Chris Brogan asks what our three word goals are for the year ahead. Mine: PROJECT - project myself into my communities, raise awareness for the work I do, foster meaningful connection to others
REALIZE - a combination of 'execute' and 'achieve excellent results', materialize dreams
LIVE - breathe deeply, take chances, do new things I might love and old things I still love, get rid of stuff that slows me down or doesn't reflect who I want to be, embrace my health and opportunities
Brainstorming with a friend about a connection- and gathering-based global community we want to build for ourselves.... An intimate yearly salon of thought-leaders, change makers, cultural creatives, and humanists for sustained conversations with other globally-mobile progressives.
Thanks for your message Monika Jones! "As a writer with experience in both project management and book publishing, I'm captivated with Expat Harem and the exciting offshoots of the book. What gorgeous intersection of literary works, community engagement, and education."
And thanks too, for your review of the book:
"After an intense experience living in Istanbul for three months, I sojourned back to the U.S. to catch up with family and friends. One afternoon on my way to a bookstore to buy a copy of Expat Harem (which I'd been meaning to read when I was in Turkey after meeting one of the editors) I met my cousin for coffee. Immediately, he handed me a book. The book: Expat Harem! I was thrilled. His mother-in-law had read it with her reading group and wanted me to have it. It was so serendipitous! I started reading and the stories spoke to my experiences as a foreign woman in Turkey - right down to the smells, awkward interactions with pseudo-relatives, and observations on popular culture. Since I've lent it to friends and family, and found it is a way to share my experiences with them in an accessible format. What I appreciated the most is the lyrical, lovely writing and honesty of the works."
For the National Geographic Traveler cities roundup, I wrote about the Malaysian capital, emphasizing the seductive energy of the city as well as the echo of its natural setting. When equatorial Kuala Lumpur awakes from its heat-of-the-day slumber, the late shift throngs sidewalk restaurants and markets to vie over noodles and durian.
Humanity swirls around the geometric pylons of the Petronas Twin Towers, blazing as they pierce the sky…businesspeople crisp from air-conditioned work, perfumed shoppers, sandaled sightseers from nearby jungle villages and far-off countries.
Spanish translation of "The Accidental Anthologist" courtesy of International PEN Women Writers’ Committee which published it in their trilingual newsletter, August 2008 [Boletín Trilingüe del Comité de Escritoras de PEN Internacional]
Turquía frecuentemente entra en las noticias por suprimir a sus autores. Irónicamente, como expatriada americana en Estambul encontré mi voz feminista -- y tropecé en editar un best-seller internacional sorpresa, creando un harén literario de mis pares expatriadas.
Cuando mi esposo turco y yo llegamos de Nueva York en 2003 planeé aislarme para escribir una memoria ensimismada de viaje. No a los días largos pasados en un laboratorio de lenguaje, tratando de encontrar mi equilibrio. Mi vida en Estambul sería acerca de mí, un retiro extendido para escribir. Esta visión había sido filtrando en mi mente desde cuando había sido expatriada anteriormente. Cinco años había pasado pudriéndome en las trópicas malasias como un Somerset Maugham, menos prolífico y más sobrio. La primera cosa para pudrir en el calor ecuatorial fue mi personalidad -- la esencia de mi voz literaria. Cuando expliqué a la gente que era escritora me respondieron, "¿Caballos?" También en Asia me confundieron con una mujer occidental muy diferente, como cuando un equipo de obreros quien trabajaban en mi casa se preguntaron cuándo yo iba a tomar cerveza y quitarme la camisa.
En vez de eso, la tos ferina me silenció a mí y también a mi ego. En el silencio de 6 meses, Turquía sugirió una metáfora para fortalecer mi expatriadismo -- y mis escritos: El Harén Expatriado. Esta reunión contemporánea de mujeres extrajeras podría ser un depósito de conocimiento y poder como lo era en los días del siglo XV bajo los sultanes otomanos.
"Instaladas aquí, somos destinadas a ser extranjeras," ideé en un correo electrónico a mi co-editora, mi colega, la también emigrada americana Jennifer Gokmen.
"Pero está bien -- el Harén Expatriado es un lugar de poder femenino," ella me respondió, conectándonos a un panorama feminista oriental poco conocido en el mundo occidental.
"¡Sí! Cárcel etnocéntrica o refugio de pares—a veces es difícil averiguar en qué sentido va la puerta de batiente," contesté, intoxicada con nuestra metáfora anacrónica. Como una contraseña secreta, las noticias extendieron cuando solicitamos colaboraciones. Mujeres fascinantes de catorce naciones depositaron una lluvia de sus historias en nuestro buzón. Muchas nunca habían publicado antes y todas eran voces de minorías en un país musulmán con una reputación de censura. Realidades alternativas me inundaron, representado una penetración en el país que nunca había imaginado que abrazara. Pero no importó. Si mis aventuras expatriadas anteriores me habían hecho reacia, El Harén Expatriado convirtió mi ferocidad personal en un beneficio: yo podría dar un foro a otras. Sus luchas para asimilarse también me animaron para resistir menos.
La colección premiada Tales from the Expat Harem dio la base para una vida másrica y un libro subsiguiente más perspicaz. La felicidad de trabajar con escritoras de todo el mundo desde la oficina en mi casa en el Bósforo clarificó unos aspectos contradictories de mi carácter -- como que yo pueda ser una introvertida espinosa y también una mujer quien anhela una conexión con personas y el planeta a la vez. Me parece que Turquía no solo me conectó con una banda internacional de mis pares, también alzó mi voz en la conversación cultural. También me ha puesto en contacto con escritoras a quienes admiro, como la novelista celebrada turca Elif Shafak, quien escribió el prólogo para los dos tirajes turcos de mi libro. Ahora mi carrera literaria y mi actitud ambivalente sobre la vida en el extranjero tiene un nuevo contexto cultural más prometedor.
