FROM TATAVLA TO KURTULUS |
Tatavla -a brief history
The district of Tatavla, or Kurtuluş by its present name, is located on one of the high hills near to Istanbul’s Beyoğlu and has spread out over its foothills. In other words, it is a hill between Taksim hill and Okmeydanı hill and is a hill that is separated off by a valley that is deeper than those of the other two hills. At the centre of the district, that is to say, if you take the measurement at three points on the brow of the hill, it is 75 m 20 cm above sea level at Sefa Square, 79 m 20 cm above sea level in front of Ayios Dimitrios Church, and 84 m 45 cm above sea level in front of the former Ararat Gazino at the end of Kurtuluş Caddesi.
In the Republican era, when Istanbul’s administrative districts were being reorganised, this area was divided into two between the sub districts of Beyoğlu and Şişli in the sub province of Taksim. When Şişli became an independent sub province in 1954, it was divided between the sub provinces of Beyoğlu and Şişli.
The root of the word Tatavla comes from the Rum word "stavli", "ta tavla", meaning stable, stables. According to certain writers the word ‘Tavla’ is a Turkish word of Tartar origin used to mean the place where the horses of the wealthy were kept. The Turkish word ‘at tavlası’ became Rumified over time into "Ta At Tavla", and pronounced as "Tataula".
The district that was unbuilt on before the conquest of Istanbul is thought to have been a place for the stables and wells of the Genovese settled in Galata in the Byzantine era. Just after the conquest, the broad empty space stretching from Tatavla to Kağıthane was chosen as the grazing ground for the sultan’s horses. The reason for the name Tatavla being given to the district that subsequently developed is thought to be based on these explanations.
The word Tatavla can be seen at different times in different documents as follows: Tatavula (1604), Taula (1663), Tatagula (1677), Tataulon (1705). After the mid 19th century, the spelling and pronunciation of the word was uniformly Tatavla. In the Rum language, the men living in Tatavla were referred to as Tatavlianos and the women as Tatavliani.
Following the conquest of Istanbul, settlement of this area is estimated to have begun in the 1530s in the era of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent. At the time of Süleyman, a large part of the Aegean Islands were taken by the Ottomans, and captives from the Ottoman fleet’s voyages in this region taken by pirates that were principally of Rum origin were brought to Istanbul. These captives were sent to work in the Kasımpaşa shipyards because of their good understanding of seafaring. Because of the need for skills in many jobs in the shipyard, these captives were freed after gaining trust. In time, these people are thought to have settled in Tatavla, which was not built on at the time, just along from Kasımpaşa.
When the island of Chios was taken by Piyale Pasha in 1566, it was deemed appropriate for a section of the Rum youth of Chios noted in the Mediterranean for their seafaring skills to work for the Ottoman fleet in Kasımpaşa Shipyard. From that day on, the majority of young Rum people coming to Istanbul did not go back to Chios and got married to Rum girls living in other parts of the city and settled on Tatavla hill. Thus it can be said that a large portion of the Tatavla folk are originally from Chios.
Tatavla had a quality not shared by any of the other numerous settlement units sprinkled around Istanbul. Although up until the 1960s various districts of Istanbul had a Rum character, none of them were as unadulteratedly Rum as here. According to an edict dated 1793, it was forbidden for people of a nationality and religion other than Rum Orthodox to settle in the district. This unique situation was still applicable until around the early years of the 20th century.