{"id":7572,"date":"2013-05-27T14:17:37","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T19:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/?p=7572"},"modified":"2025-06-04T20:12:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T01:12:53","slug":"palaces-the-ideal-way-to-celebrate-your-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/2013\/05\/27\/palaces-the-ideal-way-to-celebrate-your-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Palaces: The ideal way to celebrate your birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 27, 2013<\/p>\n

Palaces\u2014the ideal way to celebrate your birthday in Istanbul<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s your birthday (and we celebrated two in Istanbul today), you might consider going to palaces, as we did.<\/p>\n

The first palace is what you\u2019d think of as a palace\u2014the Topkapi\u00a0 Palace of \"\"the 36 Sultans of the Ottoman Empire (1453-1923, though the family moved in the late 18th<\/sup> century to a more European palace in another part of the city).\u00a0 Having been to Windsor Castle, Versailles, and Potsdam, we\u2019ve seen Western European castles and palaces.\u00a0 No one, however, except me, had seen the palaces in India (the Moghul forts at New Delhi and Agra) that are the closest equivalent of Topkapi\u2014with the open pavilions, the gold and tile floral decorations\u2014etc., that make me think of Scheherazade).<\/p>\n

Inside, the treasuries and the sacred relics remind one that Turkey, called the \u201csick man of Europe\u201d in the late 19th<\/sup>\u00a0and early 20th<\/sup>\u00a0centuries, was quite healthy, wealthy, and wise earlier.\u00a0 The treasury (and here there is a connection with the Moghul empire I referred to earlier) has a number of \"\"artefacts that are stunning\u2014diamonds, jade, jewels\u2014and the Peacock throne, which a Persian army looted from New Delhi, and the Ottomans took from Persia.\u00a0 The religious relics included the sword of David, the staff of Moses, an arm and jawbone of St. John the Baptist\u2014and hair from the beard of Mohammed, his footsteps, his sword\u2014all reminders that at one time, the Ottomans conquered the Holy Lands (Mecca and Jerusalem), and the Caliphate was in effect the \u201cpope\u201d of the Muslim world.\u00a0 I think one of the many titles of the sultan was Defender of the Faith. Expanded over the years, Topkapi became the second largest palace complex over the years\u2014second to the Forbidden City.\u00a0 Ataturk turned it into a museum in the 1920s.<\/p>\n

The second \u201cpalace\u201d was the executive suite of the Nurol Company, an investment\/ banking\/tourism real estate\/defense business, and the \"\"<\/a>executive suite\u2014with its paneled boardroom, library, dining room, and full bar was fit for a padishah (although probably not the bar).<\/p>\n

Three executives introduced us to the company and its activities, and pointed out that the Turkish population is young (over 50% under 21), and doing well economically.\u00a0 The banking crisis occurred in 1999-2001, so when the economy tanked in 2008 elsewhere, Turkish banks had already restructured and were well regulated.\u00a0 Personally, they said, Turks were eager to join the EU\u2014before \"\"2008\u2014but now are not so sure.\u00a0 The company itself has numerous projects and holdings, few of them in Europe, and most of them trading regionally (Russia and the nation of Georgia) or Muslim countries, like the UAE, Algeria, and Malaysia.<\/p>\n

The third \u201cpalace\u201d was the Chora Church, renowned\u00a0 for its mosaics and frescoes.\u00a0 It was certainly high on my list of \u201cmust sees\u201d in Istanbul.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>Located now inside the Justinian Walls that held off invaders (including the Mongol army) until 1453, the church was once outside the walls, which is the meaning of Chora. Converted to a mosque after the Ottoman conquest, the Muslims plastered over the Christian designs until (again) the Republic turned the mosque into a museum and re-revealed the original mosaics. \"\" The ceilings are literally covered with the story of Jesus and Mary, the gift of a city official in the 14th<\/sup>\u00a0century, which saw a renaissance (our guide used the word, and said that the \u201cRenaissance\u201d began in Byzantium before it spread to Western \"\"<\/a> Europe) of culture in what was after 1261 a very truncated (and besieged) Empire.\u00a0 We spent about an hour on a tour of one of the best preserved Byzantine Churches\u2014preparatory to our visit tomorrow to the much earlier Hagia Sophia.<\/p>\n

The final \u201cpalace\u201d was one for foodies\u2014a restaurant serving Ottoman cuisine, where we enjoyed a birthday celebration for our two honorees, and \"\"<\/a>an excellent dinner of lamb or chicken or spinach in sauces that delight the palate.\u00a0 Professor Pana (who was one of the celebrants; I told her she could celebrate, but not count!) and I, having had the dish last night, were able to get a stuffed melon that had a wonderful apricot-flavored sauce that made me want to apply for the vacant job of Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, so I could enjoy similar dishes every night.<\/p>\n

Start planning your birthday party for Istanbul right now! And be sure to invite me! Please!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 27, 2013 Palaces\u2014the ideal way to celebrate your birthday in Istanbul If it\u2019s your birthday (and we celebrated two in Istanbul today), you might consider going to palaces, as we did. The first palace is what you\u2019d think of as a palace\u2014the Topkapi\u00a0 Palace of the 36 Sultans of the Ottoman Empire (1453-1923, though … Continue reading “Palaces: The ideal way to celebrate your birthday”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-may-term-2013"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7572"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9481,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7572\/revisions\/9481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}