I’m reading Istanbul by Nobel Prize winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk. It’s an autobiographical look at the author, Istanbul, and Turkey. (I’m speculating here, because I’m not that far into it. He’s talking about his childhood when the neighborhood was filled with the dilapidated old palaces of the pashas of the Fallen Ottoman Empire, I’m not sure what kids learn about in world history these days, but the magnificence of the Ottoman Empire was left out of the history classes I took.
This is what people in the US might feel in 50 years or more if our current political trajectory continues and the many riches of the US are gutted, and the rest of the world leaves us in the dust.
“When I watch the black and white crowds rushing through the darkening streets of a winter’s evening, I feel a deep sense of fellowship, almost as if the night has cloaked our lives, our streets, our every belonging in a blanket of darkness, as if once we’re safe in our houses, our bedrooms, our beds, we can return to dreams of our long gone riches, our legendary past. And likewise, as I watch dark descend like a poem in the pale light of the streetlamps to engulf these old neighborhoods, it comforts me to know that for the night at least we are safe; the shameful poverty of our city is cloaked from Western eyes.” (p. 35)
“To stand before the magnificent iron gates of a grand yali bereft of its paint, to notice the sturdiness of another yali’s moss-covered walls, to admire the shutters and fine woodwork of a third even more sumptuous yali and to contemplate the judas trees on the hills rising high above it, to pass gardens heavily shaded by evergreens and centuries-old plane trees - even for a child, it was to know that a great civilization had stood here, and, from what they told me, people very much like us had once upon a time led a life extravagantly different from our own - leaving us who followed them feeling the poorer, weaker, and more provincial.” (pp 53-53)
I’m sitting at SeaTac waiting to board our flight to Frankfurt, so that’s it for now.
My favorite restaurant in Istanbul is Cafe Ara. Owner Ara Guler was Turkey’s most famous photojournalist. Most of the photos in Orhan Pamuk's book are Guler’s. Cafe Guler is located down a backstreet near Galatasaray on Istiklal Caddesi. Search Cafe Ara on GoogleMaps to find it. Paper placemats are old Guler photos - I brought a complete set home and laminated them.
ReplyDeleteCan't agree more with you about this part "The magnificence of the Ottoman Empire was left out of the history classes". Even if it looks like that the U.S and the Ottoman Empire had good relations during the 19th century and the Civil War. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/gcf9u8/what_were_usottoman_relations_like_from_the/. "During the American Civil War, the Porte supported the Union. In response to the appearance of Confederate privateers, on 26 March 1862 Sultan Abdülaziz issued an imperial decree prohibiting the entrance of privateers, which operated against American shipping and commerce, into the Ottoman waters and ports, a gesture of which was appreciated by the Federal government."
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