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Bank-ı Dersaadet (Bank Of Constantinople)

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Mavi Boncuk |

Bank-ı Dersaadet (Bank Of Constantinople)

In 1844 Babıali (Sublime Porte) the Seat Of Ottoman Government, introduced monetary reforms, In 1845 it gave to Galata bankers a one year contact[1] for all money exchange operations. Renewed at the and of the contact this enterprise was named Bank-ı Dersaadet in 1847. Taken over by a Frenchman j. Alleon who had escaped from the French revolution and an Italian jewish banker named T.Baltazzi, this bank founded in 1874 was the first establishment to be called a bank in Istanbul still remembered as the Istanbul Bank.

[1] Contracts were denied to application to British in 1840 for "General Bank of Constantinoble", another to French the very same year and in 1842 to the Swedes for "The Bank of Smyrna".

First Day Cover | Yassıada Trials

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Mavi Boncuk |
First Day Cover | Yassıada[1] Trials



[1] Yassıada has become synonymous with the May 27, 1960 military coup, the first in Republican history, the trials of the leading politicians of the time and the execution of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan and Foreign Minister Fatin Rüştü Zorlu. The three executed politicians have been seen as martyrs of democracy ever since. The Parliament restored the honor of the executed politicians at a session on April 11, 2010. The same law allowed the transfer of the bodies of Menderes, Polatkan and Zorlu from İmralı Island to a monument built in their honor in Istanbul's Vatan Avenue. 

Menderes, the founder of the Democrat Party (DP) in 1945, which broke from the Republican People's Party (CHP) that had been governing the country as a single-party system since the founding of the Republic, and led it in the first multi-party elections in 1946. In the 1950 elections, the DP won a parliamentary majority and ran the country until the May 27, 1960 military coup. Menderes is seen as the first democratically-elected prime minister of the country. His term saw significant changes to counter the strict secularist policies of the preceding CHP era that alienated significant portions of the nation, coupled with economic reforms and major diplomatic realigning, including membership of NATO. The DP is seen by many as the predecessor of the liberal-conservative political movements of the Justice Party (AP) of the 1960s and 1970s, the Motherland Party (ANAP) of the 1980s and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) of the 2000s.


Dersaadet Tramway Ticket | Azapkapı-Beşiktaş

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Bound by an exclusive contract[1] "Construction of the Tramway in Dersaadet and Its Facilities", dated 30th of August, 1869; the management of vehicles that were driven by horses (Hungarian[*] and Austrian KadanaTR horses) and that comprised of the construction of railroads for the transportation of passengers and goods along the streets of Istanbul was allocated to the company named `Dersaadet Tramway Establishment est. with 400 000 Ottoman lira, by Kostantin Karapano Efendi, being valid for 40 years. Azapkapı-Beşiktaş run was inaugurated on July 31, 1871 with a ceremony at Tophane. New routes between Eminönü-Aksaray, Aksaray-Yedikule, Aksaray-Topkapı were added and with 430 horses and transporting 4,5 million passanger made an income of 53,000 lira. Voyvoda Kabristan Sokağı –Tepebaşı-Taksim-Pangaltı-Şişli, Bayezid-Şehzadebaşı, Fatih-Edirnekapı-Galatasaray-Tünel and Eminönü-Bahçekapı routes soon followed.[2] 


[1] "Dersaadet’de Tramvay ve Tesis İnşaası’na Dair Sözleşme” August 30, 1869. 

[2] The horse drawn trams that had been operating within the Ottoman Empire boundaries were established in the main cities of the empire and started operating firstly in Thessalonica, then in Damascus, Baghdad, Izmir and Konya. The Ministry of Defense took over the horses of the trams during the Balkan War that commenced in 1912 for 30.000 gold pieces; hence Istanbul remained without tram for more than a year. The Tramway Enterprise that had been turned over to the Government on the12th of June, 1939 by the law numbered 3642, then turned over to Municipality of Istanbul on the16th of June, 1939 by the law numbered 3645. The Tramway Management has reached to an end with the removal of trams from operation on the 12th of August 1961 on the European side, and from the Anatolian side on the 14th of November, 1966.




[*]Kadana: Magyar Hidegveru misnamed in Turkish based on their origin. Katonaló riding horse for the Hungarian cavalry. "iri Macar atı" [ Peçevi, Tarih-i Peçevî (1650) ]
İSTANBUL’DA ATLI TRAMVAY GÜNLERİ

Şirket-i Hayriyye vapurları, Boğaziçi'ni İstanbul'la bütünleştirerek
kent hayatındaki kültürel dolaşıma üst tabakanın yaşam üslubunu katmışlardı.
Atlı tramvaylar ise bu kültürel dolaşımı semtler arasına yayıp hızlandırmışlardır.

VAHDETTİN ENGİN-Popüler TARİH/ Ekim 2000

Yıl 1885;
Şişhane'de 6. Daire-i Belediye önündeki yazlık atlı tramvay yokuşu tırmanmış,
bugünkü 'Meşrutiyet Caddesi'ne doğru dönüyor.

HAREKET HER 10 DAKİKADA BİR..

Abdülaziz döneminde, İstanbul sokaklarındaki ilginç görüntülerden biri de atlı tramvaylardı. İstanbul'da tramvay yapılması konusundaki ilk girişim, Meclis-i Maabir üyesi Rüstem Bey'den geldi. Rüstem Bey, hükümete yazdığı 14 Nisan 1868 tarihli bir yazısında, 'tramvay tabir olunan yolların inşasına dair' kendi buluşu olan tek raylı bir sistemden bahsetmekte, uygun fiyatla yolcu ve eşya taşınacağını beyan ederek imtiyaz istemekteydi. Söz konusu bu imtiyaz kendisine verilmiş, ancak tek raylı olarak öngörülen sistem uygulamaya geçememiştir.

Rüstem Bey'in bu girişiminden bir yıl sonra, Kostantin Karapano Efendi de 'tramvay inşaatı için' gerekli imtiyazı alır. Karapano Efendi'nin 1869 Ağustos'unda Babıali'ye iletilen teklifine göre, Galata'dan Ortaköy'e, Eminönü'nden Aksaray'a ve ayrıca Aksaray'dan çeşitli kollarla Topkapı ve Yedikule'ye doğru atlı tramvay işletilecektir. Teklif benimsenir ve 30 Ağustos 1869' da mukavele imzalanır.

DÖRT HATLI PROJE

Karapano Efendi kurduğu İstanbul Tramvay Şirketi vasıtasıyla, zarar ve ziyanı kendine ait olmak üzere şu hatları inşa edecektir:
'Birinci Hat' Azapkapı'dan başlayarak Galata, Tophane, Beşiktaş ve Ortaköy'e;
'İkinci Hat' Eminönü'nden başlayıp Babıâli ve Soğukçeşme'den geçerek Divanyolu Caddesi ile Aksaray'da Yusufpaşa Çeşmesine kadar gidecek;
'Üçüncü Hat' Aksaray'da ikinci hattan ayrılarak Samatya ve Yedikule'ye varacak;
'Dördüncü Hat' ise Aksaray'dan Topkapı'ya ulaşacaktır.
1870 Mart'ında şirketin hazırladığı tramvay hattı haritaları ve istimlak planları onaylanır. Nisan ayı içinde ise Galata’da Arapçarşısı ve Çeşmemeydanı
arasındaki sokakta, yolların düzenlenmesi çalışmalarına başlanır. 5 milyon 800 bin kuruş tutarında bir masraf yapan Osmanlı hükümeti, başkent yollarındaki
gerekli düzenlemeleri altı ayda tamamlar ve şirkete teslim eder.
Bu şekilde hızlanan inşaat ve yolların taban döşeme çalışmaları 1870 Ekim'inde Azapkapı'dan Yorgancılarbaşı'na kadar olan 1000 arşınlık bir mesafeye ulaşmıştır.
İstanbul tarafında ise Kasım ayında Ayasofya civarına dek varır. Aynı günlerde, Galata'da Mahmudiye Caddesi ve Çeşmemeydanı arasındaki alanda ilk demir
çubukların yerleştirilmesine başlanır.
1890 tarihli bir fotoğrafta, Şişli Atlı Tramvay Deposu'nun harası,vatman ve vardacılar görülmektedir.

DENEME SEFERLERİ

Azapkapı-Beşiktaş hattı çalışmalarının 1871 Haziran'ında tamamlanmasıyla deneme seferlerine
geçilir. Hat boyunca Karaköy, Kabataş ve Beşiktaş'ta olmak üzere üç adet durak ve bekleme salonu inşa edilmiştir. Tramvayın vagonları Viyana'dan getirtilirken,
bunları çekmek üzere gereken atlar da bu iş için yetiştirilmiş Macar katanaları arasından seçilmiştir.

Azapkapı-Beşiktaş hattı, 31 Temmuz 1871 tarihinde açılır. Bu münasebetle Tophane'de düzenlenen büyük törene, hastalığı sebebiyle hazır bulunamayan Sadrazam
Ali Paşa'yı temsilen Şura-yı Devlet Reisi Kamil Paşa başta olmak üzere, Hüseyin Avni Paşa, Ethem Paşa ve öteki devlet ileri gelenleri, yabancı ülke elçileri, ticari ve mali çevrelerden birçok zevat katılmıştır. Bunaltıcı yaz sıcağına rağmen, tören alanında çok kalabalık bir halk topluluğu da birikmiştir.

HER SABAH 6.30'DA...

İstanbul'un ilk atlı tramvayı, her sabah 6.30'da Beşiktaş'tan hareket edecek, son tramvay ise
akşam 7.20'de Azapkapı'dan kalkacaktı. Her iki yönde yirmi dakikada bir sefer yapılacaktı. Birinci mevki yolculuklarda Azapkapı veya Beşiktaş'tan Kabataş'a kadar 40 para, hattın tamamı için 80 para alınacaktı. İkinci mevkide bu ücretler yarı yarıya daha azdı.

Tramvay, hizmete girdiği andan itibaren büyük rağbet gördü. Yeni bir ulaşım aracı olmasından dolayı halkın merakını çekmesi tabii idi. Ayrıca diğer ulaşım araçlarına göre daha ucuz olması da bir tercih nedeniydi. Öyle ki, Azapkapı-Beşiktaş arasında çalışan tramvay arabaları yetersiz kalmaya başlamıştı. Özellikle Tophane veya Kabataş'a gelindiğinde, vagonlarda yer bulmak mümkün olmuyordu.

GAZETELERE GEÇEN ŞİKAYET

Halk atlı tramvaylara rağbet etmekle beraber zaman zaman şikayetçi olmuyor da değildi. Örneğin Beşiktaş-Ortaköy arasında, tasarruf amacıyla iki vagonun birbirine bağlanarak yola devam edilmesi, ulaşımı yavaşlatıyordu. Yolcular vagonların tek tek hareket etmeleri halinde kalkışların sıklaşacağını söylüyorlardı.

Yine bu hattın Beşiktaş durağında, akşam saatlerinde vatmanların günlük hesapları görmeleri, yolcuların uzun süre beklemelerine neden oluyordu. Hatta bir kez, vagon dolu olduğu halde tam 45 dakika vatmanın hesap görmesini beklemek zorunda kalan yolcular, şikayetlerini gazeteler aracılığı ile şirkete duyurmuşlardı.
.
1871-1875 tarihlerini kapsayan bu dönemde biletlerin üzerinde hatların adları yer almazdı.
BİLETLER TAM YOL, 2 KURUŞ…

Öte yandan, yapımı sürmekte olan Eminönü-Aksaray hattı da 1871 Ekim'inde tamamlanmış ve deneme seferlerine başlanmıştı. Bu hat da 14 Kasım 1871 tarihinde hizmete girdi. Tramvay her 10 dakikada bir hareket edecekti. Yol boyunca 8 durak yeri tespit edilmişti. Bunlar: Eminönü, Sirkeci, Babıâli, Sultanahmet, Sultan Mahmut Türbesi, Bayezid, Laleli ve Aksaray idi.
Birinci mevki yolculuklarda, her iki yönden Sultan Mahmut Türbesi'ne kadar olan yarı yol için 1,5 kuruş, tam yol için 2 kuruş alınacaktı. Bu ücretler ikinci mevki için 1 ve 1,5 kuruş şeklinde idi.
5 Şubat 1872 tarihinde Beşiktaş- Ortaköy hattı hizmete açıldı. 14 Ağustos 1872 de ise Aksaray-Yedikule arasında tramvaylar işlemeye başladı. Buradaki ara duraklar Samatya, Ağahamam, Etyemez ve Davutpaşa idi. En nihayet, 14 Ocak 1873 tarihinde Aksaray-Topkapı hattı hizmete girdi. Böylece Karapano Efendi'nin yapımını üstlendiği İstanbul'un ilk atlı tramvay hatları tamamlanmış oluyordu. Azapkapı-Ortaköy 6040, Eminönü-Aksaray 3730, Aksaray-Yedıkule 3600, Aksaray-Topkapı hattı ise 2600 metre uzunluğunda idi. Dört hattın inşası için toplam 13.785.254 kuruş masraf yapılmıştı. Çalışmalar planlanan süreden sekiz ay önce bitirilmişti. Bu neticenin alınmasında şüphesiz, tramvayın işlemeye başladığı ilk andan itibaren iyi gelir getirmesi önemli
rol oynamıştı. Hatları ne kadar erken bitirirse gelirinin o kadar artacağını düşünen tramvay şirketi bu konuda acele etmişti.

