The Postcard
A postally unused postcard bearing no publisher's name. The card has a divided back.
Although the card was not posted, someone has written the following on the back:
"Dear Dear Ruthie,
With fondest love
from Daddie xxx"
The Turkish Military Cemetery
The Turkish Military Cemetery, also known as the Ottoman Military Cemetery, is a cemetery in Marsa, Malta. It has an area of 2,372 m2 (25,530 sq ft).
The cemetery was designed by the Maltese architect Emanuele Luigi Galizia, and it is built in an exotic orientalist style. It is maintained by the Turkish government.
History of the Cemetery
A number of Muslim cemeteries have been located in various locations around Marsa since the 16th. century. Human remains believed to originate from one of these cemeteries were discovered during road works in 2012.
A cemetery in il-Menqa contained the graves of Ottoman soldiers killed in the Great Siege of Malta of 1565, as well as Muslim slaves who died in Malta.
This cemetery was replaced in 1675 by another one near Spencer Hill (Via della Croce), following the construction of the Floriana Lines. The 17th.-century cemetery had to be relocated in 1865 to make way for planned road works, with one tombstone dating to 1817 being conserved at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta.
The remains of a cemetery, together with the foundations of a mosque, and even earlier Roman period remains are located at Triq Dicembru 13, Marsa.
A piece of land in the Ta' Sammat area of Marsa was chosen as the new location in 1871. The new cemetery was commissioned by the Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz, and was constructed between 1873 and 1874.
It was designed by the Maltese architect Emanuele Luigi Galizia, who designed many other buildings in a range of contrasting styles, including the mixed-denomination Ta' Braxia Cemetery and the Catholic Addolorata Cemetery.
The design for the project was unique in Maltese architecture. Galizia was awarded the Order of the Medjidie by the Ottoman sultan for designing the Turkish cemetery, and thus was made a Knight of that order.
At the end of the 19th. century the cemetery became a landmark in its own right by virtue of its picturesque architecture.
At the turn of the 20th. century it became obligatory to secure permission from the Health Department for each burial within the cemetery for sanitary purposes.
Due to the absence of a mosque at the time, the cemetery was generally used for Friday prayers until the construction of a mosque in Paola.
The small mosque at the cemetery was intended to be used for prayers during an occasional burial ceremony, but the building and the courtyard of the cemetery became frequently used as the only public prayer site for Muslims until the early 1970's.
A properly-sized mosque had been designed by Galizia, but the project was abandoned. The plans are still available in Turkish archives in Istanbul. A possible reason for shelving the project was the economic and political decline of the Ottoman Empire.
A Jewish cemetery was built directly adjacent to the Turkish cemetery in 1879. It was designed by the English architect Webster Paulson in a neoclassical style. Lieutenant-Governor Sir Harry Luke, perhaps unaware that Turkic people are not Arabs, later stated that:
"The area is the only place in the
world where Arabs and Jews lie
peacefully together."
The bodies of 23 Moroccan passengers recovered from the SS Sardinia disaster in 1908 were buried at the Turkish Military Cemetery. The passengers had been on their way to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage when the ship burst into flames, killing at least 118 people.
During the Great War, some Turkish prisoners of war who died in Malta were buried inside the cemetery. The cemetery was restored from March 1919 to October 1920, during which time a monument was erected to commemorate the prisoners of war. A prominent fountain was also built.
The cemetery also contains the graves of some Muslim soldiers from Commonwealth countries (seven from the Great War and four from World War II) as well as fifteen French soldiers. The Commonwealth and French war graves are cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
By 2002 the cemetery was clearly lacking maintenance. It fell into further disrepair after a new Muslim cemetery was opened near the Mariam Al-Batool Mosque in Paola in 2006.
Deterioration occurred due to flooding, due to pollution since the site is close to major roads, and due to lightning strikes which damaged some architectural details. Further damage has been caused by car accidents.
A project to restore the cemetery began in 2015, being sponsored by the Turkish government.
In July 2016 there was a planning application for a fuel station to be built next to the cemetery. The application, presented by the company Cassar Fuel, was opposed by the Turkish government and several Maltese entities.
Another development application on the same site was submitted to the planning authority in August 2019 for an industrial garage, which received opposition by the Marsa Local Council and the Turkish government representatives. In November 2019 the applicant withdrew the proposed development.
Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna has suggested that the nearby derelict building should be cleared, and so instead of new commercial activity, the area may be renovated into a landscaped open space, which is how it initially was meant to be.
Today the cemetery falls under the responsibility of the Turkish government, and is scheduled as a Grade 1 building. It is usually inaccessible to the public, and people must first contact the Turkish embassy to arrange a visit.
Architecture of the Cemetery
The Turkish Military Cemetery is designed in a flamboyant, eclectic and exotic style related to the Orientalist and Romantic movements. The Royal Pavilion in Brighton by John Nash probably served as a source of inspiration.
The writer and artist Terrance Mikail Patrick Duggan has called the cemetery "the Ottoman Taj Mahal", and has referred to it as:
"The least-known and certainly today the
most important surviving nineteenth century
Ottoman building to have been built beyond
the borders of the Ottoman Sultanate."
The cemetery is built out of Maltese limestone, and some of the stonework contains intricately carved geometric designs. It has a rectangular plan, and the walled enclosure includes minaret-like structures. The entrance is through a central structure which has an onion dome and four minarets.
All minarets are topped with proportionate limestone copulas. Inside the cemetery there is an arcaded structure with horseshoe arches, and an ablution fountain in an open courtyard.
Without exception, all those buried at the cemetery are to be assumed as professing the Islamic faith before their death. The grave markers in the cemetery are orientated such that they face Mecca.
19th. and early 20th. century tombs bear old Turkish inscriptions with the use of Islamic calligraphy. People buried in the cemetery originate from different countries, including Turkey, Algeria, Egypt, French Polynesia, Libya, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Myanmar and Somalia.
While the Ottoman Sultan was a Muslim, his consul who managed the realisation of the project was Jewish, and the architect a Roman Catholic.