Kapalıçarşı’ya Bir Kez Daha Bakmak - Other Gates: Kapalıçarşı as Reflected in the English Travel Accounts

Daily life and public buildings are interconnected according to the relation between the social history and history of cities. Through out the history of Mediterranean some centers play important roles in the control of East-West relationship. İstanbul, is one of them when 16th. and 17th. centuries are considered. This paper is focused on Kapalıçarşı within the context of public buildings and their functions as being the subject of history of cities and examines how Kapalıçarşı is reflected in the views of four English travellers who visited İstanbul in the last quarter of 16th century and during the 17th. century. As per ars apodemica, the art of travel acount writing whose rules had been set in the last quarter of the 16th. century, it is a must to describe the market places in a city. Thus, John Sanderson, William Biddulph, William Lithgow, George Wheler wrote about the closed market place in İstanbul, bedesten or Kapalıçarşı in their accounts. In their travel accounts Kapalıçarşı, stands not only as a mere architectural subject but also as a tool for discovering “the other.”