City of Countless Names- Kassim Pasha p1

We only have five neighborhoods left in our exploration fo Constatniople's norther shore.

 

Kassim Pasha (Kasımpaşa, Khassim Pasha)

Kassim Pasha is the largest quarter in Constantinople’s northern shore, extending from the Golden Horn for over a mile inland over hills and valleys toward Ok-Meidan.  Its width spreads from Has Keui in the east and ending at the cemetery known as the Champs des Morts on the outskirts of Galata and Pera. Two deep ravines cut through Kassim Pasha’s hills north to south. In 1453, the army of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror slid sixty-eight ships down the eastern ravine into the Golden Horn and past the inlet’s defenses, after transporting their armada overland, much to the consternation of Byzantium’s defenders.  The most northern third of Kassim Pasha is known as “Piyale Pasha”, named for its famous mosque with multiple domes, and the southern edge around the harbor is called “Tershane” or “the Arsenal” because of the Naval complex there located.

Despite its massive breadth, Kassim Pasha is a quiet residential suburb.  Its cramped streets and closely-clustered houses look much like those across the water in Stambul. In the recent past, outbreaks of plague and cholera quickly spread through the tightly packed dirty homes. The quarter holds few sights of interest for travelers beyond its impressive harbor ringed with docked warships, shipyards, and barracks housing the sailors of the Ottoman navy.

As evidenced by the ever-present mosques, tekkahs, and tombs, Kassim Pasha’s Turkish community outnumbers the rest of its population. The prosperity of the quarter’s residents ranges from the middle-class life of merchants and naval officers to the poverty of craftsmen and laborers. Most make their living on the docks and naval facilities along the Golden Horn. 

During the city’s Byzantine days, the land was wilderness save for the country estates of Genoese generals. In 1525, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent saw Constantinople had become crowded in its prosperity. He ordered his trusted servant, Vizier Kasim Pasha, to oversee the construction of a suburb across the Golden Horn where the city’s excess population could comfortably dwell. Kassim Pasha built the quarter and gave it a mosque, both still bear his name. Kassim Pasha started as a glamorous neighborhood with spacious streets and garden courtyards and after the Ottoman navy moved its headquarters and fleet to Kassim Pasha’s harbor, its reputation grew further with military prestige. 

As the Ottoman Empire waned, so did Kassim Pasha. The once terrifying navy fell behind more progressive nations, its once industrial docks declined. In 1821, a city fire swept through Kassim Pasha in a wave of destruction reaching from the quarter’s western end into the heart of Pera, destroying many embassies. Their home countries rebuilt the embassies with stronger, grander designs, while in Kassim Pasha, hovels replaced homes, just as vulnerable to flame as before. Some whispered the Janissaries or those loyal to them started the fire in outrage over the plans to replace the elite warriors with a modern army. 

Divers harvest great numbers of oysters, muscles, and prawns from the piers and hulls off Kassim Pasha’s shore. Although the Turks eat their shellfish fondly, Roman Aluminats purchase the majority of the catch to observe their dietary laws to the letter, mostly unaware of the copper and other impurities tainting the harbor’s water and aquatic life.