Topkap Saray - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 67

of the Empire. Here four times a week the Divan, or Imperial
Council, met to deliberate on administrative afairs or to discharge
its judicial functions. On such occasions the whole courtyard was
filled with a vast throng of magnificently dressed officials and the
corps of Palace guards and Janissaries, at least 5,000 on ordinary
days, but more than 10,000 when ambassadors were received or
other extraordinary business was transacted. Even at such times
an almost absolute silence reigned throughout the courtyard, a
silence commented on with astonishment by the travellers who
witnessed it.
The inside of the Bab-üs Selam has an elaborate but oddly irregular
portico of ten columns with a widely overhanging roof, unfortunately
badly repainted in the nineteenth century. To the right is a crude
but useful bird's-eye view of the Saray which helps one to get one's
bearings. The rooms on either side of the gate had various uses:
guardrooms, the executioner's room with a prison attached, waiting-
rooms for ambassadors and others attending an audience with the
Grand Vezir or Sultan.
From the gate, five paths radiate to various parts of the Court.
Let us first visit - as is only right - the Divan. This, together with the
Inner Treasury, projects from the north-west corner and is dominated
by the square tower with a conical roof which is such a conspicuous
feature of the Saray from many points in the city. This complex dates
in essentials from Fatih's time, though much altered at subsequent
periods. The tower was lower in Fatih's day and had a pyramidal roof,
the present structure with its Corinthian columns having been added
by Mahmut II in 1820.
The complex consists of the Council Chamber or Divan proper,
the Public Records Office and the Office of the Grand Vezir. The first
two open widely into one another by a great arch; each is square and
domed. Both were redecorated in the time of Ahmet III in a rather
charming rococo style, but the Council Chamber was restored in
1945 to its appearance in the reign of Murat III, who had restored it
after the great fire of 1574. The lower walls are revetted in Iznik tiles
of the best period, while the upper parts, the vaults and the dome,
retain faded traces of their original arabesque painting. Around three