Üsküdar/Σκούταρη
- yasmineakaki
- Jul 21, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 5
Founded in 686 BC as a Greek colony, the neighborhood of Üsküdar traces its roots to the city of Chrysopolis (Χρυσούπολη), translating to the City of Gold. On the outskirts of Constantinople and neighboring Chalcedon - now modern day Kadıköy - Chrysopolis played a vital role in the region. Under the Romans, Chrysopolis was the starting point for all Roman roads leading to Asia; it was the departure point for any Roman legion heading to Persia, Armenia, or Mesopotamia. As a harbor, though well placed for trade, its location made it vulnerable to invasion.
The city was seized by Persian leader Darius in the sixth century BC, retaken by the Spartans in the fifth century BC, and seized by the Roman in 79 AD. In 782, Abbasid armies took the city, with the Crusaders following 4 centuries later. Its final invasion culminated with the Turks occupying Chrysopolis in 1329, meaning it was under Ottoman rule for over 100 years before the Turks took Constantinople. Chrysopolis was renamed Scutari in the twelfth century by the Byzantines which became “Üsküdar” under the Ottomans. Üsküdar continued its role as a gateway to Asian trade and pilgrimage as described by poet Ömer Erdem as he writes, “Üsküdar is Asia, from here to China''. The neighborhood and surrounding area was cosmopolitan by the 17th century as described by Evliya Çelebi as having, “11 caravansarays, a 2,600-shop indoor market, and dozens of yalı, or wooden mansions, along its southern coast”.
Üsküdar was the ceremonial departure point for all religious pilgrims to Jerusalem and those embarking on Hajj to Mecca and Medina and was where the Sacred Caravan (Surre-i Hümâyûn), an envoy bearing gifts for the Sharif of Mecca, left from until 1918. A unique characteristic of the neighborhood is its perception as overwhelmingly Muslim with 70 Muslim quarters, 11 Greek and Armenian ones, and one Jewish one. For these reasons, and others, Üsküdar is considered one of Istanbul’s holiest districts.
The neighborhood itself has been uplifted as a model of urban Istanbul with poet and author Yahya Kemal lamenting that out of all of Istanbul, only the people of Üsküdar (specifically alluding to its Muslims nature) were “peaceful, generous, modest, pious, courteous, and caring”. Continuing this theme of Üsküdar as a cosmopolitan and modern yet still humble neighborhood is its motto: “delisi de velisi de bol” which translates to “full of saints and screwballs”.
The modern conception of Üsküdar as a uniquely Muslim and Turkish neighborhood is an interesting one that carries both truth - the higher proportion of Muslims as opposed to the rest of Istanbul due to the movement of Anatolian Turks into the neighborhood after the city’s conquest in the fifteenth century - and fiction. Yahya Kemal writes of the neighborhood, “Look at Üsküdar and then look at Kadıköy. Next to Üsküdar, Kadıköy reminds one of Tatavla” contrasts it to the historically Greek neighborhood of Kurtuluş (formerly referred to as Tatavla).
This view of Üsküdar, ignores centuries of minority presence. The neighborhood’s historic Armenian community was considered one of the most important in the city. The Özel Surp Haç Tıbrevank High School, established in 1706, was responsible for many of the city's leading Armenian intellectuals including journalist Hrant Dink and Yetvart Tomasyan founder of the premier Turkish-Armenian publishing house, Aras. Among Üsküdar’s historic cemeteries, including the largest Muslim cemetery, is the Surp Haç Cemetery which is the Armenian
community’s oldest graveyard, established in 1555. Beyond Üsküdar, nearby neighborhoods of Bağlarbaşı and Altunizade were home to an urban mix of Greeks, Jews, Turks, and Armenians. The Armenian church, Surp Garabed (Սուրբ Կարապետ) built in 1844, continues to run to this day. Kuzguncuk, another bordering neighborhood, is home to the Hagios Panteleimonas Greek Orthodox Church (Ελληνική Ορθόδοξη Εκκλησία του Αγίου Παντελεήμονα) and the Kandilli Khristos Rum Ortodoks Church (Εκκλησία Καντίλλη Χρήστος Ρωμιού Ορτόδοξος) that served the Rum populations of the neighborhood. Üsküdar has two synagogues, the Bet Yaakov (בית יעקב) built in 1878, and Bet Nissim (בית נסים) built in the 1840s.
Some significant figures hailing from the neighborhood include Xenophon Sideridis, a Greek historian, writer, and researcher and Zabel Yesayan, one of the most prolific Armenian writers of the twentieth century.
While Üsküdar was the major urban center of the Asian side of the city, it still boasted a peripheral purpose as a home of summer residences that were often used by their wealthy owners to escape epidemics in the more densely populated regions of Istanbul. By the nineteenth century, more and more wealthy elites of all religious backgrounds began relocating to Üsküdar. Besides these wealthier residents the interior parts of the neighborhood was also known as a place where bachelors, the unemployed, and unskilled laborers worked.
Moving away from the religious and ethnic nature of the neighborhood, stands a uniquely secular landmark: the Selimiye Barracks. The Barracks were one of the area’s largest sources of employment over the past 200 years. Built in 1800 by Sultan Selim III in line with a series of military reforms, the barracks are considered to be the birthplace of modern nursing. During the Crimean War (1853-56), Florence Nightingale treated thousands of Ottoman, French, and British soldiers at the Selimiye Barracks and developed new hygiene codes that set the basis for the nursing field.
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