Istanbul_ The Collected Traveler_ An Inspired Companion Guide - Barrie Kerper [176]
RECOMMENDED READING
From the Bosphorus, by Richard Hinkle and Rhonda Vander Sluis (Çitlembik, 2003). This is a little book you positively must have if you’re going on a Bosphorus cruise. It’s lightweight, fully illustrated in color, and packed with descriptions about nearly every site and building along both banks from the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea. Both Hinkle and Vander Sluis were U.S. State Department staffers in Istanbul when they hatched the idea for this book. Hinkle also worked as a volunteer coordinator for the consulate motor launch, The Hiawatha, and he gave countless tours on the Bophorus for visiting friends and government officials. The authors are careful to state that this volume is necessarily brief and is not a definitive work. However, they also note that due to multiple ownership, patchy record-keeping, and the lack of surnames until after the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, there are conflicting accounts about some of the structures along the Bosphorus. They made every effort to vet the accuracy of the information, but sometimes it was educated guesswork: “Legend, rumor, and intrigue have been part and parcel of Bosphorus history and Ottoman tradition for centuries; it defies our Western attempts at organization.” Happily, Hinkle confirms that “a tour along the Bosphorus will find more of the old shore houses being restored than ever before.” This book is only available in Turkey or through Cornucopia magazine, which is how I came by my copy (U.S. and Canada: 971 244 8802 / cornucopia.net).
Splendors of Istanbul: Houses and Palaces Along the Bosphorus, by Chris Hellier with photographs by Chris Hellier and Francesco Venturi (Abbeville, 1993). “The shores of the Bosphorus,” writes Hellier in this excellent book’s first chapter, “its waters alive with ferries and fishing boats, motor launches and luxury yachts, are still one of the most enchanting aspects of this seductive three-in-one city: Byzantium-Constantinople-Istanbul.” Five chapters (including one fully devoted to the Grand Seraglio) paired with exterior and interior photographs tell the fascinating history of residential building on the Bosphorus. My favorite chapter is “Wooden Mansions,” about yalıs. Though these grand wooden houses passed through several distinct architectural phases as the city adapted to new ideas largely imported from abroad, in their original form they were perched on the water’s edge and had cantilevered bay windows jutting out over the water.
Interestingly, Hellier notes that the eighteenth-century Fethi Ahmet Pasha Yalı, which is raised up on slender timber columns, impressed Le Corbusier when he visited Constantinople in 1911 and ultimately influenced the design of some of his buildings, notably the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille, which is supported on gigantic concrete pillars. Hellier also tells us that, as early as the 1720s, the Turkish chronicler Küçük Çelebizâde Asim Efendi noted the traditional color of the yalıs—rust red, or “Ottoman rose”—was beginning to change in the direction of pastel shades, which were introduced through increasing contact with Europe. He also notes that different ethnic communities in the city could often be identified by the color of their homes. “Along the Bosphorus, Turks, Armenians, and Greeks lived in separate villages, rarely meeting each other except for business. The Turks’ houses were painted in fanciful, gay colours prohibited to other groups. Armenians confined themselves to red; the Greeks, to a lead colour; while the Jews, descendants of the Sephardic community expelled from Spain in 1492, were compelled to colour their houses black. Some of the Porte’s wealthiest ministers and businessmen painted their spacious homes in two distinct colours, giving the effect of separate but attached dwellings.”
After the formation of the Turkish republic in 1923, many of the Bosphorus