Culture in Istanbul as seen by Western Europeans

Transcription

Akademik Araştırmalar Dergisi, Sayı 47-48, 2010-2011, s. 177-202
Culture in Istanbul as seen by
Western Europeans
Alain Servantie*
1. European Capitals of Culture2
This year 2010, the EU institutions celebrated the 25th anniversary
of the European capital of culture action, a high profile cultural event
for cities in Europe. Since 1985, more than 40 cities have been designated European Capitals of Culture, from Stockholm to Genoa, Athens
to Glasgow, Cracow to Porto. For this year 2010, the cities of Istanbul,
Essen in Germany, Pécs in Hungary were chosen European Capital of
Culture.
25 years ago in December 1984, during the first Greek Presidency
of the European Community, the Greek Minister for Culture, the famous actress Melina Mercouri, who had played a major role in the movie
Topkapi (1964) shot in Istanbul– invited her colleagues to a meeting
foreseen at the European Cultural Centre based in the historical site of
Delphi, on the north shore of the Corinth gulf. The Centre was placed
in 1962 under the auspices of the Council of Europe and aimed to “develop common cultural principles that will unite the peoples of Europe”
through the “publication of studies on European culture, the organization of cultural assemblies and other artistic activities. In the Antiquity,
Delphi was a religious center famous for the worship of the god Apollo,
a worship imported from the region of Xanthos in Southern Anatolia. A
Sybil, called the pythia, was delivering oracles on life and political issues, praised in the whole Greek world. Greek cities were offering statues
and treasuries to the sanctuary. Thus a tripod was made from a part of
the spoils taken from the Persian army after the battle of Plataea (479
BC). It consisted of a golden basin, supported by a bronze statue of three
serpents intertwined, with a list of the States that had taken part in the
war inscribed on the coils of the serpent. The statue was brought by
the Roman emperor Constantine to his newly chosen capital, which was
going to bear his name Constantinople, in 324, and put it in the middle
of the then brand new hippodrome, the Atmeydanı. One of the heads
of the serpents is still on display at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.
AKADEMĐK ARAŞTIRMALAR DERGĐSĐ
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Thus there is a direct cultural connection between Istanbul and this old
Greek place. However the conference planned by Melina Mercouri did
not take place in Delphi: the Cultural Centre was not enough equipped
for interpretation into the various languages used by the Ministers, and
hotels were not offering the same level of comfort than in Athens, where they finally met at the Zappion palace. There Melina Mercouri and
the French culture minister Jack Lang had the opportunity to discuss
the suggestion of launching the idea for the “European city of culture”,
which was endorsed by the EU Culture Ministers in a resolution of 1985,
designating Athens as the first Cultural Capital.
Decisions of the Culture Ministers and of the European Parliament
on 25 May 1999 and 13 April 2005 have precised the objectives of the
programme and the organisation of the choice of the European Capitals
of Culture. The programme should foster cooperation between cultural
operators, artists and cities from host country and other EU countries
in any cultural sector; raise the interest of their own inhabitants for culture and boost tourism; it should highlight the richness of cultural diversity in Europe, stress the common bonds and provide a space where
mutual understanding between European citizens could grow; it should
be sustainable and an integral part of the long-term development of the
cultural life in the city. Candidate cities, introduced by their national
government, must present the role they have played in European culture, their links with Europe, their European identity. They must also
demonstrate current involvement in European artistic and cultural life,
alongside their own specific features.
In practice, some cities have emphasized international relations and
participation in cultural events (Athens, Cork), some promoted crossborder cultural cooperation (Luxembourg, Pécs in Hungary), some showed more cultural historical past and wealth (Florence), some focussed
on cultural elites (Berlin), while in big cities like Paris, new activities got
somewhat lost in the general flow of cultural activities (1989: 200th anniversary of the French Revolution). In Linz, 7700 events were generated,
involving 5000 artists. Public sector intervention run between 100 million € (Copenhagen), 300 million € (Thessaloniki, Liverpool, Linz), and
442 million € (Vilnius). From the beginning, the European Commission gave financial support to the events. Cultural events have increased
the flows of visitors by 12 % in Copenhagen and Stockholm, multiplied
three times in Antwerp, brought 10 million people to Liverpool. Madrid
1992 attracted tourists who also went to visit Seville EXPO 92 and the
Olympic Games in Barcelona. Years passing, the concept of European
Capital of Culture has become a vehicle for regional economic development through the financing of new infrastructure, the restoration of
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JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC STUDIES
Alain Servantie
Yıl: 12, Sayı: 47-48
Kasım 2010 -Nisan 2011
historical or old industrial buildings (Lille- refurbishment of the opera-,
Liverpool) and places for the organisation of huge events to attract audiences. In fact, cultural economy appeared more and more to be strategic
in post industrial societies, contributing to 2.6% of EU GDP, more than
car industry, ICT manufacturing or food and beverage manufacturing
sector3. The event can be used as a catalyst for the cultural development
and the transformation of a city4. The average population of Capitals
has been declining from major cities - 1.5 million population as an average between 1985-1994, to just over 200,000 since 2005.
European Capitals of Culture have already been chosen for the next
four years: 2011 Turku (Finland) and Tallinn (Estonia); 2012 Guimarães
(Portugal) and Maribor (Slovenia); 2013 Marseille (France) and Kosice
(Slovakia); 2014 Umeå (Sweden) and Riga (Latvia) .
2. What does Istanbul culture means for
Western Europeans?
The KEA study tries to delineate the activities of the cultural & creative sector: visual arts (Paintings – Sculpture –Photography), performing
arts (Theatre - Dance – Circus - Festival), heritage (Museums, Libraries, Archaeological sites, Archives); cultural industries aimed at massive
reproduction (Film and Video, Television and radio, Music, Books and
press; creative industries and activities (Design Fashion design, graphic
design, interior design, product design, Architecture, Advertising). Cuisine art is not mentioned, although Southern European countries have
a different appraisal of the cultural impact of cooking (as shown the
movie Political cuisine).
The choice of medium size cities like Cork in Ireland, Sibiu in Romania, Pécs in Hungary, Turku in Finland brings European citizens to get
more aware of the diversity of European population centres and culture, and discover local original aspects. Everybody has heard of Istanbul,
with one of its names. The size itself and the rich history of Istanbul may
bring flows visitors more with the idea of discovering a city of splendour
both Byzantine and Ottoman, as well having a touch with new activities.
This article will try to identify the shaping of the concepts westerners
may have of Istanbul culture, whatever are cultural activities actually
carried.
1. Byzantium
When Byzantium was chosen by Constantine as the capital of the
Roman Empire in 3245, the emperor intended clearly to consider the
city as the centre of the Roman world, as the place from where the whole
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empire under his control could be better ruled. In Tilsitt in 1807, Napoleon, when the tsar Alexander 1st discussed to divide the Ottoman Empire, refused to let Istanbul – the “key of the world”- falling into Russian
hands.
The first known Western pilgrim travelled in 330 from Bordeaux
to the holy city of Jerusalem through Constantinople; there, he feels
at home: he could meet teachers coming from Gallia to educate the
emperor’s nephews. The pilgrim’s Itirenarium mentions that at that
time “Europe” designated just a province, covering the present provinces of Istanbul and Tekirdağ.
Two centuries later, while the western empire was falling and disbanded following German invasions, in Byzantium, the reign of Justinian
could be considered as the apogee of the Roman Empire with models of
architecture which still are considered as chef d’oeuvres like Aya Sofia,
Aya Irene, Küçük Aya Sofya, the wall of Theodosius, or the now disappeared church of the Holy Apostles, the hippodrome.
