Ottoman period ‹ istanbul travelogue

An Istanbulite: Zonaro

Constantinople “ ‘Signori, Scutari!’ All the eyes were turned to the Asiatic shore. There lay Scutari, the golden city, stretching out of sight over the tops and sides of her hills, veiled in the luminous morning mists, smiling and fresh as if created...

Exile from Istanbul

Starting from the late 19th century, the fall of the Ottoman Empire, along with the Austria-Hungarian empire, did give way to a new world order around the Mediterranean while sweeping millions of people off the lands they knew as home. The borders are still...

#Resistanbul Diaries #1 Sleepless in Istanbul

THE CREEPY VISION I HAD...Three weeks ago; I had a nightmare. We are in a post-apocalyptic city... Abandoned buildings, dead silence in deserted streets, no soul around. We find shelter in an old, empty plant... More people pour in. A friend...

Recycling # 1 Garage sales

Turkish culture is a culture of recycling in a different sense than the North American or West European terms. It is more of a give-away culture, in a way a gift culture: unused items or clothes are regularly handed to the needy within one's circle or neighborhood....

What is a fountain for?

As water has always been scarce in the region where Islam has flourished, the Ottomans celebrated the abundance of water by erecting elegant, colossal fountains in the places, where settlement was to be encouraged. With the modern water supply systems,...

Under the maple trees

If you happen to pay a visit to the charming Emirgan neighborhood in the middle part of the Bosphorus, you will see a fountain surrounded by a hundred-year old colossal maple trees. Commissioned by the Sultan Abdulhamid I and dedicated to one of his wives,...