THE REPAIRS CARRIED OUT AT THE "HAREM" SECTION OF THE NEW EDIRNE PALACE IN THE YEAR OF 1171 <i>H</i> (1757-58 A.D.)

Mustafa II preferred Edirne to Istanbul throughout his reign and had lived in Edirne. However, this choice had constituted a significant cause for his dethroning, and had been dethroned in the year of 1703 and Ahmed III was come to the throne in his place. Ahmed III, swearing that nobody would live in Edirne unless and until a military campaign was launched, had moved to Istanbul. Upon the above-mentioned swearing made by Sultan Ahmed, the Edirne Palace had been vacant for a long time and experienced a life far from its former glorious days. However, a very short time after Mustafa III ascended to the throne, the Sultan, stating that reputation of the Palace was lost because of the Sultans' failing to visit Edirne since Ahmed III, and that fell into the time of silence and become as a ruin, and added that he would not accept its being left in such a ruined and desolated condition, and further more pointed out that its such abandoned situation caused defamation to the glory of the state, proclaimed that the Edirne Palace should be repaired and restored as soon as possible. In the present Essay, it has been focused on the repair and restorations at the Harem sections from those which had begun at "Saray-i Cedid-i Amire" (the New Palace in Edirne) in the year of 1171 (1757-58) after the above decision of Mustafa III. What has been tried to do herein is to determine the content of repairs made in the Harem and at which locations had been worked. Besides the rooms mentioned in the historical records has been compared with the palace's plan drawn up by Avadis Benliyan and new findings have been revealed.