The White Castle (original Turkish title: Beyaz Kale ) is a novel by Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk .
128-526: The events of this story take place in 17th century Istanbul . The story is about a young Italian scholar sailing from Venice to Naples who is taken prisoner by the Ottoman Empire . Soon after, he becomes the slave of a scholar known as Hoja (master), a man who is about his own age, and with whom he shares a strong physical resemblance. Hoja reports to the Pasha , who asks him many questions about science and
256-542: A frame tale in the form of a preface written by historian Faruk Darvinoglu (a character referenced in Pamuk's previous book, Silent House ) between 1984 and 1985, according to the fictional dedication to the character's late sister at the beginning of the frame tale. Faruk recalls finding the story that follows in a storage room while looking through an archive in the governor's office in Gebze, among old bureaucratic papers. He takes
384-671: A Turkish city since 1923, it contains many ancient, Roman, Byzantine, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish monuments. The Neolithic settlement in the Yenikapı quarter on the European side, which dates back to c. 6500 BCE and predates the formation of the Bosporus by approximately a millennium, when the Sea of Marmara was still a lake, was discovered during the construction of the Marmaray railway tunnel. It
512-566: A beacon of the Silk Road and one of the most important cities in history. The city played a key role in the advancement of Christianity during Roman/Byzantine times, hosting four of the first seven ecumenical councils before its transformation to an Islamic stronghold following the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 CE—especially after becoming the seat of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1517. In 1923, after
640-482: A center of Greek culture and Christianity. Numerous churches were built across the city, including Hagia Sophia which was built during the reign of Justinian I and remained the world's largest cathedral for a thousand years. Constantine also undertook a major renovation and expansion of the Hippodrome of Constantinople ; accommodating tens of thousands of spectators, the hippodrome became central to civic life and, in
768-587: A church ( Minor Conventuals ), a school for boys (Assumptionists) and a school for girls (Oblates of the Assumption). Each of its mission stations, at Tekirdağ and Alexandroupoli , had a school (Minor Conventuals), and there was one at Gallipoli (the Assumptionists). Around 1850, from the standpoint of the Eastern Catholic Churches , Adrianople was the residence of a Bulgarian vicar-apostolic for
896-403: A city with above-freezing average temperatures. Istanbul's precipitation is unevenly distributed, with winter months getting at least twice the level of precipitation of their summerly counterparts. The mode of precipitation also varies by season. Winter precipitation is generally light, persistent and often of mixed precipitation such as rain-snow mixes and graupel ; while summer precipitation
1024-487: A cosmopolitan society that persisted through much of the Ottoman period. Revitalizing Istanbul also required a massive program of restorations, of everything from roads to aqueducts . Like many monarchs before and since, Mehmed II transformed Istanbul's urban landscape with wholesale redevelopment of the city center. There was a huge new palace to rival, if not overshadow, the old one , a new covered market (still standing as
1152-435: A fireworks display for his son's wedding. He is surprised when the man he is to work with looks the same as he. The narrator works with Hoja, believing that he'll have nothing useful to share with Hoja. He is surprised when Hoja tries to tout a poorly translated copy of Almageist, which receives a lukewarm reaction from the narrator. The two work on the fireworks display and the narrator's insights onto contemporary science goes
1280-405: A great deal to assist his doppelganger, leading to the display's success. After the wedding, the pasha offers the narrator his freedom under the condition that he convert to Islam . When he refuses, a mock execution is staged to pressure him. When he refuses even then, the pasha commends him and ridicules him for his stubbornness, before turning him over to Hoja's custody. While living with Hoja,
1408-510: A growing tourism industry. It is the seat of Edirne Province and Edirne District . Its population is 180,002 (2022). The town is famous in Turkey for the Edirne Fried Liver. Ciğer tava ( breaded and deep-fried liver ) is often served with a side of cacık , a dish of diluted strained yogurt with chopped cucumber. In the local elections on March 31, 2024, lawyer Filiz Gencan Akin
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#17328515348851536-534: A large role in the city's infrastructure development, with over 500,000 vulnerable buildings demolished and replaced since 2012. According to ministry statements and geologist comments made in 2023, the city's infrastructure was in reasonably good shape, however, due to very high costs, buildings were not: over half a million flats were still vulnerable to collapse, and casualties largely depend on how many collapse. As of 2024 , most buildings in Istanbul were built to
