The arrival of the sultan at Okmeydanı: Beginning of the procession

As was the customary practice, all the grandees of state, the leaders of the Ulema, professors, and mullahs, and all the members of the Imperial Council who had been invited hied themselves to the festival ground the day before" to take part in the ceremony of greeting and congratulating the sultan when he arrived. On the afternoon of the same day, Grand Vizier İbrahim Pasha, his steward Mehmed Agha, and his son-in-law Tevkii Mustafa Pasha arrived at Okmeydanı and took up residence in the grand vizier’s pavilion. At eleven o’clock on the 18th, everyone "flocked to the guest tents in respect of their ranks and took up residence there dressed in formal garb and arrayed in a serried and unbroken line while His Excellency the Sheikhulislam–may God grant him good health–dressed in his awesome turban and white furs withdrew into a corner of the tent assigned to him awaiting the moment when he would come forth and kiss the hem of the sultan’s robe." The sultan, who had left Topkapı Palace earlier in the morning was approaching Okmeydanı in a huge procession that is depicted in three double-page miniatures.

The beginning of the procession is shown in (13b). The horseman in the lead is the chief of the White Eunuchs, the head of the Enderun, who is accompanied by a personal bodyguard of armed with daggers and led by sergeants bearing hooked staffs that are symbols of their rank. He is followed by four mounted white eunuchs. (Vehbi makes no mention of these.) In the second frame (14a) we see four mounted sergeants of the Imperial Council bearing silver staffs and wearing white crested turbans in the same mücevveze style as the four white eunuchs. Following them is a contingent of bostanjis–four mounted officers and three on foot wearing red cloth caps.

3. Enderun: The part of the palace that was under the sultan’s private administration.

4. Mücevveze: A turban of many plaited folds that was part of the uniform of palace functionaries.

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