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When Yavuz Sultan Selim conquered Egypt in 1517 and saw the Shadow Theatre, he was so impressed with it that he took the puppeteer back to the Ottoman Imperial palace in Istanbul. His 21 year old son, later Suleyman the Magnificent, developed great interest in the plays and supported the proliferation of this art form.
The Shadow Theatre is known in Turkey under the name "Karagoz", a folk character who seems to have a long history in Ottoman folk culture. One has to go back to the reign of Sultan Orhan(1326 - 1359) to trace the birth date of the two protagonists Karagoz and Hacivat that form the main characters of the theatre. According to the legend, Hacivat and Karagoz lived in the city of Bursa. Hacivat was a mason and Karagoz was a blacksmith. They laboured together in the building of a mosque financed by the Sultan. However, the continuous chaff and chatter of the two companions kept the other workers distracted. Sultan Orhan, upset with the delay of construction, executed both in anger. But later the Sultan was overcome with remorse for his undue harshness and repented. According to the legend one mystic wishing to console his master, erected a screen in one corner of the palace and displayed the figures of Karagoz and Hacivat, imitating their speech for the enjoyment of the Sultan.
The shadow theatre techniques added to the dynamism of the play in later years which included many other characters from the daily Ottoman social life.
Techniques of the Karagoz Shadow Play: The plays are performed behind a white fabric screen. The figures called "tasvir" are held in front of a light source which throws a shadow on the screen. The figures are approximately 40cm long and are made out of camel or water buffalo skin.
The parts of a Karagoz play are:
The Characters:
Karagoz Scenarios: Names of a few classic plays are Agalik(Rich Gentleman), Kanli Kavak(The Bloody Poplar ), Salincak(The Swing) and Yazici(Scribe).
Karagoz plays depict caricatured forms of social characters that make up the Multicultural Ottoman Empire and serve as vehicle for political and social satire. In later years, Karagoz survived as the main entertainment during the month of fasting (Ramadan) or at circumcision ceremonies. However, despite being over shadowed by modern forms of entertainment such as cinema, radio and television, it still has not lost its social impact and continues to incorporate current events into its repertoire.
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Origins and development of Classical Ottoman Music deserves special investigation as it has eventually given birth to the contemporary Classical Turkish Music.
Istanbul has been the centre of several musical genres and traditions since the ninth century. The focus of Byzantine liturgical music shifted from Syria and Palestine to Istanbul during that century. The surviving Byzantine chant formed and notated during the period until the end of 15th century. The conquest of Istanbul in the 15th century made it the centre of attraction for the musicians active in the elite Islamic cities of the Middle East. Alongside the Turks, the Ottoman Jews, Armenians and Greeks subsequently established their musical centres in Istanbul. Ottoman Classical Music is the product of this multicultural structure.
Ottoman society was composed of various religious and ethnic groups with each community having their own way of life, traditions, customs and mores. These cultures continued to exist for centuries influencing each other and resulting in a multicultural 'mosaic'. During this process, Ottoman Music arose as an art music that stood above all the local, ethnic and religious musical conventions. Since this music created a sphere assimilating the musical taste of all Ottomans, it had the specific and social significance. In that regard, Ottoman Music is comparable to Classical Ottoman Architecture, which created a sweeping style that, stood outside the Local Architecture. One can easily see Byzantine influence in the great Architect Sinan's work. Ottoman Music, in its formative years, combined the influences of Herat, Baghdad and Samarkand with those local Anatolian and Istanbul genres, setting up a new tradition.
The Ottoman Musical Tradition was not a closed one like the other elite traditions of the Middle East. It was open to people of humble social background, non-Muslims and other ethnic groups. Therefore it attracted musicians from Greek, Armenian, Jewish and Gipsy backgrounds - and it is this openness that made it an enduring tradition, which continues to this day. Musicians from non-Turkish and Non-Muslim communities were never regarded as strangers and never underestimated. They taught many Turks how to play the Tanbur, the Violin and the Ney - an instrument peculiar to Islamic Culture. As for the Turks, they were never concerned that they learned music from non-Muslim or non-Turkish masters. The best known example of this reception is the rumour that Sultan Selim III used to rise to his feet in respect when his Tanbur teacher Izak, a Jewish musician, came to his court. Other masters that come to mind are:
Other names include masters Tanburi Emin, Markar, Tatyos and Kemence masters Nikolaki, Levon Hanciyan, Latvaci Andon & Hristo as well as Bimen Sen, Izak Varon and numerous others.