Anastasia M. Ashman, nativa de Berkeley, California, es autora de la novela premiada de Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey la cual se estudia en siete universidades norteamericanas y ha sido recomendada por el Today Show de NBC TV, Nacional Geographic Traveler, Lonely Planet Turkey, el Internacional Herald Tribune, y el Daily Telegraph.
Página de la autora: http://www.redroom.com/author/anastasia-m-ashman Sitio de Expat Harem: http://www.expatharem.com Versión completa de este ensayo: http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=80
Pleased to appear on the Joey Reynolds Show this week when he was broadcasting live from Istanbul to the United States.
The WOR Radio Network show is heard on radio stations from New York to Hawaii and has more than 5 million listeners.
Jennifer Gokmen and I met with the veteran radio show host -- often called the father of "shock talk radio" -- and his producer Myra Chanin at the offices of Turkish national broadcaster TRT for an hour on-air to discuss Tales from the Expat Harem and life and work as American women in Turkey.
"I've enjoyed your book tremendously and thought that some of the stories in the book were very cinematic and could make an interesting movie."
When America's most popular morning talk show came to Istanbul, they asked me and my Expat Harem coeditor Jennifer Gokmen to explain Turkey to five million Americans. Here, we talk with NBC Today Show host Matt Lauer in front of the Haghia Sophia, a 1,500 year old architectural wonder of the world, on a breezy May first.
If the embedded video doesn't work for you, you can view this interview here
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Excerpt from NBC Today Show interview prep, April 2008.
YOU'VE LIVED HERE 5 YEARS AND YOU ARE FROM NORTHERN CALIFORNIA...WHEN YOUR FRIENDS COME TO VISIT..WHAT IS THE THING THAT THEY MOST OFTEN ASKED YOU ABOUT LIVING HERE?
They wonder if I’ll ever return to America! I will, but in the meantime I'll be enjoying the Turkish quality of life... like the 5 pounds of organic produce delivered to my door every week for $25, a tailor down the block ready to rework the most trifling thing and if I want to while away the afternoon at a leafy cafe I know the waiter won't be rushing me to make way for new customers. Turks believe life is to be savored. My New York friends always want to know about real estate and are amazed to learn how affordable my cliffside apartment is, with its panoramic Bosphorus view. Unusual for most big cities.... My friends also wonder how I survive Istanbul's #1 downside -- Congestion. Sometimes it takes hours to cross this sprawling, hilly town. The Bosphorus was the main drag for centuries and the water still seems the fastest way to get around.
FROM MY RESEARCH IT APPEARS THAT TURKEY HAS DONE A REALLY GOOD JOB MAINTAINING IT'S CULTURE AND TRADITIONS...WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE THAT TO?
Turks are an ethnically diverse people – you know they originally came on horseback from Asia, and then Ottoman empire once spanned three quarters of the Mediterranean, mixing with all those cultures and people for 600 years. They're adaptable, but even so Turkish trsdition has very deep roots and seems almost imprinted in their genes. You'll see people from every walk of life sharing the same customs on a daily basis. Like the blue glass evil eye to ward off bad luck, which is an echo of their days of shamanism, before they adopted Islam. They wear it as jewelry, decorate their homes, offices, and cars, even on their cellphones they'll stick a small evil eye as if to say, hey no bad news will come thru this phone. Over time they've kept the beliefs that work for them.
WHAT WOULD AMERICANS BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT TURKISH PEOPLE?
Turks have a great sense of humor. This is helpful to know since they are also very inquisitive – you might say even nosey -- and may ask a question Americans feel is personal, like ‘Is this your natural hair color? You can deflect an impertinent question with one of your own, or an obvious joke. Smile broadly and it won't matter if they don't understand the punchline. Being jovial is also a smart bargaining technique. A vendor will agree to a better price if you're playful.
I'll be coproducing a Global Nomad Salon this June at Istanbul's Four Seasons Sultanahmet along with the Salon founder Dutch-Curacaoan banker Janera Soerel. Introduced by various international friends in 2007, Janera and I quickly found common ground: our shallow roots in many different communities and the urge to find the larger meaning in local issues.
Working together long-distance, we are co-producing this cultural entertainment. It's a guided dinner for 20-30 educated, intellectual, opinionated people to discuss concerns of global culture and economics.
Experts who guide the conversation at their ends of the table will include Serif Kaynar (country managing director of Korn/Ferry) and Nese Gundogan (secretary general of the Turkish Olympic Committee).
Along with an online magazine and members-only social network (Janera.com), founder Janera Soerel, a Dutch Curacaoan banker who lives in Manhattan, launched the Global Nomad Salon series October 2007 in Washington DC, then Rome, the Caribbean and New York City. With local co-hosts, Janera’s events are now spreading across the globe. This summer and fall they will take place in Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Dubai, Tuscany and London. The goal is to rouse the Global Nomad community worldwide and strengthen the network of its members, eventually with a GNSalon occurring twice yearly in various countries, events populated by Global Nomads both local and from afar.
As the coeditor of the internationally bestselling expatriate women's anthology Tales from the Expat Harem, I contributed my favorite titles to VisualThesaurus.com last year for its “Dog Eared: Books We Love” column.
The online tool for writers, students and teachers of writing, and marketing communications professionals worldwide, asked me to share books about the cultural wisdom that historically pools at the intersection of women and travel.
