Istanbul’s Heart of the Matter
If you want to see Istanbul, the best thing is to follow a sea route for the city that was originally found by Constantine the great and recreated in 1453 by Sultan Mehmet II. However, majority of travelers follow the road routes to see various exotic locations in this city and hence, are able to see just huge apartments and offices. So the best suggestion for them is to head straight for the Grand Bazaar (Covered Bazaar or the Kapalicarsi) , which is, undoubtedly, the heart of this city. It was here that the wealth of this Ottoman city was made.
The Grand Bazaar which dates back to the period of Sultan Mehmet’s conquest has many of the elements of the Ottoman period, however, one cannot find anyone selling sword or shields belonging to the ancient times of the Ottoman era.
The streets of the Grand Bazaar, which were full of men who ran various shops in this bazaar in the 19th century but now, it is not surprising to find women outnumbering men as owners of various shops. But, one can still find men as shopkeepers in the one-room shops and booths. And even now, one can find shopkeepers enticing and vying attention of tourists by presenting them with cups of coffee or tea in their hands because this is one of the clever measures adopted by shopkeepers to attract tourists into their shops.
A huge hall in the Grand Bazaar (Covered Bazaar) named the Sandal Bedesten, which was a venue for holding carpet auctions till recent times, used to sell some of the finest fabrics and rugs. In the earlier times. Many of such bedesten or covered markets had stores at the back side of each shop. These stores were locked at night. Apart from the storerooms, the doors of all halls were also guarded and locked up.
A list of various guilds in the city was drawn by Evliya Celebi in the 17th century. Out of these guilds, nearly 200 were velvet makers who occupied 70 shops. Among them also included kaftan makers or the makers of robes-of-honor which totaled to 105 and occupied 50 shops. And 111 men were in carpet guild and occupied 40 shops. Various carpets that were sold in the Grand Bazaar (Covered Bazaar) were brought from Cairo, Kavala, Ushak, Smyrna, Salonika and Esfahan, according to the estimates by Evliya Celebi.
Different shops were grouped according to the trade in which they dealt, and the controlling power of such shops was not merely in the hands of their guilds only but also in the hands of either the Cadi ( a Muslim judge) or the officials of the Cadi who were supposed to set certain standards to be followed.
And if anyone was found to be involved in malpractices in his business including selling less weight or low quality goods, then he was given severe punishment in the form of beating of his feet, nailing of his ear to the shop’s doorway and a placard showing his offence. The punishment could be as severe as haltering with two huge planks, each weighing fifty kilos. As the bells tinkled, the tourists’ attraction was diverted towards the guilty trader who was hurled with insults by the crowd.
The Grand Bazaar (Covered Bazaar) had shops managed by men and dealing in everything from food, clothing to several other products. However, cheap commodities like old or used clothes were usually sold in the small lanes of the open market. The open bazaar has its lanes stretching to the famous Golden Horn.
Apart from the shops in the Grand Bazaar and the open lanes selling old commodities, merchants from Anatolia and different parts of Asia were also involved in selling goods in their caravanserai or hons. These were medium sized buildings made of stone comprising of stables, store-room and the goods meant to be sold.
The market area had neither peace nor dignity expected for mosques. Hence, mosques were built away from such hustle and bustle of the streets. Among the greatest mosque built was of the Grand Vizier Rustem Pasa built in the memory of his widow, Mihrimah, who was one of the richest women of the world.
This mosque was built by Sinan, the greatest architects of the Ottoman times, who was the man behind the greatest mosque for Suleyman the Magnificent built in Istanbul. The mosque of Rustem Pasa has been renovated and refurbished recently so as to recreate the same dazzling effect by the walls made from Iznik tiles that has not been hitherto created by any mosque.
The Covered Bazaar was, by and large, successful in revival of the glory of the city that was once left in a deplorable state by the Byzantines. This could not have been possible without the grand position of Istanbul whose population of nearly 70,000 in the year 1453 grew in the 16th century to a whopping 400,000.
After the completion of the huge mosque of the Valide Sultan (the Queen Mother) just beside the Golden Horn in the 17th century, the spice market was shifted to a new and better building called Egyptian Bazaar (Spice Market or Misir carsisi). This happens to be the same square where caged birds and plants can be bought even now. Once, it used to be the hub of activity with the trading by the coffee houses.
The society of Istanbul had a guild system where brotherhood was the substitute for cut-throat competition. It was a common tradition to hold an annual parade in which members of different trades took part and demonstrated their respective skills. The day long annual parade concluded at the Hippodrome near the lodge of the sultan. This old lodge has been now converted to the Turkish and Islamic Art Museum and on the opposite side of this lodge is the famous mosque of Ahmet I.
The famous Blue Mosque, which is a famous monument of Istanbul, was made by Mehmet. The mosque had six minarets and many designs in the tile panels of the gallery of this mosque were taken from the rich patterns of the carpets. The mosque has a huge royal pavilion where the Grand Vizier had carried out the suppression of the Janissaries in the year 1826. The leaders of the Janissaries were imprisoned. The present pavilion- the Ahmetiye Royal Kiosk, which has been rebuilt, has been now converted to a museum named Vakifiar Museum where kilims and rugs brought from Anatolia and even beyond are stored.