There is a widespread theory that vocal and
instrumental improvisations originate from folk
music. The circulation of the improvisional forms
did not cease when they reached the central culture
of Ottoman Music. There have been cases when they
were directed back to the peripheral ethnic
cultures. Ottoman Jewish liturgical music borrowed
classical Ottoman improvisation in the
seventeenth century and used it in Istanbul
Synagogues ever since. Vocal improvisation has
left important vestiges in the musical genres of
Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania.
Distinguished examples of Ottoman-Greek, Ottoman-Jewish, Ottoman-Armenian and Ottoman-Turkish music can be found in a magnificent CD called "Istanbul, the Colour of Music" which was released in 1996 by Boyut Muzik; e-mail: boyut@turk.net
The CD contains a collection of works performed at a concert called "The Distinction of Istanbul" on Saturday March 2, 1996. Greek, Armenian, Jewish and Turkish musical groups came together to present a feast of Ottoman Classical music on this occasion.
The surnames of musicians who presented this auspicious concert give us a hint about the undeniable contribution of Turkish non Muslims to the cultural heritage of Ottomans as well as the Modern Turkish State. These names include people of Greek heritage such as: Haryatidis, Eftimiadis, Parizyanos, Anastasiyadis, Angelidis, Haralambopoulos; Armenian heritage such as: Manukyan, Hagopyan, Cubukcuyan, Kucukyan, Semerciyan, Bogosyan; Jewish heritage such as: Kotzen, Varon, Dana, Sarfati.
We would like to thank them - and many others in the past - for their contributions to Anatolian music and culture.
Note: This section is being prepared. When completed it will also contain information about Classical Turkish Music, Folk Music, Pop Music, Arabesque.
Witty stories of Nasreddin Hodja form the foundation of traditional Turkish humour. Every one of his fables contains direct or subtle lessons, sometimes moral but other times exposing the ridiculous weaknesses in human character. He does not take life as seriously as his Western counterpart La Fontaine who used animal characters in his fables to convey moral lessons to people.
He was born in the village of Hortu of Sivrihisar and died in 1284 in Aksehir, a province of Konya, where his tomb is. His father was the imam(religious leader) of the village. Nasr-ed-Din, or "Victory of the Faith", was the name given by his parents to the author of the tales, and Hodja, meaning "Master" or "Teacher" is the honorific title which he subsequently acquired.
It is obvious that Hodja was a witty man with sense of humour and he was a good conversationalist. Yet, based on most of the stories it is wrong to assume that everything he said was humorous. Over the years, the number of Nasreddin Hodja stories increased significantly since he was used as the main character in the new stories about other people. Among these, there are some that are easily recognised as not authentic Nasreddin Hodja stories. We can, therefore, say that some of his stories were created by the natives of Anatolia in the 13th century, and the creation has lasted for centuries. Today, these stories belong to all Turkish people.
The themes of the stories cover not just the age when Nasreddin Hodja lived but also the adventures of Turkish people over the centuries. Social life, the shortcomings of social life, differences between the ruling class and the common people, famines, the thousand faces of daily life, man to man, man to object, man to animal relations are the different themes of his stories. Today, Nasreddin Hodja stories are told in a vast geographic area extending from East Turkmenistan to Hungary and from Southern Siberia to North Africa. The stories have been translated into many languages.
The new Nasreddin Hodja stories that emerge and the old ones that are adapted prove that these stories are immortal. On the other hand, it is stated that since these stories, products of the imagination of common people, are adaptable it is natural that they are updated in each generation and that is why Nasreddin Hodja is still the most popular story character in Turkey. In other words, as light attracts moths, Nasreddin Hodja character attracts new stories.