Here’s my list…
UNSUITABLE FOR LADIES: An Anthology of Women Travellers, selected by Jane Robinson“In this spunky companion volume to Wayward Women (her book about women travel writers through history), Robinson collects the global travels of 200 women across 16 centuries – from the obscure to better known authors like Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Karen Blixen, Freya Stark and Jan Morris. Grouped by geography with numerous entries for each place which serve as a conversation between the region, the time and the characters themselves, the chapters are bookended by thoughtful selections in “Setting Out” and “Coming Home”, indicating that the act of travel is and has always been a transformative force in women’s lives. Sometimes reputation risking and life threatening, but often culturally redeeming and personally empowering, travel must be intellectually prepared for, and assimilated.”
“Part of the terrific Oxford-in-Asia series, this easy-reading collection by various scholars examines the lives of 19th century Western women in the Asian tropics – pioneers like Sophia Raffles, the calamity-stricken wife of the British founder of Singapore, and Isabella Bird, the opinionated world traveler seeking to escape from civilization. It helped put into context my own struggling expatriate experience when I was living in steamy Malaysia... I especially appreciated reading about the dark side of these women’s lives, like the widely unknown and checkered past of Anna Leonowens, the famous governess hired by the King of Siam! Illustrated with fine engravings from the women’s own publications.”
DREAMING OF EAST: Western Women and the Exotic Allure of the Orient, by Barbara Hodgson
“For generations of Western women, Eastern travel has signified freedom. Yet in the more ‘liberal’ West this does not compute. How can the cloistered East be a place of emancipation? Through a series of portraits of 18th to 20th century women who traveled to the eastern Ottoman empire – Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Turkey – Hodgson demonstrates the calculus. Among Eastern liberties counted by women like Isabel Burton, the wife of adventurer Richard Burton: ‘the inconsequence of time’ and the loose clothing. The Canadian author is a book designer, and the engravings, paintings, sketches and photographs make this book a jewel to behold.”
A message from one of the Expat Harem writers in Istanbul about a couple she met in Istanbul: "A couple visiting from NYC came to Turkey because she, a Bryn Mawr alum, had read about you in the Alumni newsletter when the book came out. She does not know you, but was intrigued enough to read the book, loved it, and insisted that they spend several weeks in this country on their way home from a trip to Ukraine, where she had been living for a few years."
Drawing on my experiences as an expat, a foreign student, and the editor of a book about cultural journeys of self discovery, I have designed and conducted a session on Culture Shock at AISEC here in Istanbul for 75 outgoing international exchange students. Thanks to Ajda Mustafova, Chair, 5th AIESEC National Conference for the invitation.
Welcome to the 2007 edition of getting to know your friends. What you are supposed to do is copy (not forward) this entire e-mail and paste it onto e-mail that you'll send. Change all the answers so they apply to you, and then send this to your friends including the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends which you might not have known!
ANASTASIA ANSWERS:
1. What time did you get up this morning? 8:00, my goal buddy calls to discuss yesterday’s results and what today’s plan is.
2. Diamonds or pearls? Pearls, having to do with past lives in the South Sea and all that. Diamonds are fun too, and sturdier.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Elizabeth, the Golden Age (big disappointment, I should have chosen Beowulf instead).
4. What is your favorite TV show? Punk’d -- just kidding. The Office.
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? A green drink and tea.
6. Favorite cuisine? Most Asian cuisines.
7. What is your middle name? Marie, a good Catholic schoolgirl name.
8. What food do you dislike? Overboiled, oversalted, overgreasy anything.
9. What is your Favorite CD at the moment? Angelique Kidjo, the Beninese Afro-pop singer.
10. What kind of car do you drive? I don’t drive but Burc just got a Hybrid Honda Civic.
11. Favorite sandwich? In Turkey, the pide doner (like a Greek gyro without the sloppy yogurt sauce).
12. What characteristics do you despise? A. The inability to be happy about others’ success. B. The need to spread bad energy.
13. Favorite item of clothing? Whatever fits, is comfortable and looks great all at once.
14. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Morocco. Who wants to go on a group trip?
16. Favorite brand of clothing? I’m not brand loyal with clothing but Aerosoles always fit and keep things in the shoe department simple.
17. Where would you retire to? A vineyard in Oregon.
18. What was your most recent memorable birthday? Trying to find some Romans in Rome on my 40th.
19. Favorite sport to watch? Grand Slam Tennis, Badminton World Championships.
20. Furthest place you are sending this? Could be Buenos Aires, the West Coast, Singapore, South Africa.
21. Who do you least expect to send this back to you? The ones with three or more children.
22. Person you expect to send it back first? Dianne the African Princess.
23. Favorite saying? Various quotes as the situation arises.
24. When is your birthday? August 8
25 Are you a morning person or a night person? Afternoon person. I like to sleep in the morning and at night.
26. What is your shoe size? 7.5-8
27. Pets? Bunny (see his Kittenwar stats here http://kittenwar.com/kittens/85765/ )
28. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? I’m sure you’ll agree I share plenty of news.
29. What did you want to be when you were little? A career girl with a car and an office.
30. How are you today? Sliding early into the weekend and the holiday season.
31. What is your Favorite candy? I could fill a whole questionnaire on this topic alone. Answer for the laypeople out there: licorice, chocolate, Turkish delight.
32. What is your Favorite flower? Nightblooming jasmine for its ability to perfume a neighborhood
34. What are you listening to right now? School children chanting something into a microphone – the bayram is coming!
35. What was the last thing you ate? Leftovers from last night’s dinner: Aduki bean dhal, bulghur and collard greens – delicious pan-soul-food!
37. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Maroon.
38. How is the weather right now? Clear but wanting to snow.
40. Do you like the person who sent this to you? He is a family friend from my husband’s childhood who lives in Switzerland, which makes it doubly wonderful he is a warm and regular presence in our lives today.
41. Favorite restaurant? Lades off Istiklal for the menemen, a scrambled egg dish with feta cheese, tomatoes, and ground lamb.
