Issue 41, 2009

Inside Istanbul’s Grand Hammams

£10.00 / $15.19 / 27.96 TL
(Based on day rates)

Time to luxuriate in the steamy world of those monumental testaments to the Ottoman age, the great hammams of Istanbul. Fritz von der Schulenberg’s photographs reveal all, accompanied by etiquette, gossip and lively early travellers’ tales. Plus: Philip Mansel on the court of Selim III; Charles Newton on the Lion of Knidos; Soner Bekir on the great Bosphorus bird migration; and Berrin Torolsan with irresistible celeriac recipes.

Highlights

  • The Poetry Within

    An antiquarian’s deliciously distressed house in the Aegean was Berrin Torolsan’s first inspiration for the text of a new book on Turkish interiors. In this extract from At Home in Turkey, with photographs by Solvi dos Santos, she is captivated by a low-key restoration.

  • Celery’s Sibling

    Although commonly regarded as a root vegetable, like the potato, carrot or turnip, the bulbous part of the celeriac plant is not actually the root but a corm, the base of the leaf stems, out of which modest roots will grow.
    More cookery features

  • Joy in a Bottle

    On the tiny island of Bozcaada (Tenedos), a mere speck in the Aegean, great wines are emerging that rival the best the world can ofer. The Corvus vineyards, once among the Mediterranean’s most celebrated, have suffered centuries of neglect. Kevin Gould raises a glass to their renaissance with the founder of Corvus, Resit Soley. www.corvus.com.tr
    See Cornucopia’s self-guided wine tour

  • Dome of Baroque

    When it was built in 1741 in the new Baroque style, Cağaloğlu was at the forefront of architectural fashion. But this temple of cleanliness in the Old City marks the dramatic swansong of the grand Ottoman hammam.

Inside the issue

Cover Story: Istanbul’s Grand Hammams

  1. Photographs by Fritz von der Schulenburg

The Baths

  1. Çemberlitaş
    The Queen Mother's Baths
    [extract available online]
  2. Çinili Hammam
    Barbarossa's Baths
    [extract available online]
  3. Galatasaray Hammam
    Star Treatment
    [extract available online]
  4. Cağaloğlu Hammam
    Dome of Baroque
    [extract available online]

First-hand Accounts

  1. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
    Steaming in Sofia
  2. Charles White
    How fellows take their baths
  3. Miss Pardoe has the vapours
    Straight-laced Julia Pardoe explores a hammam

Digging for Glory

  1. Rupert Scott on Charles Newton's Bodrum expedition [available online]

The Power of Photography

  1. Charles Newton and the birth of archaeological photography [extract available online]

The Great Bosphorus Migration

  1. Birds of passage, by Soner Bekir

Connoisseur

  1. Eastern Enlightenment
    Philip Mansel on the Selim III exhibition at the Topkapı
    [available online]

Books Special

  1. Turbulent Times
    David Barchard on the100th Anniversary of the Restoration of the Constitution
    [available online]
  2. The Poetry Within
    Berrin Torolsan on a romantic Agean house
    [available online]
  3. Out of the Fire
    Dance of Fire, Iznik ceramics at the Sadberk Hanım Museum
    [available online]
  4. Our Man in Halicarnassus
    Author Justin Marozzi explains his fascination with Herodotus
    [available online]

Book reviews

  1. Journey into Fear by Eric Ambler.
    Reviewed by Norman Stone
  2. The Shaping of the Ottoman Balkans,
    by Heath W Lowry
    The Evrenos Dynasty of Yenice Vardar,
    by Heath W Lowry and Ismail E Erünsal
    Reviewed by Caroline Finkel
    [available online]
  3. Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle over our Ancient heritage, by James Cuno. Reviewed by Christian Tyler
  4. Paradise Lost: Smyrna 1922, by Giles Milton.
    History of the Later Roman Empire AD284–641, by Stephen Mitchell.
    Reviewed by David Barchard

Food & Wine

  1. Joy in a Bottle
    Kevin Gould on new wines from Bozcaada
  2. Celery's Sibling
    Berrin Torolsan on the story of celeriac
    [extract available online]

Regulars

  1. Private View: by Andrew Finkel
  2. Village Voices: Azize Ethem's Iznik Diary
  3. Restaurants: The Style Revolution
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Issue 41, 2009
£10.00 / $15.19 / 27.96 TL

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