Furthermore Justinian ordered a codification of the empire’s laws
in Latin, which was carried on in Constantinople in the 6th century. The
codification, called Digesta, Pandecta and Institutiones, was elaborated
by 39 lawyers, accumulating and ordering all the regulations of ancient
Rome including the edicts of the emperors. It became the basis for law
teaching in the law schools, flourished again among Western lawyers
in 11-12th centuries who drafted codes of written law. It can fairly be
said that the intellectual work to formalize law conceptualisation and
codification in the Roman Empire actually took place in Byzantium. The
Turkish nickname of Suleiman, Kanûnî, may be considered as a hint to
the continuation of Justinian (we know that Suleiman wanted that his
mosque, built by Sinan, be bigger than the Aya Sofia of Justinian).
The extraordinary marvels of architecture - churches and palaces-,
the splendours of the Byzantine emperors were astonishing all western
travellers , who considered impossible to exceed or even to reach the
wealth of the Byzantine emperors in the 8-13th centuries6. Liutprand of
Cremona, ambassador of the Western Emperor in Constantinople in
946, 968 and 971 – remains stupefied in front of the complex working
of the automates around the imperial throne in the palace then on the
Hippodrome7. Such amazement is reflected in reports written by Odon
de Deuil in 1147 “Constantinople is richer than its fame”- , by Bertrandon de la Broquière in the first half of the 15th century, by a Jewish
traveller like Benjamin of Tudela, who had come from Spain and met
the Jewish community in Galata in 11738, by Russian or Ukrainian pilgrims specially interested in religious places – churches, monasteries,
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relics9. Religious modes in architecture (cupolas, mosaics) were copied
from Venice to Angoulême or Périgueux; luxury jewellery objects made
in Constantinople enjoyed a tremendous success among the western
European aristocracy (enamels, goldsmith art, etc.) In modern French,
the expression “it’s Byzantium” still means an extremely luxurious and
easy life.
The fourth Crusade, in 1204-1205, the occupation of Byzantium by
Frank crusaders and their temporary rule gave the opportunity of admirers like Geoffrey of Villehardouin or Robert of Clari10. The looting
and plundering of Byzantium and its monasteries led to the transfer to
Western castles, churches and monasteries of innumerable pieces of art,
objects of luxury, and relics. The deep conflict between the Orthodox
Church and the Catholics apparently prevented intellectual and cultural
exchanges during this period, and finally the Latins were expelled from
Constantinople.
The capture of Constantinople by Fatih Mehmed II led to multiple
reports in all western languages and interest to the changes; historians
quickly translated into Latin, Italian11 or French. A curious cultural movement in the duchy of Burgundy led to composition of music by Guillaume Dufay, in 1454 – Lamentation on the fall of Constantinople – while
the duke was dreaming of a Crusade to retake Constantinople, which
never materialised; the Lamentation was performed at a banquet called
of the Pheasant, hold in Lille in 1454, gathering the whole aristocracy
and clerics of Burgundy and Low Countries, where the members of the
newly created Order of the Golden Fleece, referring to the Argonauts,
who according to the Greek legends had sailed through the Bosporus to
Georgia. The members of the Order swore to take part in the envisaged
Crusade.
The first western visitors- tourists, sent by the French king, Francis
1 , ally to Suleiman were more interested in Byzantine remains or Greek
manuscripts. One of them who stayed in the years 1545-1549, Pierre
Gilles, described what was remaining of the old capital, area by area, hill
by hill, inspired from old descriptions of the city dating from the 7-9th
centuries; he had read everything written in Latin or Greek. He depicts
how the population growth in one century had changed the city, ten
times more populous than what Fatih had conquered it, with its various
components – Greeks, Jews, Armenians, Muslims coming from all provinces of the Empire. His Topography of Constantinople and his description of the Bosporus, first comprehensive guides on the city, were
still used three centuries later by travellers like Chateaubriand. The fist
guides published end of the 19th century like “Guide Bleu”, Murray or
Baedeker give more room to Byzantine remains than to Ottoman12.
st
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Paradoxically, in the middle Ages, the Greek ancient lore passed to
Western academics mainly through the Arabic adaptations translated
in Spain and Sicily. Greek old literature was mainly kept by Byzantine intellectuals (imperial and monasteries’ libraries, intellectuals like
Photius and Psellos, hand copying at the Studion monastery- now the
ruined Imrahor mosque). After the conquest in 1453, several Greek intellectuals like John Lascaris, who worked with the Medicis, emigrated to Italy where they arose the interest of Renaissance intellectuals
for ancient Greek culture, at a time when the discovery of the printing
technology encouraged publishing old books, particularly in cities like
Venice, Antwerp or Basel. This growing interest led to the search of old
manuscripts; Istanbul thus became a centre for the trade of manuscripts carried by western intellectuals in Istanbul like Pierre Gilles or
Guillaume Postel in the years 1545-48. A hundred fifty years later, the
French embassy secretary Antoine Galland gathered a library of Arabic
and Turkish books for the Royal Library, visiting all bookshops in the
city - one famous Mahmud Paşa-, or buying the whole library of Mustafa Hacı Kalfa, at his death in 1682- he wrote a catalogue of Hacı Kalfa.
He writes in his journal when he buys the Gülistan and the Bostan and
describes the miniatures; he is shown chess books. A few years later,
around 1728, Abbot François Sevin is charged to gather manuscripts.
He relies on the patriarch of Constantinople, and the voyvod of Valachia,
Nicholas Mavrocordato. Sevin considers the price of this later’s books
excessive - they may reach 400-500 piasters-. He finally mainly buys
Armenian manuscripts – he finds a library of 160 Armenian manuscripts in Constantinople, ‘more than all Armenian works you can find
in all European libraries’. He drafted the first catalogue of oriental and
Greek manuscripts of the French Royal Library13
Although Byzantium has been described as a place of decadence, for
centuries - like in Edward Gibbon’s famous History of the Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire- , the ancient Greek spirit is looked at by
Westerners having received a classical Latin-Greek education. Princess
Bibesco, of Fanariot origin, writes in French: “the fall of Constantinople
is a personal misfortune which stroke us last week”14.
2. Ottoman Empire
The development of printing in the 16th century lead to more than
2000 books of travels to the Ottoman empire, a lot of them including
description of Istanbul, as explained by the historian Stéphane Yerasimos
who lists 449 travel books, of which 136 Italian, 80 German, French, English, Spanish, etc.15 Most of reports deal either with trade or with diplomatic relationships, sometimes describing the peculiarities, for a Westerner,
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of the landscape. The reprint of some of these reports show the success
of travel compilations in Italian (Francesco Sansovino seven reprints between 1560 and 1564), English (Hackluyt, and Purchas), French (abbé
Prévost and La Harpe)16, followed in the mid 19th century by magazines
specialized in travels (Le Tour du Monde, National Geography).
The first missions, which can be nowadays qualified a socio-cultural
enquiry, was ordered by the French king, Francis Ist,. At a time of deep
social and religious changes in Western Europe, the king was curious
to learn more about his new allies against the German emperor Charles
5th, partly in order to find arguments justifying the alliance (however we
are told by historians that Charles 5th planned without success to retake
Istanbul and was keeping a print of the city in his bedroom) 17. Guillaume Postel, a companion of Pierre Gilles, learnt Arabic and Turkish in
Istanbul, carrying back books in those languages to France; he was appointed the first teacher of Greek, Hebrew and Arabic literature at the
newly created Royal College in Paris.
