Istanbul_ The Collected Traveler_ An Inspired Companion Guide - Barrie Kerper [51]
Kurdish Heritage Foundation of America, Brooklyn, New York (718 783 7930 / kurdishlibrarymuseum.com)
Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History, by Susan Meiselas (Random House, 1997; University of Chicago, 2008). This is the only illustrated book I know of about the Kurds, and it’s beautiful. Photographer Meiselas first ventured into Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War and was so moved by her visit that she decided to create a visual history of the Kurds. The book is filled with not only her photographs but also older images by journalists, colonial administrators, missionaries, anthropologists, etc., as well as letters, memoirs, maps, advertisements, and government reports, making it a kind of scrapbook—a format I particularly like.
The Kurds: A People in Search of Their Homeland, by Kevin McKiernan (St. Martin’s Press, 2006). War journalist McKiernan details the Kurds since 1975 and only in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq (not Iran). His extensive travels through the region—and his telling in the first person—combine to produce a memoir-documentary that reveals the diversity of the Kurds and the “secret horror” that is their history.
“Minority Rules,” by Meline Toumani (The New York Times Magazine, February 17, 2008). In this excellent article, Toumani visits Diyarbakir, in southeastern Turkey, and spends time with the former mayor, Abdullah Demirbas. She tells us that, according to a report by the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, Demirbas had violated the ban on speaking or writing in Kurdish on several occasions. Toumani deftly wades through the complexities of the Kurdish-Turkish issue—this piece is very much worth accessing online.
A Modern History of the Kurds, by David McDowall (I. B. Tauris, 2001, third revised edition). This impressive, scholarly work is for readers who really want the definitive volume. McDowall is a British specialist on Middle Eastern affairs and he presents a thorough history of the Kurds in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey from the nineteenth century to the present day.
Washington Kurdish Institute, Washington, D.C. (202 484 0140 / kurd.org)
RECOMMENDED READING
At Home in Turkey, text by Berrin Torolsan, photos by Solvi dos Santos (Thames & Hudson, 2008). A beautiful and substantive volume by the winning duo of Torolsan—publishing director of Cornucopia: The Magazine for Connoisseurs of Turkey—and dos Santos—one of the world’s best-known lifestyle photographers. Abodes all across Turkey are featured, a dozen of which are in Istanbul, including the Kıbrıslı yalı, now home to Rahmi M. Koç, Turkey’s leading industrialist. Torolsan’s unrivaled knowledge of even the smallest details make this an inspiring, must-have volume.
The Balkans: A Short History, by Mark Mazower (Modern Library, 2000). A volume in the Modern Library Chronicles series, this is an excellent 188-page read complete with seven maps (from 1550 to 2000) and a thorough chronology (beginning with the foundation of Constantinople).
A Byzantine Journey, by John Ash (Random House, 1995). In a casual survey about Byzantium, Ash discovered that most people he spoke to were not at all clear on the subject. They didn’t know which territories became a part of the Empire, and most didn’t know that the Byzantines spoke Greek. “Such confusion,” notes Ash, “was hardly shocking, but, given the enormous debt we owe the Byzantines, it was saddening.” So he set off on a Byzantine journey throughout Anatolia, and he created memorable and thought-provoking images.
Byzantium: The Early Centuries (1989), Byzantium: The Apogee (1992), Byzantium: The Decline and Fall (1995), and A Short History of Byzantium (1997), all by John Julius Norwich (published by Knopf in the U.S. and by Viking in the United Kingdom; paperbacks are also available). In his