Some observations on the practice of Islam around Istanbul

.................:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::.......................
Through my travels to date the best experiences have been provided through exposure to cultures quite different then those I ordinarily encounter. One example is the opportunities I have had to converse with people of the Muslim faith and to observe some of the religious traditions that are part of everyday life around Istanbul. What follows are some observations I have had while trying to come to understand a group of beliefs that I am broadly labeling the Muslim religion and the practice of Islam. I am quite aware of how ignorant I am of the history and traditions of the Muslim religion. So instead of using this as a chance to sort out my comprehension of the religion's core principles, I will focus more on what I have been able to personally observe which is the way the religion affects people's everyday lives. I apologize for any way I mistakenly present facets of the Muslim religion, and I ask that anyone who is aware of such things bring them to attention.
..................::::::::::::::::::::::::::::........................

Arriving in Istanbul, the most striking detail I think that makes people aware of the presence of the Muslim religion is the prayer calls that are broadcast on loudspeakers from many of the operational mosques around town. These prayer calls are sung in Arabic, and I was told by someone who studies the religion that the general gist of the message is the following:

God is great, God is great.
Muhammad is his messenger, Muhammad is his messenger.
Come here for peace, come here for peace.
Come here to pray, come here to pray.

It is quite extraordinary to be going about your business and to hear one by one, a preacher in each mosque burst out into the slightly songlike/slightly chantey prayer call. I was very happy to hear that there is actually a preacher in each mosque performing the call live five times a day as opposed to a recording being broadcast over the speakers. Unfortunately though, the megaphone type speakers which are banded around the minarets on most mosques usually sound as if the volume is too high and so the prayer call which can be really quite beautiful comes across in a crackly form. Also detracting a little from the listening experience in my eyes is the fact that each mosque begins its prayer call approximately at the same time. Since there are an unbelievable number of mosques, often several within a couple blocks, the listener is treated to a number of different renditions of the prayer call, but it is hard to concentrate on any one of them since they are playing simultaneously.

Although I heard the beckoning of the prayer calls countless times while I was in Istanbul, it never actually crossed my mind to walk over to a mosque and attend a prayer. That being said, I am only relying on hearsay for what occurs at the actually prayer ceremony. One thing I found quite interesting concerning the prayer ceremony is that before the actual prayer takes place the preacher reads a short message that advises people on proper ways to incorporate the Muslim religion into their lives, and other such things. This message is actually composed by the Turkish government and is provided to each mosque with the mandatory requirement that they read it. I’m sure this message serves many purposes, but two of its functions stand out to me in particular. First, it provides a language bridge to the practice of Islam for the Turkish people. Since the prayer calls and the prayer itself are in Arabic, which few Turkish people understand, the pre-prayer message brings the religion closer to home.

Secondly, the government’s composition of this daily message is an opportunity for them to influence the way people feel about their religion and its relation to other religions and the world at large. On the good side, by composing the pre-prayer message the government can help to prevent fundamentalist ideals that honor the adoption of violence from taking hold. Another way of looking at it though is that the government, a political organization, is interfering with spirituality. This tinkering with the way the spiritual world is presented to the people is a job that I think should best be left to purely religious organizations--the kind that people can be satisfied are concerned only with spiritual enlightenment.

Considering the level of involvement the Government seems to have with the Muslim religion in Turkey, I was surprised to learn some of the ways that the government resists religious expression. An example of this is that head scarves are not allowed to be worn in schools or government buildings in Turkey. I was told by one Turkish man that this scarf regulation was one of a number of laws put into place in the early 1980’s by the government in an attempt to “modernize” Turkey. It seems, at least according to this gentleman I was speaking too, that there was a big backlash by the Turkish women in response to these policies. While forty years ago very few women wore the head veils (and even fewer wore the full facial covering that only leaves the eyes visable and is best likened to ninja garb), now the head veils are relatively common.

Those are some of the things that have fascinated me during my time spent around a greater magnitude of people practicing Islam than I am used too. I know that I still actually know very little about the Islamic religion, but I feel very lucky for getting the opportunity to learn what little bit I have.