Postel wrote the first detailed political description of the Ottoman
power organisation in De la République des Turcqz published in 1560,
as he could have observed in Istanbul. His book will inspire the Turkish
pages the French first western political scientist, Jean Bodin, wrote on
comparative regimes in La République.18 This is more a description of
political culture, of protocol and formal customs in the capital, as later will give other writers like the Italian Ottaviano Bon19 or the British
Paul Ricaut20. The reports of the Venetian baglios (ambassadors) were
widely circulated and sold printed in Italy21. The report of the mission of Daniele Ludivisi on a visit to Istanbul in spring 1534 exposed to
the Venetian Senate inspired Libri tre delle cose dei Turchi (Three books on Turkish affairs), published in 1539 by Benedetto Ramberti, the
mission’s secretary22. Extensive negotiations with the Seraglio, leading
to peace and trade treaties (capitulations) imposed to Western Embassies to learn well both languages and customs practices and for this to
recruit drogmans: Navagero, the Venetian baglio in 1550-1552, reports
the importance for legations to have drogmans speaking Turkish, Greek and Italian23. The Venice Republic was the first administration to
start training of translators-interpreters Turkish/Italian (and Latin) for
their administrative purposes – “giovani di langue” (language youth).
French will follow on the same line; the on spot training lead in the 17th
century to the creation of the School of Oriental Languages in Paris. The
diplomatic reports note the progressive change in the use of languages
around the sultans: along Turkish, Greek, Italian and Serbo-Croatian
(Slavonian) were quite commonly spoken in the palace – particularly
at the apogee of the devşirme system, noted by a number of observers,
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which was recruiting young Slav, Albanian or Italian boys from South
Eastern Europe, educating them in Istanbul and integrating them into
the Ottoman Army or Administration up to the highest job of sadrazam.
Turkish became predominant in the 17th century in the palace.
Diplomats resident for a long time in Istanbul got a more intimate
knowledge of the life in the city. Thus the ambassador of the French King
Henry 4th, Gontaud Biron, fond of hunting joined local hunting parties
and between 1605 and 1610, presented greyhounds, spaniels and hawks
brought from France to the sultan24. Hunting was part of the common
culture shared between Western princes and Ottoman sultans; a first
drawing of Turkish hunting around Istanbul appears in Peter Coeck’s
representation of the imperial palace.
The Observations of Pierre Belon, published in 1553 in Paris, constitute a kind of encyclopaedia of physical and social knowledge on the
Empire Ottoman, and in particular Istanbul, lively and exhaustive testimony on the Turkish baths, the caravanserais, the medicine, education.
It was widely copied by his fellows and successors like Luigi Bassano- a
spy of the Spanish ambassador in Venice, Nicolas de Nicolay, André
Thevet25, Bertrand de la Borderie, in 1537-153826, Favolio accompanying
the imperial ambassador Veltwyck, Nicolas de Nicolay, Gassot, Chesneau with French ambassador d’Aramon, Palerne, imperial ambassadors
like Cornelius de Schepper, Busbecq.
Busbecq admires tulips and brings them back to Western Europe.
The Italian priest Sestini describes vineyards, gardens, flower cultures
around the Bosporus in the second half of the 18th century27. The French
ambassador in 1813-15, Andreossy28, draws an inventory of plants and
trees along the Bosporus shores. The French merchant, Jean-Claude
Flachat, worked in Istanbul between 1740 and 1755, bezergân başı selling mirrors to the seraglio, describes the tulip feasts called çırağan29 at
Yenisaray; he notes that tulip onions grow in vases provided specially by
Venetians. The names of varieties were registered. In April, the gardens
around the Sultan’s kiosk were illuminated, while musicians were playing for his “ladies”. Flowers thus appear like a precious part of the life
in Istanbul, as will confirm the translations of the Divan poetries into
Western languages.
In this context, Peter Coeck of Aalst, who in 1533 had unsuccessfully
tried to sell Flemish tapestries to Suleiman, spent his time drawing landscaped of Istanbul, which were printed in Antwerp in 1553 under the title
Mœurs & Fachons des Turcz, as a kind of first picture reportage on the
city30. His prints got a tremendous success in Western Europe and were
copied by other artists like Nicolas de Nicolay, and up to Ingres.
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Yıl: 12, Sayı: 47-48
[Fig. 1 Peter de Coecke van Aalst, View from Kasımpaşa, 1533]
Diplomats were accompanied by artists like Nicolas de Nicolay, the
author of the Codex vindobonensis with Bartelemeo di Pezzana who
drew a splendid serial of coloured drawings of life in Istanbul31 or Melchior Lorichs. Again, cloths and typical street situations are predominant:
men and women whose cloths vary with religion (Jews, Armenians, Greeks); Ramadan, feasts and ceremonies like circumcision, weddings, burials, dervishes. The French ambassador Nointel established a painting
workshop in the embassy, and ordered the painter Rombaud Faidherbe
to prepare a kind of picture reportage for king Louis XIV32. Jean-Baptiste
Vanmour, born in Valenciennes in 1671, painted Istanbul from 1699 till
his death in 1737; his paintings, ordered by the French or Dutch ambassadors, Ferriol, Bonnac, and Cornelis Calkoen, give a vivid picture
of the official ceremonies and of the easy life of palaces; a big part of his
works are now in the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam33. French Ambassador
Choiseul-Gouffier ordered painters Cassat and Hilaire to draw landscapes in Istanbul, the Bosporus and the Marmara Sea, which got a success
in France and were used as models for china plates in Creil or Bordeaux.
Antoine Melling, who worked in Istanbul between 1784 and 1802 – he
drew palace plans for the sultan’s sister- published a Picturesque travel
of Constantinople and the Bosporus in Paris in 1806, which got a tremendous success34. F. Ziem, the son of a Croatian soldier of Napoleon, after
a stay in Istanbul, continued to paint the city his whole life with a style
between Turner and impressionists35. The Maltese Preziosi, married to
a Greek lady of Istanbul, published in 1858 an album Stamboul, Souvenir d’Orient, including many bazaar scenes, women, coffee houses with
narghilehs36. Russian painters like Ayvazovsky or Bogolubkov spread the
taste of Bosporus landscapes in the Russian circles. More than 500 “orientalist” French painters have been identified in the 19th century; in 1893
they gathered in a kind of club, the Société des peintres orientalistes37.
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These paintings were popularised in the 19th century by albums of prints
and by the magazines on travels (Le Tour du Monde, L’Illustration).
Food traditions appear in Gian Maria Angiolello, prisoner for several
years in Constantinople published a Historia Turchesca in 148038, in
Cantacuzene, - which can be found also in Belon or Busbecq (fish). Belon notes with interest the use of ice brought from the Uludağ to Istanbul in order to prepare sherbets in the middle of the summer. The coffee
success in Istanbul stroke Western travellers: the Italian Pietro della
Valle, in Istanbul in 1614-15, who had learned Turkish because he found
it a “easy and beautiful language, rare in his country”- he even composed poetries in Turkish- he had discussions with dervishes-39, and the
French Jean Thévenot40, in 1655-1656, competed in bringing back this
drink to Western Europe. Thévenot frequents coffee-houses (kahvehane), where coffee is served with cardamom and cloves while musicians
play. “When our French tradesmen must write many letters and want to
work the whole night, they take one or two cups of coffee in the evening;
it’s also good for the stomach, and helps the digestion.” Frequentation
of kahvehane, place of social meetings and discussions, is still described
by Grenville Murray41 or a must in Pierre Loti’s novels.
Tobacco became part of Turkish culture in the 17th century, and more
in 18-19th centuries, admired by the travellers when çubuk were offered
in official receptions: Sestini admires the lüleci, (pipo manufacturers),
the çubukçu, manufacturing tubes made of cherry timber and tips of
amber imported from the Baltic area. This taste appears again in Salaberry, Theophile Gautier, Pierre Loti, smoking narghilehs42, and in the
book of Jules Verne- Keraban the Inflexible: Adventures in the Euxine, the hero is a tobacco merchant in Istanbul meeting his unfortunate
Dutch colleague, and teaching him the pleasure of smoking.
