Istanbul_ The Collected Traveler_ An Inspired Companion Guide - Barrie Kerper [234]
Sultan Portreleri: Bosphorus by Moonlight (Kalan, 2004), which features Emre Aracı and the Prague Symphony Chamber Orchestra, is beautiful. Out of pure curiosity, I bought Ottoman Music, by Zeki Doğan (Çağri), which is historical Ottoman Janissary music. It’s not exactly toe-tapping, but it’s interesting … for a few minutes. “Uzun İnce Bir Yoldayım,” by Aşık Veysel, a legendary Turkish folk poet, is one of the best examples of this type of music, and is very haunting.
The very best compilation of Turkish music is featured on a video documentary, Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul, by Fatih Akın. Crossing the Bridge, produced by Strand Releasing, is just fantastic. It includes contemporary musicians in styles ranging from modern electronic, rock, and hip-hop to classical Arabesk (or Arabesque). (According to the Rough Guide, Arabesk refers to the dominant Turkish music during the 1980s and ’90s and is a “working-class and, to an extent, outsiders’ sound which addressed the everyday realities and problems of the gariban, the poor and oppressed.”) As stated in Time Out Istanbul, “If you see the film after your visit to Istanbul, you’ll recognize many places and sounds; see it before your trip and you’ll be aware of some of the undercurrents that run through modern city life.” The cinematography is also very enticing!
Two good music stores that will allow you to listen to (most) discs before you buy are Sel Kasetçilik (İstiklâl Caddesi 317 / +90 212 244 7188) and Mephisto (İstiklâl Caddesi 125 / +90 212 249 0696).
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Nazar Boncugu
This is Turkish for “evil eye,” and nearly everywhere visitors look in Turkey they will see plenty of the blue glass evil-eye beads. Belief in the evil eye is not unique to Turkey—it’s prevalent through the Near East, South Asia, and the Mediterranean. The blue glass amulet is hung from rearview mirrors on cars, on doors at home and at offices, on desk drawers, in windows, on walls, on the reins of horses—just about everywhere—and the amulet is meant as protection, to ward off the evil eye. Though there are some cultural differences, generally the evil eye refers to a belief that misfortune may result from the envy of someone else’s good luck, and this envy could be of material possessions, health or beauty, or offspring. It is believed that some people can bestow a curse on others by the malevolent gaze of their eye, even if innocently.
Among Muslims, it is customary to say “Maşallah” (“God has willed it”) when expressing any kind of appreciation (see page 563). I still have a newspaper clipping, now nearly twenty years old, in which a Fenerbahçe soccer goalkeeper, Yaşar, was quoted as saying, “I was afflicted by the evil eye. I let six goals through,” when he was recounting a match (the champion Fenerbahçe team lost 6-1 to Aydinspor). As ubiquitous as the blue glass eyes are in Turkey, I remain fond of them, and I don’t feel a trip has been complete unless I leave with a few in my suitcase.
Nettleberry
Nettleberry (nettleberry.com) is a South Dakota-based distributor of high-quality Turkish language and Turkish subject books that would otherwise be unavailable in the U.S. The Web site has an extensive selection of books for adults as well as children, from age two up to about thirteen or fourteen. Nettleberry is a great source for books about Turkey that you may be unable to find in general bookstores.
Nightlife
If I had been writing this book fifteen years ago, nightlife wouldn’t even have been an entry in this Miscellany. But, as Seth Sherwood noted in The New York Times (“Party Destination of the Year: Istanbul,” December 10, 2006), “Fueled