Topkap Saray - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 73

or suite of reception rooms. The vaults below were used as the Privy
Treasury and gradually the rooms themselves were turned over to the
Treasury as storerooms. It is curious that these rooms, some of the
finest in the Palace and with an unrivalled view, should from the
seventeenth century onwards have been used as mere storerooms,
even the superb open loggia at the corner having at one time been
walled in. The loggia has been opened again and the rooms are used
for the display of the Palace treasures: four great thrones encrusted
with precious stones, of which the huge golden one studded with
emeralds (actually chrysolites) was used on bayrams and other state
occasions right down to the end of the Empire; bejewelled swords and
daggers, objects of jade and other semi-precious stones often mounted
in gold, caskets overflowing with uncut emeralds and rubies, and
hundreds of other precious objects of gold and jewels. It is altogether
an astonishing collection, admirably mounted and displayed.
In the centre of the Court, standing by itself, is the Library of
Ahmet III, erected in 1719 near the site of an older pavilion with a
pool. It is an elegant little building of Proconnesian marble consisting
of a domed area flanked by three loggias with sofas and cupboards for
books, and though of the eighteenth century the decoration is still
almost wholly classical.
The two main buildings on the north side of the Court were both
damaged in the fire of 1856; the nearer one was entirely reconstructed
and now serves as offices for the Director of the Museum. The
farther one, beyond a passage leading to the Fourth Court, houses
the exhibition of Turkish and Persian miniatures. From an artistic
point of view this is perhaps the supreme treasure of the Saray; the
collection of miniatures is said to number more than 13,000. Here
one finds exhibited, in addition to the celebrated paintings of the
Fatih Album and examples of the various Persian schools, a large
collection of the Turkish school, including a beautiful and touching
portrait of Süleyman in old age by Nigâri and portraits by the same
artist of Barbarossa and of Selim II. The Hünername and the Surname
manuscripts are justly celebrated: the former deals with the hunting
prowess of the sultans, the latter with the fabulous circumcision
ceremonies of Prince Mehmet, son of Mehmet III, which lasted for