Trade exchanges give a hint on the local tastes. Istanbul was importing from Venice in the 15-16th centuries, later from Marseille or England43 scarlet or purple wool fabrics, corduroy, silks from France, England, Italy, Florence, oil from Puglia, pewter from Flanders, white soaps,
also glasses, mirrors, needles, clocks, paper from Milan or Germany. The
Ottoman Empire was exporting to Italy and France wax, biscuits, leather, carpets, pearls, caviar, and several herbs, seeds and drugs supposed
to cure all kinds of illnesses particularly those with reviving or purgative
virtues, like rhubarb, scammony, amber spirit, manna, semencine, various balsams, musk, civet. Belon describes their trade handled by Jewish
or Greeks merchants in the Egyptian Bazaar (Mısır Çarşısı).
Westerners staying for a period in Istanbul could discover the Ramadan entertainments or feasts organised on the Atmeydanı for
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circumcisions of şehzade: swings, fireworks, acrobats and Karagöz
(Chesneau, Belon, della Valle, Palerne). Karagöz became a very popular attraction for visitors, well till the end of the 19th century; some like
Nerval were amused by his freedom of language and attitude, some like
priests or du Loir in 1639-164044, Sevin in 1728 pretended to be scandalised by his wantonness and sexual frankness.
Local music attracted visitors as soon as the 16th century as can be seen
from Peter Coecke’s print. The description of the Turkish music- either
dervishes by Covel45 or musiki In 1786, Lady Craven, estranged wife of
the margrave of Ansbach (Bayern)46, one of the firm women to travel by
herself to Istanbul ; while she enjoys German musicians brought by the
French Ambassador Choiseul- Gouffier playing classical western music,
she does not appreciate the Greek music played with a lyre, a violin and
two guitars on a kayık on the Bosporus. Laurent d’Arvieux started to
inspire western composers like Lully in his Turkish interlude of the Bourgeois Gentihomme47,- reflected later in Campra’s La Turquie, last act
of the Europe galante. It became fashionable to represent love stories in
harems like in L’incontro improvviso, of Haydn (1775), Die Entführung
aus dem Seraglio of Wolfgang Mozart (1781) or Il serraglio di Osmano
o le tre sultane, of Giuseppe Gazzaniga (1784 Venice), etc.48. While the
[Fig. 2 Codex Vindobonensis. Acemoğlan musicians, around 1580]
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scenery is inspired from Istanbul views and harem scenes which will
induce tourists to come and visit Topkapı, the composers use Turkish
themes or music instruments deemed to be typically Turkish (cymbals,
triangles). Sufi music inspired directly the French Félicien David for his
Desert (1844) or Florent Schmitt for Salomé (1905). Istanbul landscapes inspired even the composition of the Portuguese Francisco de Lacerda (1869-1934) : Levantinas, Travel Impressions, including a Sunset in Eyüp cemetery49..
Oil wrestling (yağlı güreş) became a popular sport well represented
by Nicolay or the Codex vindobonensis.
Fig. 3. Nicolas de Nicolay, Pehlivan, 1550
Travellers in the 17th century, quite often already somewhat informed
on Istanbul through their readings, were more curious meeting people
– Greek orthodox to gather old manuscripts still kept in monasteries,
dervishes, and Jews established since their expulsion from Spain (1492)
at Istanbul where they continued to speak ancient Spanish intermingled
with Turkish and Italian (ladino) till now. Jewish doctors like Hamon
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were curing women in the seraglio and giving lectures of geography to
Suleiman. The Jews were thus part of European culture settled in Turkey. Istanbul became an example of religious freedom at a time when,
at the end of the religious wars between Protestants and Catholics, on a
specific territory, only one religion was tolerated, and Jews were persecuted, heretics and former Muslims in Spain were burnt.
An interesting case : Balthasar de Monconys, a judicial officer in
Lyons, travelled across Europe trying to discover scientific novelties,
and stayed in Istanbul in May-September 1648. Curious in old philosophy, in a variety of religious creeds and astrology, he was looking for
what was remaining of Zoroaster, Hermes Trismegistus, the Kabbalah,
attending hurling dervishes, was trying to meet people having some
knowledge of cabbalistic secrets, describing a chemical clock, a kiosk
(the word thus got into the French language as a typical element of Turkish house building) 50.
Fig. 4. Balthasar de Monconys, a kiosk, 1648
Antoine Galland worked for several years secretary at the French Embassy in Istanbul between 1672 and 1688. Very famous for the translation into French of the One-Thousand Nights, he made famous all over
Europe, good connoisseur of Turkish, Arabic and Persian ; he He was
the main contributor of the Bibliothèque orientale, an encyclopaedia on
the Eastern world, launched by d’Herbelot51. Recognized as one of the
founders of Orientalism, Galland was probably one of Western intellectuals who had the deepest knowledge of Istanbul culture. His French
edition of One-Thousand Nights was translated in all European languages, and two centuries later, was considered as a description of Istanbul:
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von Moltke feels the One Thousand Nights, in a kahvehane with narghilehs at a sunset on the Bosphorus52. Thornbury thinks he meets the
heroes of the One Thousand Nights in the streets of Istanbul53. Frances Elliot sees them in the Grand bazaar54. This is still used in modern
advertisement: “a bazaar of One Thousand Nights coffeehouses where
you can smoke narghilehs, Turkey”55. In thrillers, young women meeting enquiry agents look like princesses of one thousand Nights Galata
bridge looks like described by Galland56. Carpet merchants evoke also
the One thousand nights and its flying carpets.
The letters of Lady Montagu, who accompanied her husband, the
British Ambassador in Istanbul in 1717-1718 are not only interesting for
the description of women’s life seen by a woman, emphasizing the freedom of life under the veil, for her taste for women’s clothes and fashion,
but also for the curiosity she shows for the divan literature and religious
life.57 Translations of Divan poetry inspired the West-östlicher Diwan
of the German poet Goethe. Countess Dora d’Istria, born Eleni Ghika
from a famous Fanariot family, wrote on Ottoman poetry, published in
187758, where she compares Turkish poetesses to famous French women
writers like Louise Labbé or George Sand- and defending that education
would put women to the same level than men.
The follow up of the visit made by the Ottoman Ambassador Yirmisekizinci Mehmet Efendi to Paris and Versailles on Istanbul culture has
been widely noted by French visitors in Istanbul : the architecture of Saadabad at Kâğıthane was copied on a French model – it was called “the
small Versailles” writes Tollot who visited it in 173159; then new mosques took features from barock art (Nuru-osmaniye). The launching
Fig. 5- Jean-Baptiste Vanmour, Saadabad
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of printing activities in Istanbul by Ibrahim Muteferrika was hailed as
a step towards the westernisation of Istanbul by Western visitors like
Jean Otter60 in 1734-36 or by Kumbaracı Bonneval pasha, a French aristocrat who converted to Islam and settled in Istanbul busy with artillery
renovation61.
3. Istanbul under Tanzimat
The cultural and political changes which accompanied Tanzimat reforms were considered by Westerners as new bright developments of
Ottoman culture in Istanbul. Several elements combined to increase the
interest of Westerners:
– easier transportation first through steamers, then trains, and finally
planes, which developed tourism;
– industrialisation bringing investors to Istanbul for railway development, mining, food industries, etc.
– cultural changes in the city, with interest of the sultans, the ruling
classes and the various communities for music, theatre, painting.
Tanzimat brought the industrial revolution to Istanbul, and thus
opened the city to increased exchanges with Western European culture.