Nasreddin Hodja stories are told in such succinct phrases that the last phrase of the stories which is uttered by Hodja have become popular epigrams or sayings like "laying flour on rope", "making it look like a bird", "the quilt is gone, the fight is over", "cutting the branch one is sitting on", etc.
Every year, between July 5-10, International Nasreddin Hodja Festival is organised in Aksehir where his tomb is. To keep Hodja character alive, Turkish writers and artists have used it in drama, in music, in movies (especially cartoons), in comic strips, in paintings.
Some of his most famous stories are:
Laying Flour on the Rope
One day, Hodja's neighbour knocks on his door to ask if he can borrow his clothesline. Hodja does not like this ridiculous request but does not want to offend his neighbour, as it is the Turkish tradition to try to get along with your neighbour. He, unwillingly, removes and lends the rope to him. His neighbour returns the rope the next week, causing some inconvenience for Hodja meanwhile.
Few weeks later, the same neighbour knocks on his door asking for the clothesline again. This time Hodja says: "Sorry my friend, the rope is full at the moment". His neighbour, surprised, " But Hodja, I can see it from here, there is nothing on the rope!"
Hodja, keeping cool, " I laid flour on the rope to dry". "But Hodja" answers the man " how can one lay flour on a rope?"
"My friend" says hodja,"one can lay anything on a rope if one does not want to lend it"
Moral: People can come up with most ridiculous excuses if they do not want to do something.
Eat my Coat Eat
Hodja is invited to a wedding feast. He arrives there in his daily clothes but finds out that the people do not show him the respect he deserves, tucking him in one remote corner of the table. He does not like this, gets off, rushes home and changes into his new fur coat. When he comes back to the wedding venue, people usher him into a prominent spot on the table and serve him generously.
Hodja quickly pushes one end of his coat into the soup saying "Eat my coat eat". Guests at the wedding table go quiet; thinking that Hodja has gone mad. One of them asks, " What on earth are you doing Hodja?"
Hodja answers " It looks as if you people respect my coat more than me, it is only natural that the coat should enjoy the feast first"
Moral: Society values appearance more than the personality
Birth of a Saucepan
One day, Hodja knocks on his neighbour's door to borrow his saucepan. His friend is not pleased but unwillingly lends it to Hodja just to be a good neighbour.
Hodja returns the saucepan the following week with a smaller pan inside it. The neighbour is surprised " What is this small pan?" he asks. Hodja answers " My friend, your saucepan gave birth at our house". The man takes both saucepans without any objections, happy to have an idiot for a neighbour.
Next week, Hodja knocks on his door again asking for the saucepan again. This time, the man gives the saucepan to Hodja right away, thinking that there will be another saucepan at the end of this. Several weeks pass by, no news from Hodja. The neighbour worries a bit and knocks on Nasreddin's door. Hodja opens the door and asks, " What can I do for you my neighbour?" His neighbour says, " I came to ask for my saucepan back ".
Hodja answers " My condolences friend, your saucepan has died a few days ago". The man can't believe his ears " What are you talking about Hodja? How can a saucepan die?"
Hodja: "If you believe that a saucepan can give birth, then you should believe that it can die as well"
Moral: People believe in what they want to believe in
Turkish cuisine is widely, and rightly, considered to be one of the three great cuisines of the world, along with French and Chinese. Its greatness rests on a combination of history, taste and luck. Historically, it has benefited from the 500 years in which the Ottomans ruled much of the world and brought back to Istanbul much of the world's best cooking. It was further refined by the demanding, epicurean tastes of the sultans, who had as many as 1,300 chefs and helpers working in the Topkapi Palace. Many of the world's most famous dishes were invented in the kitchens of the Topkapi. And, finally, the Turks have had the good luck to live in a country with an endless variety of meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. Thus, thrice blessed, it is no wonder that the Turks have, for example, come up with 50 different kinds of kebabs and over 100 different ways of preparing eggplants.
