Istanbul_ The Collected Traveler_ An Inspired Companion Guide - Barrie Kerper [6]
Güle, güle! (Bon voyage, or “go with smiles!”)
Turkey
When Turks meet friends in unexpected, remote locations they say, “The world is small.” The saying has never been closer to the truth than at present times because, thanks to the advances in technology, the world is right in their sitting room every night. But while the Turks educate themselves as to the peculiarities of most nations, cultures, and lands, they still remain something of a mystery to the rest of the world, surrounded by a hazy cloud called the Orient. Turkish delight, carpets, towels, cigarettes, and coffee are all that most outsiders can associate with the country, yet beyond this parsimonious list one of the richest of cultures and the most welcoming of hosts lies, waiting to be discovered and appreciated.
—ARIN BAYRAKTAROĞLU,
Culture Shock! Turkey
In Turkey dreams come true, especially if they involve a glass of tea.
—TOM BROSNAHAN,
Turkey: Bright Sun, Strong Tea
It is customary to speak of westernization as having made Turkey two nations: one modern, the other primitive. But this suggests too neat a dichotomy. Most of the time, Turkey is modern and primitive. Simultaneously! Like the girl in the Moslem head scarf wearing a pair of designer glasses; or the old woman with a cordless phone sitting in a house so ancient, it seemed to be tottering.
—ERIC LAWLOR,
Looking for Osman
The Byzantine Empire
Rome of the East
MERLE SEVERY
THE BYZANTINE civilization, centered on Constantinople, was a star that shone brightly during Europe’s Dark Ages. The empire preserved the heritage of Greece and Rome and spread Christianity across a vast realm. After eleven centuries, it finally splintered, its many accomplishments falling in the shadow of the Italian Renaissance.
In this brilliantly detailed interpretive piece, Merle Severy takes an end-of-the-twentieth-century look at Byzantium’s importance “as a buffer shielding medieval Europe from the empire-building Persians, Arabs, and Turks; as a bridge between ancient and modern times; as the creator and codifier of laws and religious, political, and social practices vibrant to this day.” This essay, written in 1983, remains one of the most valued articles in my archive. It is one of the few pieces in which history is presented in a complete, wide-ranging circle.
As this piece originally appeared in National Geographic, it was naturally accompanied by some fantastic photographs and a beautiful, specially created map of the Byzantine world. I had wanted to include the map with this piece—it’s made to look as if it were crafted into a mosaic—but as it was a foldout in the magazine, it would have been lost in a book of this size. Happily, the map was reproduced and enlarged and now hangs in the outer vestibule of Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia), in Istanbul, just inside the main entrance.
MERLE SEVERY founded the National Geographic Society’s book division and worked for the society for almost thirty-eight years. Another very good piece of his not included here, “The World of Süleyman the Magnificent,” could be seen as a companion piece to this one, and I encourage readers to search for it (National Geographic, November 1987).
ON THE twenty-ninth of May in 1453—6,961 years after the creation of the world, by Byzantine reckoning; 1,123 years and 18 days after Constantine the Great dedicated his new Christian Rome on the Bosporus—Constantinople fell to the Turks. With it fell the heart of the Byzantine Empire that once ruled from the Caucasus to the Atlantic, from the Crimea to Sinai, from the Danube to the Sahara.
Yet 1453, a pivot on which ages turn, was a beginning as well. Just as the double-headed eagle, symbol of Byzantium and its spiritual heir,