Steamers regular connections start in 1833 between Naples and Istanbul, in 1836 between Vienna and Istanbul. In 1850, Lamartine observes 150 steam ships in anchored around Istanbul, and writes: “the present roads of Constantinople are the centre where East and West merge,
the pot where divergences melt to constitute civilization unity.” The first
cruises to Istanbul are offered by the Peninsular & Oriental, in 1844, as
describes William Thackeray62. The first travel of the Orient-Express in
1888 is accompanied by several journalists in charge of promoting this
new travel means. Tourism to Istanbul became more popular again with
the train connection inaugurated by the Orient Express in 188863. Only
in France, in the 19th century, about 2000 Travel reports en Orient were
published, 331 in Russia dealing with Turkey64. The first tourist guides
(Joanne, Baedeker, Murray) started in the mid-1850, more attached
to classical monuments – palaces (Topkapı, Dolmabahçe, Beylerbey),
churches and mosques (Aya Sofia, Kariye mosque, Eyüp), cisterns and
aqueducts, walls, fortresses and columns, and to a lesser extent physical landscape (Bosporus) 65, some peculiar places like the “sweet waters”
(Kağıthane)– cemeteries (Kinglake in Eothen), prisons and timarhane
(Michaud, Thornbury), hammams (Thackeray, Edmondo de Amicis, Gautier), Grand Bazaar or Egyptian Bazaar (Lamartine, Gautier, Amicis),
slave market, narghileh smoking, both whirling and yelling dervishes

in Beyoğlu or Üsküdar (countess de Gasparin). P. Théroux: “A day for
walls and fortifications, a few days in pursuit of aqueducts and cisterns
in and outside the city, a week for palaces, another for museums, a day
for columns and towers, weeks for churches and mosques... Days may
be spent on tombs and cemeteries and the décor of death will be found
to be gayer than one thought...” The first museums – dress museum,
then the Archaeology museum, once open, immediately started to attract tourists, revealed an other side of the cultural life.
Visitors to Istanbul as early as 1830 like the French poet and politician Lamartine in 1833 and again in 185066 or the historian Joseph
Michaud67 in 1830 showed a strong interest in the cultural evolution
of the capital. Louis-Marie de Marcellus, secretary of the French Embassy between 1816 and 1820, who recuperated the statue of the Venus
of Milo describes his extensive contacts in Tarabya with Greek intellectuals reviving classical literature in their language68. Von Hammer took
30 years to write his History of the Ottoman Empire, after he consulted
more than 15.000 documents. His work, translated into several languages, including his edition of other works like the translation of Evliya
Çelebi into English, was a source for all western writers on the Ottoman
empire and particularly Istanbul69.Real analysis of the cultural life appears in the letters of Ubicini70, dealing with education reform in the
State schools, the state of the flowering press after the launching of the
newspaper Moniteur Ottoman with the help French Blacque (in French
from 1831), (Takvim-i vakai : calendar of events since 1832 in Turkish,
with an Armenian version . Ubicini gives also an inventory of public
and vakıf libraries in Istanbul. Interest is shown in political changes
emerging from the Turkish elite, in application of Tanzimat; interest in
Turkish society to follow the Western fashions (introduction of pianos
in harems, of tennis end 19th century, etc.)
The development of the Turkish press exploded after the Revolution
of 1908. The Crimean war (1854-56) lead to the first telegraph connection between Istanbul and the main European cities, to the first press
coverage of a war, and subsequently to a flow of information on Istanbul – development of hospitals with Florence Nightingale and later of
cemeteries (in Feriköy or Üsküdar).
Western architects developed Art Nouveau architecture in Istanbul:
Raimondo d’Aronco, Alexandre Vallaury71, followed by Turkish architects like Vedat Tek, Kemaleddin bey. However a famous architect like
Le Corbusier, visiting Istanbul in 1912; does not show an interest for
their original style combining fashionable features of Art nouveau with
traditional Istanbul features.
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The taste of sultans for Western musicians is well known: Giuseppe
Donizetti composed marches for Mahmud II (1831) and Abdulmecid
(1839), while his successor, Callisto Guatelli composed a March for the
big Ottoman exhibition (1863), the first big industrial fair organised in
Istanbul on the model of similar fairs organised in France and England.
Theatres like theatre Nahum in Beyoğlu started to represent the Western repertoire.
While French had been introduced in Imperial military schools already in the 18th century, the contribution of France to reforms following
the visit of Abdülaziz to Paris in 1867 particularly in the education field
in Istanbul (creation of Galatasaray Lyceum), has to be underlined. As
a follow-up of this visit, the prefect of Paris, Haussmann, was invited to
contribute to the modernisation of Istanbul. He came after the fall of the
French IIe Empire, in 1873, but could not find enough financial resources to carry in Istanbul the same construction policy he had lead under
Napoleon III in Paris, and left the capital city without a master plan. His
stay reflects the French interest for the modernisation of the city.
The French Gérard de Nerval explains the reasons of the absence of
pictures and painting by the Muslim prohibition. However, photography
quickly flourished in Istanbul during the second half of the 19th century:
the prince of Brabant (King Leopold Ier of Belgium) during his trip in
1860 ordered pictures of the city72. Postal cards of monuments and of
typical scenes – including representation of women photographed as
odalisques in studios- proliferated at the end of the century, while famous photographers like Carlos Naya, Basil Kargopoulo, the Hunarian Raif
Efendi, the Swedish photographer Guillaume Berggren Sebah & Joaillier, the Gülmez Brothers hold a prosperous business in Beyoğlu. Postal
cards were to a certain extent giving a universal character to Istanbul.
However, many writers note that the ‘local colour’ is disappearing, as
western fashions in clothes, western uniforms are adopted, and sport is
introduced. Mahmud II looks like a European, except for his fez, writes
Lamartine. Pierre Loti, famous in France for his romantic description
of women in Istanbul (Aziyade, The Disenchanted) complaints heavily
about the modernisation of the city; the French writers like Farrère or
Roland Barthes suggest to use Aziyadé as a guide to visit Istanbul73. Enault writes that the new palace of Dolmabahçe «is a European statement
of belief written with marble… it’s the first palace of a new town… » the
furniture comes from France in Louis XIV style, arranged by the decorator of Paris Opera . However, several travellers noted that Abdulaziz
liked to Western European and traditional Turkish styles: his bathroom
is a grotto carved in Egyptian ‘trimed’ alabaster, in a flourished Moorish
style with small columns, capitals in calices, etc.

4. Republic
The end of the Ottoman Empire lead to a proliferation of books on
the death of Istanbul, the end of local color74. Losing its rank of capital
in 1923, visitors consider it’s a ‘decaying but charming city’ (Willemart),
which has lost its old prestige (Huxley) ; the city has fallen at the same
time the empire disappeared (French writer Butor). For the American
director originary from Kayseri Elia Kazan, or for the Russian poet
Brodsky, Istanbul is a city from where people emigrate.
The adoption of western dresses is criticised by western travellers
since Tanzimat: Turks loose their nice traditional clothes – uniforms for
soldiers, loss of fez or kaftans for women (Marmier, Thornbury in 1859,
Théroux, Godin de Souhesmes en 1896, Mauclair, Julian Huxley, Gosset, Lawlor, Seal, Aurenche); but it should be considered that travellers,
tourists come to find some exotics and regret to see people dressed like
themselves. The Canadian Lemieux wishes that Turks don’t become too
fast modern Europeans.
On the opposite, the adoption of the Latin alphabet by Atatürk was
hailed by most travellers as a step towards the westernisation of the country, at least easing their life in reading the names of streets or shops.
The development of tourism – 3 million visitors in 1996, more than
6 million in 2008 – has lead to a diversification of tourist places, giving
a bigger place to Beyoğlu, Çiçek Pasajı, to the palaces of Dolmabahçe,
Yıldız and Çırağan75, to the 19th century hotel Pera Palas, or to Istanbul
stations (Haydarpaşa), which became a symbol of Istanbul local colour.
