Birthday of sultan Selim celebrated

ISTANBUL

The birthday of Ottoman sultan Selim III was celebrated Dec. 28 within the scope of cultural events organized at Topkapı Palace Museum. The event was held in the Selim III room.

The Selim III room, which is closed to visits and now serves as a depot, had been temporarily furnished with artworks from his period as well as music tools from the 17th century and a throne bearing the signature of Selim III, the museum’s director Haluk Dursun said.

One of the goals of the events was to show the reality about the seraglio.

Dursun, speaking about the life of the sultan in the palace and seraglio, said that such events would continue to reveal the life of composer sultans and their artistic personality.

Guests of the event also visited the small room, which is called “cage” and is where Selim III was under arrest after being dethroned on May 29, 1807.

Selim III was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1789 to 1807. The Janissaries dethroned and imprisoned him, while placing his cousin Mustafa on the throne as Mustafa IV. He was killed by
a group of assassins subsequently after a Janissary revolt.