Celebrities in Cappadocia, prefab chalets and poorly puppies
By Emma Harper | March 18, 2017
In this blog series, we highlight some of our favourite Turkey-related articles and news titbits that we’ve read over the past month. ‘I never thought I’d be saying this, but I’m a big fan of Martha Stewart’, writes Robert Ousterhout in a delightful post for the Penn History of Art...
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Architecture, Books, History, Literature, Music and Performing Arts, News
Magical snow, sweet-and-sour pomegranate molasses and Turkish fairy tales
By Emma Harper | February 22, 2017
In this blog series, we highlight some of our favourite Turkey-related articles and news titbits that we’ve read over the past month. ‘Snow in Istanbul always feels magical,’ writes Tim Arango in
The New York Times. He documents how last month’s blizzard, the heaviest snowfall in Istanbul since 2009, came as...
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Books, Culinary Arts, History, News, Orientalism, Travel
The landmark exhibition ‘Feyhaman Duran: Between Two Worlds’ opens at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum
By Emma Harper | January 18, 2017
Surveying the life of Feyhaman Duran – one of Turkey’s most beloved painters and the father of Turkish portraiture – it’s clear the artist had many admirable attributes: he valued integrity above financial gain, practised moderation and treated his students at the Academy of Fine Arts with kindness and respect....
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Exhibitions, History, Modern Art
Orientalist aesthetics, Black Sea shipwrecks and refugees in space
By Emma Harper | January 5, 2017
In this blog series, we highlight some of our favourite Turkey-related articles and news titbits that we’ve read and listened to over the past month (or two, in this case). The Ottoman History Podcast began as a modest experiment in 2011, but has since grown into a vast digital resource...
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Archaeology, Contemporary Art, History, News, Photography, Travel
Tolga Örnek’s masterful documentary ‘Gallipoli’ screened at the Heart of Hawick cinema
By Julie Witford | December 23, 2016
The tragedy of the Gallipoli campaign was felt across the world, and not least in the small town of Hawick in the Scottish Borders. By the time the fighting had subsided in 1916, Hawick and the surrounding area had suffered 132 dead, 84 of them in one day alone. That infamous...
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Film, History, News
Byzantine and Ottoman ships revealed in Bulgarian waters
By Roger Williams | November 26, 2016
This is a photogrammetric image (©EEF/Black Sea MAP) of
The Flower of the Black Sea, an Ottoman ship that has been given her name because of the floral patterns found carved on her tiller. Nobody yet knows what she was carrying or where she was going when she sank off...
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Archaeology, History, Nature, News
Istanbul this weekend (November 26–27)
By Emma Harper | November 24, 2016
When the French writer Théophile Gautier first arrived in Istanbul in the mid-19th century he chose a large pit in the middle of the street as his reference point. What was so memorable about this pit? At the bottom of it, ‘a large, aggressive dog was suckling her pups in...
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Exhibitions, History, Photography
Guest workers, Turkish humorists and Byzantine acoustics
By Emma Harper | November 21, 2016
‘Rewarding reads’ is a new feature on the Cornucopia blog. In this series, we highlight some of our favourite Turkey-related articles and news titbits that we've read over the past month. Kornelia Binicewicz is at it again, filing more gaps in the history of the Turkish music industry (she previously...
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Books, Contemporary Art, Design, Exhibitions, History, Literature, Music and Performing Arts, News
By John Scott | November 11, 2016
It was with enormous sadness that we learned of the passing of the great Byzantine historian Anthony Bryer. The funeral service was held yesterday at St Peter's Church, Harborne, in Birmingham. Professor Emeritus of Byzantine Studies at the University of Birmingham, or simply Bryer, as he was known to all,...
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History, Obituaries
Last chance to apply for the Ancient & Modern Prize and the Research Scholarship at the British Institute at Ankara
By Emma Harper | October 26, 2016
Researchers, take note. There’s only a week or so left to apply for two grants awarded to individuals undertaking Turkey-related research. First up is the Ancient & Modern Prize, which is sponsored by Cornucopia magazine, HALI magazine and the three major London auction houses: Bonhams, Christie’s and Sotheby’s. The aim...
