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Issue 48, Autumn 2012

Rural Treasures

£10.00 / $12.73 / €11.69
($/€ approx)


Rare glimpses of Ottoman delights: from the naively painted village mosques of Denizli to the gilded splendours of the sultans’ chambers in the Harem of the Topkapı. Maureen Freely laments the loss of the Village Institutes, which shaped a generation of Turkish idealists. Henk Boom charts the turbulent times of Baron van Dedem, Dutch ambassador to Constantinople from 1785 to 1810. Mark Waelkens, who uncovered the giant statue of Emperor Hadrian at Sagalassos, talks about his momentous finds. Robert Ousterhout leafs through Gertrude Bell’s Istanbul diaries, and John Carswell remembers Honor Frost, doyenne of underwater archaeology. Paul Veysseyre’s moody photographs recapture the Istanbul of the Seventies, while Berrin Torolsan finds delicious ways of cooking with grapes.
See what’s inside: scroll down for full contents.

Highlights

  • Clerical Error

    The lethal mischief of Canon MacColl, by David Barchard

  • Socialite, Traveller, Scholar, Spy…

    The Istanbul diaries of Gertrude Bell, now available online, reveal her astonishing transformation from socialite to scholar and political observer. By Robert Ousterhout


  • Pomp and Perfidy

    As Turkey and the Netherlands celebrate 400 years of diplomatic relations, Henk Boom highlights the twenty turbulent years that Frederik Gijsbert, Baron van Dedem spent as ambassador to Constantinople


  • Simply Sufi

    Simple on the outside, some wooden village mosques had an added portico reminiscent of galleries opening onto the courtyards of private houses in the region. Inside, pillared halls and colourful painting on the wooden structure and on the walls make for a warm, joyful space. Photographs by Tarkan Kutlu


  • Sanctuary of the Sultans

    Abdülhamid I and Osman III’s private quarters in the Topkapı. Photographed by Fritz von der Schulenburg

  • The Man who Rescued Hadrian

    Sagalassos, the remote site in southern Turkey where a giant statue of Emperor Hadrian was discovered five years ago, is the driving passion of Marc Waelkens. The Belgian archaeologist, whose new book is now available from Cornucopia, talks to Thomas Roueché about his pioneering work as director of excavations



  • Fruit of the Gods

    The best table grapes in Istanbul are the fragrant, delicate skinned çavuş from the northern Aegean island of Bozcaada, ancient Tenedos, and the sweet sultaniye grapes from around Izmir.

  • Muted World

    Maggie Quigley-Pınar describes a book of photographs that evoke the spirit an almost-forgotten modern era: Istanbul in the 1970s


  • The Diving Diva

    John Carswell pays tribute to his friend Honor Frost, doyenne of underwater archaeology


  • The Flow of Time

    James Crow on Istanbul’s amazing system of aqueducts


  • Harem Secrets

    The landmark 2012 exhibition at the Tokpapı Palace, and the sumptuous book that accompanied it.

  • A Brave New World

    They were stigmatised and despised, and eventually they were closed down. But what would Turkey be today without the Village Institutes, its bravest educational revolution, and the young people they empowered? Maureen Freely tells the moving story of the institutes, the subject of a new book and exhibition



Inside the issue

Books

  1. What the Mayor Saw
    Watercolours of Ottoman life.
    Olga Nefedova on the 16th-century traveller Bartholomäus Schachman
    [extract available online]
  2. Muted World
    Maggie Quigley-Pınar on Paul Veysseyre's moody photographs of Seventies Istanbul
    [available online]
  3. A Seriously Magnum Opus
    Tim Stanley on Doğan Kuban's magisterial account of Ottoman architecture over six centuries
    [extract available online]
  4. Cry Me a River
    Rupert Scott applauds the glorious gloom of Meander by Jeremy Seal and
  5. Brian Sewell's reissued South From Ephesus [available online]

Regulars

  1. Connoisseur
  2. Harem Secrets The Topkapı Harem unveilled, by Caroline Finkel. [available online]
  3. Plus London's saleroom finds, the Louvre's dramatic Islamic galleries, flowers in bloom in Washington and the art of early Ottoman branding
  4. Private View
    Andrew Finkel muses over Istanbul's 2020 Olympics bid, the European Union and the new Bond film
  5. State of the Arts
    Michael Hornsby's round-up of the burgeoning contemporary art scene in Istanbul
  6. Village Voices
    On her return to Iznik, Azize Ethem finds flocks of migratory birds and volunteers and a neighbour keen to find a wife
    [available online]
  7. Eating Out
    Memorable mezes: Andrew Finkel finds satisfying echoes of pre-global Istanbul
  8. Letter from Anatolia
    Roger Norman on the mysterious roots of the Hıdrellez festival
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