Nicole Kançal-Ferrari

"Bahçesaray'daki Hansaray'ın Yerleşim Düzeni ve Mimarisi" [Architecture and Spacial Arrangement of the Palace of Khans in Bahçesaray], Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Art History, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey, 2004. [In Turkish].

This dissertation is the first detailed work on the palace of the Khans of Crimea, known as "Hansaray" in the capital of the Crimean Khanate, Bahçesaray. As a result of extensive field work and exhaustive research in literature, I am able to present a study on the extent parts of the palace complex, focusing on its architecture, decorations and inscriptions. The research utilized basically two different approaches. In the first approach, I studied the conceptual system of the spacial arrangement of the palace. I examined the palace by comparing it to a long palatine tradition that is Turko-Mongolian, on one hand, and Islamic or more specifically, Ottoman, on the other hand. In the second approach, I focused on the architecture and decorations of the palace as a whole and of each single room in relation to its geographical environment. The study reveals influences of the Balkans and especially of Ottoman domestic architecture. The dissertation also includes a discussion of other palaces inhabited before and concurrently with the Hansaray as well as the state and palace organization in the Crimean Khanate.

Posted: July 2005