In the past, several grand Turkish homes had carpet spread in the center part of the room and no one walked on the carpet and used runners on four sides of the carpet for walking. Rugs made from silks were used to cover the divans in the rooms and were decorated with finely made big cushions. During night, living rooms were used as bedrooms as various beddings were stored in big cupboards of the rooms.
Next famous monument of Istanbul is the Dolmabahce Palace. This palace was built by the famous Balyans family of Armenians in 1850s that were also behind building of several royal palaces in the 19th century. The Dolmabahce Palace was built for Abdul Mecit I. this palace had carpets of some very highly exceptional quality which were made in a factory down the Marmara Sea at Hereke. After the renovation work of this palace took place in the 1950s, almost similar intricate and refined patterns and weaving were produced by the looms of Hereke.
Till the period of 19th century, superior or high class shops of Pera (now Beyoglu) could be visited only by middle class women and the shopkeepers had no option but to attend to such women to avoid any scandal. Pera was regarded to be the European quarter and was home to several embassies many of which still survive though as consulates even now.
Women, during the 19th century, had their dependence for basic day-to-day necessities on the street vendors. Their day began with the arrival of milkman at the dawn and this was followed by several other street vendors who came to sell different commodities of daily necessities in their own typical ways. The street vendors included vegetable sellers among others. And it was a common scene to witness disputes and arguments over the price of the wares between the housewives and the sellers. The only difference was that the housewives enjoyed the support from their sons.
Even now, one cannot fail to find some fruit juice sellers or water sellers on the streets of Pera although, their number has declined. Also, one can find a hamal or a carrier whose labor has been replaced by increasing number of trucks as the streets have become wider than before. The street vendors or the porters, whose place of inhabitance was mainly near the ports, used to carry huge weights carefully tucked in the saddles and placed on their backs till the 1970s. It was believed that majority of such porters had their homes in dormitories nearer the port and died at relatively young ages.
During the reign of the sultan, it was not unusual to find eunuchs engaged in shopping for their spouses and buying various house hold articles as well as perfumes. However, the biggest privilege of these eunuchs was donning the role of agent for the young females of the saray and the Valide. Although the small streets of Pera were full of activity and there was lot of hustle and bustle out there. But, the streets in the old city were comparatively very calm and sleepy with men sitting in the streets holding their nargile pipes in their hands.
Women in the old city smoked too, but the only difference was that they preferred to smoke within their homes. The reason behind several cases of fire causing major devastations in the homes of Pera could be attributed to habit of falling sleep while smoking over a pipe.
As of now, it is quite rare to find any old timber homes having stovepipes sneaking out of the windows. It is only after a long period of nearly 1,500 years that strict laws have been put into effect to check any building or structure made of wood.
The burning of wooden houses by the smoking pipes was not the only problem in the old city of Istanbul. It was common to find many peasants moving out to the city to avoid extreme hard life in Anatolia. No doubt, immigration laws were issued after a period of every ten years. But, there is also no denying the fact that all such laws could be breached as easily as they were made.
The long coastal line of the Sea of Marmara and Thrace, which once happily accommodated thousands of travelers, is left with no option but to adjust millions today. Moreover, with the building of two suspension bridges and the provision of large number of fast moving ferries, the process of crossing from Asia has become fairly easy and very fast. And the time is not far when the old ferryboats that were run on lignite will become a distant memory in the same way as the tokkos and the stalwart that were once involved in humping cargoes to and fro the Black Sea.
In the second half of the 19th century, a solution was being thought upon for widening very narrow lanes of the city. As per the plan of Helmuth von Moltka, there was need for widening of the major arteries of the city in the similar fashion as was done by Hogg, a German architect, in the 1950s.
The reason behind this plan was that it involved very less destruction or demolitions. However, another proposal came from Arnodin, an Ottoman citizen, who suggestion was to have a ring road beyond the city’s boundary walls across the Galata Bridge continuing beneath the walls of the sea. Arnodin was the man behind the designing of a suspension bridge between Europe and Asia across the Marmara Sea and yet another down the river Bosphorus. However, none of the two bridges were thought to be practicable enough.
Joseph Bouvard, the famous exhibition architect of France, suggested a plan which was considered to be the worst plan. As per his scheme of things, to make the city lanes wider, a large number of Byzantine and Ottoman monuments were required to be demolished and replaced by huge open spaces with just hotels in the city. However, the city was fortunate enough to have escaped the foolish plans of this French architect who did not had visited the city of Istanbul even once and was unaware of the fact that Istanbul was built on seven hills.
No doubt, the city may sound a bit unbearable in the heat of the summer, but the beauty of the skyline illuminated by spectacular moon at the sunset is likely to compel any visitor not to miss its priceless charm.