42. Hair color? The box says “Acik Kestane -- Light Chestnut”.
43. Siblings? Two sisters.
44. Favorite day of the year? Halloween.
45. What was your favorite toy as a child? The mailboxes we sisters had attached to our offices – I was a big correspondent.
46. Summer or winter? I am a summer child!
47. Chocolate or Vanilla? Both, but has to be good quality.
48. Do you want your friends to email you back? That is the point but I realize it’s the holiday season and we all have something else going on.
49. When was the last time you cried? Yesterday, watching the Bachelorette Season Finale Part II – Meredith picked the guy she liked the idea of instead of the guy that was everything she claimed she wanted. Big mistake!
50. What is under your bed? Tons of luggage, regularly dusted.
51. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Julie, since we were 6 months old.
52. What did you do last night? Nice dinner at home with Burc and then he read Shalom Auslander’s memoir “Foreskin’s Lament” to me (had to, since he kept laughing out loud).
53. Favorite smell? Lavender, Sandalwood, Bergamot.
54. What are you afraid of? Wasting time. And yet, here I am, filling out this questionnaire which may or may not be viewed as spam somewhere down the line…
56. Plain, buttered, or salted popcorn? Plain.
57. How many keys on your key ring? I have pared my life down to 1!
58. How many years at your current job? If I imagine I am doing now what I have been training my whole life to do, then pretty much my whole life.
59. Favorite day of the week? Wednesday, when I delusionally exclaim to my husband “It’s the weekend!”
60. How many towns have you lived in? 11 -- Berkeley, Bryn Mawr, Rome, New York, Los Angeles, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Davis, Teaneck, Brooklyn, Istanbul.
61. Do you make friends easily? Somewhat, but that doesn’t diminish the meaning my friends hold for me.
62. How many people will you be sending this to? Maybe about 40.
Excerpt of a proposal I created with Jennifer Gokmen for NatGeo's Personal Explorer Walking Tours of Istanbul All tours contain CITY, CULTURE, HISTORY, ARCHITECTURE, ART. One also includes NATURE.
THE OLD FOREIGN QUARTER: ISTIKLAL AND PERA Taksim Square (heart of downtown) Haci Abdullah (oldest Ottoman restaurant in Istanbul) Historic Embassies (now consulates for France, Holland, Russia, Sweden, Greece) Historic Churches (Franciscan Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, etc.) Istanbul Film Festival (historic cinemas along Istiklal pedestrian boulevard) Cicek Pasaji/Balik Pazari/Nevizade (19th century flower market building and specialty foods shops, restaurant row) Galatasaray Lisesi (elite French high school established in the 15th century) Pasabahce (local handmade glassworks shop) Historic Hotels for Orient Express passengers (Hotel Grand London and Pera Palace) Pera Museum (Orientalist paintings in historic building) Asmalimescit (backstreet with historic taverns and iconic music venue Babylon) Ottoman Memorabilia Shops (Artrium and Ottomania in Tunel) Tunel Funicular Station (2nd oldest subway in the world)
SILK ROAD TRADING POSTS: GALATA, EMINONU, AND THE GRAND BAZAAR Galata Dervish House (Sufi monastery established 1491) Galata tower (1348 lookout tower for Genoese trading concession) Schneider Temple/art gallery Ottoman Bank Museum (heart of Ottoman-era banking district) Işbankası Museum Zulfaris Musevi Muzesi/ Jewish History Museum (500 years of Jewish history in Turkey) Galata Bridge and Golden Horn (fishermen, view restaurants, waterpipe cafes) Yeni Cami (1597 mosque with tombs of 4 sultans) Haci Bekir shop (Istanbul confectioners since 1777) Egyptian Spice Bazaar/Flower Market (17th century food and medicinals bazaar) Pandeli restaurant (80 year tradition in bazaar guard tower) Kucukpazar markets/Mahmutpasa shops (speciality foods and sundry markets) Rustem Pasa Mosque (1516 tiled mosque by star architect Sinan) Grand Bazaar (mother of all shopping malls established 1461) Grand Bazaar specialty shops (hamam supplies, Ottomania-inspired merchandise)
SHOWCASING SINAN, THE SULTAN'S FAVORITE ARCHITECT: SULEYMANIYE AND FATIH Suleymaniye Mosque (1550 masterpiece Sinan built for Süleyman the Magnificent to rival Haghia Sophia) Tombs of Suleyman and Roxelana (Crypt of the 10th Ottoman sultan and his wife) Mimar Sinan's Tomb (Grave of greatest Ottoman architect) Daruzziyafe restaurant (Ottoman cuisine in mosque complex's former soup kitchen) Ottoman library (public library still in use) Vefa Bozacısı (130-year-old Albanian shop producing fermented millet drink) Burmali Mosque (one room mosque with Byzantine columns) Şehzade Mehmed Kulliyesi (architect Sinan's first imperial mosque complex) Ruins of palace church of Anicia Juliana (grandest 6th century Greek Orthodox church before the Haghia Sophia) Aqueduct of Valens (375 AD Roman water bridge) Gazanfer Aga Complex (16th century theological school and tomb of chief eunuch) Caricature and Humor Arts Museum (history of Turkish cartoons)
CASTLES AND COASTLINES: ORTAKOY TO BESIKTAS Ortakoy village (preserved 16th century waterside village now entertainment hub with shops, cafes, clubs) One hour Bosphorus boat tour from Ortakoy dock (palaces, fortresses, wooden mansions, bridges on upper Bosphorus) Ortakoy houses of worship (1853 Baroque mosque, Russian Orthodox church, 17th century Etz Ahayim synagogue) Angelique (popular waterside nightclub) Istanbul Jazz Center (worldclass performance venue) Yildiz Park and Ottoman pavilions (green hillside park of 18th/19th century imperial kiosks and a porcelain atelier) Ciragan Palace (luxury hotel in restored Neogothic 1863 home to sultans) Yahya Effendi mausoleum (sultan's advisor, now a guardian spirit of the Bosphorus) Beskitas Iskelesi (1911 ferry terminal) Tomb of Barbarosa (resting place of 16th century Ottoman Naval warrior known as Red Beard) The Maritime Museum Dolmabahce Palace (seat of the sultans after 1853) Besiktas Stadium (home to one of Turkey's premier soccer teams) Maiden's Tower (5th century tower in middle of Bosphorus, with cafe and fine dining)
