Category: Culture/Art

Death in Istanbul | Deccan Chronicle

Turkish Forum Liquidation Sale

An Evil Eye
By Jason Goodwin
Penguin India
pp.292, Rs 499

There have been Chinese detectives, women detectives, friar detectives and Indian detectives. When I read the first of the Yashim series, The Janissary Tree, I discovered that Jason Goodwin added another kind to the list — a eunuch detective and made a bold statement in the detective genre by breaking a new ground. Detective novels have been set in Istanbul before too but I don’t think any of their heroes have been quite like Yashim Togalu, a eunuch, both brilliant and near-invisible in the fast-changing world of the Ottoman Empire in 1836. A person who can shift from the inner quarters of the harem to the outer world because he has been given immunity status by the Sultan.

The novel begins with a mysterious fire, the death of the Sultan and the emptying out of the harem quarters, as the new Sultan’s women move in and shove the others out, barring the Sultan’s sister. And in the middle of all this chaos comes the news that a body has been discovered in the well of an orthodox monastery. Yashim is sent to investigate. However, the murder is complicated by the fact that there is someone who has the evil eye in the harem and is leaving ill-wishing tokens around like rat’s tails in a pot of skin ointment. And there is the disappearance of Fevzi Pasha, the ‘kapudan’ or admiral of the Turkish navy and Yashim and Fevzi Pasha have an edgy past history and Fezvi Pasha is Yashim’s evil genius.

Yashim is sensitive, his eunuch status gives him an edge there and he is a good cook, dishing up exotic combinations of stuffed mackerel and other mezze to share with his other Russian expatriate friend. The Polish Ambassador, Palewski seems to be Yashim’s version of Watson but isn’t as dominant in this book, which is just as well because Goodwin has Palewski tied down to Balzac and cognac and occasionally to provide the political snippet, but I don’t think Palewski is as active as Watson.

Goodwin’s knowledge of Turkey and Istanbul is flawless — he wrote Lords of the Horizons which was a well-received history of the Ottomans. And the book is full of historic detail, apart from those vivid descriptions that make me want to grab a plane for Istanbul immediately. There are characters like the valide, the mother and grandmother of the sultans, a Creole, kidnapped on her way to Paris, the real life Aimée de Bucq de Rivery whose beauty captured the heart of a Turkish potentate and who made history by ruling his empire. She lends Yashim French novels. And there is Giuseppe Donizetti, brother of the more famous Gaetano, who did teach the harem orchestra.

In addition to the colourful cityscapes, Goodwin provides a cast of characters to match. From the Ambassador of Poland, whose country no longer exists, to the transvestite dancer, Preem who is Yashim’s refuge from prying eyes, to the greengrocer who specialises in giving his customers exactly the things that they didn’t know they wanted, each one of them lives and breathes.

This is a book where those atmospheric places in Istanbul meets the romance of the harem meets murder most foul. I must say it’s a deadly combination!

Anjana Basu is the author of Rhythms of Darkness

via Death in Istanbul | Deccan Chronicle.

February 5, 2012
Alâ: Turkish fashion magazine created for women who wear headscarves

It’s Vogue for the veiled! Turkish fashion magazine created for women who wear headscarves

By Katie Silver

A magazine for the modern, fashion-conscious Muslim woman is proving that when it comes to Turkey, you don’t need bikinis, breasts and legs to sell issues.

Outraged when he saw photos of transsexuals in a magazine, devout Muslim Ibrahim Burak Birer, 31 decided to create a magazine in Istanbul that would contest the ‘diktat of nudity’.

With his friend Mehmet Volkan Atay, 32, he created Alâ, a magazine described as the avant-garde of ‘veiled’ fashion.

The first issue: Released in June, Alâ has been described as the ‘Vogue of veiled fashion’. It appeals to the modern, education, fashion-conscious Muslim woman

The magazine only shows women in headscarves

Alâ, which is Turkish for ‘the most beautiful of the beautiful’, only shows models in headscarves and will only advertise clothing that conforms to Islamic customs.

‘Cosmopolitan, Elle, Vogue, Marie Claire, it’s all about sex and naked skin,’ says Mr Birer. ‘The motto is that sex sells. But we, and millions of women around the world, believe that fashion can also be different.’

Despite having only six issues under their belt, the magazine has been so successful that they have needed to increase circulation multiple times.

The magazine now has a circulation of 30,000 with some 5,000 subscriptions are sent abroad.

‘We had no experience with magazines before that. We’re marketing people,’ Mr Atay told SpiegelOnline. ‘We specialised in recognising market niches.’

1,500 of the subscriptions are sent to Germany alone where the magazine has a big following amongst devout Turkish migrants.

As a result, entrepreneurial Mr Birer and Mr Atay said they could definitely foresee coming out with a German Alâ in the future.

The magazine has been very successful with a circulation of 30,000

And not just a Muslim product, it would be marketed to all females since the ‘battle against nudity’ is important to all women, Mr Birer said.

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Selling for 9 lira, or £3.20, it has been described as ‘the Vogue of the veiled’ by German magazine Radikal.

Atay and Birer have found a product for an increasingly prevalent part of Muslim society: the educated, fashion-focused woman with disposable income who still believes in wearing the veil.

Creating the magazine: Mr Brier and Mr Atay attribute their success to finding an untapped market

Creating the magazine: Mr Brier and Mr Atay attribute their success to finding an untapped market. Their backgrounds are in marketing, not magazine publishing

Cosmopolitan

Scarlett Johansson

Mr Birer was fed up of the ‘dikat of nudity’ in found in others women’s magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Vogue

But the men have faced objections from their own camp with one theologian complaining that women should be submissively behind rather than putting themselves forward.

