Water · a Light

A sultan wrote the advertisement for his own fountain

In front of the outer gate of Topkapi Palace stands a square marble pavilion built in 1728 for Sultan Ahmed III. Each of its four faces has a tap and a basin, and each corner has a grilled window where an attendant handed cups of water to passers by without charge. The whole surface is carved with tulips, cypresses and inscriptions, and the closing couplet is attributed to the sultan himself: open the tap with the name of Allah, drink the water, and pray for Khan Ahmed. The city had hundreds of such endowed fountains, fed by aqueducts and cisterns that Sinan and others had rebuilt, and the men who staffed them, the sebilci, were paid from the same endowments.

Istanbul · 1728