other remembrance ceremonies. The information about this remembrance ceremony was obtained from the guide with the title of Aynalıkavak Kasr-ı Hümayunu’nda Sadabad Günü İhtifali (The Sadabad Day Remembrance Ceremony at the Aynalıkavak Imperial Summer Palace). According to the Guide, the Sadabad Day Remembrance Ceremony at the Aynalıkavak Imperial Summer Palace would start on Thursday evening, 27 September 1923, and would continue on Friday, but on 15 October 1923, it was stated in the İkdam Newspaper that a decision had been made to hold it on 25 October 1923. The Sadabad Day Remembrance Ceremony, which was prepared by the Independent Artists’ Studio with the Remembrance Ceremony Preparer Mehmet Ziya Bey, who was on the organization committee, was dedicated to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and it was desired to remember and to keep alive the Tulip Period entertainments of the eighteenth century. Consequently, the “Sadabad Palace”, which was in the position of the symbol of this period, was named with the remembrance ceremony. The remembrance ceremony program in the Guide was as follows: 1. Twenty-person saz (stringed instrument somewhat resembling a lute) delegation composed of ladies, 2. Another delegation of respected musicians composed of the rebâb (ancient Oriental three-stringed violin with a body made of a coconut shell), nây (reed flute), tanbur (ancient form of lute) and santur (hammered dulcimer), under the leadership of the masterly musicians of the city rebâb player Sheikh Süreyyâ Effendi, 3. Kâr-ı kadîm (old players) public dancing girl’s dances, 4. Kâr-ı kadîm (old players) orta oyunları (theatrical representations with a central stage), 5. The sword and thick stick dances of the Janissaries, 6. Fire entertainments, masters of fireworks displays, 7. Mimics, 8. Jugglers, conjurers, 9. Secondary post (reserve battalion in the regular army), 10. Ancient harem conversations, 11. Janissary band of musicians, and 12. Historical moonlight world and the transport of that time. From these headings, only the moonlight world was dwelled upon in detail. In addition, according to the Guide, those on the invitation list to the remembrance ceremony were the twentieth century Ottoman statesmen, politicians, authors and poets, that is, the intellectuals of the period. In the article, first the remembrance ceremony tradition and chronology were dwelled upon. According to the Guide of the Sadabad Day Remembrance Ceremony, the details of the remembrance ceremony were examined in detail under the sub-headings in the form of the reason for organizing the remembrance ceremony, those who organized the remembrance ceremony, the remembrance ceremony committee, place and time of the remembrance ceremony, clothes and finery at the remembrance ceremony, invitations and those invited, program, officials, transportation, food, and the couplets and visuals mentioned in the Guide. Whereas, at the end of the article, the place of the Sadabad Day Remembrance Ceremony within the remembrance ceremony tradition and the relationship with the concept of invented tradition by Eric Hobsbawm were evaluated.

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