Atlı tramvayın 2. Dönem (1875-1908) biletleri Aksaray-Çapa gidiş dönüş bileti.
Bu dönemde, biletlerin üzerine güzergahları da yazılmaya başlandı.

VARDACILAR

Yolcular, karşılıklı iki peykenin üzerinde otururlardı. Kadınlarla erkeklerin birlikte seyahat etmeleri uygun görülmediğinden vagonun ön tarafında kadınlar için kapısı kumaşla örtülü bir bölme bulunurdu. Geliş gidişlerde tramvayın yol üzerindeki insanlara çarpmasını önlemek için şirket vardacılar’ kullanılmaktaydı. Bunlar bir yandan ellerindeki boruyu öttürür, diğer yandan 'varda' diye bağırarak arabanın önü sıra koşar, kalabalığı dağıtır, böylece meydana gelebilecek
herhangi bir kazayı engellemeye çalışırlardı.

YOKUŞLARDAKİ PANİK ÇIĞLIKLARI

Özellikle yolcu sayısı fazla iken veya yağmurdan rayların kayganlaştığı durumlarda, tek at vagonları çekmekte hayli zorlanıyordu. Yokuşlarda ise atın gücü kesiliyor, takviye gerekiyordu. Şirket bu aksaklığı telafi için, yokuş başlarında küçük ahırlar ve at istasyonları inşa etmişti. Ahırlarda görevli seyis, tramvay yokuş başına geldiğinde yedek atı da vagona koşar, düzlüğe çıkıldığında atı geri alarak dönerdi. Tramvayın ilerlemesi atların gücüyle orantılı olduğundan yokuşu çıkarken ve inerken atlar bir hayli zorlanır, bu arada vagonların geri veya ileri kayması sonucu, insanlar birbirlerinin üstüne yığılır ve panik çığlıkları atarlardı.

ÖLÜMLE BİTEN BÜYÜK KAZALAR

İstanbulluların hayatında yeni ve aynı zamanda yabancı bir ulaşım aracı olarak yerini alan bu taşıtın hizmete girmesiyle beraber insanların henüz yeteri kadar alışkanlık kazanamamaları gibi nedenlerle kazalar da görülmeye başlanmıştı. Her ne kadar tramvay şirketi vardacılar istihdam etmekte idiyse de, zaman zaman kazaların meydana gelmesi önlenemiyordu. Tramvayın neden olduğu ilk ölümlü kaza, işlemeye başlamasından bir ay bile geçmeden, 26 Ağustos
1871 Cumartesi günü meydana geldi. Karaköy durağı yakınlarındaki kazada, Simeon isimli bir Hırvat, aracın altında kalarak can verdi. Görgü tanıklarının anlattıklarına göre, yan yoldan
gelerek tramvay hattını geçmek isteyen Simeon, yaklaşan tramvayı görmesine rağmen, aniden rayları geçmeye kalkışmış, vatmanın bütün hızıyla çanı çalarak ikaz etmesine rağmen geri dönmeyince, önce atların ayakları altında kalmış, sonra da tekerleklerin üzerinden geçmesiyle can vermişti.

Ölümle sonuçlanan diğer bir kaza, Beşiktaş-Ortaköy hattında meydana gelmişti. Saray hizmetkârlarından bazıları, tramvay Çırağan Sarayı önünden geçerken atlayarak binmeyi alışkanlık haline getirmişlerdi. Aynı şeyi yapmak isteyen küçük bir zenci çocuğu, tramvaya binmek için yanlış adım atıp rayların üzerine düşmüş ve ikiye bölünmüştü. Bunun üzerine infiale kapılan saray hizmetkarları vatman ve vardacıyı bir hayli tartaklamışlar ve mesele zabıtaya intikal etmişti.

Davutpaşa'da meydana gelen bir başka ölümlü kaza sonucunda ise mahalle sakinleri tramvayı yoldan alıkoymuş, ancak güvenlik güçlerinin müdahalesiyle insanlar
sakinleştirilebilmişti.

VAPURLA REKABET

Tramvayın İstanbul şehiriçi ulaşımında yerini alması ve gitgide rağbet görmeye başlaması, önemli bir rekabet unsurunu da beraberinde getirmişti. Bundan ilk etkilenen, Boğaziçi'nde buharlı vapurlar işleten Şirket-i Hayriyye İdaresi idi. Kabataş, Beşiktaş ve Ortaköy arasında yolcusunu tramvaya kaptırdığını farkeden Şirket-i Hayriyye, acil bir tedbir olarak, Ortaköy hattında kullanmak üzere, İngiltere'ye altı yeni vapur ısmarlamış ve ayrıca ücretlerde indirime
gideceğini duyurmuştu. Eminönü tarafındaki arabacılar da tramvayın rekabetinden bir hayli etkilenmişlerdi. Bunlar, yolcularını kaybetmemek için aralarında birlik oluşturmuş ve ücretlerini indirmişlerdi.

Atlı tramvay uzun yıllar İstanbul’lulara hizmet verdi. Zamanla yeni hatlar yapıldı, atlı tramvayın yerini elektrikli tramvay aldı(1914). Fakat ulaştırma alanında değişik alternatiflerin ortaya çıkması, özellikle de karayolu taşıtlarının ağırlık kazanması sonucu, ulaşımı yavaşlattığı gerekçesiyle tramvay gözden düşmeye başladı. Tramvayı süratlendirmenin yolu aranacağına, kolaycı bir yöntem seçilerek 1961 yılında Avrupa yakasından, 1966 yılında da Anadolu yakasından

tramvay kaldırıldı.

Book | Jewish Journalism and Printing Houses in The Ottoman Empire And Modern Turkey

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A sidebar for the curious. During the 19th century Armenian publishers were printing many Jewish (Sephardic) books in the Ottoman Empire

Mavi Boncuk |

Jewish Journalism and Printing Houses in The Ottoman Empire And Modern Turkey.

Reviewed by Rachel Amado Bortnick
Jewish Journalism and Printing Houses in the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 
Nassi, G.[1], Ed. - The Isis Press, Istanbul, 2001. 167 pages. ISBN: 975-428-149-1 
Order from: isis(at)turk(dot)net
ISBN-10: 1617199095 | ISBN-13: 978-1617199097
OUT OF PRINT

Books and articles on Sephardic journalism and printing have heretofore been available only in scattered sources and locations, and mostly in languages other than English. The recent publication in Istanbul of the English-language - Jewish Journalism and Printing Houses in the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey - has changed that situation. Editor and researcher Gad Nassi, with the collaboration of several researchers and translators from Israel, Turkey, and the U.S, has assembled here two scholarly articles on the prolific printing and journalism activity of the Sephardim, comprehensive lists and bibliographies, and many photographs of the works discussed. The book, dedicated to the memory of the twenty-three worshippers killed in the terrorist attack at Istanbul's Neve Shalom synagogue in 1986, will serve as a treasure house for the researcher in this field and for anyone interested in the intellectual history of Sephardim.

The article titled "The Jewish Press in Turkey" by Avner Levy is an expository on the history of Jewish journalism in the Sephardic Diaspora from 1842 to the present, and the factors that led to, and the social and cultural effects of, the proliferation of journals. Here Levy also discusses the journalists, the reading public, the languages, and the journals published abroad by Jewish emigrants from Turkey. Complementing Levy's article is Gad Nassi's "Synoptic List of Ottoman-Turkish-Jewish and Other Sephardic Journals," which is no doubt the most complete ever assembled. The list of journals fills twenty-seven pages, organized alphabetically by the cities, and within each, the publications in chronological order, with the language or languages of each, the years of publication, and the editor(s), when known. Dr. Nassi also follows this with a "Glossary of Publication Titles" where journal names in French, Hebrew, Ladino, Spanish, Turkish, and Yiddish are translated into English.

Almost immediately after their settlement in the Ottoman Empire, Sephardic Jews established the first printing presses there using Hebrew type. Yaron Ben-Na'eh's article, "Hebrew Printing Houses in the Ottoman Empire" (translated from the original Hebrew) covers the gamut of Hebrew printing activity from 1493, when the first printing press began operating in Istanbul, until the 1940s. Dr. Ben-Na'eh first comments generally about the book printing history of the Sephardim and then treats each of the publishing centers - Constantinople, Salonica , Adrianople (Edirne), and Izmir - separately with respect to the significant periods of their printing output. Books printed in Hebrew type, in Hebrew or Ladino, and their authors are subsequently listed and explained by Nassi in his "Amplified Glossary of Book Printing." This is a mini-encyclopedia of works, authors and terms such as "Cairo Geniza,""Loez Sefaradi," and more.

[1] Gad Nassi (b. 1937) - Curriculum Vitae

Born and educated in Istanbul, Gad Nassi graduated from Galatasaray High School and from the Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University.

He began his career as author during his high school studies by writing for local magazines, as well as translating popular articles from French and English to Turkish.

While working in psychiatric institutions in Istanbul and Israel, he led clinical researches, which were published in professional periodicals.

During his university studies, he served as director of Shalom, the newspaper for the Jewish Community of Turkey; as a correspondent for various foreign publications; and also directed the press bureau of the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul.

His experience at Shalom and his active role in communal affairs convinced him to utilize the Turkish language to awaken young Turkish Jews to their cultural and communal roots. In doing so, he was among the precursors of those favoring an open dialogue between the generations, and enabling the new generation of Turkish Jews to develop a positive sense of cultural and social identity.

In 1986, he founded MORIT - an organization for the preservation and advancement of the Turkish Jewry heritage. As its president, he organized the "First International Congress on Turkish Jewry", in Israel in 1989. The conference constituted one of the corner stones in the enhancement of relations between Turkey and the Jewish world, and in particular, with Israel. He initiated and collaborated with WIZO Israel and the Municipality of Tiberias to organize a commemorative gathering in December 1990 in Tiberias to honour Dona Gracia Nasi. In the framework of this event, he co-authored with Rebecca Toueg a biographical work entitled Dona Gracia Nasi. With Moshe Shaul, he organized the "First International Encounters on Judeo-Spanish" in Tel Aviv in 1994. This conference resulted in the establishment of foundations for preserving and promoting the Judeo-Spanish language and culture.

He edited and partly authored "Jewish Journalism and Printing Houses in the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey" published in 2001. Inspired by his reminiscences of using Judeo-Spanish within his family and a concern to promote the Judeo Spanish language within a contemporary setting, he edited and partly authored "En Tierras Ajenas Yo Me Vo Murir" (In Alien Lands I Shall Perish), an anthology of memoirs, short stories and legends, which was first published in Istanbul and later in Barcelona in 2005. During the presentation ceremony on the occasion of its publication in Spain, organized by the Turkish Embassy in Madrid, he emphasized that Judeo-Spanish lore is a common part of Jewish, Iberian and Turkish heritage, and the heritage of other countries.

Since 1989, he has published numerous articles on the Sabbatean Messianic movement. These publications broke new ground in the understanding of the movement within the context of Ottoman lore and the Ottoman Jewish legacy.

He is among the promoters and founders of El Amaneser, a monthly supplement in Judeo-Spanish of the Shalom newspaper in Istanbul. He continues to regularly publish articles on historical, mystical and folkloristic topics.

He presented a lecture at the fifteenth annual conference of the Society of Crypto-Judaic Studies. He estimates that the rapprochement between crypto-Jewry of Sephardic ascendency and Sephardic Jewry constitutes a valuable and unexploited field for the insight and integration of their reciprocal spiritual identity.

He maintains a psychiatric practice in Herzlia, Israel, where he resides together with his family.

See also:

En Tierras Ajenas Yome Vo Murir Tekstos Kontemporanos En Djudeo- Espaniol Leyenda De Una Lingua-haketia -Kuentos-memorias-meliselda -Oki Oki Editado Por Gad Nassi 2002 by Gad Nassi and Moshe Shaul

Dona Gracia Nasi 1991 by Gad Nassi

Word Origin | Oruç, Iftar, Sahur, Ramazan, Kumanya, Kumpanya

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Mavi Boncuk |

Oruç: Fast [1] [ Codex Cumanicus, 1303] jejunium –from Persian: oroza  oldPersian rōzag - TR: oruǵ [oruc]
from Sogdian rōçag (roç=day from ruz) oruç tutma. 

Iftar: [ İrşadü'l-Mülûk ve's-Selâtîn, 1387] birisi ifṭārını tizlemek turur
fromAR ifṭār إفطار  oruç açma, kahvaltı etme; breaking fast EN.

Sahur: sahur [ Kıpçak Türkçesi Sözlüğü, 1500] [ Meninski, Thesaurus, 1680] saḥūr: temcīd mancası.
fromAR saḥūr سَحُور  seher vakti yenen yemek from AR saḥar سَحَر tan ağarması; sunrise EN.

Ramazan: Ramadan EN
[ İrşadü'l-Mülûk ve's-Selâtîn, 1387]
kim ramaḍān ayı kilginçe barçasın birge kılur
from Arabic ramaḍān رمضان  Pre islam monts of July-August. The 9th month. From Arabicr ramaḍ رمض  dry heat EN; kuru sıcak TR. 

Ninth month of the Muslim year, 1590s, from Arabic Ramadan (Turkish and Persian ramazan), originally "the hot month," from ramida "be burnt, scorched" (compare Mishnaic Hebrew remetz "hot ashes, embers"). In the Islamic lunar calendar, it passes through all seasons in a cycle of about 33 years, but evidently originally it was a summer month. Hebrew: remeṣ רֶמֶצ (amber, hot ash) kor, sıcak kül TR.

