Karacaahmet Cemetery

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Karacaahmet Mezarlığı

Old gravestones in Karacaahmet Cemetery
Karacaahmet Cemetery
Details
Established	Mid-14th century
Location	Üsküdar, Istanbul
Country	Turkey
Coordinates	41°00′40″N 29°01′34″E / 41.01111°N 29.02611°E / 41.01111; 29.02611Coordinates: 41°00′40″N 29°01′34″E / 41.01111°N 29.02611°E / 41.01111; 29.02611
Type	Public
Owned by	Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality
Size	750 acres (3.0 km2)
No. of interments	over 1 million
Website	İBB Mezarlıklar Md. website

The Karacaahmet Cemetery (Turkish: Karacaahmet Mezarlığı) is a 700-year-old historic cemetery, located in Üsküdar, the Asian side of Istanbul. Karacaahmet cemetery is the oldest in Istanbul and at 750 acres (3.0 km²), the largest burial ground in Turkey.

The cemetery was named after a warrior companion of Orhan I, the second Ottoman sultan and is believed to have been founded in the mid-14th century. It is estimated that over a million people are interred in the non-profit cemetery.^[1]

Karacaahmet Cemetery comprises 12 parcels, each dedicated to different religious groups. Many historical headstones can still be seen with inscriptions written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet, a version of the Arabic alphabet. The burial ground is covered by high cypress trees.^[2]

The shrine of , a 13th-century physician and saint of Bektashis, a tariqah of Islam, is situated within the cemetery.^[3] There are also many other historical tombs and masjids, which is the Arabic word for mosques, built during the Ottoman period.

The excavation works in the tunnel for the Marmaray project caused little damage as by June 2007, a dent of 1.5 m diameter and 4 m depth occurred close to the cemetery wall. It was reported that some graves were damaged.^[4]

Notable burials[]

List in sorted order of the year of death.

Historical

• Sheikh Hamdullah (1436–1520), calligrapher
• Benderli Ali Pasha (? - 1821), Sultan Mahmud II's Grand Vizier
• (1788-1869),^[5] a Naqshbandi tariqa shaykh and relative of Imam Shamil
• Mehmed Rauf Pasha bin Abdi Pasha (1832 - 1908), Ottoman Serasker and Vali

1940s

• Kaçı Vehip Pasha (1877–1940), Ottoman general
• Ali bey Huseynzade^[6] (1864–1940), Azerbaijani writer, thinker, philosopher, artist and doctor, and was the creator of the modern Flag of Azerbaijan.^[7]

1950s

• Reşat Nuri Güntekin (1889–1956), novelist
• Cafer Tayyar Eğilmez (1877–1958), an officer of the Ottoman Army and a general of the Turkish Army
• Osman Zeki Üngör (1880–1958), composer, initial conductor of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, general
• Süleyman Hilmi Tunahan an influential Islamic scholar and Naqshbandi master, whose supposed followers are referred to as Süleymancılar

1960s

• Safiye Erol (1902–1964), female novelist
• Fikret Mualla Saygı (1903–1967), painter

1970s

• Nejdet Sançar (1910–1975), nationalist writer and ideologue
• Nihal Atsız (1905–1975), nationalist writer, ideologue, novelist, poet and philosopher

1980s

• Burhan Felek (1889–1982), journalist
• Oktay Rifat Horozcu (1914–1988), poet
• Ömer Boncuk (1917–1988), footballer and high school teacher

1990s

• Hamiyet Yüceses (1915–1996), female singer of Ottoman classical music

2000s

• Cem Karaca (1945–2004), rock musician
• Nezihe Viranyalı (1925–2004), female aviator
• Arif Mardin (1932–2006), Turkish-American music producer
• Nükhet Ruacan (1951–2007) female jazz singer ^[8]
• Mustafa Şekip Birgöl (1903–2008), retired colonel and the last veteran of the Turkish War of Independence
• Saadet İkesus Altan (1916–2007), female opera singer, vocal coach and opera director,^[9]
• Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca (1914–2008), poet
• Gazanfer Özcan(1931–2009), actor

2010s

• Verda Ün (1919–2011), female classical pianist
• Esin Afşar (1936–2011), singer and stage actress
• Sait Maden (1931–2013), translator, poet, painter and graphic designer
• Oktay Sinanoğlu (1935–2015), theoretical chemist^[10]
• Tahsin Şahinkaya (1925–2015), Air Force general and one of the five leaders of the 1980 military coup
• Halit Akçatepe (1939-2017), actor^[11]
• İbrahim Erkal (1966–2017), singer and songwriter^[12]
• Can Bartu (1936–2019), basketball player, footballer and columnist,^[13]
• Süleyman Turan (1936–2019), stage and film acor,^[14]
• Yaşar Büyükanıt (1940–2019), former Chief General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces,^[15]

See also[]

• Şakirin Mosque
• List of cemeteries in Turkey

References[]