History is full of curious contradictions: heroic acts born of cowardice, and sparks of compassion amid ruthless conflict. One such example is Florence Nightingale, who not only transformed health care for soldiers during the Crimean War but whose work changed the whole concept of nursing and hospital care throughout the world. The Ottoman Empire, which […]
Paul was a 1st century Jew who, after being the bitterest enemy of the Christian Church, became its leading missionary and possibly its greatest theologian. His letters, the earliest extant Christian documents, antedate the Gospels of the New Testament. More than half of the Acts of the Apostles deals with his career, and this, together […]
It was Cevat Sakir Karaagacli, known as the Fisherman of Halicarnassus, who introduced Bodrum to Turkey and the world. Born in 1886 in Istanbul, Cevat Sakir worked as a journalist in his hometown during World War 1 and was sentenced to internal exile in Bodrum for a story that he wrote. Exiled to Bodrum, of […]
We do not exactly know the date of his birth, but we presume it to be between 1465-1470. Piri Reis was born at Gelibolu or Gallipoli as the Anglo-American world calls it, a lovely coastal town on the Marmara Sea, which was then used as a naval base. He was named Muhiddin Piri. His father […]
The Life | The Art | The Tradition Like in every community, the oldest pieces of art of Turks also are based magical ceremonies. The way of thinking of primitive communities is also magical. The reason why there does not exist perfect sources on the history of Turkish Literature is not only that they have […]
The Life | The Art | The Tradition Due to the effects of the village/town culture, he leaned upon, and the fact that he could not have a modern education, the fatalist philosophy is very dominant in him. I believe it would be very beneficial to consider his mood as well. There is no doubt […]
The Life | The Art | The Tradition “I came to this world in three hundred and ten.” Veysel Satiroglu was born in 1894 in Sivrialan Village of Sivas, District of Sarkisla. The story of how he was born is somehow similar to that of almost every child in Anatolian villages. But it is interesting […]
(Turkish: Black Eyes, or Gypsy), type of Turkish shadow play, named for its stock hero, Karagoz. The comical plays are improvised from scenarios for local audiences in private homes, coffee shops, public squares, and innards. The play was highly developed in Turkey by the 16th century and was adopted in Greece and North Africa. In […]
Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, and the Blue Mosque are the sights that first come to mind when visiting Istanbul. But, there is so much else to see that a few days or even weeks would not suffice for them all. Among them, the Istanbul Archaeological Museum is one that should not be missed. It contains […]
Ibn Battuta (1305 – 136?) Ibn Battuta started on his travels when he was 20 years old in 1325. His main reason to travel was to go on a Hajj, or a Pilgrimage to Mecca, as all good Muslims want to do. But his traveling went on for about 29 years and he covered about […]
