Cilt: 13 Sayı: 69 Mart 2020 & Volume: 13 Issue: 69 March 2020 www.sosyalarastirmalar.com Issn: 1307-9581 Doi Number: http://dx.doi.org/10.17719/jisr.2020.3978 THE THREE-IWAN OTTOMAN DIVANHANES Alev ERARSLAN  Abstract In Islamic architecture, the wide spaces in palaces that served the purpose of state administrative centers reserved for discussing state affairs, meetings of the Council, receiving ambassadors and other ceremonial occasions, as well as the rooms in palaces, pavilions, mansions, kiosks and shoreside houses belonging to royalty or statesmen, where the residents received their guests, were called “divanhane” (reception halls), impressive structures in terms of their layout and their powerful interior decoration. The tradition of the divanhane among the Turks first appeared in the palaces of the Qarakhaniyan, Ghaznavid and Great Seljuks. The tradition of the divanhane continued in Anatolia in the Seljuk palaces and kiosks and was also widely embraced in Ottoman architecture. The classic Ottoman divanhane was one in which the preference was a three-iwan layout containing a domed fountain in the central space that led into the open area of the “sofa”. The aim of this article is to present the layout scheme of the “three-iwan” divanhane, which was one of the divanhane layouts of Ottoman architecture that was used as from the end of the 17th century, not only for pavilions and kiosks, but also in residential plans of mansions (konaks). Keywords: Divanhane, Selamlık, Iwan, Ottoman Architecture. Introduction “Divanhane,” meaning “grand gathering place” in Arabic, is a term that has more than one definition in the terminology of Turko-Islamic civil architecture. It may first be identified with “case hearings” (Kuban, 2007, 488), in which instance the term was used to describe the central areas of state administration in the palaces where state affairs were discussed, council meetings were held, ambassadors were received and other important ceremonies took place (Tanman, 1994, 699). The Imperial Council chamber of the palace was the place where higher state officials starting from the Grand Vizier met with the Sultan. Taking on the function of a representative space, the divanhane was a reception area and a location for official meetings. At the same time, the term also refers to the large spaces (salons) in the palaces, pavilions, mansions, kiosks and shoreside houses in which the members of the dynasty and statesman lived, these spaces being guest rooms where the property owners would receive male visitors in what was called a “selamlık” or reception chamber/kasr-ı hümayun (imperial pavilion) (Tanman, 1994, 699; Tanman, 1994a, 437). Since the viziers and prominent statesmen used their homes also as their official offices, it was natural that the guest rooms in their houses would be referred to in this way. The divanhane of these houses was the guest room in the selamlık section of the house and contained the residence’s most ostentatious, largest and most decorative rooms (Kuban, 2007, 490). In Islamic architecture, all pavilions and palaces have sections known as throne rooms, reception chambers, divan, divanhane or iwan, in which the ruler or administrator received statesmen and ambassadors. The first divanhanes in Islamic architecture were seen in the time of the Umayyads. The first of the spaces that could be identified as a divanhane in the palace and pavilions of the Umayyad Period was connected to the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. Today, this space no longer stands, and the divanhane representing the central location of state administration is the monumental dome-covered divanhane that is called Kubbetü-l Hadra in the center of the grand palace (Tanman, 1994a, 437). The numerous palaces of the  Assoc. Prof. Dr., Istanbul Aydın University, Faculty of Architecture and Design, Department of Architecture.