My father, an Anatolian village boy, came to Istanbul at the age of thirteen. My mother, from another Anatolian village, also came to Istanbul as a very small child. They had to make this long journey, meet in Istanbul and get married so that I could come into the world. The choice was not left […]
If Nasreddin Hodja was a real person, he lived in 13th century Turkey in and around Aksehir in the Konya area. In his time he was an imam (a religious leader), a judge and a professor in a medrese (Islamic college). But whether he was real or not Nasreddin Hodja embodied the folk wisdom of […]
Today the Yoruk nomads are confined mainly to the Taurus Mountains, with their mist-shrouded peaks and vast high pastures. A people passionately devoted to their freedom, the Yoruk are like birds of passage. Until the early 19th century thousands of Yoruk nomads lived in the Ottoman territories of the Balkans and throughout western, southern and […]
Also called Mimar Koca Sinan (“Great Architect Sinan”) (b. April 15, 1489, Agirnaz, Kayseri – d. July 17, 1588, Istanbul), most celebrated of all Ottoman architects, whose ideas, perfected in the construction of mosques and other buildings, served as the basic themes for virtually all later Turkish religious and civic architecture. The son of Greek […]
Born in 1922 in the UK, June Haimoff (known as Captain June) moved to Africa for business since her father was a fuel engineer. She lived in Uganda, learned Swahili. This is how the adventures life of this beautiful girl started running barefoot around these vast lands. When they moved back to London, she took […]
As most of us know; the name of King Midas is linked to Gordion; the capital city of ancient Phrygia. While mostly he is known as a mythical character; several Phrygian kings bore this name and naturally, different legends and stories had grown up. Among these, the most common one is Midas and the golden […]
The most famous of all the emperors of the Byzantine, or Eastern Roman, Empire was Justinian the Great. Born a barbarian, he became a powerful ruler and law reformer. He is known today chiefly for his codification of law. He was born probably of Slavic parents in a place called Tauresium, in Illyria (an ancient […]
A member of a noble family on his mother’s side, Strabo was born in 64 or 63 BC in the city of Amaseia (now called Amasya) capital of Pontus, a region in northeastern Anatolia that was an independent kingdom from the 4th century BC until overcome by Pompey in 66 BC. Pontus became a province […]
What is red, carries a sack, laughs in a jocular fashion and flies through the sky in a sleigh? No marks for getting the answer right, because we all know it is Father Christmas… In part, he is the ancient Viking spirit of winter, dating from a time when people feared the harsh winter season […]
Turkish Alparslan (“Courageous Lion”), the original name ‘Adud Al-Dawla Abu Shuja’ Muhammad Ibn Da’ud Chaghribeg, the second sultan of the Seljuq Turks (1063-72), who inherited the Seljuq territories of Khorasan and western Iran and went on to conquer Georgia, Armenia, and much of Asia Minor (won from the Byzantines). Who is Alp Arslan? His personality, […]
