Page 182 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 3

EXEMPLARY CIVILIZATION IN SUSTAINABLE
WATER MANAGEMENT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE

OF ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY:
THE OTTOMAN STATE

Ibrahim YENIGÜN - Vildan BALCI - Abdullah YENIGÜN
Sinan UYANIK

ABSTRACT
Water, which is the source of life for all living things on the planet, has a much
greater and different meaning for human beings. In fact, all societies that
have lived and continued throughout history have positioned their centers of
life accordingly, taking the presence of water as a reference, and have made
efforts to the extent of their potential for the sustainability of the situation
provided. In this respect, the fact that they did not hesitate to fight among
themselves is another proof of the importance of water. A factor that has
taken such a place in the existence of societies has touched every aspect of
life, enriched with each passing time and formed the culture that is called by
its own name. In fact, countries have defined their level of development as
equivalent to the richness of water culture. One of the important civilizations
where this culture was exhibited with its exemplary and sensitive approaches in
every region it conquered was the Ottoman Empire with its rightful and deep-
rooted past in history. The water issue, which was given special importance
due to the Ottomans’ religious approach in the context of the phrase “...and
We created from water every living thing...” in the 30th verse of Surah Anbiya
in the Qur’an, was the main focus of the study. The Ottoman Empire, which
provided exemplary models in many areas, from water-related structures to
water protection, from water architecture to the culture of understanding
foundations, formed the main axis of the study. In this context, from the
perspective of “environmental history”, archival records and sources related
to the subject were researched, and important approaches to water were
discussed in the study with interpretations of a message to the present.

Keywords: Ottoman Empire, Water, Water Civilization, Sustainability,
Approaches

Year 2 / Issue 3 / January 2023 167