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Dear
family,
Here is the second postcard. This one is from Istanbul,
Turkey.
After spending two relaxing days and two nights sailing through
the Adriatic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and then through the Sea
of Marmar we reached Istanbul. Istanbul is a fascinating
city, as Turkey is a fascinating country.
The
major reason for that is it is in between the cross roads of
Asia and
Europe. Every thing here, the history and culture has been
influenced
because of the location of the city and the country. One half of
the city of Istanbul is in Asia (called the Asian part) and the
other in Europe, divided by a body of water called Bosphorus.
This Bosphorus also connects two major Seas - the Mediterranean
Sea (by Sea of Marmar) and the Black Sea. Thus it is
placed strategically at the rout of business between all the
Mediterranean and African countries and Russia and other countries. Istanbul is also in the
important cross road of the famous ancient "Silk
Road" for trades between China and the rest of the world,
especially the middle east. Turkey is a fairly large country; I
did not realize that three sides of Turkey is a peninsula, with
Black sea on the north, Mediterranean Sea in the south and the
Bosphorus on the west. Only the east side is
connected to land, Asia Minor. Istanbul is a large city
with 13 million people.
Istanbul has a long and checkered history. I am told that people
lived here 7000 years before Christ. Then, one century
before Christ, a man called Byzentin, a Greek, realized the
strategic potential of Istanbul, occupied it and made it a
colony and an empire. The city then was called Byzantium. The
Byzantium culture came from here. For a while Turkey was
occupied by the Persians. Then the Romans occupied
it and ruled over it for many centuries, temporarily made it the
capital of Roman empire, and called the city the
Constantinople, after one of the
first Roman emperors who came here. Ultimately at
about the thirteenth century the Ottoman Turks (Muslim)
captured it and ruled it over five hundred years. You
will remember that the Ottoman Empire at one time extended over a
large part of Europe (up to Vienna), most of the Middle East and
a large part of Northern Africa. The name Istanbul is fairly
new. Only in last century it was named Istanbul.
Sometimes after the First World War, in the nineteen thirties,
the great
Kamal Ataturk, at first the freedom fighter and then the First
President of the republic, made Turkey a secular republic. Kamal Ataturk gave
voting rights to women in 1934, much before many European
countries did, gave women right to be voted, made Sunday the weekly holiday rather than the
Friday, introduced Roman scripts for writing rather than Arabic
or Persian, banned fez for men and head covers for women.
But things are changing again. The religious
(Muslim) influences are coming back. But although 98
percent of the populations are Muslim, the people here still are
quite progressive. The culture still is a mixture of
Roman, Muslim and Greek. Most women here do not cover
their heads with scarf (Hijab) but many do.
I remembered that Babur, the first
Mughal emperor, although did not come from the present day
Turkey, (he came from Samarkhand then a part of Asia Minor or
Anatolia) his mother-tongue was Turkish.
Since Turkey became a secular republic, other religions are
tolerated. It
is interesting to see that at least two ancient churches we saw
during our visit were converted into mosques during the
Muslim rule. Kamal Ataturk reconverted these mosques into
museums and all the trimmings and decorations of the ancient
churches were restored. It made me think
about the stupid Babri masjid controversy in India, why can
we not convert all the controversial religious sites into
museums?
There are many famous Mosques here in Istanbul; the most famous
is the so-called Blue Mosque. It is very large (not as
large as the Delhi Jumma
masjid). Inside of the mosque is covered with beautiful
seventeenth century tiles. They are blue, hence the name Blue Mosque. Inside
the mosque is really beautiful, and this the most famous of the
mosques in the world. Besides, there is a huge palace of
the Ottoman sultans with a very good collection of jewels and other
artifacts. The city has extensive Roman walls
to protect the city. There are coliseums (stadiums like
in Rome) called Hippodrome. The huge underground and over
ground water reservoirs and their aqua-ducts system are
absolutely remarkable. They stored water for the whole city for
months. Romans really left a lasting legacy
here.
The city is a peculiar mixture of East and West. Most
places look like Bombay or old Delhi but some parts look like any other European city.
The men and women
mostly dress in western clothes although many women
still wear Turkish dresses. The bazaars are very much like
in India. You
have to bargain for every thing. The food is also a
mixture of east and
west. Much of the food is like Indian food. We were
served some dishes
that are very Indian, like Began ka bharta, Begun bhaja, kababs
etc. We saw a sweet dish, which looked exactly like Gulab
jamun.
Love.
Sujit
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