Kumanya: kumanya "yolluk, azık" TR; food prepared for the road EN.
[ Kahane & Tietze, The Lingua Franca in the Levant, 1560]
Etmek istersen eğer bağ-i cinanda manca/Amel ü zühd komanyasını vafir yüklen
From IT compagna 
1. Ship’s store, gemi erzakının saklandığı depo TR. 
2. Food supply for the ship, gemi erzakı TR.
from Latin compania "birlikte ekmek yeme"TR; to eat together EN

Kumpanya:"askeri birlik"; military unit, company EN 
[ Ebubekir Ratib Ef., Nemçe Sefaretnamesi, 1792]
Bosna ahalisinden bir müselman olup kendi kompanyalarında olduğundan
kumpanya "şirket" [ Ahmet Vefik Paşa, Lugat-ı Osmani, 1876]
from IT compagnia birlik, yoldaşlık, şirket oldLatin compania yoldaşlık, lonca from Latin companion; who shares brea "ekmeğini paylaşan", yoldaş, comrade EN from Latin con+panis:bread company EN; compagnie FR

[1] fast (adv.) Old English fæste "firmly, securely; strictly;" also, perhaps, "speedily," from Proto-Germanic *fasto (source also of Old Saxon fasto, Old Frisian feste, Dutch vast, Old High German fasto, German fast "firmly, immovably, strongly, very"), from *fastu- (adj.) "firm, fast" (see fast (adj.)). 

The meaning "quickly, swiftly, rapidly" was perhaps in Old English, certainly by c. 1200, probably from or developed under influence of Old Norse fast "firmly, fast." This sense developed, apparently in Scandinavian, from that of "firmly, strongly, vigorously" (to run hard means the same as to run fast; also compare fast asleep, also compare Old Norse drekka fast "to drink hard," telja fast "to give (someone) a severe lesson"). Or perhaps from the notion of a runner who "sticks" close to whatever he is chasing (compare Old Danish fast "much, swiftly, at once, near to, almost," and sense evolution of German fix "fast, fixed; fast, quick, nimble," from Latin fixus). The expression fast by "near, close, beside" also is said to be from Scandinavian. To fast talk someone (v.) is recorded by 1946.

fast (v.) "abstain from food," Old English fæstan "to fast" (as a religious duty), also "to make firm; establish, confirm, pledge," from Proto-Germanic *fastan "to hold fast, observe abstinence" (source also of Old Frisian festia, Old High German fasten, German fasten, Old Norse fasta "abstain from food"), from the same root as fast (adj.). 

The original meaning in prehistoric Germanic was "hold firmly," and the sense evolved via "have firm control of oneself," to "hold oneself to observance" (compare Gothic fastan "to keep, observe," also "to fast"). Perhaps the Germanic sense shifted through use of the native words to translate Medieval Latin observare in its sense "to fast." The verb in the sense "to make fast" continued in Middle English, but was superseded by fasten. Related: Fasted; fasting.
fast (n.) "act of fasting," late Old English fæsten "voluntary abstinence from food and drink or from certain kinds of food," especially, but not necessarily, as a religious duty; either from the verb in Old English or from Old Norse fasta "a fast, fasting, season for fasting," from a Proto-Germanic noun formed from the verbal root of fast (v.). In earlier Old English fæsten meant "fortress, cloister, enclosure, prison."

Word origin | Turnuva

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Turnuva: tournament  EN[1] [ Mehmed Bahaeddin (Toven), Yeni Türkçe Lugat, 1924] turnuva: Mağlup olanın sahadan çekilmesi suretiyle yapılan müsabakaların hey'et-i umumiyesi. fromFR tournoi 1. bir tür cirit oyunu [esk.], ; jousting EN[2] 2. birkaç karşılaşmadan oluşan yarışma; games in multiple competition format.  fromFR tournoyer kendi ekseni etrafında dönmek, döne döne gitmek. round robin EN.

[1] tournament (n.) "medieval martial arts contest," c. 1200 (figurative), c. 1300 (literal), from Old French tornement "contest between groups of knights on horseback" (12c.), from tornoier "to joust, tilt, take part in tournaments" (see tourney). Modern use, in reference to games of skill, is recorded from 1761.

tourney (v.) c. 1300, from Anglo-French turneier, Old French tornoier "to joust, tilt," literally "turn around," from Vulgar Latin *tornizare, from Latin tornare "to turn" 

tourney (n.) c. 1300, from Anglo-French turnei, Old French tornei "contest of armed men" (12c., Modern French tournoi), from tornoier "to joust, tilt" 

[2] joust (v.) c. 1300, "fight with a spear or lance on horseback with another knight; tilt in a tournament," from Old French joster "to joust, tilt, fight in single combat," from Vulgar Latin *iuxtare "to approach, come together, meet," originally "be next to," from Latin iuxta "beside, next to, very near," related to iungere "join together" (see jugular). Formerly spelled, and according to OED until modern times pronounced, "just." Related: Jousted; jouster; jousting.

joust (n.) "single combat with lances by riders on horseback," c. 1300, from Old French joste "a jounst, single combat" (12c., Modern French joute), from joster "fight with, engage in single combat" (see joust (v.)). The sport was popular with Anglo-Norman knights; the usual form in Middle English and Old French was plural, in reference to a series of contests and the accompanying revelry.

These early tournaments were very rough affairs, in every sense, quite unlike the chivalrous contests of later days; the rival parties fought in groups, and it was considered not only fair but commendable to hold off until you saw some of your adversaries getting tired and then to join in the attack on them; the object was not to break a lance in the most approved style, but frankly to disable as many opponents as possible for the sake of obtaining their horses, arms, and ransoms. [L.F. Salzman, "English Life in the Middle Ages," Oxford, 1950]

Jousting is a martial game or hastilude between two horsemen wielding lances with blunted tips, often as part of a tournament. The primary aim was to replicate a clash of heavy cavalry, with each opponent endeavoring to strike the opponent while riding towards him at high speed, if possible breaking the lance on the opponent's shield or jousting armour, or unhorsing him. The joust became an iconic characteristic of the knight in Romantic medievalism.

The term is derived from Old French joster, ultimately from a Late Latin infare "to approach, to meet". The word was loaned into Middle English around 1300, when jousting was a very popular sport among the Anglo-Norman knighthood. The synonym tilt dates ca. 1510.


Jousting is based on the military use of the lance by heavy cavalry. It transformed into a specialised sport during the Late Middle Ages, and remained popular with the nobility both in England and Germany throughout the whole of the 16th century (while in France, it was discontinued after the death of King Henry II in an accident in 1559). In England, jousting was the highlight of the Accession Day tilts of Elizabeth I and James I, and also was part of the festivities at the marriage of Charles I

Book | The Istanbul Letters of Alka Nestoroff

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K. Volarić (Ed.): The Istanbul Letters
Klara Volarić (ed.), The Istanbul Letters of Alka Nestoroff. Bonn: Max Weber Stiftung, 2015. (Memoria. Fontes minores ad Historiam Imperii Ottomanici pertinentes, 1) ISSN: 2364-5997.
PDF Link

Memoria. Fontes minores ad Historiam Imperii Ottomanici pertinentes

This publication series makes accesible in English primary sources on Ottoman history for academic research with an emphasis on narrative texts, which have gone largely unnoticed.

Dr Richard Wittmann gave a presentation[1] on The Istanbul Letters of Alka Nestoroff, the first volume of a new publication series which he has edited. The aim of this series is to make accessible primary sources on Ottoman history in English for academic research, with an emphasis on narrative texts that have gone largely unnoticed.
Alka Nestoroff’s letters from Istanbul, published here for the first time in a volume edited by Klara Volarić, afford the reader with a rare glimpse into the cosmopolitan world of Istanbul’s high society and foreign diplomats during the last years of peace in the Ottoman Empire leading up to the Balkan Wars and World War I. Alka Nestoroff, neé Mažuranić, the granddaughter of the Habsburg governor of Croatia and the wife of a Bulgarian diplomat to the Sublime Porte, regularly sent letters from Istanbul to her parents and extended family in Zagreb.

Alka Nestoroff is a keen and eloquent observer of everyday life and the conviviality of the capital’s residents. Her letters contain an invaluable trove of information on everyday life in the Ottoman capital, including the scenery and architecture, its street dogs and the latent danger posed by the numerous fires in the city. As a self-narrative they provide a fascinating eye-witness account of the turmoil and temporary breakdown of civic order in Istanbul surrounding the Young Turk Revolution in July 1908.

This particular presentation is made in conjunction with the Istanbul Memories Project, an interdisciplinary and international research project aimed at collecting, recovering and rereading personal narratives of the late Ottoman period as sources for the study of late Ottoman social realities. Source

[1] Street Dogs, Diplomacy and the Sweet Waters of Asia | Book presentation of ‘The Istanbul Letters of Alka Nestoroff’

November 11, 2015 | 19.00 | The Orient-Institut Istanbul, Susam Sok. No:16 D:8, Beyoğlu

The Orient-Institut Istanbul is an independent Turcological and area studies research institute of the Max Weber Foundation. Much of our work is conducted in cooperation with universities and independent academic institutions, both in Turkey and abroad. The institute also contributes to the scientific exchange between Germany and Turkey.

The Orient-Institut Istanbul is located in the neighbourhood of Cihangir, conveniently close to Taksim Square, one of the major cultural, entertainment and transport centres of the city. With Istanbul’s rich archives, manuscript libraries, museum and art collections, the institute offers unique opportunities for research on Islamic, Mediterranean and Turkish culture, society and history.

The Orient-Institut Istanbul is also home to an ever-growing research library open to the public. Its collection consists of approximately 39,000 volumes and 1,300 periodicals focusing on Ottoman as well as contemporary Turkish Studies. In addition to its comprehensive Turkish collection, the library is a valuable resource for often hard-to-find academic literature in German and other foreign languages. The Institute hosts public lectures, symposiums and scientific conferences on a regular basis. Now a branch of the Max Weber Foundation, the Orient-Institut Istanbul was from 1989 to 2008 a subsidiary of the Orient-Institut Beirut, which was originally established in 1961 by the German Oriental Society, or the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (DMG). Since January 1, 2009, the Orient-Institut Istanbul has been independent of the Orient-Institut Beirut.

1915-1920 Streetcars of Istanbul

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The idea of the electric streetcar emerged just before World War I. After the establishment of electric power plants and railway system, the first electric streetcar trip started on Jan. 25, 1914. The first trip was from Karakoy to Eminonu. Istanbul had a wide electric streetcar network in 1915. The number of motorized cars reached 141 and trailers 69 in 1923. The number of lines reached 12, and then 56 in 1956, in parallel with the increasing population of Istanbul. 

The number of passengers was high for the trips between Tunel-Sisli, Taksim-Sirkeci and Karakoy-Besiktas. The streetcar fare, which was expensive during the first years, went down after the establishment of the Republic. The shortest distance cost 2.75 kurus (the smallest unit of money in the Ottoman realm), which was the second class price, and 5.25 kurus, which was the first class price -- $1 was equal to 200 kurus, one kg of bread was 10 kurus, of meat 40 kurus, of cheese 100 kurus and of beans 25 kurus back then. 

Special railway car for the elite 

The streetcar had at most two railway cars. Those in the front were red and the ones in back were green. The red railway cars were for first class passengers. Generally the urban elite got in this railway car. The second class car, which was cheaper than first class, was preferred by people with modest incomes. The chairs in second class cars were wooden whereas the ones in first class were leather and soft. It was sometimes argued that this arrangement discriminated between the people. But the reactions were not considered and the same system continued until the trips were stopped. Streetcar loses esteem. SOURCE

Article | Where Does Erdogan Want To Take Turkey?

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Where Does Erdogan Want To Take Turkey? By Soner Cagaptay

Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family Fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute.

U.S. News & World Report | June 15, 2016

The leader's distorted view of the Ottoman past may dictate whether the country further embraces Islamization.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the most powerful democratically elected leader in the country's history. He has run Turkey since 2002 through his Justice and Development Party (AKP), first as prime minister and since 2014 as president. Having orchestrated on May 22nd the promotion of his close ally Binali Yildirim to the post of prime minister and AKP chairman, Erdogan has amassed even more power in his hands: he is now head of state, as well as (de facto) head of government and leader of the ruling party. Where does he want to take Turkey?

Read More

Word Origin | Ekmek, somun, çörek, pide, poğaça

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Ekmek: Bread EN [1]; oldTR: [ Uygurca Maniheist metinler, 900]; ötmek [ekmek] oldTR: [ Kaşgarî, Divan-i Lugati't-Türk, 1073]; etmek: al-χubz [ekmek] (...) ötmek [ekmek, üç ayrı yerde] (...) epmek [ekmek, partially in some Oghuz and Kipchak] CumanTR: [ Codex Cumanicus, 1303]; ötmek est panis sed ötmäkči est ille qui fecit panem ['ötmek' ekmektir, 'ötmekçi' ekmek yapan kişidir]TTü: [ Meninski, Thesaurus, 1680]; etmek vul. ekmek: Panis. From tartar TR: [ Ahmed Vefik Paşa, Lugat-ı Osmani, 1876]
ekmek: ütmek ki, ütülenmiş, dough exposed to/treated with fire
from Tartar TR etmek ekmek oldTR ötmek/etmek a.a. oldTR üt- ateşte kızartmak +mAk

Somun: Loaf EN[2]; fromGR psomín ψωμίν ekmek, çörek old GR psōmós ψωμός lokma

çörek: ETü: [ Kaşgarî, Divan-i Lugati't-Türk, 1073]; çörek: al-ḳurṣ [halka? yuvarlak ekmek?]; Tartar TR: çörek otu [ Yadigâr-ı İbni Şerif, 1421 naˁnaˁyla çörek otuŋı dögüp göbek üzerüŋe yaku eyleseler; Tartar TR: [ Ahmed Vefik Paşa, Lugat-ı Osmani, 1876]
çöreklenmek: Kıvrılıp kangal olmak, yılan kat kat bükülmek.
oldTR çörek yuvarlak ekmek from oldTR çevür- çevirmek, yuvarlamak +Ak ; to make round, into a coil.


