Volta
Culture1718 – 1730

The Ottoman Tulip Era

Also called: Lale Devri, Tulip Period

A period under Ahmed III and his grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha when the Ottoman Empire, at peace, took in European culture and its court culture flowered — named after a craze for tulips.

The Fountain of Ahmed III before the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul (1728), showing the ornate style of the Tulip Era
The Fountain of Ahmed III before the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul (1728), showing the ornate style of the Tulip Era

Wolfgang Moroder · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source

After the Treaty of Passarowitz ended the war with Austria in 1718, the grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha kept the peace and had gardens and pleasure palaces such as Sadabad built in Istanbul, while tulip growing became the fashion among the elite. An envoy was sent to Paris to observe the French court, and in 1727 Ibrahim Müteferrika was licensed to open a printing press in Arabic script. But resentment of luxury and taxes, and defeats on the Iranian front, drove the people and the janissaries to rise in the Patrona Halil revolt of 1730: Ibrahim Pasha was killed and the sultan deposed. In Joseon at the same time Yeongjo came to the throne (1724) and pursued his policy of factional balance (tangpyeong).

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States at the time
Ottoman Empire

People

  • Ahmed III1673 – 1736

    monarch · Ottoman sultan (r. 1703–1730) whose later reign was the “Tulip Era”; he was deposed by a revolt

Before and after

Earlier
1699 Treaty of Karlowitz
Later
1821 Greek War of Independence

Themes that include this event

  • Islamic Empires and the Atlantic World1500 – 1800

    Three centuries in which the Ottomans of Suleiman I, the Mughals of Akbar and the Safavids of Abbas I flourished and then faltered, while across the Atlantic the slave trade and colonies transformed the Americas, leading to American independence