Topkap Saray - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 65

Sultan's private apartments, as well as quarters for the Black Eunuchs.
The Fourth Court was a large enclosed garden on various levels with
occasional pleasure domes. The total number of people permanently
resident in the Saray was between 4,000 and 5,000.
THE FIRST COURT
The main entrance to the Palace, now as always, is through the
Imperial Gate, Bab-ı Hümayun, opposite the north-east corner of
Haghia Sophia and the fountain of Ahmet III (see Chapter 5). The
great gatehouse is basically the work of Fatih Mehmet, though it
has radically changed its appearance in the course of the centuries.
Originally there was a second storey, demolished in 1867 when
Abdül Aziz surrounded the gate with the present marble frame and
lined the niches on either side with marble. The side niches were once
used for the display of the severed heads of ofenders of importance.
The rooms in the gateway were for the Kapıcıs, or corps of guards, of
whom 50 were perpetually on duty. The older part of the arch contains
four beautiful inscriptions, one recording the erection of the gate by
Mehmet the Conqueror in 1478, the other three quotations from the
Kuran. The tuğra, or imperial monogram, is that of Mahmut II, and
other inscriptions record the remodelling by Abdül Aziz in 1867.
On entering through the Bab-ı Hümayun, we find ourselves in
the First Court, often called the Courtyard of the Janissaries. On
the right as one enters, there once stood the famous infirmary for
the pages of the Palace School. Beyond this, a road leads down to
the gardens of the outer palace, filled with Byzantine substructures
and modern military installations. The rest of the right-hand side
of that Court consists of a blank wall behind which were the palace
bakeries, famous for the superfine white bread baked for the Sultan
and the chosen few on whom he bestowed it; these buildings, several
times burned down and reconstructed, now serve as workrooms for
the museum.
On the left or west side of the Court, between the outer wall and
the church of Haghia Eirene, once stood a quadrangle which housed
the Straw Weavers and the Carriers of Silver Pitchers, and whose
courtyard served as a storage place for the firewood of the Palace.