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History, Islamic Art, News, Textiles
By David Barchard | October 19, 2016
Last week was the 241st anniversary of the US navy – ‘Tough.’, Bold.’, and ’Ready.’ declared the poster, though it omitted to say that the navy was originally set up to fight Britain in the early months of the War of Independence. Instead in Turkey, eyes were suddenly glued to...
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Fine Art, History
The inaugural Istanbul Carpet Conference took us on a trip from Anatolian ‘cult kilims’ to contemporary carpet design
By Emma Harper | October 9, 2016
‘Come on down!’ bellowed the exuberant MC at last week’s Istanbul Carpet Conference. It was at this moment, which came after the slick opening video and intervals of thumping music, but before any speakers had taken the stage, that I wondered whether I had mistakenly wandered onto a game show...
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Design, History, Islamic Art, Talks and Lectures, Textiles
Çatalhöyük finds, Thracian melodies and Tombili the cat (RIP)
By Emma Harper | October 5, 2016
‘Rewarding reads’ is a new feature on the Cornucopia blog. At the end of each month, we’ll highlight some of our favourite Turkey-related articles and news titbits that we read over the course of the month. In
Discover magazine, Jennifer Hattam elucidates the new techniques utilised by archaeologists and researchers...
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Archaeology, Contemporary Art, Exhibitions, History, Museums, News
On July 15 149 years ago…
By David Barchard | October 1, 2016
On Tuesday July 15, 1867, the Sultan of the Turkish Empire, Abdülaziz, and his attendants were resting in the guest rooms at Buckingham Palace during the first-ever state visit to Britain paid by an Ottoman ruler. The weather was bad. Even though it was the height of summer, several of...
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History
What’s on in Istanbul over the weekend of September 10–11
By Emma Harper | September 8, 2016
Autumn is upon us, bringing with it a plethora of exhibition openings. This weekend we’re sticking close to Karaköy and Tophane for three shows that have opened in the past week. They range from historical explorations and site-specific installations to a more traditional solo showing. All three can be seen...
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Architecture, Contemporary Art, Exhibitions, History
What’s on in Istanbul over the weekend of September 3–4
By Emma Harper | September 1, 2016
Istanbul can feel a bit barren in the summer. That feeling was amplified this year by the constant construction in Beyoğlu and the shuttering of countless shops on İstiklâl Caddesi. Yet a few cultural institutions and galleries have kept their doors open and their spaces filled with art and artefacts....
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Archaeology, Contemporary Art, Exhibitions, History, Photography
A stunning example of these multi-functional mobile palaces
By Ashley Dimmig | July 4, 2016
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On September 11, 1683, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha sat in his ostentatious tent outside the walls of Vienna – as the story goes – luxuriously sipping coffee while taking a break from besieging the city. The sight of the Grand Vizier’s unapologetic display of pure decadence apparently so enraged...
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Architecture, History, Islamic Art, Textiles
How Britain commandeered two dreadnoughts
By Roger Williams | July 1, 2016
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The trigger that caused Turkey to be dragged unwillingly into the First World War was when Germany, unbidden, sent two battleships to replace two dreadnoughts that Britain had confiscated. Details of the events and the diplomatic exchanges between Russia, Constantinople and London that led to this historic moment lie in...
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History, Talks and Lectures
Lexiqamus, a new online search tool, makes deciphering Ottoman words that much easier
By Emma Harper | June 22, 2016
Anyone who has tried their hand at learning Ottoman, the hybrid of Turkish, Arabic and Persian that served as the official and literary language of the Ottoman Empire, is like to have encountered James Redhouse’s
Turkish and English Lexicon (1890). I picked up my copy in Istanbul the summer before...
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History, News
Istanbul Modern opens a new photography exhibition ‘People Attract People’
By Emma Harper | June 2, 2016
From the mouth open wide in mid-guffaw to the two fingers softly securing a cigarette, Ozan Sağdıç’s 1961 photograph ‘Diplomats’ demonstrates how the human form can encompass just as wide and varied a topography as any landscape. Sağdıç is one of 80 photographers whose work is on display in Istanbul...
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Contemporary Art, Exhibitions, History, Photography
