Istanbul Residents Aesthetic and Architectural Concerns Regarding the Establishment of Municipalities in the City: The Opinions of Ahmed Lutfi Efendi

After the conquest of Istanbul, the city kept her Roman and Byzantine identity in addition to embracing a new character. The Ottoman Empire maintained this identity by preserving the old structures, using them with different functions, and establishing new buildings, giving the city an Islamic identity in time. The intense reconstruction and construction activity followed the architectural principles applied in the Central Asian Turkish cities. This construction activity reached a peak with the Mimar Sinan Ecole in the 16th century and then began to slow in the following centuries due to no need for more building and the decrease in imperial peace and wealth and the spoils of conquest. With the abolition of the Janissary corps, the Tanzimat (Imperial Edict of Gülhane), and the Constitutional Monarchy periods, Istanbul underwent important changes in the 19th century. This study mainly aimed to trace those changes, specifically architectural aspects, in the works of Ahmed Lütfi Efendi, the official historian and the authentic witness of the period in İstanbul. Therefore, we addressed the city management issues for a good and correct understanding of the period and the city. The changes in the Istanbul city and the relevant problems were evaluated under the titles of the architectural profession and education, zoning and construction activities, the protection of movable cultural assets, and the protection of intangible cultural heritage in the works of Ahmed Lütfi Efendi.