Pide: Pita EN[3]; pīte [ II. Bayezid Kanunnamesi, 1512]; from GR píta πίτα yassı hamur ekmeği fromAramaic pettā פתתא ekmek parçası, lokma from Aramaic pttפתת kırma, (özellikle ekmeği) bölme, ufalama, lokma haline getirme.

Poğaça: [ Evliya Çelebi, Seyahatname, 1683] değirmenlerden taze ıssı poğaçalar gelüp.

From IT focaccia külde pişmiş küçük hamur işi; small dough piece baked in ashes EN oldLatin focacia a.a. Latin focus ocak, ateş; fire, oven EN

Lavaş: 
[ anon., Ferec ba'd eş-şidde, 1451]; götürebildügince lavāş girde külīceler biryānlar (...) aldı eve geldi; [ Meninski, Thesaurus, 1680]; levāş& levāşe: panis orbicularis tenuis [ince yuvarlak ekmek| flat round bread EN]; from Persian  lavāşلواشyassıekmek, yufka from Aramaic  lawaş/layşלושׁ hamur;dough EN; Aramaic lwşhamur yoğurmak; kneading and making dough EN. Same word used in Armenian and Kurdish from Aramaic/Syriac source.
<1451 1680="" 701="" 710.="" al="" ald="" anlamda="" aram="" arami="" ayn="" biry="" celer="" d="" e:="" ede="" ekmek="" ermenice="" eve="" fa="" g="" geldi="" gince="" girde="" hamur="" ince="" k="" kullan="" l="" lan="" lav="" lawa="" lay="" lev="" lt="" lw="" meninski="" nden="" nihai="" nlar="" not:="" nt="" olarak="" orbicularis="" panis="" r.="" r="" rebild="" rjastrow="" rt="" ryani="" s="" span="" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;" t="" tenuis="" thesaurus="" urmak="" ve="" yass="" yo="" yufka="" yuvarlak="" zc="">
1451>[1] bread (n.) Old English bread "bit, crumb, morsel; bread," cognate with Old Norse brauð, Danish brød, Old Frisian brad, Middle Dutch brot, Dutch brood, German Brot. According to one theory [Watkins, etc.] from Proto-Germanic *brautham, which would be from the root of brew (v.) and refer to the leavening. 


But OED argues at some length for the basic sense being not "cooked food" but "piece of food," and the Old English word deriving from a Proto-Germanic *braudsmon- "fragments, bits" (cognate with Old High German brosma "crumb," Old English breotan "to break in pieces") and being related to the root of break (v.). It cites Slovenian kruh "bread," literally "a piece." 

Either way, by c. 1200 it had replaced the usual Old English word for "bread," which was hlaf (see loaf (n.)). Slang meaning "money" dates from 1940s, but compare breadwinner. Bread-and-butter in the figurative sense of "basic needs" is from 1732. Bread and circuses (1914) is from Latin, in reference to food and entertainment provided by governments to keep the populace happy. "Duas tantum res anxius optat, Panem et circenses" [Juvenal, Sat. x.80].

[2] loaf (n.)  late 13c., from Old English hlaf "portion of bread baked in a mass of definite form," from Proto-Germanic *khlaibuz (source also of Old Norse hleifr, Swedish lev, Old Frisian hlef, Old High German hleib, German Laib, Gothic hlaifs "bread, loaf"), of uncertain origin, perhaps connected to Old English hlifian "to raise higher, tower," on the notion of the bread rising as it bakes, but it is unclear whether "loaf" or "bread" is the original sense. Finnish leipä, Old Church Slavonic chlebu, Lithuanian klepas probably are Germanic loan words. Meaning "chopped meat shaped like a bread loaf" is attested from 1787.

[3] pita (n.) "thick, flat bread," 1951, from Modern Hebrew pita or Modern Greek petta "bread," perhaps from Greek peptos "cooked," or somehow connected to pizza (q.v.).

pizza (n.) 1935, from Italian pizza, originally "cake, tart, pie," of uncertain origin. The 1907 "Vocabolario Etimologico della Lingua Italiana" reports it is said to be from dialectal pinza "clamp" (from Latin pinsere "to pound, stamp"). Klein suggests a connection via loan-translation with Medieval Greek pitta "cake, pie," from Greek pitta "pitch" (cognate with Latin adjective piceus "of pitch"). 

Zonaro | My Wife made me do it

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"Elisa[*], my beloved wife, it is thanks to you that I found the strength to live in Istanbul. If you had not come earlier and made a circle of friends, and if you had not given me courage, perhaps Istanbul would have continued to be the dream of mysterious colours of which I read in Edmondo d'Amicis' book. I am thinking of the early years when we made a living by painting watercolours, repairing frames and printing photographs... I will never forget Signor Zellich, the owner of Zellich [1] bookshop on Yüksekkaldirim, and his sons, who were so kind in their attentions. We placed my paintings in his large window and priced them at one lira each. Four paintings were sold and he paid me the sums immediately. That was the first money I earned in Istanbul." Fausto Zonaro 

[*] Elisabetta Pante, his wife and former pupil.

Mavi Boncuk |

Zonaro was born on 18 September 1854, the son of a middle-class family in Masi in the district of Padua, and had he not shown artistic promise as a child, would have been apprenticed into his father's bricklaying trade. He was fortunate to attend a technical school near his hometown, and was later sponsored by a local noblewoman to attend the Accademia Di Belle Arti G. B. Cignaroli in Verona for his artistic training. 

After graduation, Zonaro moved to Venice where he opened his own studio on the Grand Canal. He developed a fine reputation for picturesque views and genre scenes which was bolstered by ducal patronage. Despite his commercial success, Zonaro grew dissatisfied by the late 1880s with his lack of artistic growth and sought ways to distinguish himself from his contemporaries. 

At this juncture, he made two critical decisions-the first was to take a year-long sabbatical in Paris to learn new techniques. Zonaro's works created after this intensive year are considered to be in his mature style, where "the product of his training in French Impressionism, Venetian coloring, and Neapolitan realism were fused." 

Zonaro's second life-changing decision was to move to the city of Constantinople. He was fascinated with the exotic vision of this outpost of the Roman and Ottoman Empires, and opened a studio there in 1891. Through his skill and the promotional efforts of his wife and former pupil Elisabetta (Elisa) Pante Zonaro, he was introduced to the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1842-1918) who selected him as his court painter in 1896. Zonaro remained at the court until Abdul Hamid II's regime was overthrown in 1909, and returned to Italy thereafter. 

Fausto Zonaro first arrived in Istanbul he could not find words to describe the city's beauty, saying that the descriptions by Gautier, Amicis and Loti could not be surpassed. 

In 1896 he was appointed painter to the Ottoman sultan. A magnificent book about this Italian painter by Erol Makzume and Osman Öndes has now been published on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition of his work. One of Zonaro's first friends in Istanbul was Director of Customs Mahmud Bey, who helped him when he was having difficulty at the Customs on his arrival in the city, invited him to his office and offered him coffee. This first acquaintance turned into a lasting friendship, and Zonaro was a frequent visitor at Mahmud Bey's house in Salacak. When Illustrierte Zeitung magazine published in Leipzig featured Zonaro's masterpiece Il Banditore, illustrating a scene from the Napoleonic period, on the cover in November 1892, Zonaro became sought after in Istanbul's diplomatic circles and high society. 

He began to give art lessons to Yusuf Bey of the Ottoman Foreign Ministry, Nadine de Rodevich, Countess Vitalis, Maikof, daughter of the Belgian ambassador Mademoiselle Dudzeele, Madame Cropenshi, Baroness Wenspeir and other illustrious figures of the time. In later years his students included such notable Turkish artists as Celal Esad Arseven, Hoca Ali Riza, Sehzade Abdülmecid, Mihri Müsfik and Celile Hanim. He was introduced to Osman Hamdi Bey, founder of Istanbul Archaeological Museum, and was impressed by his kindness, courtesy and culture. The two men became friends and used to go fishing together on the Bosphorus, as Zonaro relates: 'Our boat filled with fish, each weighing three kilos. When Hamdi Bey asked if that was sufficient, I said that I could feed my entire neighbourhood in Taksim with so many fish. That day, after eating our fill with Hamdi Bey, I took the remainder home in a basket and we ate fish for the next week. The Bosphorus had begun to feast me not only with its blue hues, but also with its delicious fish.'

One Friday in 1896 Zonaro watched the Ertugrul cavalry regiment passing over Galata Bridge, and began to visit the same spot every week to sketch the procession. After completing his oil painting based on these sketches, friends suggested that he present it to Sultan Abdülhamid II. The sultan admired the painting so much that he awarded Zonaro the Mecidi Order and appointed him court painter. A year later Zonaro was rewarded for his painting of the Battle of Dömeke in the Turkish-Greek War by being allocated one of the houses for palace officials in Besiktas. Zonaro lived and worked at No 50 Akaretler for the next 12 years, and the house became a gathering place for intellectuals, eminent members of Istanbul society, leaders of its different religious communities and foreign visitors, who came to watch Zonaro at work and converse with him. His visitors included Enver Pasa, Winston Churchill, Ali Sami, Adolphe Thalasso, Sehzade Burhaneddin, Sehzade Abdülmecid, Sevket Cenani, Max Olaf Heckmann, Dr Fritz Fraumberger, Mario Perrone, Attilio Centelli, Emilie Helferich, Dr A Kampf,

Recaizade Ekrem and Osman Hamdi Bey. Zonaro often used to paint in the gardens of Yildiz Palace: 'Yildiz Park always enchanted me with its exquisite beauty, tranquillity and birdsong. I loved to paint there. First I did sketches based on drawings, and then began to paint. Usually Sehzade Burhaneddin Efendi would join me, and we would converse in French as he shyly watched me from a corner beneath his sunshade.' Zonaro was friends with another of the Ottoman princes, Sehzade Abdülmecid, whom he described as 'a gracious man, filled with love of art.' Sehzade Abdülmecid purchased Zonaro's painting entitled The Wildflower for the unprecedented sum of 200 liras, after extracting from him a promise that he would not paint another similar composition. From the time he was appointed court painter, Zonaro desired to paint a portrait of Sultan Abdülhamid II, and the sultan finally agreed to this in 1908. After Abdülhamid was deposed in 1909 Zonaro's close association with the sultan made him persona non grata with the new regime.

In November that year he was called to the palace and told that his position as court painter and his salary were revoked, and that he could only remain in the house on Akaretler on condition he paid rent. Early in the morning on 20 March 1910 two phaetons drew up outside the house. Zonaro, his wife Elisa and their children left the house where they had lived for over 12 years for the last time. Until his death in 1929 Zonaro's love of Istanbul was perhaps accompanied by feelings of bitterness. In his memoirs he wrote, 'Now I yearn for those sorrowful days that pain me to remember. But I was not crushed by those times of sadness, and nor shall I be. I continue to work with all my strength, and with respect and passion for my art. The mystery of the East still holds me in its grasp.

Article by Ömer Faruk Serifoglu, an art historian.

[1] In the first half of the 19th century, the Ottoman state opened its market to world economy and foreign capital. Together with European capital and business, thousands of European immigrant workers began to arrive in Istanbul, the empire's capital, in search of work. A story of Dalmatian Antonio Zelic, who came to Istanbul in 1840, provides a good example of the European immigrant dream-come-true story. After arrival, Zelic found employment at the lithographic print house of Frenchmen Henri Cayol, the first of its kind in the Ottoman Empire. In 1869, he opened his own lithographic print house called "Zellich and Sons" (A. Zellich et fils). His descendants continued his work with great success, and the Zellich Print House, now known as "Zellich's Sons" (Zellich fils), became one of the most renowned in the Empire. The Zellichs won recognition due to the high quality of their products, and, above all, postcards and posters. Their crowning achievement was printing of the Ottoman Turkish Lira banknotes in 1914. The Zellichs received many Ottoman and international awards for their achievements and services, including medals conferred by the Pope, the Persian shah, and the Serbian king. Transfer of technology into the Ottoman state was one of the most important roles of European immigrants. Despite occasional state pressure during the Abdulhamid's reign in particular, the Zellich family was able to develop its business on account of mastering the art of lithography, one of the new technologies imported from the West. However, after the circumstances that had attracted European immigrants changed in the 1920s and 1930s, the Zellich family, following the example of others, gradually abandoned the business and eventually left the city in which it had made its fame. 

SOURCE: THE "ZELLICH" PRINT HOUSE IN CONSTANTINOPLE | Article in Knjizevna Smotra 46(3):91-110 · December 2013

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AUCTION INFO Estimate $20,000-40,000 | Sold for: $225,150

Torre de Leandro / A View of Salacak and Kiz Kulesi [Leander's Tower], Istanbul, Turkey 
Signed "F. Zonaro" l.l. | Oil on canvas, 15 3/4 x 26 in. (40.0 x 66.0 cm), framed. Condition: Losses, craquelure, re-stretched. 

Provenance: Gift to Georg Ruckmann (1870-1961) of Lübeck, Germany, from a doctor that fled to Turkey before World War I; by family descent to a private New England collection. Ruckmann was an administrator of a hospital in Lübeck. 