TAPESTRY OF TRADITIONS AND FAITHS: KUZGUNCUK Uskudar's mosques (1547 Iskele Cami, 1710 Yeni Valide Cami, 16th century Semsi Pasa Cami) Fethi Ahmet Pasa Yali (18th century waterfront home of Ottoman general/ambassador) Kuzguncuk Quay and Cesme (ferry terminal and 1792 fountain) Surp Krikor Lusavoric (1835 Armenian Orthodox church) Uryanizade Mescit (1880 mosque with carved wooden minaret) Ottoman houses (historic wooden "painted ladies" of Kuzguncuk) Icadiye Street teahouses and galleries St. Panteleimon (6th century Greek Orthodox church) Jewish Cemetery (16th century) Bostan Street art gallery and street market Greek Cemetery Ayios Giorgios Monastery (1821 Greek Orthodox church) Beth Yaakov Synagogue (1878 Sephardic temple)
IMPERIAL TREASURES: SULTANAHMET Great Palace Mosaic Museum (6th century Byzantine tesserae) Arasta Bazaar (handicraft boutique row in 17th century donkey stables) Topkapı Palace (seat of the sultans, 15th-19th century) Aya Sofya (6th century cathedral, Christendom's largest for 1,000 years) Blue Mosque (early 17th century İznik tiled mosque) Aya İrini (first church in Constantinople, now stunning performance venue) Darphane (17th century imperial mint) Istanbul Archaeology Museum (Turkey's first museum, established 1881) Cafer Aga Medrese (1559 theological school built by architect Sinan) Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum (set in 16th century Ibrahim Pasha Palace) Hippodrome (4th century chariot-racing track with obelisk relic) Basilica Cistern (city's largest ancient water reservoir, circa 6th century)
My Near Eastern archaeology baccalaureate program ended with Constantine founding New Rome at Byzantium. I left the Byzantine world undiscovered when I forgot my college diploma in a rental car and professionally drifted toward pop-culture...tv, music, film. Later when I married a Turk and moved to Istanbul it was natural to neglect Constantinople’s first millennium since Ottoman civilization felt much closer to home. Then in the summer of 2007 near the aqueduct of Valens, I stumbled over a patch of lumpy turf and found a forgotten footnote to the world’s most famous Byzantine landmark.
Opposite the glass Istanbul Municipality building, a triangular plot of land on Atatürk Bulvarı was inexplicably not developed. Perhaps I could use it. I needed another attraction to round out the Süleymaniye-area walking tour I was creating for National Geographic Traveler. Travel historian Saffet Emre Tonguç confirmed the overgrown archaeological site above the Haşim Işcan underpass was indeed notable if not much to look at. The sixth century remains of Anicia Juliana’s palace church, Haghios Polyeuktos. I needed more detail. Not for me of course, for National Geographic.
My friend Edda Renker Weissenbacher, author of books on the Chora church and Iznik tiles, added that the massive ruin, mostly unexcavated, represented a social grudge of royal proportion. A little research showed that the obscure-sounding princess Juliana of the Anicii (462-529) was the wealthiest and most aristocratic resident of Constantinople. She could trace her roots to Constantine the Great and counted other Western and Eastern Roman emperors in her lineage. But the glory was coming to an unbearable end. Offered the throne when a revolt seemed likely her husband, a general, ran off in fear. Her only son had married into the ruling emperor’s family yet the commoners Justin and his nephew Justinian ascended to the throne instead.
Juliana struck back with the most patrician of socio-political weapons: faith-based art and architecture patronage. By 527 she had enlarged her ancestral church, making it the capital city’s vastest and richest. Carved with pomegranate flowers, cherubim, palmette -- and peacocks, the symbol of empresses – in pointed ways it proclaimed her fitness for the throne. At the 2006 Byzantine Studies Congress art historian Matthew Canepa described Juliana’s use of Oriental motifs as the kind of “cross-cultural political savvy” that could only spring from an imperial background, someone familiar with diplomatic gifts and spoils of war from the East.
The project also conveniently sunk her fortune into her own legacy. New peasant dynasts planned to expand the empire but they wouldn’t be doing it on her dime! Kateryna Kovalchuk, a Byzantine doctoral student in Belgium I stalked online, directed me to a 6th century story told by Gregory of Tours which describes Juliana receiving the young Justinian on a fund-raising mission. The princess pointed upwards. Her gold was pounded into tiles and affixed to the church roof.
Recalling that the adjective ‘byzantine’ characterizes elaborate scheming to gain political power, I checked the date of Juliana’s architectural ultimatum. Polyeuktos, described by scholars as perhaps the most decorated building in history, predated the world-changing Haghia Sophia by ten years. Justinian’s response, and response it was indeed, had a much sparer design and was fifty percent bigger. Other irresistible facts: The emperor’s wife and co-ruler Theodora was the daughter of a bearkeeper and a scandalous carny if ancient historian Procopius was to be believed. He sniped in his Secret History that she raised her skirts “to show off her feminine secrets”. My scorned princess -- yes Juliana was now mine -- built a pious hot-seat for a low-born ruler and his checkered-past queen!