Given this availability of raw materials and a long tradition of culinary inventiveness, Turkish cooking ought to be good. What makes it great is the painstaking care that goes into the preparation of every dish and, above all, the freshness of the ingredients. Whatever you choose to eat in a Turkish restaurant, you can be sure that it is the freshest available-and freshly prepared. Turks do not serve yesterday's food dressed up to suit today's menu. They are extravagant with regard to the raw materials of cookery. Butter, eggs, cream, cheese, oil, the most succulent cuts of meat, the breasts of chicken, or turkey are all used on a grand scale and in a country where the cost of living is high and wages low, this must seem all the more startling to more austerity-led communities. The fact however, which emerges with most significance is the conservatism of the people. Certain dishes are regional and traditional and if the Turkish housewife wants to make any of these dishes-whether for a family occasion or a special Bayram day-she will unhesitatingly use all the butter, cream, eggs and olive oil called fort, never dreaming of substituting inferior ingredients. Imam Bayildi, for instance, in her reckoning, requires just so much olive oil, etc, and if the recipe is altered even the merest fraction, it is not the dish which caused the original Imam to faint!
The craze for vitamising food, for balancing meals so that the greatest dietetic value may be extracted, is lost on the Turks; for centuries they have served well-balanced meals quite by accident. Experts on vegetable dishes for generations-it must be remembered that the Turks were familiar with the cultivation of vegetables long before Pizarro swept down on Peru and brought back knowledge of the potato-they unknowingly vitamised themselves by simply serving their vegetables in the liquor in which they were cooked.
Turks have always eaten better than any other people in the Eastern Mediterranean and quite early in Ottoman times they spread their cooking throughout the region as, later, the French were to spread their cooking throughout Europe. This is not to say that French influence has not penetrated as far as Turkiye; it has indeed, but mostly to Istanbul or Ankara and none of these dishes are sacred to the Turks-they have no great weight of tradition attached to them, no stories with which to regale guests, no nostalgic memories of the great days. An agricultural people, dour, emotional, conservative by nature rather than circumstances, the Turks have, since the Eleventh Century, been very much to the forefront in the affairs of the Middle East.
The Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries were, undoubtedly, periods of great activity during which the Sultans, the Royal master-builders, the descendants of Alp Aslan, rivalled in the very heart of Asia Minor all the richness and artistry of the age of Pericles. The works of the great Seljuk Turks tell not only of local riches but of a time of prosperity during which the people had not only the leisure to produce their works of art but the encouragement as well. Food, naturally, took pride of place; where there is wealth the quality of food increases, and the great banquets of the early Turks produced many dishes we are still familiar today. The whole roasted lamb or the young sucking calf stuffed with rice and exotic herbs, whilst never diminishing in appeal, gave way to more specialised dishes. The lamb and the calf were dissected and grilled chops (cooked over charcoal), kidneys ravished with butter and cream, kebabs wrapped in paper and cooked in pine kernels were discovered to have appeal too. Rich in dress and ornamentation, succinct in speech, imbued with the knowledge of architecture-acquired undoubtedly in their migration across Asia and half the face of the world-the early Turks liked their foods well spiced and highly seasoned. The spice trade originated with the Phoenicians; cane sugar was brought in by the Venetians in the Eleventh Century-the Turks, acquisitive, sampled everything.
It might almost be said that life in Turkiye revolves around food. Hours of long and patient effort are spent in the kitchens and in summer all meals are served in the open. Even in the shabbiest districts of old Istanbul each small house has its own veranda and its fig tree and perhaps an ancient vine or two and honeysuckle (most delicately named by the Turks `hanim eli'-lady's hand) smothering the wire fences between the houses. Roughly hewn wooden tables are covered with fine linen cloths, relics of a great grandmother perhaps or made for the trousseau when the present middle aged housewife was a newly betrothed girl of ten. Cloths, napkins, cushion covers are all heavily embroidered in exquisite patterns; rich Isparta carpets cover the floors even though there may scarcely be a stick of furniture to stand on them. It is a land of carpets and prayer rugs and no Turkish family would ever be put to shame of being without one or the other. Table arrangements differ from the European. Knives are used only for meat; all other dishes are eaten with a fork or spoon. Meat and vegetables are quite distinct dishes, each with its own honour, and are served as separate courses.