1664-472: A low seismic standard in the 20th century, and residents think the city is not properly prepared for the earthquake . Istanbul's climate is temperate , and is often described as transitional between the Mediterranean climate typical of the western and southern coasts of Turkey, and the oceanic climate of the northwestern coasts of the country. Much divergence exists in the terminology used to classify
1792-546: A museum to the history of Islamic medicine. Edirne Palace ( Ottoman Turkish : Saray-ı Cedid-i Amire for "New Imperial Palace") in the Sarayiçi quarter, was built in the reign of Murad II (r. 1421–1444) but was destroyed in 1877, during the Russo-Turkish War. The palace gate and kitchen have since been restored. The Kasr-ı Adalet ("Justice Castle"), originally built as part of the palace complex, stands intact next to
1920-401: A natural toll-gate. Several picturesque islands— Büyükada , Heybeliada , Burgazada , Kınalıada , and five smaller islands—are part of the city. Istanbul's shoreline has grown beyond its natural limits. Large sections of Caddebostan sit on areas of landfill, increasing the total area of the city to 5,343 square kilometers (2,063 sq mi). Despite the myth that seven hills make up
2048-642: A primary urban park, but it has several green areas. Gülhane Park and Yıldız Park were originally included within the grounds of two of Istanbul's palaces — Topkapı Palace and Yıldız Palace —but they were repurposed as public parks in the early decades of the Turkish Republic. Another park, Fethi Paşa Korusu , is on a hillside adjacent to the Bosphorus Bridge in Anatolia, opposite Yıldız Palace in Europe. Along
2176-428: A result of Istanbul's exponential growth in the 20th century, a significant portion of the city is composed of gecekondus (literally "built overnight"), referring to illegally constructed squatter buildings. At present, some gecekondu areas are being gradually demolished and replaced by modern mass-housing compounds. Moreover, large scale gentrification and urban renewal projects have been taking place, such as
2304-451: A series of nationwide protests in 2013 covering a wide range of issues. Popular during the summer among Istanbulites is Belgrad Forest , spreading across 5,500 hectares (14,000 acres) at the northern edge of the city. The forest originally supplied water to the city and remnants of reservoirs used during Byzantine and Ottoman times survive. Istanbul is primarily known for its Byzantine and Ottoman architecture. Despite its development as
2432-516: A set of corridors lined with office buildings, residential towers, shopping centers, and university campuses, and over 2,000,000 m (22,000,000 sq ft) of class-A office space in total. Maslak , Levent , and Bomonti are important nodes within the CBD. The Atatürk Airport corridor is another such edge city -style business, residential and shopping corridor with over 900,000 m (9,700,000 sq ft) of class-A office space. During
2560-530: A vague 'He'. Istanbul Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey , straddling the Bosporus Strait , the boundary between Europe and Asia. It is considered the country's economic, cultural and historic capital. The city has a population of over 15 million residents, comprising 19% of the population of Turkey, and is the most populous city in Europe and the world's sixteenth-largest city . The city
2688-582: Is a city in Turkey , in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace . Situated 7 km (4.3 mi) from the Greek and 20 km (12 mi) from the Bulgarian borders, Edirne was the second capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1369 to 1453, before Constantinople became its capital. The city is a commercial centre for woven textiles, silks, carpets and agricultural products and has
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#17328515348852816-469: Is a large and rapidly expanding city, its urban heat island has been intensifying the effects of climate change. If trends continue, sea level rise is likely to affect city infrastructure, for example Kadıkoy metro station is threatened with flooding. Xeriscaping of green spaces has been suggested, and Istanbul has a climate-change action plan. The natural vegetation of the province is made up of mixed broadleaf forest and pseudo-maquis , reflecting
2944-424: Is a major conflict for the narrator. When the narrator first meets Hoja, Hoja looks as he did, or at least believes he looked, having not seen his reflection in some time. Hoja also realizes this, and as the two men learn more about each other, the realization that Hoja could trade places with him and return to Italy without any problems becomes a source of distress for the narrator. When Hoja can't be bothered to visit
3072-445: Is acute in İstanbul with cars, buses and taxis causing frequent urban smog , as it is one of the few European cities without a low-emission zone . As of 2019 the city's mean air quality remains at a level so as to affect the heart and lungs of healthy street bystanders during peak traffic hours, and almost 200 days of pollution were measured by the air pollution sensors at Sultangazi , Mecidiyeköy , Alibeyköy and Kağıthane . It