I was now officially losing money on the National Geographic assignment as I pored over dig reports in A Temple for Byzantium by Martin Harrison, head of Harvard University’s Center for Byzantine Studies. Mysterious relics are often uncovered in Istanbul but when foundations were dug at the civic center in 1960 the marble arches found were unusually explicit. Greek inscriptions identified a ruin known through literature to historians since at least the 10th century. (The grandiose verses, from the Palatine Anthology’s collection of classical and Byzantine poetry, recounted the construction and dynasty of its patroness.)
Houseguests came to town.
I spirited them to the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, whose Turkish archaeologists also took part in six seasons of excavations at the site. The small H. Polyeuktos section was crowded by a marble column inlaid with amethyst and green and gold glass that once held a canopy over the altar, as well as epigrammed arches decorated with acanthus vines and feathery tails of peacocks. Preeminent Byzantine historian Steven Runciman detected immense meaning in these few Juliana commissions. He thought they display the elusive origin of Byzantine style: the first combination of Roman craftsmanship, Greek balance and Oriental ornamentation, for the purpose of Christian ritual.
If the technique of Polyeuktos was mid-6th century zeitgeist, Juliana upped the ante with its decidedly nostalgic form. Laid out in the Biblical measurement of royal cubit, the floor plan matched a Holy Writ account of King Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem – a legendary structure intended to house the Ark of the Covenant and itself modeled after Moses’s moveable Tabernacle. A supremely tough act to follow, even for an emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. It’s no wonder when Justinian dedicated his Haghia Sophia he exclaimed ‘Solomon, I have surpassed you!’ He meant to best the Queen of Kings down the road.
Along with the throngs, I’ve unwittingly admired her pioneering handiwork scattered in the gardens of the Haghia Sophia and the Topkapı Palace, as well as in the Piazza San Marco in Venice. Three deeply carved basket weave capitals from the Polyeuktos adorn the western façade of the Venetian basilica, while a majestic duo of pomegranate-flowered piers guard its south door across from the Doges Palace – all plundered during the Fourth Crusade. Those knights failed to reach Jerusalem to wrest the Temple of Solomon from the Muslims, but returning with Juliana’s inspired replicas I imagine them rationalizing a mission complete.
My own mission has just begun. Juliana awaits underfoot. Who wants to sign my petition to have the municipality building relocated to a new site?
See my Byzantine princess board at Pinterest, and my Ottoman & Byzantine board.
An art historical soap opera of imperial proportion. (See my Pinterest board of images related to this particular story here.) I've been developing this story since, while creating an Istanbul walking tour for National Geographic Traveler, I literally tripped over the foundations of a social grudge between my superlative-but-forgotten 6th century princess and Justinian -- which prompted the Holy Roman Emperor to build his world-beating Haghia Sophia Church a mile down the road. The man needed to best Anicia Juliana. See my Pinterest board of Byzantine popular culture trends.
Multiple story delivery methods in development.
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Excerpts from my Foreign Correspondence interview with John Bordsen of The Charlotte Observer. It was syndicated in numerous Knight Ridder newspapers across America.
Istanbul is a fabled place - but what are the most amazing places to visit outside the city? * * It depends on your interests. If you like ARCHAEOLOGICAL adventure, it would probably be Ephesus - one of the best-preserved ancient ROMAN cities in the world. It was the capital of Asia Minor. Ephesus is like Pompeii, IN ITALY, only on a MUCH grander scale. IT WAS FOUNDED BY THE AMAZONS, AND LATER RENOVATED BY THE ULTRARICH KING CROESUS. * Ephesus was the site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis. IT’S about AN HOUR FLIGHT from Istanbul. YOU CAN ALSO MAKE A PILGRIMAGE TO THE VIRGIN MARY’S LAST HOME WHICH IS NEARBY, OR VISIT A VAST GLADIATOR GRAVEYARD.
* * * When Americans think of visiting the Aegean, Greece comes to mind. Is the Turkish side of the sea different? * * It's all the same BEAUTIFUL WATER, AND land. PERHAPS LESS DEVELOPED. You'll see TYPICALLY Greek villages from the days when the coast was inhabited by Greeks. Whitewashed buildings that are pristine and simple. You'll find them in the AEGEAN TOWN of Bodrum, SURROUNDING ITS CRUSADER CASTLE IN THE HARBOR.
* BODRUM’S a rocky coast. THE Turks make IT ENJOYABLE BY BUILDING wooden decks along the rocks, so you can sunbathe, dine or dance over the water, with the backdrop of HILLS behind you. It's visually spectacular. * * Who visits the Turkish Aegean? * * Bodrum is on a peninsula. THE MAIN TOWN ATTRACTS A LOT OF Europeans, BOATERS. On the OTHER side, it's mostly Turks IN A PLACE considered the TURKISH RIVIERA. MANY LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL CELEBRITIES FREQUENT THE CLUBS AND HOTELS THERE. If you go to Bodrum, DEFINITELY take a day trip to TURKBUKU, or get a hotel there. THE BEACH CLUBS ARE very chic. * * Turkey has shoreline on the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Sea OF Marmara that links them. There's also its Mediterranean coast to the south. How do they differ? * I'm biased toward the Aegean and its very charming coastline OF COVES. The Mediterranean is GORGEOUS but MORE HUMID, AND you can be at the beach and feel like you're looking out into nothingness because the Mediterranean is such a vast expanse. The Sea of Marmara is like marble - which is A SIMILAR WORD in Turkish. It's very flat. There are vacation spots there, QUAINT ISLANDS TO GET AWAY FROM THE CITY, WHERE THE ISTANBUL SULTANS USED TO EXILE THEIR RELATIVES. NOT SO BAD! It's also where HUGE CARGO ships wait for permission to go through the Bosphorus to enter the Black Sea. The BOSPHORUS is one of the world's MAJOR shipping lanes, AND NOTORIOUSLY DIFFICULT TO NAVIGATE. LOTS OF TWISTS AND TURNS, AND CHANGING CURRENTS. JASON AND HIS ARGONAUTS ALSO FOUND IT DIFFICULT WHEN THEY SAILED UP IT LOOKING FOR THE GOLDEN FLEECE.