New guides extensively quote modern Turkish writers like Yaşar Kemal, Orhan Pamuk or Nedim Gürsel. The translation of their books into
most Western languages, the Nobel Prize given to Orhan Pamuk have
spread a quite new image of Istanbul in the Western world. Modern
Istanbul theatre has been brought to Western theaters by the actor Georges Daniel who translated Aziz Nesin and Melih Cevdet Anday into
French. Recent films of Crossing the Bridge or On the other side by Fatih Akın , Hammam by Ferzan Özpetek or A Touch of Spice (or Politiki
kouzina) by Tassos Boulmetis contributed to give an other image of Istanbul culture.
The cinema, in the 20th century, uses Istanbul as an exotic landscape
for spy or love movies: The Virgin of Stamboul, of Tod Browning (1920),
Murder on the Orient Express taken from Agatha Christie, Background
to Danger of Raoul Walsh (1943), Dimitrios’ mask of Jean Negulesco,
after a novel of Eric Ambler; The man of Istanbul (Operación Estambul) of Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi (1964), Five Fingers, From Russia with
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Love with James Bond, The customers of Avrenos, telefilm inspired
from Simenon’s novel ; Madame De… , L’Immortelle of Alain RobbeGrillet. While none of Hergé’s famous comics, Tintin, happens in Istanbul, a movie inspired from them, Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden
Fleece, begins in the golden Horn.
Fig. 6 Codex Sinaiticus : street scene (comics, 2010)
Fig. 7. Sophialetta : Karaköy (comics, 2009)

Istanbul has become a fashionable place for popular literature76,thrillers and comics, particularly in French, since Bécassine chez les
Turcs published in 1919, just at the end of First World War. Most of
comics take Istanbul as an exotic landscape for spy stories –Bosporus,
Grand Bazaar, Pera Palas.
Although nowadays most of travellers reach Istanbul by plane, the
presence of the Sea is a must of all tours: crossing or sailing upwards the
Bosporus or taking a ferry to the islands.
Cosmopolitan city, where remains of the various ancient communities can be found in the Fener, in Balat, city which the geography multiplies in two or three (see Butor)
Most tourists however are mainly staring at what may look exotic :
hamals, shoe blacks, water or simit street merchants, local food – kebab with rakı , belly dancers, backgammon players, narghilehs, etc.
The excavations of the Theodosius harbor at Yenikapı have been
covered by many newspapers; the restoration of the Fener-Balat area,
particularly of the house of Dimitri Kantemir, with the support of the
European Union, is attracting more visitors. The recent developments
in cultural life, new museums like the Museum of Modern Art, the Koç
industrial museum, festivals of music, exhibitions are more and more
mentioned about Istanbul life. Television programs, particularly on
Arte, show a very diversified and lively cultural life. Western Europeans
are now discovering a city where culture is evolving, changing, diversifying, where life never stops.
Endnotes

*
Advisor at the DG Enlargement, European Commission (Avrupa Komisyonu,
Genisleme Genel Müdürlügü müsaviri).
1
The views expressed in this article don’et necessarily represent those of the institution to which its author belongs.
2
See Greg Richards, “Cultural Tourism in Europe”, CABI, Wallingford, 1996, and
www.atlas-euro.org. European Cultural Capital Report, A report by Robert Palmer and Greg Richards, TRAM (Tourism Research and Marketing), N° 1, October 2007.
3
See Greg Richards, “The European Cultural Capital Event: Strategic Weapon in
the Cultural Arms Race?”, in Journal of Cultural Policy, 6 (2), 159-181. Urban
mindscapes of Europe , edited by Godela Weiss-Sussex with Franco Bianchini.
Weiss-Sussex, Godela. Amsterdam : Rodopi, 2006. Series European studies: an
interdisciplinary series in european culture, history and politics ; 23
4
Palmer/RAE Associates, European Cities and Capitals of Culture, Study prepared
for the European Commission 2004. See www.palmer-rae.com and ec.europa.
eu/culture/key-documents/doc926_en.htm . See also the study Economy and
Alain Servantie
Yıl: 12, Sayı: 47-48
Culture in Europe, 2006, by KEA European Affairs, (http://www.keanet.eu/
ecoculture/studynew.pdf) which highlights the role of culture in the EU project
and the socio-economic benefits of this sector in Europe.
5
See Gilbert Dagron, Naissance d’une capitale: Constantinople et ses institutions de 330 à 451 , Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1974, Constantinople imaginaire: étude sur le recueil des Patria Paris : Presses universitaires
de France, 1984. Stephane Yerasimos. La Fondation de Constantinople et de
Sainte-Sophie dans le traditions turques, Paris : IFEA & Librairie d’Amérique
et d’Orient, 1990.
6 Jean Ebersolt, Constantinople byzantine et les Voyageurs du Levant, Ernest
Leroux, Paris, 1919
7
Liutprand of Cremona, Antapodosis, The Embassy to Constantinople and other
Writings, J.M. Dent, Londres & Charles E. Tuttle Co. Rutland, Vermont, 1993.
8 In Voyages faits principalement en Asie dans les XII, XIII, XIV et XV siècles par
Benjamin de Tudele, etc. , Pierre Bergeron, The Hague,1735.
9
See Le Livre du Pèlerin (Itinéraires russes en Orient), translated Mme B. de
Khitrowo, Geneva, 1889.
10 Villehardouin Geoffroi de Ville-Hardouin, La conquête de Constantinople, Firmin Didot, Paris, 1872. Robert de Clari, in Ch. Hopf, Chroniques gréco-romaines
inédites ou peu connues, Berlin, 1873.
11 Cf. La caduta di Costantinopoli. Le testimonianze dei contemporanei, ed. Agostino Pertusi, Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milan,
1976.
12 De Constantinopoleos Topographia, Lyon, 1561; Engl translation. The Antiquities of Constantinople, 1729, London; reprint. Italica Press: New York, 1988.
De Bosporo Tracio, libri III, Lyon, 1561. Pierre Gilles. Itinéraires byzantins, ed.
Jean-Pierre Grelois, Collège de France-CNRS, Paris, 2007.
13 Lettres sur Constantinople de M. l’abbé Sevin, de l’Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, écrites pendant son séjour dans cette ville, au comte
de Caylus 1746. See Henri Omont, Missions archéologiques françaises en Orient aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1902,
14 See; Abel Hermant, Le nouvel Anarchasis, Promenade au jardin des lettres
grecques, Grasset, Paris, 1928; Timour à Byzance and Les sentinelles de la
nuit.
15 Stéphane Yerasimos, Les Voyageurs dans l’Empire Ottoman (XIVe-XVIe siècles),
Bibliographie, itinéraires et inventaire des lieux habités, Conseil Suprême
d’Atatürk pour Culture, Langue et Histoire, Publication de la Société Turque
d’Histoire, Ankara, 1991. C. Göllner, Turcica : Die Europäische Türkendrucke
des XVI. Jahrhunderts, I & II, Berlin-Bucarest, 1961-1968 lists 901 titles of European publications on Turkey between 1501 and 1551.
16 Abbé Prévost, Histoire des Voyages; Jean-François de La Harpe, Abrégé de
l’histoire des voyages, contenant ce qu’il y a de plus remarquable... dans les
pays où les voyageurs ont pénétré; les moeurs des habitans, la religion, les usages, arts et sciences, commerces... Paris, 1780-86, 32 volumes. Ternaux Compans, Bibliothèque Asiatique et Africaine ou Catalogue des Ouvrages relatifs à
l’Asie et à l’Afrique qui ont paru depuis la découverte de l’imprimerie jusqu’en
1700, Paris, 1841

17 Frédéric Tinguely, L’écriture du Levant à la Renaissance. Enquête sur les voyageurs français dans l’Empire de Soliman le Magnifique, Droz, Geneva, 2000 ;
Raia Zaimova, « Les Intellectuels français et les études orientales (fin du XVIIXVIIIe s.) », Etudes balkaniques, 1995, n° 3-4, pp. 132-139.