‘That’s not our understanding of Islam,’ says Mr Atay. ’We don’t believe that women should hide themselves. Even the veiled have a right to stylish fashion.’

via Alâ: Turkish fashion magazine created for women who wear headscarves | Mail Online.

January 29, 2012
Turkey Ministry Recommends Jewish Artist for Eurovision, HT Says

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry recommended a Jewish Turk represent the country at the Eurovision song contest, Haberturk newspaper reported, without saying how it got the information.

The ministry sent a letter to state television channel TRT on Jan. 3 recommending that pop singer Can Bonomo represent Turkey at the yearly event, Haberturk reported. The move was intended as an opening to Jews amid the worst period in Turkish- Israeli relations in the countries’ histories, the Istanbul- based newspaper said. Bonomo was announced as Turkey’s representative for the contest by TRT on Jan. 6, it said.

Turkey will also be the first Muslim country to air a documentary about the Holocaust as part of the same cultural opening toward Jews, Haberturk reported. French director Claude Lanzmann’s 9.5-hour documentary “Shoah” began airing with Turkish subtitles on TRT on Jan. 26 and will continue in episodes to be aired each Thursday, it said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul at bharvey11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net

via Turkey Ministry Recommends Jewish Artist for Eurovision, HT Says – Bloomberg.

January 29, 2012
Persian calligraphy shines at Turkish-Iranian competition

TEHRAN — Iranian calligraphers shined at an Iranian-Turkish joint calligraphy competition held here in Tehran, winning the top cash prizes awarded during a ceremony at the Iranian Artists Forum on Friday.

The Hilya International Calligraphy Award was organized by Tehran’s Emruz Gallery and Istanbul’s Antik Sanat Gallery, Tehran Times reported on Saturday.

Within the Islamic context, Hilya refers to the literary genre which elaborates on the features and merits of Prophet Muhammad (S).

The award-presentation ceremony took place in the presence of Iranian masters of calligraphy Gholamhossein Amirkhani and Ali Shirazi.

Shirazi, who is also the curator of the Emruz Gallery, said at the opening ceremony that the award was first held two years ago in Tehran under the title Yasin.

“These types of awards help highlight the position of Iranian calligraphers in the world. The younger generation forms a trustworthy support for the veterans,” Shirazi added.

Amirkhani who was also among the jury members proposed that the young calligraphers should respect their art and follow their profession.

The lofty objective of the Hilya award is to present a modern Iranian form of calligraphy to the world of Islam, he added.

Later on, the winners selected by the jury Shirazi and Amirkhani as well as Turkish calligraphers Ali Toy and Davut Bektash were honored at the ceremony.

Javad Khuran from Iran and Ahmad Faris from Egypt were announced as the winners of the special jury award with a cash prize of $35,000 each.

The winners are expected to be presented with their prize by Turkish President Abdullah Gul during a ceremony in Turkey.

In the nastaliq section, Iranian Mahmud Rahbaran took home the first cash prize of $20,000. The second prize of $13,000 went to Habib Ramezanpur and the third prize of $13,000 went to Hamid Jafari.

Peyman Sadatnejad, Meysam Soltani, Mostafa Abedini, Ehsan Ahmadi, and Ali Piran were among the ten top winners.

The jury also awarded Ramin Merati and Qasem Samadian for their innovation in calligraphy.

RM/YAW

END

via Persian calligraphy shines at Turkish-Iranian competition – Tehran Times.

January 29, 2012
Gulen’s latest book launch celebrated at Istanbul Forum

Journalists, politicians and writers gathered together for a forum in İstanbul on Tuesday to mark the launch of renowned Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen’s latest book, “Yaşatma İdeali,” (The Ideal to Let Others Live).

In his message, Gulen said “As you will agree, a person who only thinks of himself is not a human at all, but a human with a deficiency. The way real humanity can be achieved is through self-sacrifice for others. The value of a person in the eyes of God can be measured by the level of their benevolence. The most obvious sign of a high level of benevolence is sacrificing one’s personal pleasures and joys for the happiness of others.”

January 28, 2012
In Istanbul, music to strike a healing note

Tumata, a musical society in Istanbul, researches ethnomusicology and performs soothing sounds of healing music, appreciated in Turkey and abroad.

By Cigdem Bugdayci for Southeast European Times in Istanbul — 26/01/12

Professor Rahmi Oruc Guvenc founded Tumata, the Group for Research and Promotion of Turkish Music, in 1976. [Cigdem Bugdayci/SETimes]

Tumata, the Group for Research and Promotion of Turkish Music, was founded by Professor Rahmi Oruc Guvenc in 1976. It researches and promotes Central Asian music and Ottoman tonalities with their respective instruments.

Guvenc, whose lineage comes from the Central Asian Turks, began first researching the healing power of music from around the world for his doctoral thesis in clinical psychology. He spent the next 30 years lecturing and speaking at seminars on the topic, mainly in Austria.

“Tonalities arose about 1,000 years ago in Central Asia and kept developing until today. Instead of the two tones in Western music, major and minor, there are almost 500 tonalities in Turkish music. Important scientists, writers and researchers concluded that music is good for the human character, the mind,” says Guvenc.

Ethnomusicology, modern medicine, and laboratory findings, in a joint research on healing properties in Turkish music, along with findings from different symposia, concluded that Turkish music can have a positive outcome in teaching, physical therapy and rehabilitation.

Various European cities offer music therapy programs such as Barcelona, Berlin and Mannheim, where the healing properties of Turkish music is recognized.

Along with the instruments, the sound of water is also used as part of the music tonalities, and in the movement therapy tradition, called Baksi dance.

via In Istanbul, music to strike a healing note (SETimes.com).

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January 27, 2012