http://www.ehlisunnetbuyukleri.com/Osmanli-Hikayeleri-Detay-III_OSMAN_HAN_VE_ISTANBULUN_YENIDEN_IMARI-351.aspx
http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/III._Osman
http://www.boxerdergisi.tv/haberdetay.asp?news_id=4893
İstanbul’un Dehşet Yılı
Year 1755 was a hard one for Istanbul. The city was afflicted by both ice and fire.
Sultan Üçüncü Osman’ın tahta çıktığı 1755 kışı çok şiddetli geçti. Haliç dondu ve deniz yol oldu. The year 1755 when Sultan Osman III acceded to the thrown the winter was very harsh. The Golden Horn froze and the sea became a road.
(Searching the web reveals that at least freezing of the Bosphorus and people walking on ice in Istanbul belong to city legends and and even though hard winters have been documented historians have probably exaggerated them. Anyway, some say the last time the Bosphorus froze in Istanbul was in 1954, not so far away.)

Every respectable city has changed into smoking ruins at some point of its history, so has Istanbul:
Bu sırada İstanbul târihinin en büyük yangını oldu. 28 Eylül 1755’te Hocapaşa semtinde çıkan yangın, dört kola ayrılarak büyük bir âfet hâline geldi. At the same time the biggest fire of the history of Istanbul took place. The fire which started in Hocapaşa neighbourhood diverged into four sections and caused a disaster.
Only one year later, fire broke loose again, and three fourths of Istanbul burned into ashes.
Reconstruction after catastrophes often activates the community. Even though Osman III’s reign was very short he left some landmarks behind. He had the baroque style Nuruosmaniye Cami completed and initiated İhsaniye Cami in Ûsküdar. And of course building a mosque on those days also meant building many other services next to it - from libraries and schools to public soup kitchens.
Edited (9/20/2012) by Abla
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