The Black Sea isn't called "black" because of what the water looks like. In ANCIENT TIMES DIRECTIONS WERE INDICATED IN COLORS. BLACK MEANT NORTH, WHITE WAS SOUTH. THE TURKS STILL CALL THE MEDITERRANEAN THE WHITE SEA.
The Black Sea was thought to have been created by an earthquake; THE SEA OF MARMARA rushed through A NEW CREVICE THAT BECAME THE BOSPHORUS into a much smaller FRESHWATER lake. SCIENTISTS ARE finding whole submerged villages in the center of the Black Sea, where the original coastline was. FOLK stories about A GREAT flood began WITH PEOPLE in the Black Sea area and worked their way south, into the Middle East. And Mount Ararat, where MANY BELIEVE Noah's Ark STILL RESTS, is in northeast Turkey. HERE IN TURKEY IT's EERIE how these OLD STORIES KEEP adding up!
When did you move to Istanbul? What is the first memory you have about Istanbul? AA: My husband and I moved in 2003 and stayed in Ulus with my brother-in-law for a few months, so my impressions from those days are of the sun setting over the Topkapi Palace far in the distance as the family ate barbequed lamb chops on the balcony, an assembly line of kuzu izgara. Sprinkling dried marjoram and oregano on the chops. But my first memories started when I visited in 2000 ( I felt ages of winter chill emanating from AyaSofya’s old stones as I gazed up at the Byzantine mosaics). Then when I married in Istanbul the balmy summer of 2001, at Esma Sultan in Ortakoy, the memories punctuated by the flashbulbs of a glitzy Turkish wedding. The overall memory of Istanbul? A lot of kisses, for everyone, coming and going, every day, every night.
What does Istanbul mean to you?
AA: Since I have a degree in Classical Greek, Roman and Near Eastern Archaeology, Istanbul’s historical significance as the center of the ancient civilized world is never far from my consciousness. It’s a place of power and energy and ideas, and has been for centuries. There is no mistaking that this is an important place on the globe. But as a New World woman from cutting edge California, I also love that with its heavy history it’s not musty and dead like a forgotten museum. I can appreciate its new layers of lives and dreams, and find modern day Istanbul to have more than its share of fabulous places, people and events.
Which part of the city do you live in? How do you like it?
AA: I lived in bohemian Cihangir for four years and loved my scenic view of the Bosphorus overlooking Kabatas ferry terminal. Perched on the cliff the view had all the energy of a transportation hub but at the same time was completely serene – and quiet, if you don’t count the taxicabs honking at all hours of the night! The proximity to Taksim and Istiklal was wonderful, and with the new tramway and metro extension, it really felt like the center of the world! My husband couldn’t take the commute to his Maslak office though so we just moved to Istinye, where we have a much more intimate view of the bay with its teal-colored water. I’m liking all the hillsides covered in wildflowers. But I’ll miss the cafes of Cihangir, like Miss Pizza, and Savoy Pastanesi for simit toast on Sundays and of course in a neighborhood so full of feisty street cats, the great veterinarians. I adopted my cat Bunny from Kazanci Sokagi, so where ever I go I’ll always have a bit of Cihangir in my heart, and in my home.
How does Istanbul look like from U.S.? Are there any misconceptions about the city?
AA: Physically I think the general image of Istanbul does not include so much water, waterways, vistas of water. The hills are also a surprise to many people. It’s hard to conceive of a metropolis made of so many small villages, how Istanbul can go on for miles and still be Istanbul, even if each kilometer is like a new world.
Do you have any favorite spots in the city?
AA: My favorites are the ones I haven’t been to yet! They exist in my dream of Istanbul. There are so many places I yearn to go. Like the Ilhamur Kosku in Muradiye, the Beykoz pavilion, and Beylerbeyi Palace. The Horhor market in Eyup with its Levantine antiques. A strange restaurant in Gunesli specializing in huge platters of chicken wings. Things you hear about, things you see from a distance, things you have to find a special time to do. The problem is more time I live in Istanbul, the longer my list grows.
Some of the stories take place in Istanbul in the book “Tales from the Expat Harem”. Is Istanbul a good setting for works of literature?
AA: I think so, (and for film too! Why aren’t there more films set in Istanbul?) The Expat Harem tales set in Istanbul show that the city offers a colorful and diverse backdrop for personal histories, and adds true depth to the narrator’s every day life. When a young Guatemalan woman recognizes two hatun speaking Ladino on a Mecediyekoy bus, she feels pride in her Spanish linguistic connection -- and at the same time she acknowledges the chain of history that brought this medieval language to Istanbul. What echoes in that moment is that the Guatemalan came to Istanbul through her own chain of history…
What does Istanbul need? How would it be better?
AA: A more extensive Metro network, servicing coastal spots like Beskitas, Ortakoy and Bebek. Imagine how that would alleviate street traffic!
What are your future writing projects? Is Istanbul somehow in them?
AA: Istanbul absolutely will play a role in many of my upcoming cultural essays, in fact the title of my travel memoir in progress is “Berkeley to Byzantium: The Reorientation of a West Coast Adventuress”. It’s about the physical (and metaphysical!) journey from my utopian hometown in California, around the world through classical Italy and the media worlds of New York and Hollywood, to the plantations and palaces of South East Asia, finally ending up in Istanbul. The challenge is to fully explain how my life has culminated in this incredibly meaningful place. Another challenge is to stay home and write when Istanbul beckons!