18
Cf. William J. Bouwsma, Concordia mundi, The Career and Thought of
Guillaume Postel, Cambridge, MA, 1957 ; Guillaume Postel, De la république
des Turcs, et là où l’occasion l’offrera, des meurs et loy de tous les Muhammedistes. Histoire et considération de l’origine, loy, et coustume des Tartares,
Persiens, Arabes, Turcs, & tous autres Ismaelites ou Muhamediques, dits par
nous Mahométains ou Sarrazins. La tierce partie des orientales histoires, Poitiers, E. de Marnef, 1560 ; Frank Lestringant, «Guillaume Postel et l’»Obsession
Turque», Ecrire le monde à la Renaissance, Paradigme, Caen, 1993, 201 ; C.
Postel, Les écrits de Guillaume Postel, Geneva, 1992.
19 Ottaviano BON, “The Sultan’s Saraglio, An intimate Portrait of Life at the Ottoman Court”, Saqi Books, London, 1996
20 Histoire de l’état présent de l’Empire Ottoman; contenant les Maximes Politiques des Turcs, les principaux Points de la Religion Mahométane, ses Sectes,
ses Hérésies & ses diverses sortes de Religieux; leur Discipline Militaire, avec
une supputation exacte de leurs Forces par mer & par terre, & du revenu de
l’Etat, Paris: Sebastien Mabre-Cramoisy, 1670.
21 Cochrane Eric, Historians and Historiography in the Italian Renaissance,
Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1991, pp. 324-337 .
22 Libri Tre delle cose de Turchi. Nel primo si descrive il viaggio da Venetia a
Constantinopoli, con gli nomi de luoghi antichi & moderni : Nel secondo la Porta, cioè la corte de Soltan Soleymano, Signor de Turchi : Nel terzo il modo del
reggere il stato & imperio suo, Venice, Alde Manucci, 1539, .
23 Harvard Library, MS Riant 56, Relationi di Constantinopoli, Bernard Navagero,
1549, 34 ff
24 Journal de Dangus et lettres, Archives historiques de la Gascogne, XVIII et XIX,
«Voyage à Constantinople, séjour en Turquie, Paris-Auch, 1888; Th. de GontautBiron: Ambassade en Turquie de Jean de Gontaut-Biron, baron de Salignac,
1605 à 1610- Paris, 1888-1889, 2 vol. See a drawing of hunting dogs in Codex
vindobonensis.
25 Pierre Belon, Les observations sur plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables
trouvées en Grèce, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays estranges, Paris,
1553. Luigi Bassano, Costumi et i modi particolari de la vita de Turchi, Rome
1545 (reprint: 1963); André Thevet, Cosmographie du Levant , 1554 Lyon ; reprint, 1985.
26 Bertrand de la Borderie, Le Discours du voyage de Constantinoble envoyé
dudict lieu à une damoyselle françoise, Lyon, 1542; see http://www.sjsu.edu/
depts/foreign_lang/Constant/.
27 Lettres du Baron de Busbec, Ambassadeur de Ferdinand I Roy des Romains,
de Hongrie, etc. auprès de Soliman II, Empereur des Turcs. Paris : Cl. J. Bte
Bauche et Laurent d’Houy, 1748, 3 vol. Sestini, Domenico, Opuscoli del signor
abate Domenico Sestini. I. Descrizione del littorale del canale di Costantinopoli,
e della coltura delle vigne lungo le coste del medesimo. II. Della coltura di varie
cose geoponiche lungo le coste medesime. III. Idea dei giardini Turco-Bizantini,
e coltura dei vari fiori che si fa nei medesimi. IV. Della caccia turca... Florence,
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Alain Servantie
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1785. Domenico Sestini Della coltura delle vigne lungo le coste del canale del
Mar Nero o sia di Costantinopoli ... - Siena : Vincenzo Pazzini Carli e Figli,
1784.
28 Comte Antoine-François Andreossy. Voyage à l’embouchure de la Mer-Noire ou
Essai sur le Bosphore, et la partie du Delta de Thrace comprenant le système
des eaux qui abreuvent Constantinople; Précédé de Considérations générales
sur la Géographie physique avec un atlas composé d’une carte nouvelle du
Bosphore et du canal de la Mer Noire, et de plusieurs autres nouveaux dessins,
Paris, Plancher, 1818.
29 Jean-Claude Flachat, Observations sur le commerce et sur les arts d’une partie
de l’Europe, de l’Asie, de l’Afrique et même des Indes orientales, Lyon, Jacquenod père et Rusand, 1766.
30 Anvers, 1553. Baron Jules de Saint-Genois, Les voyageurs belges, XIII au
XVIème siècles, Ajamar, Bruxelles, pp. 41-42.
31 Codex Vind. 8626, Bibliothèque Nationale d’Autriche, FMR, N° 5, October 1984,
pp. 89-114.
32 Albert Vandal, L’Odyssée d’un Ambassadeur, Les voyages du marquis de Nointel (1670-1680) , Librairie Plon, Paris, 1900, 114, 192-199, 281.
33 Oeuvres au Musée de Bordeaux et au Rijksmuseum. Cf. Milliyet Sanat Dergisi,
22/5/1978. R. Van Luttervelt, De «Turkse» schilderijen van Jan-Baptist Vanmour (1671-1737) en zijn school, Editions de l’Institut Historique et Archéologique
Néerlandais d’Istanbul, 1958.
34 Cornelis Boschma & Jacques Perot, Antoine-Ignace Melling (1763-1831), artistevoyageur, Editions Paris-Musées, Paris, 1991, The Voyage pittoresque de Constantinople et des rives du Bosphore, published between 1806 and 1819, in Paris,
was conterfeited in Brussels, Leipzig and Leghorn.
35 Cf. Les Maîtres illustres, F. Ziem, ed.Henri Rougon, Paris, s. d.
36 Osman Öndeš, Istanbul aşığı ressam Preziosi, Milliyet Yay., Istanbul, 1972; Caroline Juler, Les Orientalistes de l’école italienne, ACR, Courbevoie, 1994, 128131. Eduardo Dizy Caso, Les Orientalistes de l’école espagnole, ACR Edition,
Paris, 1997.
37 See Christine Peltre, L’atelier du voyage, Les peintres en Orient au XIXe siècle,
Paris : Gallimard, 1995, Auguste Boppe, Les peintres du Bosphore au XVIIIe
siècle, Les éditions de l’amateur, 1989.
38 J.M. Angiolello (1452-1525), Ses manuscrits inédits, publiés et annotés par Jean
Reinhard, Besançon, 1913 . Giovan Antonio Menavino, Trattato de costumi e
vita de Turchi, Genovese da Vultri, Florence, 1548
39 Viaggi di Pietro della Valle il Pellegrino ... Descritto da lui medesimo in lettere
familiari all’erudito suo amico Mario Schipiano. Rome : Biagio Deversin, 1658 ;.
40 Jean Thévenot, Relation d’un Voyage fait au Levant, en Perse et aux Indes,
et des singularités particulières de l’Archipel, Constantinople et Terre Sainte,
Egypte, Paris, 1664; L’Empire du Grand Turc vu par un sujet de Louis XIV,
Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1965
41 E.C.G Grenville Murray, Les Turcs chez les Turcs, Traduit de l’anglais par J.
Butler, Paris, 1878
42 Sallaberry, Voyage à Constantinople, en Italie et aux îles de l’Archipel par
l’Allemagne et la Hongrie, Paris : Maradan, 1799.

43 See Michael Rogers, « Europe and the Ottoman Arts: Foreign Demand and Ottoman Consumption », in Europa e Islam tra i Secoli XIV e XVI. Europe and
Islam Between 14th and 16th Centuries, Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale,
2002, t. 2, pp. 709-736; Bartolommeo di Paxi, Tariffa de pesi e misure corrispondenti dal Levante al Ponente e da una terra e luoga all’altro quasi p. tutte
le parti dil mondo, con la dichiaratione, e notificatione di tutte le robbe : che si
tragono di uno paese per l’altro, Venice; 1540, Paul Masson, Histoire du Commerce français dans le Levant au XVIIe siècle, Paris: Hachette, 1896.