Scattered paint losses and abrasions to upper right quadrant (sky). Paint losses to lower center on foreground rocks, with losses measuring from approximately 3/8 to 3/4 in. Vertical abrasion or similar to l.r. corner about 2 inches in length. Craquelure occuring mainly across the top half of the composition (in the sky), but also to l.r. corner. Re-stretched on a new stretcher with a label from Rhode Island Picture Frame, Warwick and Wakefield, R.I., affixed to the bottom bar.

Henri Cayol | Turkish Posting on Lithography

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Mavi Boncuk |

TAŞ BASMASI

Taş kalıplarla yapılan baskı ve bu teknikle basılmış eser.

Grekçe lithos (taş) ve graphein (yazmak) kelimelerinden oluşan litografya (İt. lithographia)/litografi (Fr. lithographie) Türkçe’de taşbaskı ile (taş baskısı) karşılanmıştır. Baskılar, kireç taşından hazırlanan levhaların yüzeyine yağlı mürekkeple yazılan yazı, şekil ve resimlerin basılıp birtakım teknik işlemlerden geçirilmesiyle elde edilir. Mekanik baskı makinelerinin aksine burada kimyasal işlem öne çıkar. Siyah-beyaz dışında çeşitli renklerdeki çizimler ve çizimsiz kısımlar aynı seviyede ve düz yüzeylidir, bu sebeple “düz yüzeyli baskı” tabiri oluşmuştur. Taş yerine metal kullanıldığı zaman da basım tekniği aynı isimle anılır (Krause, s. 1). Taş baskısı modern ofset basımının başlangıcı kabul edilir.

Çek asıllı bir Bavyeralı olan Johann Alois Senefelder litografyanın mûcidi kabul edilir. 1818’de bu baskı tekniğiyle ilgili kaleme aldığı kitabı konu hakkında etraflı bilgiler veren ilk eserdir. Eserde bu teknik için ilk defa litografya tanımlamasını kullanır. Senefelder, kendisi gibi müzikle ilgilenen ve notaların daha güzel basımı için yeni yollar arayan Franz Gleissner ile birlikte ilk deneme olarak taşa basılı notalardan 120 adet bastılar (1795). Bunların büyük çoğunluğunun hemen satılması yeni teknolojiye ekonomik bir boyut kazandırdı. Senefelder ilk imtiyaz beratını Bavyera’da 1799’da aldı ve Münih’te kurduğu litografi matbaasında müzik notaları basımına girişti. Taş basmacılığı, XIX. yüzyılın ilk çeyreğinin sonlarında görsel sanat ve resimli kitapların üretiminde gelişimini tamamlayarak eğitim alanında önemli bir işlev görmek üzere kısa zamanda bütün Avrupa’da yaygınlık kazandı (a.g.e., s. 11).

Taş baskıcılığı Osmanlı ülkesine Henri Cayol tarafından getirildi. Fransa’da hukuk tahsili almış olmasına rağmen resme ve el yazmalarına düşkünlüğü, ayrıca yeteneği sayesinde bu sanatı öğrenen Cayol, Doğu dillerine ve arkeolojiye duyduğu merak dolayısıyla kendisi gibi taş basmacılığını bilen yeğeni Jacques Caillol ile beraber Doğu seyahatine çıktı. 1831’de yirmi altı yaşında iken geldiği İstanbul’da kalmaya karar verdi. Hoca tutup Türkçe’yi kısa zamanda öğrendi ve devlet adamlarına taş basması sanatının faydalarını anlattı. Osmanlıca hat sanatının bu teknikle özgün güzelliğinin korunabileceğini gösterdi; kendisine Harbiye Nezâreti’nin ihtiyaçlarını karşılamak üzere bir atölye kurması izni verildi. Henri Cayol’ün başarısı, bu sırada serasker olan Koca Hüsrev Paşa’nın taş basmacılığına pratik sebeplerden ötürü ilgi göstermesi sayesinde gerçekleşti. Hüsrev Paşa, yeniçeriliğin kaldırılmasından sonra kurulan ordunun eğitim ve öğretimi için gerekli tâlimnâmelerin bir an önce hazırlanması ve resimli olarak basılıp dağıtılmasını istiyordu. Bu anlamda ilk basılan eser tabur tâlimine dair açık bir nesihle yazılan Nuhbetü’t-ta‘lîm’dir (1247/1831). İçinde yetmiş dokuz tâlim şekli ve bunların açıklaması bulunan eserin ayrıca yetmiş adet şeklin açıklamasını içeren II. cildi vardır. Bu baskının ardından II. Mahmud’un iradesiyle Henri Cayol’e bir ev verilip 500 kuruş aylık bağlandı, ayrıca iâşe bedeli ödenmesi kararlaştırıldı. Cayol’ün hükümet emrinde çalıştığı beş yıl boyunca (1831-1836) kendi matbaasında Ta‘lîm-i Asâkir-i Piyâdegân maa Topçuyân adlı kitap (1835) ve aynı teknikle Dârüttıbâatü’l-âmire’de askerî ağırlıklı ve resimli çeşitli kitaplar basıldı (Çelik, s. 350-357). Bu arada yetişen çok sayıda taş baskısı ustası eyaletlere gönderilerek oralarda taş basımının yaygınlık kazanmasına çalışıldı.

1836’da Henri Cayol, II. Mahmud’un izniyle Beyoğlu’nda Galata Mevlevîhânesi yakınlarında kendi matbaasını kurdu. Burada, aynı yıl içinde seraskerlikten uzaklaştırılmasına rağmen nüfuzunu koruyan Hüsrev Paşa’nın desteğiyle Yorgaki Razizâde’nin Grammaire Français yâni Sarf-ı Fransevî adlı eserini (1254/1838), ayrıca M. Nöel ve M. Chapsal’in Nouvelle grammaire française’ini bastı. 1853’te basılan Tâbirnâme ve Kavâid-i Fârisiyye Nizâmü’l-kalem adlı eserlerin sonunda Kayolzâde Yahyâ Harîrî ve Tâbirnâme’nin ikinci baskısında (1279/1862) Kayolzâde Abdullah’ın litografya tezgâhında basıldığı belirtilmektedir. Razizâde’nin ve Nöel-Chapsal’in lugatları Türkler için basılan ilk Fransızca sözlükler olması bakımından ayrıca önemlidir (Strauss, s. 281). Zamanla Rumca, Ermenice ve Fransızca hurufatla eserler basabilecek duruma gelen Henri Cayol, Journal asiatique de Constantinople adlı bir derginin yöneticiliğini ve nâşirliğini yaptı, bunun ilk sayısını 1852’de çıkardı. Burada taşbaskı halinde Fransızca tercümesiyle beraber güzel bir nesihle Hayrî’nin Daltaban Mustafa Paşa’nın Basra seferine (1701) dair tarihçesi yayımlandı (s. 25-65). Fransızca çevirisi sefâret tercümanı Ch. Schefer tarafından yapılan bu eserin herhalde gözden uzak kalmış olmasından dolayı kullananı pek çıkmamıştır.

II. Mahmud yazma eserlerin basım imtiyazını Henri Cayol’e verdi, ancak onun topladığı pek çok belge ve kıymetli yazma birikimi 1852’de yanan matbaasında zayi oldu. Fransız elçilik binasının alt köşesindeki bir yerde yeni matbaasını kuran Henri Cayol 1855’te gittiği Paris’ten yeni tezgâh, litografik ve tipografik matbaa takımları satın aldı, fakat bu masrafları zengin sikke koleksiyonunu satarak karşılamak zorunda kaldı (Zellich, IX/5 [1973], s. 27). Henri Cayol, 18 Ağustos 1865’te İstanbul’da büyük çapta ölümlere yol açan kolera salgınında öldü. Zengin bir yazma eserler koleksiyonuna sahipti, bunların taş basması olarak yetmiş sekiz sayfa tutan katalogu ölümünden sonra yayımlandı. Koleksiyonun özgün fişleri 1871 Beyoğlu yangınında zayi olup basılı katalogun bir nüshası Paris’te Doğu Dilleri ve Kültürü Enstitüsü Millî Kütüphanesi’nde bulunmaktadır (Strauss, s. 281). Matbaanın işleri bir süre Cayol’ün yetiştirmesi olan Antoine Zellich tarafından yürütüldü. Zellich 1869’da taş basması atölyesini kurarak kendi işinin başına geçti ve ailesinde matbaacılık babadan oğula devam etti. Antoine Zellich’in oğlu Grégorie Zellich, litografya keşfinin 100. yıl dönümü dolayısıyla 1895’te İstanbul’da Notice historique sur la lithographie et sur les origines de son introduction en Turquie adıyla bir risâle yayımladı. 1890’da ölen Zellich’in matbaası gelişimini II. Abdülhamid dönemine kadar sürdürdü.

Zamanla devlete ait çeşitli taş baskısı matbaaları açıldı. 1850’li yıllardan itibaren sivil girişimciler eliyle İstanbul’da taş basmacılığı yapan atölyeler kurulmaya başlandı ve bunların sayısı otuzu aştı. Bu atölyelerde basılan kitaplar arasında baskı sayısı bakımından ilk sırada yer alan eser, çeşitli yıllarda farklı matbaalarda kırkın üzerindeki baskısıyla Sünbülzâde Vehbî’nin Tuhfe-i Vehbî’sidir. Bunu yirmiden fazla baskısıyla Mızraklı İlmihal, Mevlid-i Şerîf (Süleyman Çelebi), Tecvîd-i Karabaş, Kitâb-ı Muhammediyye, Sübha-i Sıbyân; onun üzerinde baskısıyla Şürûtü’s-salât, İlm-i Hâl, Zübde-i İlmihâl, Risâle-i Ahlâk gibi geniş halk kitlelerine hitap eden eserler izledi. Bunların yanında Hoca Nasreddin Letâifi, Menâkıb-ı Şah İsmâil ve Gülizâr, Lutfi Paşa Târihi, Mekteb-i Mülkiyye-i Şâhâne Tevzî-i Mükâfât Cetveli gibi değişik yayımlar yapıldı. Özellikle vilâyet salnâmelerinin önemli bir bölümünün bu teknikle basıldığı görülmektedir.

II. Abdülhamid döneminde fotolitografya (aks-i ziyâ) tekniğiyle mushaf da basıldı (Cevdet, IV, 129). Türk hattatlarının yazdığı, bu teknikle çoğaltılan mushaflar Arap vilâyetlerinde revaç buldu. Ravza-i Mutahhara’da II. Abdülhamid’in bastırdığı büyük boy mushaflar uzun süre muhafaza edildi, gelen hacılara okumaları için bunlar verildi. Mushaf basımında kullanılan 54 × 37, 72 × 50 ve 94 × 63 ebadında 440 taş basması kalıbı İstanbul’da Şer‘iyye Sicilleri Arşivi’nin yan tarafındaki bir binada muhafaza edilmektedir. Bunlardan bazıları kenarında âyetlerin meâlleri de bulunan tezhipli kalıplardır. Taş basımı için gerekli ana malzeme dışarıdan getirtilmekteydi. 1892’de Mihaliç’te litografya taşı bulunmuş ve bu madenin işletme imtiyazını Osmanlı Bankası almıştır. Daha sonra 40.000 lira karşılığında bu iş için kurulan bir İngiliz şirketine devredilmiştir. Çalışmalara başlanmış olmakla beraber mahallî idarecilerle çıkan anlaşmazlıklar yüzünden işletme 1901’e kadar âtıl kalmıştır. Bu arada başka yerlerde de litografya taşı madenleri keşfedilmiştir (Grunzel, s. 82).

BİBLİYOGRAFYA:

A. Senefelder, Vollständiges Lehrbuch der Steindruckerei, München 1818; J. M. Poppe, Die Lithographie oder Steindruckerei im ganzen Umfang und in allen Manieren nach den neuesten Erfindungen, Stuttgart 1833, tür.yer.; Cevdet, Tezâkir, IV, 129; Grégoire Zellich, Notice historique sur la lithographie et sur les origines de son introduction en Turquie, Constantinople 1895, s. 43-53; a.mlf., “Türkiye’de Taş Basmacılığı” (trc. Orhan Yüksel), Hayat Tarih Mecmuası, IX/5, İstanbul 1973, s. 24-27; J. Grunzel, Bericht über die Wirtschaftlichen Verhältnisse des osmanischen Reiches, Wien 1903, s. 82; Selim Nüzhet Gerçek, Türk Taş Basmacılığı, İstanbul 1939; Hasan Refik Ertuğ, Basın ve Yayın Hareketleri Tarihi, İstanbul 1970, s. 127-133; W. Weber, Aloys Senefelder, Erfinder der Lithographie: Daten zum Leben und Wirken, Frankfurt 1981; J. Strauss, “Livre français d’Istanbul (1730-1908)”, Livres et lecture dans le monde ottoman. Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée. Série histoire, Cahors 1999, s. 277-301; Yüksel Çelik, Hüsrev Mehmet Paşa: Siyasî Hayatı ve Askerî Faaliyetleri (1756-1855) (doktora tezi, 2005), İÜ Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, s. 350-357, 364; Helmut H. Krause, Geschichte der Lithographie: Spiegelwelt-Gespiegelte Welt, Mannheim 2007, s. 1-28; “Lithografi veya Litografya”, SA, III, 78; Günay Alpay Kut, “MaŧbaǾa”, EI² (İng.), VI, 802; “Taş Baskı”, TDEA, VIII, 280.

