CONTEXTSPECIAL REPORT

ICOC

1

2

SINAN NOT HERD

ANTHONY HAZLEDINE

Leave the ICOC crowd – and the rugs – behind, relax, and head off to enjoy some of Istanbul’s less well known delights.

3

IF THE AIM IS TO STROLL AROUND ISTANBUL avoiding the obvious, then starting at one of the city’s most famous and visited landmarks might seem perverse. The point being that even the most frequent and jaded visitor needs to take another look at the Egyptian obelisk which stands in the centre of the Hippodrome. Or rather to take a look at its base, adorned on all four sides with scenes from the life of the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I. What makes a visit now so interesting is that in the last few months the authorities have seen fit to clean the entire monument and – leaving aside arguments about the merits and methods involved in removing the patina of centuries – the results are astonishing. For a start, on a sunny day the marble base now glistens like a giant sugar cube and seems to exude an inner luminescence. But what is really fascinating is the wealth of detail that has been revealed 1. Figures and scenes which had skulked beneath fifteen hundred years of grime have been freed to gambol about and the keen eyed will not have failed to notice the border motifs which are clearly derived from a Kirghiz carpet, or is it the other way round? From here the herd will be driven off to visit the Blue Mosque and Kuçuk Aya Sofia, but look for a small street called Mehmet Pasha Yokusu in the southwest corner of the Hippodrome and follow it downhill to a large mosque. This is the Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Camii, commissioned by Süleyman the Magnificent’s grand vizier and built in 1571 by

his architect, the incomparable Sinan. As you enter up a steep flight of steps the beauty of the building becomes apparent and on a scale that is uplifting rather than overpowering. The buildings around the courtyard house a functioning medrese and groups of small boys sit at tables studying their books while white doves flicker among the domes. By now the imam has probably spotted you and is busy unlocking the door to show you inside. Upon entering one is awed by the spectacular Iznik tilework, which even covers the conical roof of the minbar, something I have not seen before. Sinan seems to play with the space inside – is it big or small? – and after a while one seems to feel a sense of the well-being engendered by great architecture, all in all a spiritual building. Make sure you buy some postcards from the friendly imam because he won’t be seeing many more visitors that day 6. A little refreshment is probably called for at this point and some of the best is to be found on many a street corner. The ubiquitous fresh fruit juice kiosk is not to be missed and my favourite is pomegranate, narin Turkish. This is of course a fruit well known to the carpet student from its frequent appearance on weavings from the Khamseh to Khotan, and its many-seeded interior has long been associated with fecundity and abundance. Turkish devotees of the narclaim that it is packed with every vitamin and mineral known to man and its many uses extend from salad dressings to cures

4

5

134HALI ISSUE 151
6

CONTEXTREVIEW

ALL PHOTO S ANTHONY HAZELDINE

for impotence. Surely a bargain at 3TL a large glass from thenarstands on Divan Yolu 2. Suitably re-energised, a walk down Divan Yolu soon brings us to the perpetual queue waiting to visit Aya Sofia. Instead of joining it walk down the street called Caferiye Sokak immediately in front of the church and look on the left for an alley with a sign saying CaferaÌa Medresesi. This small medrese, also the work of Sinan, is today run by the Turkish Cultural Service Foundation and functions as a handicrafts school preserving and teaching traditional Ottoman arts. In small rooms surrounding an arcaded courtyard, crafts such as calligraphy, paper marbling, miniature painting and classical music are taught to small groups of students who include increasing numbers of foreigners. A teahouse provides the perfect place in which to absorb the atmosphere of this oasis of tranquility just a few metres from the hassle and tat of the tourist maelstrom 3. Ascend the alley and rejoin the throng as it makes its way around Aya Sofia and through the gateway into the first courtyard of the Topkapı Palace complex. Passing the church of St Irene on the left (a miniature Aya Sofia and even older) head down the cobbled road to find the Archaeological Museum complex on the right. Ignoring the Museum of the Ancient Orient guarded by its Hittite lions, ignoring the © Çinili KöÎk, enter the museum building and make for the first room on the left. You may be wondering whether I mean the

7

second room, with the world famous Alexander sarcophagus, but no, it’s the 5th century BC Lycian sarcophagus that is not to be missed. Excavated in 1897 at the royal necropolis in Sidon, this absolutely flawless piece of Paros marble can only induce wonder at the skill and imagination of its creators. If I had to choose one element from the decoration it would be the pair of female sphinxes on the end. Although familiar from a thousand neo-classical reproductions, here we have the real thing, alive, guarding, waiting, sexy and inscrutable 4. If all this culture has given you an appetite for lunch, the places I like best are the tiny atmospheric workman’s restaurants around the back streets of the Grand Bazaar. One of my favourites is called Siraodalar, located just below the bourse near the Nurosmaniye gate and up an alley so narrow that two people can’t pass. In the unlikely event that you find it you will share one of the five tables with workers from the nearby workshops of the silversmiths and jewellers, but go early because the food may well be finished by 2pm. There is no

menu, just what has been cooked that morning in the tiny kitchen reached through what appears to be a manhole cover in the floor behind the counter. If you see another tourist there I will buy you lunch 5. Replete, it is time to see the city’s greatest spectacle of all, itself. To just walk around the streets of this ancient,

beautiful, evocative city is nourishment for the soul. My advice then is to get out into the back streets and neighbourhoods of Sultanahmet – a good place to start is the area below Arasta Bazaar and down towards the sea. Here it is still possible to see ramshackle Ottoman wooden houses with laundry flapping and housewives hanging out of the windows screaming at urchins in the streets. Between the houses great lumps of Byzantine masonry and walls still stand while a diminishing breed of itinerant peddlers call their wares. You don’t need a map, just get lost and ramble around and let The City work its magic on you 7.

Anthony Hazledine is a contributing editor and author of HALI’s Rug Guides to Istanbul and to Turkey

HALI ISSUE 151135