Topkap Saray - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 71

function and use rather to the Second, for here was played out the
last act of the ceremonies connected with the meetings of the Divan.
Here, at the end of each session of the council, the Grand Vezir and
the other high functionaries waited on the Sultan and reported to
him upon the business transacted and the decisions taken, which
could not be considered final until they had received the royal
assent. Here also the ambassadors of foreign powers were presented
at their arrival and leave-taking. The Throne Room occupies a small
building with a heavy and widely overhanging roof supported on a
colonnade of antique marble columns. The foundations date from
Fatih's time, but most of the superstructure belongs to that of Selim
I; inscriptions record restorations by Ahmet III and Mahmut II. The
room was restored yet again in more recent times, after being badly
damaged in the fire of 1856. On either side of the entrance portal are
panels of yellow and green tiles in the charming cuerda seca technique
of the early Iznik period in the sixteenth century, and nearby is a
fountain placed there by Süleyman. The building is divided into a
small antechamber on the right and the throne room proper on the
left. The magnificent canopy of the throne, dated by an inscription
to A.H. 1005 (A.D. 1596) in the reign of Mehmet III, and a gilt-
bronze chimney-piece nearby, are the only parts of the decoration
that survived the nineteenth-century fire. The throne was hung with
magnificent bejewelled embroideries for diferent occasions; some of
these are on display in the Treasury.
Apart from the Throne Room, the Treasury and the Pavilion of
the Holy Mantle, all the buildings in and around this Third Court
were devoted to the Halls of the Palace School. The School was
organized in six divisions or Halls: the two introductory schools,
Küçük Oda (Small Hall) and Büyük Oda (Large Hall), occupied the
entire southern side of the court to left and right, respectively, of the
Bab-üs Saadet. Here were the quarters of the White Eunuchs and
their Ağa, who were in charge of the administration and discipline of
the School. If a youth was talented in any direction, he would pass
from this introductory school to one of the four vocational Halls. The
Seferli Koğuşu, or Campaign Hall, stands on the raised part of the
east side of the Court, formerly surrounded on the sides and back by