Vakıf Taşdelen

Although the recognition and use of Vakıf Taşdelen Water dates back to much earlier times, it is recorded on page 281, line 50 of the General Directorate of Foundations Book under number 2113; it was donated in 1582 by Afife Nurbanu Sultan, wife of Sultan Selim II Khan. Taşdelen water was distributed in various mosques and fountains in Istanbul.

During the Ottoman period, Taşdelen water was usually the water loaded for the road in the Surre Regiment and other pilgrimage caravans that left Istanbul for the pilgrimage. On the return of the pilgrimage, these cubes were filled with Zamzam water and brought back, earning the compliment “Zamzam’s travel companion”.

In 1889, during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamit II, the concession to bottle and sell it in and around Istanbul was granted by the Ministry of Treasury-i Hassa (the ministry responsible for the Sultan’s private income and expenditure). In 1887, Treasury-i Hassa Nazırlığı gave permission to ‘take it under inhisar (monopoly) in such a way as to protect the interests of the people’. It was the first water in Turkey to be bottled in glass and exported (to Egypt).

It was transferred to the Ministry of Endowments in 1910 and renamed Vakıf Menba Suları İşletmesi in 1937.

Necip Fazıl Kısakürek’s book ‘Religious Oppressors of the Last Period’ contains the following paragraph: In the ‘Fezleke’ of Ali Cevat Bey, the chief secretary of Sultan Abdülhamit II, who was deposed from the throne and sent to Thessaloniki on 27 April 1909, known in our history as the 31 March incident, there is a statement in the form of a document. Abdülhamid had three medium-sized bags with him. At Sirkeci station, he asked for a glass of Taşdelen water and gave a tip of 30 kuruş to the person who brought it. The train travelled 1 hour and 50 minutes past midnight and arrived in Thessaloniki last night.

Türkiye İş Bankası A.Ş. published the “Last Watch Notebook” on the anniversary of Atatürk’s death, using two notebooks belonging to Atatürk in the private archives of former president Celal Bayar. These notes have been included in this source under the title ‘Notes on the course of Atatürk’s illness and the method of treatment kept from the time of his illness until his death’.