Tulips aren't Dutch. They aren't from Istanbul either. But the Ottomans prized them long before the Dutch lost their heads.
Wild tulips range from southern Europe to Central Asia; their heartland is the Pamir-Alai and Tien Shan. Of 14 species known in Türkiye, only four are considered native; the rest probably came with the Seljuks and Ottomans.
By the 15th century it was among the Ottomans' most prized flowers, and a symbol of the later Ottomans.
Then it went west, by a route nobody can prove. A Habsburg envoy, Busbecq, reached Süleyman's court in 1554 and is credited with sending the first bulbs to Vienna; it's doubtful he did. Dutch tulip mania followed, 1634 to February 1637.
Istanbul's own craze came after the Dutch one, not before: bulb prices peaked in 1726–27, until the state regulated them. The years 1718 to 1730, under Ahmed III and his bulb-loving grand vizier Damat Ibrahim Pasha, are the Tulip Era.
Nobody called it that then. The state never used the name; Ahmed Refik Altınay's 1913 book helped popularise "Lâle Devri", and historians (Kafadar, Erimtan) call it a modern construct.
Emirgan is where the city brought it back. The park, about 470,000 m² of walled hillside, is named for Emir Gûne Han, a Safavid commander who gave up his besieged castle without resistance; Murad IV gave him this estate. A tulip garden planted in the 1960s revived the tradition; since 2005 the Istanbul Tulip Festival has run every April.
A spring plan: Emirgan in April, on a weekday morning. Look for the Khedive's three pavilions (whether their cafés still run wasn't confirmed). Bloom shifts with the weather; 2027 festival dates weren't confirmed when we checked, so look at the municipality's channels first.