Display and Trade, Past and Present

On my first evening in Istanbul I went in search in the Egyptian Spice Bazaar with another NEH scholar.

Like Linda Blair in the movie The Exorcist  during her fits of demonic possession with her head spinning madly in full circles, my attention was whipped around from side to side by the cornucopic profusion of articles on display, so many of which I don't see in New York, not in shop windows, not in street fairs, not in flea markets: huge bolts of ruffled fabric, baskets with white and bright red taffeta frills, piles of turned-up-toe children's shoes, carpets slung along a clothes line, a street cart offering roasted corn, billy goats guarding frothy lingerie:

These sights are reminders that trade, the discovery of novel artifacts and food, the opportunity to sell and acquire objects of desire, is now as it has been throughout history a central human concern. We could well call ourselves homo negotiarenuts. 

Istanbul's location has made it a hub of trade between east and west. The silk routes brought orcelain produced in China through Constantinople to England, France, and the Netherlands; Carpets made in Central Asia were sold in Istanbul markets and then traded both east and west--and still are. I have been reading a compelling account of the present-day life of a small village in Afghanistan where Turkic people still create carpets by hand for sale in Istanbul and exporting throughout the world: The World is a Carpet by Anna Badkhen (2013). The brutal poverty of the women who weave the carpets is in poignant contrast to the beauty of their work.

Trade flourished during the Ottoman Empire for several reasons:

1. As inheritors of the rule of the trade routes of the Sejuk Turks, the Ottomans built on longstanding trade relationships and strategies.

2. Recognizing trade as a valuable source of revenue, the Ottomans used their considerable administrative skills to maintain and extend trade networks.

3.  A key element of Ottoman rule was its orientation towards working productively with longstanding local populations. Local peoples in conquered areas were co-opted into the empire rather than obliterated. People who were skilled in certain kinds of manufacture, be it weaving, agriculture, or metalwork could continue these activities under Ottoman rule and both pay taxes to the sultan and benefit themselves from stable conditions for travel and transportation of goods.

Istanbule: Confluence of Empires

Standing in Yeniçeriler Caddesi in central Istanbul are monumental markers of 4 empires. The column of Constantine  was built by the Emperor Constantine in 330 AD in commemoration of the establishment of this city as the new capital of the Roman Empire.  Square shaped, tall, and pointed at the top (it originally held a statue of Constantine as the god Apollo), it references the shape of an obelisk, but has no carving on the sides. Thus, Constantine legitimizes himself by using the vocabulary of Roman imperial art, which in turn inherits the legitimacy of ancient Egypt.

Thirty years later, The Emperor Theodosius uses a sculptural quotation directly from the Egyptian empire to enhance his own dynastic prestige in the form of an obelisk built by the Pharaoh Thutmose III with hieroglyphics extolling a major military victory. Carvings around the base of obelisk were added by Theodosius, and show the emperor in scenes at his court, at a battle, and at a chariot race.

Turning from these stone utterances from the Empires of Egypt, Rome, and Byzantium, we can see power of the Ottoman Empire in the form of the domes and minarets of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (known in guidebooks as The Blue Mosque). Like the column and the obelisk, its function as a monarchical legitimizer is evident in its name. Completed in 1616, 163 years after Sultan Mehmed II conquered the city, effectively founding what would become the Ottoman Empire, it shows how civic rule founded itself upon religion.

Thus, from this vantage point in  Yeniçeriler Caddesi one can turn around and see a Cliff's Notes version of Turkish history from the 3rd century to the 19th.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is a functioning mosque. As a visitor, I was directed to a separate entrance, where I stood in a line that filed past several large billboards with explanations in 4-5 languages and accompanying pictures describing the dress requirements: covered shoulders and knees for both men and women, covered heads for women, and shoes off. Identical blue and yellow sheets were distributed at the entrance along with plastic bags for shoes to the majority of entrants, who were dressed shopping on a cruise ship. The process of wrapping up in the "mosque outfits" and taking each other's photos so attired was a source of fun. The mosque authorities seem to have gone to a lot of trouble to make it possible for people to see their sacred space, for which they charge nothing, and yet, it strikes me that there is something a bit "off" about this dynamic. What if they simply stood at the door and refused entrance to the beach bunnies? They would be labelled intolerant. And yet, isn't there a degree of intolerance in treating the dress requirements as a joke?

If I speak more about the clothing episodes at the entrance than about the mosque itself it's because the inside is impossible  to capture in words. Enormous curved spaces, domes and semi-domes, are covered with intricate, glowing blue-patterned tiles. I stood for a long time, leaning against a pillar, looking and breathing in the aroma of beauty and prayer.

The image above is from Britannica Image Quest (Istanbul - Estambul - Sultan Ahmed-Blue Mosque-Turkey. Photo. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 7 Jul 2013.http://quest.eb.com/images/137_3141008) The image below is from my camera.

There are over 3,000 mosques in Istanbul according to the Istanbul Metropolitan Authority (http://www.ibb.gov.tr). Sultans and other powerful figures built mosques to legitimize their status and to display their devotion and wealth. The arts of architecture, building, and decoration were valued and supported (some might say controlled) by the state. Mosques were sites of social welfare and education as well as of worship: wealthy families and guilds sponsored hospitals, inns, shelters, and schools.