What do you think about Istanbul being the “European Culture Capital for 2010”?
AA: It’s about time! It seems to me that Istanbul makes good use of its breathtaking monuments and historic settings for cultural activities (like concerts at Rumeli Hisari and the Aya Irini, and exhibits at the Darphane and Tophane-i Amire, and receptions at Feriye and Dolmabahce), and the yearlong festival will be a perfect opportunity to show off to the world the city’s priceless heritage, and the life that the people of Istanbul inject into these wondrous spots.
How is the expat life in Istanbul? Is Istanbul an easy city for expat living?
AA: There are tons of options for expatriates in Istanbul, social and business clubs and general communities, and lots of support networks and foreign language media. I’ve been an expat in Rome and Kuala Lumpur where I learned some expat survival techniques and put them into practice as soon as I arrived here. I think Jennifer Gokmen would agree that making the anthology helped make sense of our own lives in Turkey as foreigners -- the Expat Harem is an apt metaphor for us. The title positively reclaims the concept of the Eastern harem just as we consider ourselves and our writers inextricably wedded to Turkish culture, embedded in it, though forever foreign. The virtual walls are there: our initial lack of language skills, undeveloped understanding of the culture, and even some of the ethnocentricities that we cling to. Luckily for us, Istanbul has a long history of welcoming foreigners, and being able to accomodate many different cultures and mindsets.
I'm bouncing along in a stream of shoppers at a neighborhood pazar, orweekly general street market. Tented from the hot midday sun, this narrow Istanbul road is lined with merchandise that wasn’t here a few hours ago and will disappear in a few more: rows and rows of olives in plastic tubs, stands of feta cheese and wooden carts packed with squash straight from the farm.
Freshly baked bread wafts on the same breezes that set cotton dresses swinging at a clothing stall while a local pop star wails on tape about lost love, supported in heartbreak by a whirling arabesque backbeat. For a small fee, the young Turk trailing me with a basket slung over his shoulder will truck my purchases like a sherpa so I can buy far more than I can carry. Clever, I think, this traveling grocery and sundry bazaar springs from an old line.
Besides being imperial capital to Byzantine, Roman and Ottoman rulers, Istanbul has long been a capital to traders, an ancient mercantile center at the crossroads of the world. Serving as the last stop on the Silk Road, a trading route carrying goods of India, China and Southeast Asia, the city distributed riches of the East to the Western world. When I began traveling to this city straddling the continents and cultures of Orient and Occident, I discovered each marketplace has its specialty. Where the fabled and sprawling covered Grand Bazaar is often the hard-sell realm of tourist goods, springing up around mosques and main thoroughfares other markets focus on a particular retail segment, exclusively dealing in wallpaper or barbeque sets, books or nuts.
More interesting shopping excursions, if not successful buying trips, have come from wandering Istanbul’s twisted streets, perusing goods of individual vendors who crop up along the roadside. On the Galata Bridge, which spans the Golden Horn estuary, connecting the old town center to what was once a Genoese trading concession, I spied an Anatolian grandmother in a headscarf spreading unlikely wares on a baby blue blanket: power tools.
But the market area most intriguing to me centers on a 17th century stone building along the waterfront. I head there with an open mind and an empty belly.
Known as the Spice or Egyptian Bazaar,the fragrant stone market boasts shops stocking a rainbow of traditional spices, medicinal herbs and confections. Workers mind piles of dried herbs, green henna dust and clumps of oozing honeycomb while patrons sniff and taste, point and shovel. Loaded down with jellied chunks of Turkish delight, dried apricots, pistachios and fresh marshmallows, I make my way to the waterfront entrance of the market and turn right.
There I search the oddest of the mundane in the Flower Market located behind the Spice Market. In a cramped passageway opening into a square, gardening supply vendors are joined by stalls catering to pet owners, workers tending mountains of animal chow while hanging from the rafters, all manner of collars and restraints twist in the breeze. What beast requires this harness with spikes, I wonder, while satisfying myself that grass seeds feel as silky and cool as they look.
Before I lose myself in reverie I happen upon a most memorable man whose shop consists of a chair, on which he sits. At his feet two containers are placed. In one, rubber-covered, millet seed-filled objects are arranged in colorful rows. I recognize them as the squeezable stress-relieving toys popular with office workers in the 1980s. In the other crate, young half-pound bunny rabbits cower and bury themselves in a ball of fur. Children crowd around the rabbit box, reaching in and squealing with delight. If there weren’t so much competition, I might pick up a bunny. Instead I scrutinize the stoppered five-gallon jug half-filled with water at the man’s side. Inside it, writhing black leeches swim and climb. No one reaches in playfully and no one buys. Yet, the fearsome creatures must sell since the jar is heavy and the man would not lug it here if they didn’t.
Used in traditional medicine, the sight itself of a jar of leeches is not unusual, especially since the Spice Bazaar has historically been a center for natural medicinals. In fact, there are several bottles of aquatic blood-sucking worms for sale in this marketplace simply sitting in the sun unattended. There must be no need to guard a vessel of carnivorous parasites. But these particular leeches are kept close, perhaps to provide the sitting man a uniformity of presentation.
As I wander over age-old cobblestones and pigeons take flight in my path, this one-man shop plays on my mind.
Do his offerings reveal a brilliant diversification strategy? Are his products related in some way? If he were to add another line of goods, what would it be? This much seems clear: I have just visited the rare merchant who deals as easily and equally in the stress reducing and the blood sucking, the soft and bouncy and the slimy and flesh-crawling. And the merchant who can span the sale of these goods, whose customers have such divergent needs, sits at the crossroads of the world.
+++ Appeared in Today's Zaman newspaper February 5, 2007 and other print and online publications