Sunday was at Topkapi. As before, easy to get to, a simple tram ride across the Golden Horn, to the domes and towers we see every day from our window. I had thought it might be relatively empty but it really wasn’t, though most of the other visitors were Turks, Iranis, South Asians, etc. Turkey is still off limits for Europeans, and with good reason, as cases are rising swiftly here. It was also Victory Day here in Turkey, so I imagine places like Topkapi were more crowded than usual. Certainly the Hagia Sofia was packed.
I was surprised at just how large the palace was – I suppose I’ve not really been to very many. It was also rather delightful to recreate in my mind some scenes from books read – in this case, mostly Orientalist fantasies like the Lymond novels, but enjoyable none-the-less, and to recognise the cover of my edition of Orientalism in one of the harem chambers. The Iznik tiles were beautiful and I decided at once that I would redo an appropriate room whenever we buy a house for ourselves, but was detered when I looked up the prices of the really good stuff. I wonder if the Multani ware follows the old ways of workmanship? I really don’t know – but it’s certainly cheaper.
A curious bit that I had not known about was the treasure room with swords belonging to the Prophet’s Companions and other such relics. That was very crowded indeed, but fascinating to see the relics and to feel a twinge of awe, even knowing that they are vanishingly unlikely to be real. It is the meaning one ascribes to them, I suppose.
Through to some of the kiosks – I wonder when these are kiosks when in Chinese places they would be pavilions and elsewhere perhaps just rooms or palaces. A particularly lovely little library kiosk, and another which I would not mind as my study, with a view over the Bosphorus, and beautiful tiles and calligraphy.
It did occur to me how entry into the palace, for concubines and the devshirme, repugnant as it was, was an entry into a kind of university and the opportunity to live and flourish with some of the great minds of the time.