Âlim Kahraman   

Ottoman Fez

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Mavi Boncuk | The fez, first emerged, as it has been claimed, in Morocco, in North Africa, was also used by the Ottomans in the XVII century. It was during the reign of Mahmut II. that the fez became popular and was used as an army cap imposed by a regulation in this epoch. The fez had taken attention of Mahmut II while Husrev Pasha was training the soldiers under his command in French style and made them dress the fez, which had been brought from Tunisia. Sultan II. Mahmut, then, approved and preferred the fez as soldiers' cap since şeşpara and şubara were rapidly worn away, but, refraining from the people's and soldiers' reaction, he had gathered an assembly at Bab-ı Fetva and made people in the assembly discuss if the fez was lawful in terms of yasa and sharia to be worn by Ottoman soldiers. As he got approbation and set up as a rule which imposed soldiers of the Asakir-i Mansure troops to wear it, 50.000 pieces of fez, which would be brought from Tunisia, were ordered. High costs of the importation triggered the decision of founding the wineries of fez within the boundaries of the State. As a consequence some attempts to establish wineries of fez started in İstanbul, Edirne, Selanik and Bursa. To produce high quality fez like those produced in Tunisia, learned craftsmen were employed, but despite of such efforts, the quality of domestic production did not reach the quality of those produced in Tunisia. For the same reason, initially, a kind of fleece, called Spanish fleece as well, obtained from Merino sheep had been imported, but then, Merino sheep began to be grown in Edirne region. To meet the needs of soldiers and the people, an industrial facility, which would be very important for the time period, was established in Edirne. Craftsmen were brought to the city for manufacturing and the production of fez reached a significant level. The fez manufacturing also promoted new branches of industry in the city.

Source: Article | The Fez Manufacturing for Asakir-i Mansure in Edirne  (Full article in Turkish)
Ahmet YIĞIT Doç. Dr. 
Muğla Sıtkı Koçman Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Tarih Bölümü Öğretim Üyesi 

Kafkas Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi Kafkas University Journal of the Institute of Social Sciences Sayı Number 14, Sonbahar Autumn 2014, 129-150 DOI:10.9775/kausbed.2014.018



Label found inside a fez made in Czechoslovakia.

The fez, also spelled fes, is a particular style of hat that originated from the city of Fez in Morocco. The fez is also known as the tarboosh (Persian sar-boosh for "head cover") and checheya. The fez is a conical hat popularized in Turkey in the 19th century. Its use has subsequently become less widespread. The Fez gets it distinctive red hue from a dye collected from the bright red berries of the Turkish kizziljiek (C.mascula), or redwood berries - a cousin to the common American Boxwood (Cornus florida).

Fez formerly had a monopoly on the manufacture of the hat because it controlled the source of the kermes beetle used to color them. However the discovery of synthetic aniline dyes in the 19th century allowed the manufacture to spread to France, Germany and Austria. At the beginning of the 20th century Austria (factory in Strakonice) was the main center of the fez industry. 

A view of Strakonice in the 19th century




The history of textile manufacturing in Strakonice is one of more than 500 years; however, the year 1812, when the production of world famous knitted fezzes was launched, marks the true beginning of textile manufacturing. 

The beginning of fez production in Strakonice is not quite clear. The story goes that Linz businessman Braun who was doing brisk trade with the Orient, visited the town in 1805. He stayed in the ale-house “U Bílé růže” and was looking for somebody who could make a fez. The innkeeper brought in expert knitter Jan Petráš, Braun explained the process of fez production to him. The result was said to be better than expected, that is why the businessman decided to conclude a long term contract with the knitter. Petráš did really well and very soon he had so many orders that he was unable to meet them himself. Of course, other knitters noticed his success and production of fezzes expanded rapidly.

The first fez was made here in 1807; in 1812 the Fürth brothers established a company manufacturing caps and fezzes. Their products enjoyed great success and the sales steadily increased. In 1873, Wolf Fürth’s company recorded an annual output of 1.2 million fezzes. In the year 1899, the factories in Austria-Hungary merged into one corporation based in Vienna, Austria. After the foundation of Czechoslovakia, the headquarters were moved to Strakonice where the production of fezzes has continued until the present day. The countries where the fezzes were extensively worn did not have a single fez manufacturing plant.

During the reign of the Sultan Mahmud Khan II (1808-39), European code of dress gradually replaced the traditional robes worn by members of the Ottoman court. The change in costume was soon emulated by the public and senior civil servants, followed by the members of the ruling intelligentsia and the emancipated classes throughout the Turkish Empire. As European dress gradually gained appeal, top hats and bowlers with their great brims, and the French beret, never stood a chance. They did not conform with the customs and religions of the east. In their stead the Sultan issued a firman (royal decree) that the checheya headgear in its modified form would become part of the formal attire irrespective of his subjects' religious sects or milets.

Mustafa Kemal regarded the fez - which Sultan Mahmud II had originally introduced to the Ottoman Empire's dress code in 1826 - as a symbol of feudalism and banned it, encouraging Turkish men to wear European attire - thus, hats such as the fedora became popular.





Early 20th Century Textile Company Labels made in Czechoslovakia with images of Turkey. Gummed back label. Measurements: 9 1/2 x 4 1/2"

Serpentine Column | Procession through the Hippodrome

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Serpentine Column[1] was last seen in an etching in a book by Aubry de La Mottraye.

Mavi Boncuk |

Procession through the Hippodrome, Constantinople (Aubry de La Mottraye's "Travels throughout Europe, Asia and into Part of Africa...," London, 1724, vol. I, plate 15)

Etcher: William Hogarth (British, London 1697–1764 London)[*]
Artist:After Jean Baptiste Vanmour (French, Valenciennes 1671–1737 Istanbul)
Author: Illustrates Aubry de La Mottraye[2] (French, 1674–1743)
Date: 1723–24

[*] In 1720 La Motraye returned to England, where he was for some years engaged in preparing a manuscript about his travels. The description was published in English in 1723 under the title Travels through Europe, Asia and into part of Africa. The plates are all by English engravers, and twelve of them are signed by William Hogarth,. In 1727 he published a French version, with somewhat different content. During the 1720s, ​​La Motraye made further travels in Europe, which he also described in the book. In 1732 he had published a work that critically examined Voltaire's Charles XII biography, Carl XII's history .

[1] The Serpent Column (Ancient Greek: Τρικάρηνος Ὄφις Τrikarenos Οphis "Three-headed Snake"; Turkish: Yılanlı Sütun "Serpentine Column"), also known as the Serpentine Column, Plataean Tripod or Delphi Tripod, is an ancient bronze column at the Hippodrome of Constantinople (known as Atmeydanı "Horse Square" in the Ottoman period) in what is now Istanbul, Turkey. It is part of an ancient Greek sacrificial tripod, originally in Delphi and relocated to Constantinople by Constantine I the Great in 324. It was built to commemorate the Greeks who fought and defeated the Persian Empire at the Battle of Plataea (479 BC). The serpent heads of the 8-metre (26 ft) high column remained intact until the end of the 17th century (one is on display at the nearby Istanbul Archaeology Museums).


The Serpentine Column has one of the longest literary histories of any object surviving from Greek and Roman antiquity — its provenance is not in doubt and it is at least 2,493 years old. Together with its original golden tripod and bowl (both long missing), it constituted a trophy, or offering, dedicated to Apollo at Delphi. This offering was made in the spring of 478 BC, several months after the defeat of the Persian army in the Battle of Plataea (August 479 BC) by those Greek city-states in alliance against the Persian invasion of mainland Greece (see Greco-Persian Wars). Among the writers who allude to the Column in the ancient literature are Herodotus, Thucydides, Demosthenes, Diodorus Siculus, Pausanias the traveller, Cornelius Nepos and Plutarch. The removal of the column by the Emperor Constantine to his new capital, Constantinople, is described by Edward Gibbon, citing the testimony of the Byzantine historians Zosimus, Eusebius, Socrates, and Sozomenus.

[2] Aubry de La Mottraye settled in Constantinople in 1698 to practise freely the Protestant religion. He had already visited Italia, Jaffa, Alexandria, Tripoli, Mahn Harbour, and Lisbon and had followed Tallard to England. He met Tekeli[3] in Constantinople and travelled through Anatolia up to the Black Sea. He sailed to Malta and then towards Barcelona. La Motraye was close to Charles XII of Sweden and visited him during his exile at Bender in Turkey after the Swedish king had disastrously led his troops into battle against the armies of Russia, Poland, and Lithuania, subsequently losing the Swedish empire. La Mottraye stroke up a friendship with F.E. Fabrice, an agent of Charles XII towards 1711, when he followed him to Bender. Constant travels between Constantinople and Didymoteicho occupied him until 1714. He left for Sweden with Fabrice and went up to Laponia.


[3] Portrait of Emeric, Count of Tekeli (Teckely|Tokolyi

In Aug. after Louis XIV promises aid, the Great Kuruc Rebellion (ends 1686) in Hungary against the Hapsburgs by Magyars, Slovaks, Ruthenians, and a few Romanians begins, led by Count Imre (Emeric) Thokoly (Tokolyi) (Tekely) (Turk. "goaty") (1657-1705), who occupies all E and C Slovakia, followed by all of Hungary, and kicks out the Haspsburg govt., getting all of the Kuruc troops to join him and declare him their leader. He led the Turkish cavalry at the Battle of Slankamen and served valiantly but vainly against Austria during the remainder of the war, especially distinguishing himself at the Battle of Zenta (1697). He was excluded by name from the amnesty promised to the Hungarian rebels by the Treaty of Karlowitz (26 January 1699). After one more unsuccessful attempt, in 1700, to recover the principality, he settled down at Galata with his wife. From Sultan Mustafa II he received large estates and the title of count of Widdin. He died in 1705 in İzmit. He is buried in Kežmarok in the mausoleum of the so-called new church. 

Aubry de la Mottraye (1674?-1743) came from a French Huguenot family that had settled in England. He received an excellent education, and started travelling in 1696. In the course of twenty-six years, he toured Northern Europe, Crimea, the Near East, Russia, Prussia and Poland. La Mottraye combined diplomatic travels – as counsellor and attendant to various rulers – with commercial transactions and his activity as a collector.

His chronicle is adorned with impressive engravings of rare subjects, views of cities as well as everyday life scenes. His detailed descriptions make his account one of the first travelogues in which the force of the written discourse equals the impact of the illustrations. To this day, his diary notes in the page margins remain invaluable to researchers. 

On his first journey, in 1696, La Mottraye travelled from Paris to Rome, Alexandria and Lisbon, to end up in England. On his second trip, he sailed on a British ship from Gravesend to Smyrna in 1698, and reached the Aegean archipelago by way of Gibraltar. He landed on Patmos on the boat that provided the ship with fish. He crossed over to Clazomenae and arrived at Smyrna, where he stayed for five months. La Mottraye describes the city, English commerce in the area, the grave of Saint Polycarpus, the vines on the outskirts of the city, and mentions the earthquake of 1688. He visited Ephesus in February 1699. He also toured Chios, and wrote about the mastic and the fragrances of the island. He stayed in Samos for three days and visited the ruins of Hera’s temple. A regular seeker of ancient coins, on leaving Smyrna at the end of May 1699, he obtained numerous specimens from Lesbos and the harbours of the Hellespont. 

In the section on Constantinople, La Mottraye expands on various aspects of the city, touching on such diverse subjects as current political events and diplomatic relations between the Sultan and foreign ambassadors, the port, the fleet, the impressive kiosks, Chalcedon, Hagia Sophia, the mosques, the palace, the harem, the audiences of the Sultan, the Byzantine hippodrome, the historical columns, the cemeteries of Greeks, Armenians and Jews, a Turkish wedding, dervishes, "bedestens", inns and Ramadan. He describes at length the impressive entrance procession of the Sultan escorted by hundreds of officials and servants of his court. 

Mottraye visited Nicomedia and stayed in Bursa till 1703. In April of that year he travelled to Ankara (he provides information on Greek inscriptions, the Greek bishop and the churches in that city), Sinope (where he bought several ancient coins) and Amastris, from where he entered the Bosporus. In July 1703, La Mottraye was an eyewitness to the events in Adrianople, in which Sultan Mustafa II, who was inclined towards reforming the Empire and attempted to regulate its internal affairs after the Treaty of Carlowitz (1699), lost his throne. He also writes about the Greek Patriarch and the patriarchal church. In June 1707, La Mottraye embarked on a small ship carrying citrus fruits from Chios and travelled to Smyrna again, where he stayed for three weeks. From there he sailed via Naxos to Santorini, spending three days there. Then, by way of Amorgos, Naxos and Andros, he arrived in Thessalonica. He visited Mount Athos for two days, as well as Aenus and Adrianople, where the Greek wedding he describes took place, and returned to Constantinople. 

Until 1710, the year of his final departure from the East, La Mottraye continued his travels from the capital of the Ottoman Empire, reaching as far as Malta and Barcelona. Among other places, he stopped at Lesbos, the Thracian cities in the Hellespont, Tenedos, Lemnos, Troy, Psara, the islands of the Aegean, Monemvasia, Crete, Zacynthos and elsewhere. He was always recording the political events of the time, and never abandoned his quest for and purchase of antiquities, mainly ancient coins. 

In 1713, after numerous journeys to Northern Europe, La Mottraye went again to Constantinople. Crossing Eastern Thrace and Adrianople, he continued on to Philippoupolis (Plovdiv), Sofia and Belgrade. From this last city he journeyed to Vienna, the Netherlands and finally to England. In 1714 he returned to Constantinople once more, travelling through Germany, Hungary and the east coast of the Black Sea. 


