Photographs of Istanbul from the Archives of Sultan Abdulhamid II

This album has been prepared and published by IRCICA together with the Metropolitan Municipality of İstanbul through its cultural institution “Kültür AŞ”. It contains 576 photographs of Istanbul taken during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, depicting its different districts, buildings, social life and economic activity. The photographs were selected from the Yıldız Photograph Albums, which comprise a total of around 35000 photographs from all over the Ottoman empire. The album has an introduction on the history of photography, photographers who worked in various regions of the empire, and photograph studios. The book has forewords by H.E. Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan then Prime Minister of Turkey, the Secretary General of OIC Prof. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu; and the Mayor of Istanbul Dr. Kadir Topbaş. The photographs are grouped according to their subjects, under the following headings: landscapes, palaces (mansions, waterside residences, residences, pavilions), mosques, tombs, fountains (public fountains, cisterns, aqueducts), monuments, barracks (police stations), hospitals, schools, public buildings, museums, ceremonies and processions, foreign officials, factories, social life, city walls, sports, the 1894 earthquake.