Istanbul_ The Collected Traveler_ An Inspired Companion Guide - Barrie Kerper [65]
The Passage of Flowers
JOHN FREELY
I GENERALLY do not feature excerpts from books in Collected Traveler editions. I do make exceptions, however, and this is the third one in this book alone. The following piece is the final chapter in John Freely’s wonderful book, Stamboul Sketches. When I met him in Istanbul, he told me that, of all his many books, Stamboul Sketches was his favorite. I was a little embarrassed that I’d not read it, so upon my return home, I immediately searched online for a copy, and one arrived at my desk a week later. I completely understood why he felt such affection for this book. It was published in 1974 by Redhouse Press in Istanbul, and the text is accompanied by black-and-white photographs by Sedat Pakay, who is a graduate of the Yale University School of Art and whose photographs have been published internationally.
Freely explains in his introduction that the inspiration for this book came from one written in about 1680, Seyahatname, or “Narrative of Travels,” by Evliya Efendi. In 1638, Sultan Murad IV told an assembly of scholars that “though so many countries and cities have been minutely described by geographers and historians yet this my residence of Constantinople remains undescribed.” This imperial complaint led Evliya to write his own account of life in Istanbul during Murat’s reign and those that followed. Freely discovered, after reading Evliya’s work, that the basic character of the city hasn’t really changed. “Although the eunuchs and the Janissaries have gone, the sights and sounds and smells in the streets of Istanbul are much the same as those which Evliya records in the Seyahatname.” Evliya Efendi appears throughout the book, and Freely enjoys having him at his side as he attempts to evoke the spirit of the Istanbul he has known over the years. Naturally, some of the characters and scenes portrayed here exist no longer. “Nevertheless,” says Freely, “I have made no attempt to update the sketches, for they and the photos by Sedat Pakay are a picture of the city we knew and loved in years past, the old Stamboul of our memories.” I urge readers who are even remotely interested in reading about the Istanbul of the recent past to track down this very special book.
JOHN FREELY teaches physics at Bosphorus University in Istanbul (formerly Robert College, the oldest American college outside the U.S.), and is the author of more than forty books, including Strolling Through Istanbul (with Hilary Sumner-Boyd, Redhouse, 1972), Istanbul: The Imperial City (Penguin, 1998), The Western Shores of Turkey: Discovering the Aegean and Mediterranean Coasts (Tauris Parke, 2004), Strolling Through Athens (Tauris Parke, 2004), Strolling Through Venice (Penguin, 1994), several editions of the Blue Guide to Istanbul, and, most recently, Aladdin’s Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World (Knopf, 2009). In 2001, the John Freely Fellowship was established by the Joukowsky Family Foundation and the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT). In 2008, the first volume of works by five Freely fellows was published: Studies on Istanbul and Beyond: The Freely Papers. In the foreword, Nina Joukowsky Köprülü writes that the book “is a celebration of John Freely’s lifelong passion for and curiosity about Istanbul.” Dr. Robert Ousterhout, professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, “whose dedication to Istanbul is matched only by that of Freely himself,” relates in the introduction that “in July 2006, Freely celebrated his eightieth birthday surrounded by family, friends, colleagues, and devoted admirers. The gala, an all-day event, was hosted by Boğaziçi University,