Written by Ioli Vingopoulou



Word Origin | Korsan, hussar and more

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O’er the glad waters of the dark blue sea,
Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free,
Far as the breeze can bear, the billow foam,
Survey our empire and behold our home!
These are our realms, nno limits to their sway-
Our flag the scepter all who meet obey.
Ours the wild life in tumult still to range
From toil to rest, and in every change.

(Pictured Barbarossa brothers) 

“The Barbary Corsairs were no wild Turks with long moustaches. Flowing robes and turbans; the majority of them were renegade Christians.” Rodríguez-Salgado, 36

“Serious historians of the nineteenth century saw the Barbary corsairs rightly as “a scourge” rather than as incompetent villains and buffoons, but they too liked to pretend that the corsairs were a “scourge of Christendom” rather than a plague throughout the Mediterranean.” Rodríguez-Salgado, 36  SOURCE




Mavi Boncuk |

Korsan: korsar TR(commonly used up to 17th century)  pirate EN[1] Corsair[2][ Kahane & Tietze, The Lingua Franca in the Levant, 1538] Déme kim ḳorsara ḳorsar varmaz/ Gözcisüz olma hele saŋa dérin korsan [ Seydi Ali Reis, Miratü'l-Memalik, 1557]
diyār-ı Rūmdan Hindüŋ bu caniblerine aslā bir ḳorṣān yaˁnī deryā ˁilminde māhir bir ḳapudan gelmemiş-dür.
fromIT corsaro akıncı, başıbozuk, özellikle deniz akıncısı oldLat. cursarius Lat. cursus 1. koşu, 2. akın, saldırı, kur




There is a fundamental distinction between corsair-privateering[4] and piracy. A pirate is one who professes to scour the sea and seize merchants. Unlike the pirates the corsair was nominally empowered by a sovereign state to seize merchants. Licenses and letters legalized the activities of the corsair-privateers for the duration of a particular war against specified enemies. In the Mediterranean, corsairs sailed under a different set of rules. Mediterranean corsairs battled the war of Christianity and Islam in which all powers in the Mediterranean were involved. Christian and Islamic nations did not condone theft on the sea or plunder for the sake of goods, but they employed corsairs for crusading activities in a type of “holy war”. The Mediterranean corsair was thus distinguished from a pirate and a regular corsair-privateer by the moral, political and religious inclinations of their fight on the sea. Not only did the activity promise earthly riches and power, but, most uniquely, the salvation of their souls. SOURCE
 
Husar: Hussar[3][ Tıngır & Sinapian, Istılahat Lugati, 1892] HussardFR Macaristan süvari askeri, husar. From Hungarian  huszár başıbozuk süvari, akıncı Serbian χusar хусар akıncı, korsan fromLat. cursarius. GER Husar

Akın(ci): ETü: [ Kaşgarî, Divan-i Lugati't-Türk, 1073] [[sele aḳın denir ve bu sözcük suw aḳdı [su aktı] ifadesinden türemiştir.]]KipchakTR [ Ebu Hayyan, Kitabu'l-İdrak, 1312] akın, akınduk, akın kılduk: al-cary al-ġāra [yağma/soygun seferi] oldTR akın sel  oldTR ak- +In

•  Armenian fedayi, guerillas and irregulars (1880s–1920s)
•  Bushrangers, bandits in Australia (1850s–1900s)
•  Kachaks, Albanian bandits and rebels (1880s–1930)
•  Klepht, Ottoman Greek bandits and rebels
•  Haidamaka, pro-Cossack paramility (18th century)
•  Rapparee, Irish guerillas (1690s)
•  Uskoks, Habsburg irregulars (1520s–1618)
•  Zeybeks, Ottoman irregulars (17th to 20th c.)

See also: 
Word Origin | Haydut, Hayta, Eşkiya, Hergele, Haylaz
Word Origin | Izbandut, Haydut, Eşkiya, Şaki
Word origin | Haydut, Hayta, Eşkiya


[1] Pirate (n.)  c. 1300 (mid-13c. as a surname), from Latin pirata "sailor, corsair, sea robber" (source also of Spanish, Italian pirata, Dutch piraat, German Pirat), from Greek peirates "brigand, pirate," literally "one who attacks" (ships), from peiran "to attack, make a hostile attempt on, try," from peira "trial, an attempt, attack," from PIE *per-ya-, suffixed form of root *per- (3) "to try, risk," (source also of Latin experiri "to try;" Greek empeiros "experienced;" Old Irish aire"vigilance;" Gothic ferja "watcher;" Old English fær "danger, calamity"). According to Watkins, this is "A verbal root belonging to the group of" *per- (1) "forward, through" (see per) via the notion of "to lead over, to press forward." 

An Old English word for it was sæsceaða. Meaning "one who takes another's work without permission" first recorded 1701; sense of "unlicensed radio broadcaster" is from 1913.

[2]Corsair (n.)  1540s, from Middle French corsaire (15c.), from Provençal cursar, Italian corsaro, from Medieval Latin cursarius "pirate," from Latin cursus "course, a running," from currere "to run" (see current (adj.)). Meaning of the Medieval Latin verb evolved from "course" to "journey" to "expedition" to an expedition specifically for plunder.

Brigand (n.) c. 1400, "lightly armed foot soldier," from Old French brigand (14c.), from Italian brigante "trooper, skirmisher, foot soldier," from brigare (see brigade). Sense of "one who lives by pillaging" is from early 15c., reflecting the lack of distinction between professional mercenary armies and armed, organized criminals.

Brigantine (n.) "small two-masted ship," 1520s, from Middle French brigandin (15c.), from Italian brigantino, perhaps "skirmishing vessel, pirate ship," from brigante "skirmisher, pirate, brigand" from brigare "fight" .

brigade (n.) "subdivision of an army," 1630s, from French brigade "body of soldiers" (14c.), from Italian brigata "troop, crowd, gang," from brigare "brawl, fight," from briga "strife, quarrel," perhaps of Celtic (compare Gaelic brigh, Welsh bri "power") or Germanic origin.

[3] Hussar (n.)  "light-cavalryman," 1530s, from German Husar, from Hungarian huszár "light horseman," originally "freebooter," from Old Serbian husar, variant of kursar "pirate," from Italian corsaro (see corsair). The original Hussars were bodies of light horsemen organized in Hungary late 15c., famed for activity and courage and elaborate semi-oriental dress. They were widely imitated elsewhere in Europe, hence the spread of the name.


[4] The Barbary pirates, sometimes called Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. This area was known in Europe as the Barbary Coast, a term derived from the name of its Berber inhabitants. Their predation extended throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa's Atlantic seaboard and even South America, and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland, but they primarily operated in the western Mediterranean. In addition to seizing ships, they engaged in Razzias, raids on European coastal towns and villages, mainly in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, but also in the British Isles, the Netherlands and as far away as Iceland. The main purpose of their attacks was to capture Christian slaves for the Ottoman slave trade as well as the general Arabic market in North Africa and the Middle East.
While such raids had occurred since soon after the Muslim conquest of the region, the terms "Barbary pirates" and "Barbary corsairs" are normally applied to the raiders active from the 16th century onwards, when the frequency and range of the slavers' attacks increased. In that period Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli came under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, either as directly administered provinces or as autonomous dependencies known as the Barbary States. Similar raids were undertaken from Salé and other ports in Morocco.

See also:  SOURCE

G. N. Clark. "The Barbary Corsairs in the Seventeenth Century." Cambridge Historical Journal Vol. 8.  No. 1  (1944): pp. 22-35.

Robert C. Davis. "Counting European Slaves on the Barbary Coast." Past and Present No. 172 (Aug., 2001): pp. 87-124.

Davis, Robert C. Christian Slaves and Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800. Ed. Rab Houston and Edward Muir. New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2003.Lane-Poole, Stanley. The Barbary Corsairs. London: Darf, 1984.

Garcés, María Antonia. Cervantes in Algiers : A Captive's Tale. Nashville : Vanderbilt University Press, 2005.

Irene B. Katele. "Piracy and the Venetian State: The Dilemma of Maritime Defense in the Fourteenth Century." Speculum Vol. 63 No. 4 (Oct., 1988):pp.865-889.

Rodríguez-Salgado, M. J. "Mediterranean Corsairs." History Today Vo. 31 (1981): pp. 36-41.

Word Origin | Vatman, Kondüktör, Şoför

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Mavi Boncuk | Pictured, a vatman (driver) of an Istanbul streetcar adjusting the wattage with a hand lever for motion.

Vatman Sadettin Topuz 1944  | İETT Archive


Vatman: [ Mehmed Bahaeddin (Toven), Yeni Türkçe Lugat, 1924] vatman: Elektrikli otomobil, tramvay veya lokomotifi sevk ve idare eden makinist. fromFR (circa 1895 ) wattman tramvay sürücüsü. EN watt elektrik birimi + İng man adam vat, +men


Kondüktör: conductor EN[1] "şimendifer memuru" [ Basiretçi Ali Bey, İstanbul Mektupları, 1877] Şimendiferin kondüktörü, şimendiferle Kızanlık tarafından üç bin kadar muhacir getirip. 

kondüktör "orkestra yöneticisi" conducter EN [ 1960] FR conducteur yönetici, özellikle tren veya orkestra yöneticisi LAT conductor yöneten, yönlendiren  LAT conducare yönetmek +or

Şoför: Driver[2] Otomobil sevk ve idare eden. Buhar kazanının ateşini yakan.FR chauffeur 1. buharlı gemi veya lokomotifte ateşçi [esk.], 2. motorlu araç sürücüsü from FR chauffer ısıtmak +or similarly şofben. Also mistakenly spelled as Şöför

[1] conductor (n.) 1520s, "one who leads or guides," from Middle French conductour (14c., Old French conduitor), from Latin conductor "one who hires, contractor," in Late Latin "a carrier," from conductus, past participle of conducere. "one who has charge of passengers and collects fares on a railroad" is 1832, American English. 

[2] driver (n.) "one who drives" in various senses, c. 1400; agent noun from drive (v.). Slavery sense is attested by 1796. Driver's seat is attested by 1867; figurative use by 1954.

1899 | Map of Byzantine Constantinople

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Mavi Boncuk | Map of Byzantine Constantinople drawn F.R. von Hubner for and under the direction of Prof. A. van Milingen from the book Constantinople of A. van Millingen[1]



Large Jpeg Map



[1] Alexander van Millingen (1840 – 1915) was a scholar in the field of Byzantine architecture, and a professor of history at Robert College, Istanbul between 1879 and 1915. SEE MORE...

Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites by Alexander Van Millingen | J. Murray, 1899

See also: (Gutenberg Link) BYZANTINE CHURCHES IN CONSTANTINOPLE  THEIR HISTORY AND ARCHITECTURE

BY ALEXANDER VAN MILLINGEN, M.A., D.D.
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, ROBERT COLLEGE, CONSTANTINOPLE
AUTHOR OF 'BYZANTINE CONSTANTINOPLE,''CONSTANTINOPLE'

ASSISTED BY RAMSAY TRAQUAIR, A.R.I.B.A.
LECTURER ON ARCHITECTURE, COLLEGE OF ART, EDINBURGH

W. S. GEORGE, A.R.C.A., AND A. E. HENDERSON, F.S.A.

WITH MAPS, PLANS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1912

Turkish Film Market | TUIK Statistical Data

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Mavi Boncuk |TUIK Statistical Data 

The number of cinemas has increased by 8.6%. 2015 increase in number of movie theaters in Turkey  to 2 356 was 8.6% compared to 2014. The number of seats in this period increased by 7.7% and the cinema audience seat capacity has reached 297 610.

SPECTATORSHIP



The increase in the number of cinema attendances was 3.2%

The number of cinema attendances in 2015, increased  by 3.2% compared to 2014 to 57 148 011 people. The number of domestic film audience increased by 2.2% to 31 661 600 , while the number of foreign film audience increased by 4.5% and reached to 25 486 411.

The number of domestic films shown increased to 26.4%

NUMBER OF SCREENINGS

In 2015 the number of films shown, increased by 18.4% compared to 2014 to 49 151. In the same period, while the number of domestic films increased by 26.4% to 21 494 shows, the number of foreign films shown was increased by 12.8% to 27 657.

The number of provinces with Cinema was 74

The number of provinces with a movie theater was 74 in 2015 . The provinces of Ardahan, Bayburt, Gumushane, Hakkari, Iğdır, Sinop and Şırnak had no cinema screens.

The number of theater seats decreased by 2.9%

Number 2014-2015 season at the theater, which increased by 17.7% compared to the 2013-2014 season, the theater seats decreased by 2.9%. According to this; 2014-2015 theater season at number 719, while the theater seat number was 258 thousand 932.

Yugurs and Yugur Ethnonyms

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Mavi Boncuk |
A Yugur family in Lanzhou, Gansu, 1944. 

Mavi Boncuk |

Yugur Ethnonyms[1]

Currently, the official name for the nationality of the Yugur is Yugur or, in Chinese, Yùgù (lit. rich union). This name reflects the pronunciation of the Western and Eastern Yugur's autonyms. An older Chinese rendering of this autonym is Yáohuer.

The Turkic speaking Western Yugur's autonym is Yoghïr or Sarïgh Yoghïr (sarïgh yellow, Yoghïr Yugur), that of the Mongolic speaking Eastern Yugur is Yoghor or Shera Yoghor (shera yellow, Yoghor Yugur).

In order to distinguish between the Turkic and Mongolic speaking Yellow Yugur, or Yellow Uygur as they are traditonally known, Chinese linguists coined the terms Western and Eastern Yugur (in Chinese: Xibù Yùgù and Dongbù Yùgù).

