In addition to registers, the photographs taken by Abdullah Frères richly detail the organization and display of the Imperial Treasury during the time of Abdülhamid II. The centerpiece of the first chamber was the throne of Nadir Shah (r. 1736–47), an Iranian shah of Turkic origin who had sent this throne to the Ottoman court as a gift in the eighteenth century.121 Described by Edwin Grosvenor as the “most remarkable possession […] of beaten gold, into which handfuls of rubies, emeralds, and pearls have been wrought in mosaic,” the throne was displayed in an octagonal glass cabinet.122 Interestingly, its label misinformed the visitors, stating that the throne “was captured during the war between Sultan Selim I [r. 1512–20] and Persian Shah Ismail [r. 1501–24] in 1514 and sent over [to Istanbul],” emphasizing the military superiority of the Ottomans over its rival Safavid dynasty (fig. 27).123 Photographs of the throne in the gift albums of Abdülhamid II also misidentify it as “the imperial throne brought from Iran by Selim I.”124
<p>It is notable that the first and most significant piece displayed in the Imperial Treasury was not a testament to Ottoman artistic achievements, but was rather an illusionary trophy from a former victory. According to Tavernier, in the seventeenth century an elevated podium at the center of the treasury chamber held several other representations of universal sovereignty: books in European languages, maps and globes, and a tapestry representing an enthroned Charles V holding a globe and a sword. The fact that the Persian throne was a gift to the Ottomans must have been overlooked, and an imaginary history was invented that supported the status of the Ottomans as a world power.125 This narrative was adopted by the foreign press as well; for instance, according to the Times, this “specimen of barbaric magnificence was a spoil of war taken from one of the Shahs of Persia.”126
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Note 121: It is believed that this is the renowned Peacock Throne (Taḫt-ı Ṭāvūs) of the Mughal emperors and was later sent to the court of Mahmud I by Nadir Shah after his conquest of Delhi. Azmi Özcan, “Nâdir Şah,” TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi 32 (Istanbul: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslam Ansiklopedisi Genel Müdürlüğü, 2006), 276–77.
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Özlü, N. (2022). “Barbarous Magnificence in Glass Cases”: The Imperial Treasury and Ottoman Self-Display at the Topkapı Palace, Muqarnas Online, 39(1), 153-192. doi: <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://doi-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1163/22118993-00391P08">https://doi-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1163/22118993-00391P08</a>