Istanbul - photos and travelogue 5 days in Istanbul, information: nice and useful books and links concerning Istanbul..(and miniatures) may 2010

Books and links about Istanbul

Reading the book "My name is red" by Orhan Pamuk made me want to go to Istanbul. Preceding our trip we (Nico as well) read more books by Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak in addition to some very inspiring travel guides. All this reading made our visit to Istanbul more worthwile I think.

At the internet there is very useful information about visiting Istanbul. I never saw so much useful information for travel gathered in one place as at the Turkey Travel Planner website!(and up-to-date, all of it!) Below some more useful links, also concerning miniatures.

Inspiring and useful:

For a start the novels....

Ik heet Karmozijn Orhan Pamuk	"My name is red" Orhan Pamuk I read the english version, Nico the Dutch one. The book is about a murdered illustrator and about Seküre, whose husband went away to war years ago. The setting is the Istanbul of 1591, to be more precise the workshops of the illustrators that have a secret order from the Sultan. The workshop is inspired by the the once existing workshop of Nakas Osman, an illustrator living and working in the early 15th century Istanbul. It is a good story (with suspense , art and love!) that paints an atmospheric and authentic picture of Istanbul in those days.
My Name Is Red Orhan Pamuk
Istanbul Orhan Pamuk	"Istanbul" Orhan Pamuk The memories of Orhan Pamuk (Wikipedia)( or click here for his own website or for his books at Bol.com) Turkish writer and Nobel Prize winner (2006, for Literature) of his youth and his city: Istanbul. It is not easy reading (the Dutch translation was fuzzy with overlong sentences, maybe it is better in English) and, to tell the truth, I skipped some parts, but for the rest (anyway the parts about Orhan himself and his family) are really very good and insightful. It gives a lot of information that you would want to know about Istanbul, but will not find in any travel guide. It is about living in Istanbul and what it feels like to be an Istanbullian. Also about Europeans travelling in Istanbul in former centuries. Above that it contains many beautiful, moodful photographs (amongst others by the famous Turkish photographer Ara Güler)
Istanbul Orhan Pamuk & Pamuk O
Het luizenpaleis E. Shafak	"The flea palace" Elif Shafak A very different kind of book. Elif Shafak is a female Turkish writer who is much in demand in Turkey as well as abroad. This book I bought in the Dutch version, so Nico would read it too, prior to the holidays (he didn't). It is about the inhabitants of the apartments in a building in Istanbul. Very nice to read: funny, at times a bit bizarre, but also moving and genuine. Still another pleasant way to get to know Istanbul! The way it is written (each chapter another apartement/point of view) reminds one of the way "My name is red" by Pamuk is written, it might be this writing-style is part of the Osman storytelling tradition?
The Flea Palace Elif Shafak
The Bastard Of Istanbul Elif Shafak	"The bastard of Istanbul" Elif Shafak I've read somewhere that this was a bestseller in Turkey. It is about a Turkish-American woman visting her relatives in Istanbul. It is not really about Istanbul but the main part of the story is situated in Istanbul. Just another fine book by Elif Shafak. I read this in English. Elif Shafak also wrote the original in English.
De bastaard van Istanbul E. Shafak

Next the travelguides, we used four of them (all Dutch - like us):

101 Istanbul D. Post & Zwier, M.	"101 Istanbul" Great atmospheric book with beautiful photos. Not meant to take along but very useful to get some inspiration and get in the mood! This book brought us to Lahle Bahçe teagarden.
Capitool reisgids Istanbul -	"Capitool Reisgidsen Istanbul" (=DK Eyewitness guide) Indispensable! Not the compact version but the big one! There is so much to see and to do and so much useful background information. This book has it all. This one we did take along!
Istanbul Peter Daners & Volker Ohl	"ANWB Extra - Istanbul" (Dutch AA like-series) Small and useful. Handy little map in the back as well that we used to make notes on. On the other hand too small(has only essential information, just a bit of everything). The man on the cover can be found near the Süleymanyemosque.
100% Istanbul Dirk Vermeiren	"100% Istanbul" Least used, quite nice series though. Original. When we will visit Istanbul again we will use this guidebook more I think, for instance to take their walk on the Asian shore. For the main sights that you want to see on your first visit it is less useful.

Useful Links:

I came across only one link that really was useful: Turkey Travel Planner. Very handy and it gives you good ideas for your trip to Istanbul.
You can trust this site blindly on transport (to and from the airports and in within the city), restaurants (much about Hoça Pasha) and nice suggestions (like their cruise on the Bosporus - I like to do it according to this description on my next visit!) and anything else! There also is a forum to post your own questions, might you still have them after digesting all this.
Recently, while building this website, I found Lonely Planet also has quite good information on Istanbul, for another viewpoint.

Looking for other information I encountered websites on Ottoman miniatures (NB the word miniature is not derived from "mini", meaning very small, but from"minium", the red lead colorant for the paint!): Ottoman miniature (wikipedia), Turkey in the 16th century(site on Turkish culture) and a pretty miniature of miniaturists at their job.

Something very beautiful to end this section with: the marvellous website of Istanbullian photographer Ara Güler full of atmospheric photographs, many of them of Istanbul in past decades.

To the Istanbul website>>>