The Ottoman Pleasure Garden How gardens became an art form by John Carswell
The Ottomans were not only passionate about flowers. They turned the enjoyment of gardens into an art form. John Carswell leafs through a lavish volume which unlocks the gate to the pleasure grounds of Istanbul's Ottoman palaces.
In a spectacular festival in 1582, the guild of florists had its own float, with cypress trees and a fountain.
This article offers the highlights of Nurhan Atasoy's book Garden for the Sultan, which is now out of print. The book is reviewed by John Drake
This painting by the artist Cornelius Loos, painted in 1710, shows that the kiosk at the Palace of Fener Bahcesi was elaborate even by imperial standards.
If you are interested in gardens and gardening history in Turkey, we recommend Cornucopia 13, a special garden issue
City of shadows
Kirkuk after the war The Citadel of Kirkuk by Owen Matthews with photographs by Ashley Gilbertson
Under the Ottomans, Kirkuk's ancient citadel was the heart of a thriving cosmopolitan city. But politics and oil have reduced it to a deserted ruin. Owen Matthews, who has been covering Iraq for several years, visited Kirkuk at the end of the Iraq war. Ashley Gilberton's dramatic photography accompanies this moving article by Newsweek's Istanbul correspondent.
The writer Owen Matthews and photographer Ashley Gilbertson also cooperated on an article on the Turks of Thrace in Forgotten Corner of a Foreign Land.Cornucopia 30.
'The ghost of the citadel of Kirkuk - or Kerkük as the Turks know it - appears at dawn when the dowmes and minarets of the old city are picked out by the sunrise and its walls seem whole. In the half-light, the citadel hill looks grand and brooding, and you can imagine that the city is sleeping, instead of dead.
Only when the light strengthens do you see that the heart of what was once a thriving and ancient trading centre, one of the southernmost outposts of Turkish civilisation, is now just an empty husk....'
The Citadel of Kirkuk, seen from the minaret of a mosque across the Khasa river
Ashley Gilbertson's photographs illustrate Christian Tyler's article Turks of China. Cornucopoia 31
The Aegean
Mary's House The dream that led to the Virgin's house at Ephesus by Donald Carroll
In the closing years of the nineteenth century, the Aegean coast of Turkey witnessed three of the greatest archaeological finds of all time. The discovery of Ephesus and Troy made international headlines overnight. But the third - an unassuming stone house in an isolated forest - was immediately enveloped in secrecy.
A 19th century nun's vision led to the house near Ephesus where Mary lived.
Giotto's 'Flight into Egypt' in Padua.
The Taurus Mountains
Wild flowers of the deep south Text and photographs by Martyn Rix
Martyn Rix sidesteps the concrete condos of the Turkish Riviera to go searching for native flowers. In the valleys of the Taurus Mountains and on the unspoilt rocky headlands of the coast, he finds wild gladioli, tassel hyacinths, Persian fritillaries - and Styrax Officinallis an ancient survivor of the Ice Age (right)
Alsoby Martyn Rix: see Cornucopia 26 (the wild flowers of Mt Ida) and Cornucopia 31(wild flowers of the high Taurus Mts)
The Mediterranean
The house on the hill A modern classic in Kalkan by Andrew Finkel. Photographs by James Mortimer
Dipping into a Mediterranean idyll, Stephen and Nina Solarz have built a haven high above the harbour at Kalkan. Andrew Finkel paid them a visit.
Nina and Stephen Solarz
New architecture also features in Cornucopia 34: The Spirit's Wake, the story of a new boutique hotel on the Bosphorus, by Patricia Daunt with photographs by Jürgen Frank
Remarkable Lives
On the wrong side of history: The Strangfords by David Barchard
They were a family of Turcophiles with more brains than wealth or political judgement. David Barchard chronicles the lives of the remariable Strangfords
The Strangford Apollo, one of the very best pieces of early Greek sculpture, was part of the collection the sixth viscount sold to buy himself a country house. It is now in the British Museum. Image courtesy of the British Museum
Also in this issue: The quiet revolutionary: Namik Kemal, poet and political prophet, by Osman Streater.
Cookery
Solar Power Tomatoes and Turkish tomato recipes Text and photographs by Berrin Torolsan
Red peppers, chillies, maize and sunflowers set the Mediterranean ablaze with their pungent flavours and fiery colours. But of the Aztecs' gifts it is the tomato above all that tastes of the sun.
The recipes: Domates Çorbasi (two different tomato soups), Domates Yemegi (tomatoes with sweet basil), Domates Dolmasi (stuffed tomatoes), Domatesli Bulgur Pilavi (bulgur pilav with tomato)
For a complete list of Berrin Torolsan's cookery stories in Cornucopia, see our cookery index. Selected recipes are also available online: menus.
Cookery features in every issue of Cornucopia
Also in this issue: Charles Perry, Arabist and food historian, unravels Central Asian noodles. Cornucopia 31 the Central Asian feast of the equinox by Charles Perry
Connoisseur
Alchemy on a plate The first photographs of Istanbul, by Elizabeth Meath Baker. Photographs courtesy of Christie's London
Recently sold for record prices, the magical daguerreotype plates of Istanbul in the 1840s in this article are the earliest known photographic images of the city. They are the work of Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, an obsessive Frenchman with a passion for Islamic architecture.
Also in this issue Iznik ceramics on show in Qatar, with a review of the catalogue by Godfrey Goodwin. For the connection between Iznik and Chinese porcelain, see An Odyssey in Blue, by John Carswell, Cornucopia 25
Istanbul shopping
Made to last Beyoglu's last bespoke shoe shops by Owen Matthews with photographs by Berrin Torolsan
A handful of tightly knit artisans still make bespoke shoes in Istanbul. Owen Matthews steps out in search of the footwear families of Istanbul.
Cornucopia's Trade Secrets series also includes:
Master of Plaster: a Beyoglu plaster cast hoard Cornucopia 23; Sweetness and Light: Bursa's marron glacé Cornucopia 25; Blue is the Colour of..., the glass bead-makers of Izmir Cornucopia 26; Fine Fast Food, güllac pancakes Cornucopia 27