Some vegetable dishes are served cold. In Turkiye this always applies to any vegetable which has been cooked in olive oil. Meats, kebabs, chops, steaks, are regarded as being best when eaten alone and even pilav, regarded by the Turks as king of dishes, is handed separately. Very rarely, excepting in some of the French-inspired cooking, does pilav accompany the meat on the same plate.
The spread and influence of Turkish cuisine in the Middle East and the Balkans and even in Central Europe is indisputable. Many of the Turkish dishes are, in those parts of the world ruled by the Turks for hundreds of years, still called by their Turkish name and the recipe books make their references to their Turkish origin. (Except of course in Greece where everything Turkish is denied and the original Turkish names tried to be Hellenised by adding suffixes such as "i", "os", "dos" etc after the words.) Some of the dishes/beverages used throughout the region are:
Turkish Coffee: The Oxford Dictionary states that the word "coffee" comes from Turkish "kahve" which in turn comes from Arabic "kahwa". The Ottoman Turks turned the art of making and consuming "Turkish Coffee" into a cultural trade-mark. It is a widely accepted fact that coffee was introduced to the Western world by the Turks. The first "coffee houses" in Western Europe were opened in Vienna, following the siege of the city by Turks in the sixteenth Century. The post ritual of coffee drinking-fortune telling-is as important as the act itself.
Sarma and Dolma: "Sarma" and "Dolma" are two of the post popular dishes of Turkish cuisine. As the names suggest "Sarma"s (a Turkish word meaning "wrapped") are vegetable leaves (ie. vine or cabbage leaves) wrapped around rice and "Dolma"s (a Turkish word meaning "filled" or "stuffed") are vegetables (ie. eggplant, zucchini, tomato, paprika) stuffed with rice. Westerners know these dishes as Greek as they are introduced to them by Greeks with names "Sarmades" and "Dolmades" by adding "des" after their Turkish names.
Doner Kebab: Doner Kebab (Doner a Turkish word meaning "turning" or "revolving" and Kebab another Turkish word meaning "cooking-usually meat-on fire, BBQ") is one of the best known Turkish meat dishes, unashamedly hijacked by the Greeks as "yeros" or "geros" or "euros".
Shish Kebab: Another well-known Turkish kebab where "Shish" means skewer in Turkish, a fitting attribute for the technique. The same method is used in all the Turkic Republics of Central Asia.
Turkish Bread: Also known as "Pide" the Turkish Bread differs markedly from Italian foccacio, Lebanese flat bread and Jewish varieties. It is an ideal accompaniment to various dips and kebabs.
Yogurt: Again, the Oxford Dictionary, recognises the word as Turkish (spelt exactly the same in Turkish with a "~" on "g") although the Greeks claim it as their own by adding "i" and calling it "yogurti". The same applies to one of the most popular yogurt by-product in Turkiye, "cacik" (pronounced "jajik" in English), which is used as a refreshing dip or an accompaniment to kebabs. Made by mixing yogurt, chopped cucumber and hint of garlic, "cacik" is known to Westerners as "tzatziki" in Greek.
Baklava: Once again the Oxford Dictionary states rightly that the word comes from Turkish. Masters from Gaziantep (a major city in south-eastern Turkiye) made this flaky pastry dessert the cardinal finish to any feast. Traditionally baked in large plates, and cut into small diamond shapes (called "baklava" shape in Turkish), recipes and baking techniques are closely guarded and passed from generation to generation in Gaziantep. Of course the Greeks claim baklava as their own, this time however, using the exact Turkish spelling without any suffix.
Turkish Delight: Probably the best known Turkish delicacy in the world. Best examples are made in Istanbul, one company in particular-Haji Bekir-is in the hands of the same family for more than 200 years.
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