Şeker Bayramı

Dear Family, Friends, and Interested Observers,

This was a very difficult day to study. It was a beautiful, sunny fall day of about 70 degrees, and the relaxed spirit of everyone enjoying one last day of Şeker Bayramı ("Sugar Holiday") overtook me. This three-day holiday marks the end of Ramadan, hence the Arabic term for the holiday, `Id al-Fitr ("Festival of Breaking [the Fast]"). As Answers.com puts it: "For Muslims, Eid ul-Fitr is a joyful celebration of the achievement of enhanced piety. It is a day of forgiveness, moral victory and peace, of congregation, fellowship, brotherhood and unity. Muslims are not only celebrating the end of fasting, but thanking God for the help and strength that they believe he gave them throughout the previous month to help them practice self-control." "Brotherhood" was the website's word choice, not mine.

In Turkey, Şeker Bayramı is also a welcome three-day break from the routine of work and school. This year the holiday fell from Monday to Wednesday, so everyone ended up with a five-day break. My poor roommate Sinan failed in his attempt to convince his boss to get the whole week off! The "sugar" moniker of the holiday comes from the widespread custom of children asking their neighbors and family, especially grandparents, for candy, sweets, and money. People also wear new clothes during the holiday, as I can see from just about everyone around me here in the internet cafe. It is a huge event for Turkish retailers, as the holidays are for American retailers.

I did manage to get out a little today. First, I went to Emek Park and sketched this older gentlemen feeding pigeons. Actually, this picture was actually done with Adobe Photoshop. Then, I went for a jog. I am proud to say that I have lost fifteen pounds since coming to Turkey. However, I have been stuck at the same weight now for a couple of weeks. Too many late night runs for nacho-cheese flavored Doritos and pistacchio chocolate bars, I guess.

Still no word from the authorities on my permit to continue research at the National Library. I will go to Tokat next week Thursday to make some photocopies of the court records and to visit Zekeriya and his colleagues. That means I should have good photos for the next blog entry.

My readings are going slowly. I am still working on the first defter, and since I have decided to follow the Nurcan Abacı method of Ottoman, I probably will not finish it until the end of November. Dr. Abacı told me that I should really take my time with the fırst one or two defters and read them intensively. The hope is that with a solid base of knowledge I will be able to recognize patterns and recurrent vocabulary in subsequent defters with fewer difficulties.

I have spent the last three days working on a four-page-long inheritance record for a Tokat grandee, one 'Abdul-latifzade Hüseyin Ağa bin 'Osman Ağa. He was a very rich man, and you would not believe the detail of his inheritance record. At the time of his death (c. 1843-4), Hüseyin Ağa was one of the kapubaşı ("doorkeeper" or "gatekeeper") at the service of the sultan. Although the job description may sound mundane, the Redhouse dictionary entry under kapubaşı contains the following: "Ott. hist. head of the palace door keepers. Rank of high office." In the Ottoman political formulation, service and proximity to the sultan, the harem, and the imperial council conferred power. Moreover, over the centuries, many palace offices evolved beyond their original basic functions to exercise political and economic power. So it paid to be a "doorkeeper" at the palace.

This lengthy court record is rich in vocabulary, from the common to the obscure, so it should be a good preparation for the less elaborate court records to follow. My proudest attainments today were "pocket watch" (piryol sa'at, that one took fifteen minutes and a lot of dictionary triangulation) and "a blue broadcloth-lined piece of sable fur" (ma'i çuhıyya kablı samur parçası kürklük, meaning something like a fancy shawl or wrap, I think). I was initially fooled by samur, as it was written with a sad (ص) instead of the Redhouse standard spelling with sin (س) ... now that I think about it, I remember that particular word having come up in the summer course. So much for the Abacı method, then. Just kidding, Nurcan Bey.

For all you Ottomanists out there, I wonder if you could tell me what the first word is in the entry that my finger is pointing, too. Right now I'm guessing minnekâri ("beneficial," منه كاري), but I'm unsure of the ligatures and, as altun içi enfiyye kutusu ("gold-interior snuff box") follows, I'm unsure of the meaning as well.

I thought I would also share the following slice of Turkey. A couple of weeks ago it came to light that a German-led archaelogical team has been excavating, for about twelve years now, what is claimed to be the oldest known temple in the world. The temple is said to date from the tenth millenia B.C.E., antedating the next closest candidate in Malta by two thousand years.

Of course, some controversy surrounds the discovery. First, the discovery of such an early neolithic temple has upset the applecart of academic convention. In addition, after the German-led team dispersed last winter for the academic year, the governor of Şanlıurfa authorized the construction of a road right up to the site without their knowledge. The governor, in upset about being kept in the dark about the magnitude of the discovery for so long, planned for the site to be a major stop and earner on the Urfa tourism circuit. The German team cried foul; the new road skirted a village where locals could watch the comings and goings of looters. Moreover, the road came so close to the site that it may have tampered with remains. Science versus progress. Hence the title of the newspaper article above, "A Road Dispute in Adam and Eve's Paradise":

A couple factoids about Urfa. It is the legendary birthplace of Abraham, the home province of Ali Fuat Bey, and a great place to visit. It is also a place where three very different language families converge -- Turkish, Kurdish, and Arabic. I remembered that my tour guide in the province could speak all three languages with ease.

If all goes according as planned, I should be back in the States on November 22 for a six-week stay. I hope to do one more entry before then. Time for bed.

jkbinturkey