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Published: November 15th 2004
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Istanbul, city of mosques
They say Fallujah is the city of mosques, but even if so, that's currently changing as the US forces pound the crap out of the city... The mosque in the foreground is Yeni Camii (New Mosque) while that in the background is Suleymaniye, a beautiful piece of work by Mimar Sinan (who also built the Selimiye in Edirne). Picture taken from the shores of the Golden Horn (Halic). Bedreddin's adventures are now featured on the "Highlights" section of the main travelblog.org page. Yeah, baby!
The roughly 2 weeks since my last blog were spent in the stupor that comes over me when I go to Istanbul. During that time I met old friends, sat around a lot and picked up a new time-killer pastime: learning the Ottoman script. The Ottoman empire used (a slightly modified version of) the arabic script, but Ataturk did away with that with a wave of the omnipotent hand. The result in practice is that people nowadays are unable to read family albums dating from before 1928... it's a real shame. Apart from that, I'm hoping it will be a great time killer and come in handy in the rest of the muslim world, where I will at least be able to read street signs.
Having been talking about being in Konya during Ramadan, and feeling the inertia pile on with every passing day of inactivity, I hopped on a train to Konya 2 days before the end of ramadan. Konya is *the* most conservative city in Turkey, spoken of with derision in secular circles, and also the final resting place and home
In letters of gold...
A water fountain at the foot of the Galata tower, built by the Genoese as part of their fortifications. The writing on such fountains uses the Ottoman script, hence is undecipherable to most. of
Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, who has recently become popular among western pop-mystics. I was hoping for a religious (or otherwise) experience of "Konya during Ramadan", sort of like "Christmas in Rome". In practice I showed up on the last day of Ramadan, before the festival of Eid where people give each other sweets and visit family members, and commercial life essentially stops. The last day was full of frantic shopping, and I did experience possibly the most vibrant market I've seen in Turkey so far, but not the religious tranquility I was hoping for.
The city does live up to its reputation; I've seen a few women with the full head-to-toe black
chadoor, I am no longer the only bearded guy on the street (yeah!), and there are many young (and attractive) women who are dressed up in head-covering (colorful) scarves, and loose clothes. I don't think I saw a single person eating/drinking or smoking in public during that one day in Ramadan when I was here. That's impressive. On the other hand, today was the first time I saw a girl with covered head and a skirt which, while below the knees, was above her ankles... like a good 3-4
Pedestrian Traffic on the Galata Bridge
The bridge is fairly popular with amateur fishermen, especially since the fish are stopping by on their trip from the Black Sea to the Aegean. It's bustling with activity at all hours. inches. She was wearing tall boots and black, patterned hose beneath that... I heard the rationale before, but had never seen it in practice: "I'm still fully covered... that's what the boots are for". I didn't get any dirty looks and even have been enjoying way less attention than I'm accustomed to... I've changed my uniform to something a lot more somber and "quiet", so I'm sure that had something to do with it (that and the fact that beards aren't something to be laughed at in Konya... everyone isn't as patient as I am).
Konya was formerly the Greco-Roman city of Iconium (and before that many things to many other anatolian civilizations), conquered by the Seljuks and made the capital of the Anatolian Seljuk kingdom. Paranthetically, and as a point of reference, the Seljuks spent a lot of time fighting the Crusaders. Later the maurading Mongols basically dissolved the Anatolian Seljuks, but the inhabitants of Konya still considered themselves the rightful successors to the Seljuks, and didn't take kindly to the upstart Ottomans who avoided tackling them until the time of Mehmed the Conqueror (slightly before the conquest of Istanbul in 1453), when the inhabitants were exiled to
The idea of a mosque
I thought this was a clever shot... feel free to disagree and keep your opinions to yourself. far-away places such as the Balkans to make sure they wouldn't stir up trouble in the future. Konya doesn't figure prominently in history after that.
The town itself has a bit of the character of central asia or Iran, with Persian-style elaborate doorways and box-like structures for the mosques themselves and low arches (pilfered from nearby buildings) supporting the roofs. In that way it's really quite interesting. There's also a Baroque/Rococo mosque sitting squat in the middle of the bazar. Konya is essentially in the heartland of anatolia, in the middle of the steppe, and it isn't hard to guess that the invading Turks found this place similar to home (central asia is also very steppe-ish). The mist from the steppe rises at night and my nose (and throat) tell me they still burn coal for heating.
Today I visited a village (
Sille, lit. "large slap") on the outskirts of town, and marveled at the houses carved out of the side of the mountain, and the fact that there were greeks living here until very recently! I know I'm obsessing about this issue a bit, but it's fascinating... I was under the impression that the greeks in places
Rumi's resting place
Rumi's tomb is beneath the green "dome", going against the grain even in his death. other than the Aegean coast had been assimilated: imagine my surprise when I see the remains of a full city (complete with large church and catacombs) in the heartland of anatolia! And I'll try to avoid using exclamation marks in the future.
Bicycles are used extensively by the locals, and I have a notion of buying a cheap beat-up bike at least while traveling the anatolian flatlands... Would be more time-efficient than walking, and still let me properly appreciate the landscape. Problem is shops have been closed, and apparently the big market when people come around and sell used bicycles happens on sundays (today is monday), and I'm not about to wait around for another 6 days just to pick up a bike. In search of alternative solutions.
Today was the first time I've experienced rain since I started in July. It luckily came after I was done clambering around the ruins at Sille, but I am now fully aware that I am wholly unprepared for rainy weather, and need to do some shopping. The gore-tex shoes I bought with great hopes indeed seem to be water-proof, but have no traction on wet sidewalks, so I was sent
Seljuk Architecture
The similarity to mosques in Central Asia is apparent: elaborate doors to a large courtyard containing the mosque proper. Go back and compare and contrast that to the Ottoman mosques in Istanbul or Edirne. flying and landed on my ass earlier this afternoon. I wonder if I should sue the shoemakers...
Winter is upon us... facts may dictate I leave Turkey in search of warmer (or consistently colder) climates.
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anonymous
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Demek artik bir "highlight"sin... yasa be! Bu arada Catalhoyuk'e filan da gidecekmisin? Resimler icin hangi software kullaniyorsun? DL