Highlights of the Brussels exhibition Mothers, Goddesses and Sultans, which exploring 10,000 years of of the female form, range from the Ottoman lady drinking coffee (see cover, above) from Istanbul's new Pera Museum, to Aphrodite in a diaphanous shift (far right), a vigorous Amazon (right) - both 1st century BC - and the voluptuous 6th millennium goddess (centre) discovered by James Mellaart at Çatalhüyük in the early 1960s.
Cornucopia Arts Diary for the latest news on exhibitions and auction houses in Istanbul and around the world, including Istanbul Modern, the Sadberk Hanim Museum , the Pera Museum, plus amazing Iznik in London at Sotheby's and Christie's.
TURKS 600 - 1600, at the Royal Academy
Review by John Carswell Exhihition photographs by Fritz von der Schulenburg
In a special 25-page report, Cornucopia picks the highlights of the most important exhibition ever to come out of Turkey. Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600-1600 opened at the Royal Academy at the start of 2005 to great acclaim. The Ottoman exhibits, many of them never before seen outside Turkey, are a glorious marriage of refinement and splendour. But Turks is about more than the Ottomans. It celebrates the art of three great Turkic cultures: that of the Seljuks, who ruled Persia and most of Anatolia; that of Tamerlane, based in Samarkand, which stretched from India to the Mediterranean; and the Ottoman Empire itself. Central Asia has had a profound influence on Western culture that has been ignored for too long. Turks is set to change all that.
The catalogue Turks 600-1600, edited by David Roxburgh is available to Cornucopia subscribers at £65, including postage worldwide.
Click on cover to read John Carswell's review of the exhibition and catalogue, and to order the book online.
The Turkic World I Tribe and tribulation
The Kirghiz of Eastern Anatolia Article by Ali Karasar Plus Antony Wynn on where the Kirghiz came from. Read this article. Photographs by Jonathan Henderson
After years of wandering in western China, Afghanistan and Pakistan, a group of Kirghiz have finally made a lasting home in the highlands of eastern Anatolia. The historian Hasan Ali Karasar, who as a boy in Van witnessed their arrival recounts an extraordinary tale.
At the school in Ulu Pamir a girl in a faceframing headdress and fancy waistcoat - and with rings on her fingers and thumbs- performs a graceful Kirghiz dance.
On the subject of Central Asian Turks, we also recommend Cornucopia 31
Walking the Taurus by Kate Clow with photographs by Kate Clow and Terry Richardson
Kate Clow, creator of Turkey's first official walking route, has done it again. Caroline Finkel joined her on the new St Paul Trail, which crosses the giant Taurus range in southern Turkey.
Simply sensational: ten beautiful böreks Text and photographs by Berrin Torolsan
It can be the star at family feasts or the perfect fast food. Golden and crisp outside, meltingly delicate inside, the börek is a heavenly marriage of feather-light pastry and cheese, meat, vegetables - or just about any filling you care to think of. Berrin Torolsan serves up ten irresistible recipes.
Cookery features and recipes in every issue of Cornucopia.
On your marques: Brave new wines from Turkey. Kevin Gould on the independent spirit of Turkish wine makers. Photograph by Berrin Torolsan
Twelve wines were tasted: they ranged from Kavaklidere's narince from Tokat 1999 ("long as a summer's day, pretty as your sweetheart") to Cankara's Alaz 2003 ("plumber's mastic"). Pick of the bunch was Doluca's Karma (cabernet sauvignon and okuzgozu grapes) - "twin themes of tight, thin tannins and fat, luscious fruit make Karma an elegant, thoughtful, meditative wine, a bottle of which makes you feel pretty damn holy".
Riddle of the Runes: Kazim Mirsan and the routes of language by Christian Tyler
After years of delving into the origins of writing and language, Kazim Mirsan has put forward an astonishing claim: that at the root of it all is an ancient, proto-Turkish mother tongue. Genius or dreamer? Christian Tyler meets a man whose hypotheses threaten to turn the very history of man on its head.
Book Reviews
Norman Stone: Birds Without Wings, by Louis de Bernieres The Maze, by Panos Karnezis
David Barchard: The Crimean War, by Clive Ponting
Andrew Mango: Salonica, City of Ghosts, by Mark Mazower
Caroline Finkel: Balconies of Istanbul, by Oya Sengor and Sheree Barka
Hugh Pope: Turkey: Bright Sun, Strong Tea, by Tom Brosnahan
