Evening entertainment on the Golden Horn

 

126a

 

125b

According to Vehbi, the fireworks display on the ninth day of the festival took place at Okmeydanı rather than on the Golden Horn, as Levni depicts it here. In (126b) we see the grand vizier seated on the Aynalıkavak Palace quayside beneath a tent with his guests and attendants. On the raft before them a military band is playing while pyrotechnists set off fireworks. A tall cypress tree at the front of the raft is ablaze with light while smaller trees burn at the sides and on the roof of the superstructure. According to Vehbi, such a big tree was indeed prepared for this evening’s show by the Artillerymen’s corps but it was not set off because of inclement weather. In the left frame (126a) the sultan is shown with two princes and attendants viewing the procession from the palace balcony. According to Vehbi, the sultan did not attend the ninth day’s fireworks display at all: having decided to remain in the imperial pavilion this evening because it looked like it might rain, he charged İbrahim Pasha with the duty of presiding over the proceedings as his deputy. Two rafts are floating by. In the roofed one closer to shore, musicians and singers are performing. On the long raft further away, two pyrotechnists are setting off fireworks that include another huge cypress tree as well as smaller trees and Solomon’s seals together with a great revolving wheel of fireworks which, according to Vehbi was actually set up before the grand vizier’s tent at Okmeydanı. After being ignited, it spun around twenty or thirty times and now and then shot out a rocket that exploded with a great noise.


Images index

Return to Surname-i Vehbi index

Return to Kanyak's Doghouse