44 Les Voyages du Sieur du Loir, ensemble de ce qui se passa à la mort du feu
Sultan Mourat dans le Serrail, les ceremonies de ses funerailles; & celles de
l’auenement à l’Empire de Sultan Hibraim son frere, qui luy succeda. Paris:
François Clouzier, 1654.
45 Theodore J. Bent (Edits), Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant. II. Extracts
from the Diaries of John Covel 1670-1679. With some Account of the Levant
Company of Turkey Merchants. Hakluyt Society. London. 1893
46 Lady Craven, Journey through the Crime to Constantinople, 1789;.
47 L. d’Arvieux- W.H. Lewis, Levantine adventurer. The travels and missions of
the Chevalier d’Arvieux, 1653-1697, New York, 1963.
48 http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Gazzaniga
49 Coriolan, Le Piano Portugais, 1999.
50 Journal des voyages de Monsieur de Monconys, conseiller du Roy- 1ère Partie.
Voyage du Portugal, Provence, Italie, Egypte, Syrie, Constantinople & Natolie,
publié par Gasp. de Monconys, Lyon : Horace Boissat & Georges Remeus, 1665.
51 Antoine Galland, Journal pendant son séjour à Constantinople (1672-1673),
Paris, éd. Scheffer, 1881. Henri Omont, Missions archéologiques françaises en
Orient aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1902, I, 201. A.
Galland, Les paroles remarquables, les bons mots, et les maximes des Orientaux. Traduction de leurs ouvrages en Arabe, en Persan, & en Turc. La Haye, L. et
H. van Dole, 1694.
52 V. Moltke, Unter dem Halbmond, Erlebnisse in der alten Türkei, 1835-1839,
Erdmann, Stuttgart, 1984, 103. Loti also uses the term 1001 Nights to describe
coffee houses.
53 Walter Thornbury, Turkish Life and Character, I, 34, 49, 73, 118.
54 Frances Elliot, Diary of an Idle Woman in Constantinople, Leipzig, B. Tauchnitz, 1893, 29
55 Flash de publicité, Europe N° 1, 16 octobre 1995.
56 Docteur Henri Aurenche, La mort de Stamboul, J. Peyronnet & Cie, Paris, 1930,
31.
57 The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, edited by her Great
Grandson Lord Wharncliffe, Londres, Richard Bentley, 1837.
58 Dora d’Istria,: La Poésie des Ottomans, Paris : Maisonneuve, 1877.
59 Tollot, Nouveau voyage fait au Levant ès années 1731 et 1732, contenant les
descriptions d’Alger, Tunis, Turquie, Tripoly de Barbarie, Alexandrie en Egypte, Terre Sainte, Constantinople, etc. Paris, 1742.
60 Otter, Jean, Voyage en Turquie et en Perse, avec une relation des expéditions de
Tahmas Kouli-Khan, Paris, Frères Guerin, 1768.

Alain Servantie
Yıl: 12, Sayı: 47-48
61 Prince Charles de Ligne, Mémoire sur le comte de Bonneval par le Prince de
Ligne, suivi des lettres de la comtesse de Bonneval à son mari, et de celles du
comte à son frère, etc. etc. Paris, Hérissant et Delaunay, 1817. On French military assistance, see : Mémoires sur les Turcs et les Tartares de M. de Tott, Paris,
1784.
62 William Makepeace Thackeray, Eastern Sketches, A Journey from Cornhill to
Cairo, The Complete Works, Volume XI, Houghton, Mifflin and Co. , Boston and
New York, 1889.
63 See my article « Les voyageurs de l’Orient-Express »
64 Nadir Devlet, “Tsarist and Soviet Russia’s Approach to Turkish History”, Eurasian Studies, 4, Winter 1995/96, TICA, Ankara, 92-104.
65 Mamboury, Strolling through Istanbul, Istanbul at your Fingertips
66 Lamartine, Souvenirs, Impressions, Pensées et Paysages pendant un Voyage
en Orient, 1832-1833 ou Notes d’un Voyageur, Œuvres complètes, VII; Voyage
en Orient, Paris : Pagnerre-Hachette-Furne, 1856, 2 vol. Alphonse de Lamartine,
Nouveau Voyage en Orient, 2 vol. Alp. Lebègue, Bruxelles, 1851.
67 M. Michaud et M. Poujoulat, Correspondance d’Orient 1830-1831, P. Ducollet,
1833-1835, 7 vol.; Correspondance d’Orient (1830-1831), Bruxelles : N.J. Gregoir, V. Wouters et Cie, Imprimeurs-Libraires, 1841, 8 vol.
68 Vicomte de Marcellus, Souvenirs de l’Orient, Paris : Debécourt, 1839,.
69 Histoire de l’Empire Ottoman d’après la grande histoire de M. de Hammer,
racontée à la Jeunesse Chrétienne, J.L. Vincent, Limoges-Paris : Librairie des
Bons Livres, 1851.
70 M. A. Ubicini, Lettres sur la Turquie ou Tableau statistique, religieux, politique, administratif, militaire, commercial, etc. de l’Empire Ottoman, depuis
le Khatti-Cherif de Gulkhanè (1839), Paris : Librairie militaire de J. Dumaine,
1853. See also Enault, Louis, Constantinople et la Turquie, tableau historique,
pittoresque, statistique et moral de l’Empire ottoman, Paris : Hachette, 1855.
71 See Diana Barillari & Ezio Godoli, Istanbul 1900. Architecture et intérieurs Art
nouveau, Seuil: Paris, 1997.
72 OZTUNCAY Bahattin, The Photographers of Constantinople : Pioneers, Studios
and Artists from 19th Century Istanbul, Istanbul, Aygaz, 2003, www.enginozendes.com.
73 Guide Gallimard suggest a « Loti tour » of the city.
74 Gillon, Crépuscule des sultans ; Mylès, La Fin de Stamboul ; Victor Bérard,, La
mort de Stamboul
75 Guide Gallimard, Autrement
76 See my article : « Parcours d’Istanbul des Guides à la Bande Dessinée. Du décor
du désir interdit a celui de l’angoisse ».

ÖZET
Batı Avrupalıların Gözüyle İstanbul’da Kültür
İstanbul 2010 Avrupa Kültür Başkentlerinden biri oldu. Bu tanıtım ve ona ilişkin olarak düzenlenen etkinlikler şehre bu yıl fazladan birçok turist çekmiş olabilir. Uzun geçmişine bakıldığında birçok isimler aldığı görülen İstanbul şehrinin, 4.
yüzyılda Doğu Roma İmparatorluğunun başkenti seçilmesinden bu yana, kültürel
etkinlikler için her zaman büyük bir merkez işlevi üstlendiğini görürüz. Batı Roma
parçalara ayrılırken Bizans edebiyat ve sanatsal yaratımın bariz bir temsilcisi haline gelmiştir. İstanbul’un Osmanlı İmparatorları tarafından 15. yüzyılda başkent
seçilmesi, Batı Avrupalılar için ilgi odağını değiştirmekle birlikte, şehri, gezginlerin
kültürel faaliyetleri gözlemlemek üzere geldikleri bir merkez haline dönüştürmüştür. Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun Tanzimat sırasında yaşadığı modernleşme, Batı
ve Doğu Avrupa’da sanat icra edenler arasındaki ilişkiyle desteklenmiştir. İstanbul
bugün Avrupa’nın en nüfuslu şehri olarak sürekli sanatsal yaratımın bir merkezi
haline gelmiştir.


Culture in Istanbul as seen by Western Europeans

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