A few more experiences from Istanbul

Although I left Istanbul two weeks ago, I would like to take a moment to list some of the other highlights I experienced while there. First I must mention the great time I had while meeting up with my friend Mahmut Eksioglu. Mahmut grew up in Istanbul but spent 19 years in America working at various universities. Most recently, Mahmut was a professor at the University of Michigan where I met him through my cousins Jeff and Greg Mans. Mahmut moved back to Istanbul a year and a half ago which was wonderful for me as he was there to show me around his hometown.

Istanbul is unique in that it is a city that sprawls on two continents, Europe and Asia. Mahmut lives in Istanbul on the Asian side, something I was happy about But because it gave me a reason to set foot on Asia which I had never done before. Parts of Istanbul on the Asian side have rough stone streets and bustling sidewalk markets like the historic district of the European side. Other parts though are quite different with much more frequent use of cement on the streets and sidewalks, and multiplex apartment buildings going up everywhere. One street in particular, Bagdhat Avenue (named after the Iraqi city that the Turks conquered during the reign of the Ottoman Empire), really stood out in sharp contrast to some of the other neighborhoods I had been in due to its high concentration of American brand name clothing stores and restaurants. But besides the American stores (which as you can imagine I wasn’t too interested in going inside while in Istanbul), Bagdhat avenue is a really nice street with plenty of cafes and excellent marble and stonework everywhere. Additionally, I found Bagdhat avenue one of the best places to skateboard in Istanbul due to its smooth stone sidewalks that are wide for pedestrian traffic.

Sorry about that, I got a bit carried away describing a single street. I think I should turn to something more interesting like the two dinners that Mahmut’s sister cooked for us while I was staying with him over on the Asian side. These meals were truly incredible. And although it is still hard for me to believe, they actually are common place in her household because both times we went over there Mahmut gave her about half an hours notice that we were coming over to dinner. On both occasions, if two kinds of soup, salad, and then five or six traditional Turkish dishes weren’t enough to make me completely stuffed and content, then the desert plates, pistachios, and array of fruit we finished the meal with put me over the edge. The whole dinner experience would last for a few hours, the last couple of which were spent outside on the balcony chatting over the desert, pistachios, fruit, and many cups of delicious Turkish black tea. This tea, by the way, is certainly a fond memory for me of Turkey as most people there drink many many glasses a day, offering a glass any and every time you sit down.

While I was really lucky to hook up with Mahmut while I was in Istanbul, it was really too bad that I didn’t manage to get together with Lucienne Thys-Senocak, who also lives in Istanbul and is the niece of our neighbor’s Nina and Buck Thys. In a very unfortunate incident, I was going to meet Lucienne and boarded a bus that due to traffic caused by the Pink Floyd concert (which was going on that night), only moved the span of 100 meters in a full hour. By the time I wised up, abandoned the bus, and gave Lucienne a call, I was still 10 km away from our meeting place so I missed my chance to see her.

Although the Pink Floyd concert proved to be the instrument of my demise that night, a few nights earlier the Sting concert at the same venue on the Bosphorus Strait was the occasion that provided a memorable evening. I didn’t actually attend the Sting concert, but my friend Chevey from the Stone Hotel was going and invited me to join him and a bunch of his friends on a boat that would tour the Bosphorus for a while then drop them off at the concert. The Bosphorus Strait is an 18 km long channel that connects the Marmara and Black seas. It was pretty cool taking a boat ride through this scenic waterway that has provided for thousands of years the geographical justification for Istanbul’s awesome population and its status as an uber-important city of trade, merging cultures, and other such things. Apart from the scenery, the boat ride was perhaps equally enjoyable due to the fact that Yemek (the cook I think I mentioned in my last post), came along and prepared a wonderful meal which we enjoyed on the boat, and there was also plenty of Raki to go around. Raki is a traditional Turkish liquer that is drank with water and seemed to me to have a licorice flavor which I found out later is actually anise. It is quite different I think then the rakia which is drank in Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Serbia, and is pretty similar to the Slivovitz schnapps which I have gotten the chance to try at home.

In any case, among many others, these were a few of the memorable experiences I enjoyed while in Istanbul.