It remains to be investigated why and how the Turkic and Mongolic speaking Yugur came to use the same autonym.

The ethnonyms Yoghïr and Yoghor derive from Uygur, the name of a Turkic speaking people that is already attested in ancient Turkic documents. A metathesis form (transposition of two letters in a word) Iugures for Uygur was noted as early as the 13th century by Wilhelm de Rubrouck, a Franciscan missionary and envoy to the Mongol khan.

From the 10th century onwards, Chinese historical documents have recorded the epithet Yellow as part of the ethnonym of the Turkic speaking peoples in the Gansù area, either by translating its meaning (e.g. Huángtóu Huíhe or Yellow-head Uygur), or by giving a phonetic rendering of it (e.g. Sali Wèiwùér, Xiláguer).

It has been suggested that the colour yellow refers to the Buddhist-Lamaist faith, more specifically to the Yellow sect, that these peoples adhered to, but this is uncertain. Many Turkic as well as Mongolic speaking peoples employ colours in their ethnonyms and clan names. Sometimes the colours refer to a specific dress code, as for instance with the ethnonym Karakalpak or Black Cap(s); and sometimes the colour may be taken symbolically, as for instance with the dynastic name Kök Turks or Celestial Turks (kök meaning blue, and by extension, sky). Other examples are the Western Yugur surnames or bone clan names Qïzïl, Red, Aq Thathar, White Tatar, Aq Yaghlahqïr, White Yaghlahqyr, and Qara Yaghlahqïr, Black Yaghlahqyr.

During the Qing dynasty, the Yugur people were called Huángfan (Yellow Foreigners or Yellow Barbarians) by the Chinese, hereby distinguishing them from the Tibetans whom the Chinese called Heifan (Black Foreigners or Black Barbarians).

The Western Yugur of the steppe designate themselves as oy kïsï (steppe person), or oylïgh (steppe + adjective suffix); they designate the Yugur living in the mountains as thagh kïsï (mountain person), or thaghlïgh (mountain + adjective suffix). The oy kïsï are those who live in Mínghua District, and the thagh kïsï those who live in Dàhé District.

The Western Yugur call the Tibetans Taht. This ethnonym is a Turkic word that originally meant stranger, alien. Currently, Taht is used by the Western Yugur of the steppe to refer to the Mongolic speaking Eastern Yugur as well.

The Western Yugur call the Chinese Qhïti. This ethnonym derives from Kitan, the name of a non-Chinese people ruling China in the 10-11th century as the Liao dynasty. Pejorative Western Yugur designations for the Chinese are qara qulaq, black ear, thogh azaq, short foot, and söyrï, a word of unknown origin.

The Western Yugur call the muslim Huí and Uygur Sart. This ethnonym is already attested in ancient Turkic writings, meaning merchant and later on town dweller, and is ultimately a loanword from Sanskrit. An obsolescent designation for the Uygur is Çanthou, a loanword from Chinese Chántóu (wrap-head) that referred to the turban worn by the Uygur.

The Russian Turcologists Malov and Tenishev mention a Western Yugur word Aryq, meaning Chinese or muslim Turk. This is a loanword from Tibetan, A-rig, the name of a country of nomad herdsmen situated to the west of Amdo. It originally may have referred to the local Tibetan population.

According to Potanin and Hermanns, the Mongolic speaking Yugur called the Turkic speaking Yugur Qara Yögür or Xara Yugur, Black Yugur.

Mannerheim reported somewhat bewildered that the Mongolic speaking Yugur regarded the Turkic speaking Yugur as belonging to the same people and at the same time as Tshantu, and that they were of the opinion that the Turkic speaking Yugur should be called Kara Yögur, Black Yugur, and not Sarö Yögur, Yellow Yugur.

By regarding them as Tshantu, the Mongolic speaking Yugur probably recognized that the language of the Turkic speaking Yugur was reminiscent of the Uygur language. Otherwise, the name Tshantu is inexplicable, for the Turkic speaking Yugur never wore turbans, as Malov explicitely states.

Perhaps inspired by the Chinese designations of Yellow and Black Barbarians, the Mongolic speaking Yugur distinguished themselves from the Turkic speaking Yugur by calling them Kara Yögur, Black Yugur.

The Turkic speaking Yugur, however, are not aware of such name, and in the modern sources of the Eastern Yugur language, no such ethnonym occurs.

According to Hermanns, who travelled the Tibetan Amdo area in the 1930s, the Tibetans called the Yugur Hor, and they designated the Yugur living in the east as Hor ser (Yellow Hor), or Hor gur ser (Yellow Tent Hor), and the Yugur living in the west as Hor nag (Black Hor), or Hor gur nag (Black Tent Hor).

In literary Tibetan, Hor means Mongol, or herdsman of northern Tibet, but in the Amdo area, this ethnonym designated such different peoples as muslim Turks or Monguor. Furthermore, Xor occurs as an Eastern Yugur bone clan name.

The Eastern Yugur call their language Ñkar lar (Ngkar language, Ngkar speech). The etymology of this word is uncertain; perhaps it is a loanword from Tibetan mgar-ba, meaning smith, or someone of a low cast. In Western Yugur, this word is rendered as Ïñkar. Incidentally, or perhaps not, the Western Yugur word ïñkar also means confused, muddled.

[1] An ethnonym (from the Greek: ἔθνος, éthnos, "nation" and ὄνομα, ónoma, "name") is the name applied to a given ethnic group. 

Buddhism among the Turkic People

Among the many peoples of the world who adopted Islam, several have had a strong Buddhist background, namely the Turks, Afghans, Pakistanis, Indonesians and Malays. Let us look more closely at the spread of Buddhism among the first of these.


The Turki Shahis
The earliest Turkic people to adapt Buddhism were the Turki Shahis. They ruled northwestern India from the mid-third to the early fourth centuries CE and then shifted westward to rule modern-day central Afghanistan and eventually central and northern Pakistan until the mid-ninth century. They inherited the blend of Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism of their predecessors in these regions, the Kushans and the White Huns, and were strong patrons of the great monastic centers of study that had previously been founded there. During the late eighth and early ninth centuries, the Turki Shahis were vassal allies of the Tibetan Empire and influenced the flourishing of Buddhism there.


The Eastern and Western Turks The next major Turkic group to adopt Buddhism were the Old Turks who gave their name to the Turkic people. The Eastern Turk Empire ruled Mongolia from the end of the sixth to the mid-eighth century. Under its royal patronage, Indian, Central Asian and Chinese masters translated many Buddhist scriptures into the Old Turk language. Several of the Old Turk technical Buddhist terms became standard in Central Asia and were later borrowed by the Uighurs and Mongols. The Old Turks blended into their form of Buddhism veneration of the traditional ancient Turkic gods or "tengri," as well as Zoroastrian gods with whom they were familiar from other Central Asian peoples. This eclectic feature was inherited and continued by the Uighurs and Mongols. In the early eighth century, a princess from the Eastern Turk royal family married the emperor of Tibet and was responsible for the invitation to Tibet of many Buddhist monks from Khotan in southern East Turkistan.


The Western Turk Empire was also a great patron of Buddhism from the early seventh to the early eighth century. Its rulers built new monasteries in Uzbekistan. One branch of the Western Turks, the Turgish tribes, was responsible for the spread of Buddhism to Kyrghyzstan and southeastern Kazakhstan during the later part of the seventh and early eighth centuries. The Turgish were also allies of the Tibetan Empire.


The Turgish were replaced in Kyrghyzstan and Kazakhstan in the early eighth century by the Qarluq, an Eastern Turk tribe that also embraced Buddhism and also became an ally of the Tibetans. One branch of the Qarluqs, the Qarakhanids, established a kingdom in eastern Kyrghyzstan and the Kashgar region of southwestern East Turkistan in the mid-ninth century. For more than a century, the Qarakhanids followed a blend of Kashgari Buddhism and their native shamanism.


The Uighurs The most prominent Turkic form of Buddhism, however, was with the Uighur people of East Turkistan. After migrating from Mongolia to the Turfan region of present-day northeastern Xinjiang in the ninth century, they adopted a form of Buddhism that was a blend of elements from the faiths of the Sogdian merchant community from present-day Uzbekistan, the native Tocharians of Turfan and the Chinese merchants of the region. It spread throughout the Uighur Qocho kingdom that spanned all of modern-day Xinjiang except the Kashgar and Khotan regions in the southwest.


The Uighurs, in turn, passed on their form of Buddhism, as well as their alphabet and administrative skills, to the Mongols in the early thirteenth century at the time of Chinggis Khan. In the later part of the thirteenth century, the Uighurs shifted the style of their practice and adopted the Tibetan form of Buddhism as did their Mongol allies. The Uighurs translated a vast number of Buddhist texts into their Turkic language from Sanskrit, Sogdian, Tocharian, Chinese and Tibetan sources, and were the pioneer translators of the Buddhist scriptures into Mongolian. Their translation style of retaining many Sanskrit technical terms was adopted by the Mongols. Buddhism continued among the Uighurs until approximately the seventeenth century.


Three other branches of the Uighurs have also been followers of Buddhism. One branch migrated from Mongolia in the mid-ninth century to the Chu River valley of northwestern Kyrghyzstan and followed the form of Buddhism practiced there under the patronage of the Qarluq and previously the Turgish Turks. Another group migrated at that time to the Kashgar region of East Turkistan and followed the Kashgari tradition of Buddhism that was also adopted by the Qarakhanid Turks who began to rule the area a century later. The third group are the Yellow Yugurs, who migrated also from Mongolia in the mid-ninth century to central present-day Gansu province of China, which was ruled at that time by the Tibetan Empire. Although small in number, the Yellow Yugurs still follow the Tibetan form of Buddhism today.


Tuva The last Turkic group to adopt Buddhism were the people of Tuva, in present-day Siberia, just north of western Mongolia. They have been following the Tibetan form of Buddhism in close alliance with the Mongolian subdivision since the eighteenth century.


Originally published as part of Berzin, Alexander. Buddhism and Its Impact on Asia
Asian Monographs, no. 8. Cairo: Cairo University, Center for Asian Studies, June 1996


Tengrism and Irq Bitig

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Omen 11 (4-4-3 dice) of the Irk Bitig (folio 13a): "There comes a messenger on a yellow horse (and) an envoy on a dark brown horse, bringing good tidings, it says. Know thus: (The omen) is extremely good."

sarïγ : atlïγ : sabčï : yazïγ : atlïγ : yalabač : edgü : söz : sab : elti : kelir : tir : anča biliŋ : aňïγ : edgü : ol.

Mavi Boncuk | 

Tengrism (sometimes spelled Tengriism), occasionally referred to as Tengrianism, is a Central Asian religion characterized by features of shamanism, animism, totemism, both polytheism and monotheism,and ancestor worship. Historically, it was the prevailing religion of the Turks, Mongols, and Hungarians, as well as the Xiongnu and the Huns. It was the state religion of the five ancient Turkic states: Göktürk Khaganate, Western Turkic Khaganate, Great Bulgaria, Bulgarian Empire and Khazaria. In Irk Bitig[1], Tengri is mentioned as Türük Tängrisi (God of Turks). The term is perceived among Turkic peoples as a national religion.

As a modern revival, Tengrism has been advocated among intellectual circles of the Turkic nations of Central Asia, including Tatarstan, Buryatia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, in the years following the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1990s to present).[9] It is still actively practiced and undergoing an organised revival in Sakha, Khakassia, Tuva, and other Turkic nations in Siberia. Burkhanism is a movement kindred to Tengrism concentrated in Altay.

Khukh and Tengri literally mean "blue" and "sky" in Mongolian and modern Mongolians still pray to "Munkh Khukh Tengri" ("Eternal Blue Sky"). Therefore, Mongolia is sometimes poetically referred to by Mongolians as the "Land of Eternal Blue Sky" ("Munkh Khukh Tengriin Oron" in Mongolian). In modern Turkey Tengriism is also known as the Göktanrı dini, "Sky God religion",[Turkish "Gök" (sky) and "Tanrı" (God) corresponding to the Mongolian khukh (blue) and Tengri (sky), respectively.

According to the Hungarian archeological researches, the religion of the Hungarians before Christianity (until the end of the X. century) was Tengrism.

[1]  TÜRIK BITIG or Irq Bitig , known as the Book of Omens or Book of Divination in English, is a 9th-century manuscript book on divination that was discovered in the "Library Cave" of the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, China, by Aurel Stein in 1907, and is now in the collection of the British Library in London, England. The book is written in Old Turkic using the Old Turkic script (also known as "Orkhon" or "Turkic runes"); it is the only known complete manuscript text written in the Old Turkic script. It is also an important source for early Turkic mythology.

According to Annemarie von Gabain (1901–1993) the Irk Bitig is written in a "Manichaean" dialect of Old Turkic, reflecting the fact that it was written at a Manichaean monastery, but Clauson has noted that the language of this text is virtually identical to that of the corpus of secular inscriptions in the Old Turkic script from the Orkhon Valley, and so "Manichaean" is not a valid linguistic term.

The British Library manuscript exhibits a number of orthographic peculiarities that may reflect the dialect of its scribe. In particular, it uses the front vowel forms of the letter s  and n  in certain situations where a back vowel form of the letters would be expected. The manuscript also uses two signs,  (used to write the word ot meaning "grass") and  (used to represent a syllabic up or the letter p after the letter u), that are not attested in other manuscript texts or inscriptions.

The Old Turkic text does not have any sentence punctuation, but uses two black lines in a red circle as a word separation mark in order to indicate word boundaries.

See and read text in English.
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