3200-530: Is also the centre of a Bulgarian diocese but this is not recognised and has been deprived of a bishop. The city also had some Protestants. The few, mainly foreign Latin Catholics were dependent on the vicariate-apostolic of Constantinople. Adrianople also contained the parish of St. Anthony of Padua (Minors Conventual) and a school for girls conducted by the Sisters of Charity of Agram . The suburb of Karaağaç contained
3328-422: Is contemporary, and more scientifically sound than Hoja's, which is filtered through another language, and then filtered again through dogma . The models of the heliocentric and geocentric universes also come to represent the two men and their views on the world. The narrator sees and uses his knowledge as a way to help whereas Hoja uses his knowledge to move his own ambitions forward. The modernization, or rather,
3456-618: Is derived from the Greek name. The name Adrianople was used in English until the Turkish adoption of the Latin alphabet in 1928, after which Edirne became the internationally recognised name. The area around Edirne has been the site of numerous major battles and sieges starting from the days of the Roman Empire . The vagaries of the border region between Asia and Europe gave rise to Edirne's claim to be
3584-533: Is disputed). The city became "Edirne" in Turkish, reflecting the Turkish pronunciation and Murad moved the Ottoman capital here from Bursa . Mehmed the Conqueror (Sultan Mehmed II) was born in Adrianople, where he came under the influence of Hurufis dismissed by Taşköprüzade in the Şakaiki Numaniye as ' certain accursed ones of no significance ', who were burnt as heretics by Mahmud Pasha . The city remained
3712-519: Is evidence of a scriptorium in the Ottoman's Edirne palace during this period. Uzunköprü Bridge , the world's longest medieval stone bridge, connects Anatolia with the Balkans on the Ergene River and was erected between 1426 and 1443 by the primary architect, Müslihiddin , during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murat II . That Adrianople/Edirne continued to hold an important place in Ottoman hearts
3840-508: Is famed for its many mosques, medreses and other Ottoman monuments. The Selimiye Mosque , built in 1575 and designed by Turkey's greatest architect, Mimar Sinan (c. 1489/1490–1588), is the most important monument in the city and became a UNESCO world heritage site in 2011. It used to have the highest minarets in Turkey, at 70.90 m (232.6 ft) before the completion of the Çamlıca Mosque in 2019 which features minarets standing at 107.1 m (351 ft) tall. Sinan himself believed
3968-647: Is generally abrupt and sporadic. Cloudiness, as with precipitation, varies greatly by season. Winters are quite cloudy, with around 20 percent of days being sunny or partly cloudy. Meanwhile, summers experience 60-70 percent of possible sunshine. Snowfall is sporadic, but accumulates virtually every winter; and when it does, it is highly disruptive to city infrastructure. Sea-effect snowstorms with more than 30 centimetres (1 ft) of snowfall happen almost annually, most recently in 2022 . Climate change has caused an increase in Istanbul's heatwaves, droughts, storms, and flooding in Istanbul. Furthermore, as Istanbul
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4096-518: Is located close to the ruins of the Edirne Palace, with an Unknown Soldier monument featuring an Ottoman soldier in front of its entrance. The Meriç and Tunca rivers, which flow around west and south of the city, are crossed by elegant arched bridges dating back to early Ottoman times. The historic Karaağaç railway station has been restored to house Trakya University 's Faculty of Fine Arts. The Treaty of Lausanne Monument and Museum are in
4224-510: Is one of the 10 worst cities for NO 2 . However a trial of congestion pricing is planned for the historic peninsula. Algal blooms and red tides were reported in the Sea of Marmara and Bosporus (especially in Golden Horn), and regularly happen in urban lakes such as Lake Büyükçekmece and Küçükçekmece . In June 2021, a marine mucilage wave allegedly caused by water pollution spread to Sea of Marmara. The Fatih district, which
4352-697: Is reflected in the fact that Sultan Mehmed IV left the Topkapı Palace in Constantinople to die here in 1693. The wife of the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu , spent six weeks in Edirne (then Adrianople) in the spring of 1717 and left an account of her experiences there in her The Turkish Embassy Letters . Wearing Turkish dress, Montagu witnessed the passage of Sultan Ahmed III to
4480-539: Is taken, and the narrator and his fellows are captured. The narrator, fearing for his life, claims to be a doctor. Using basic anatomy, he's able to bluff successfully, but he is still imprisoned when the ship arrives. During his imprisonment, he is brought before the pasha, and cures him of his shortness of breath. Though he is still a slave, he begins to gain preferential treatment among the slaves and prison guards. When prisoners from Spain arrive, he tries to get word of home, to no avail. The pasha commissions him to work on
4608-664: Is the oldest known human settlement on the European side of the city. The oldest known human settlement on the Asian side is the Fikirtepe Mound near Kadıköy, with relics dating to the Chalcolithic period c. 5500 – c. 3500 BCE . Edirne Edirne ( US : / eɪ ˈ d ɪər n ə , ɛ ˈ -/ , Turkish: [e.ˈdiɾ.ne] ) ( Bulgarian : Одрин), historically known as Adrianople ( Greek : Αδριανούπολις , romanized : Adrianoúpolis ),
4736-517: Is the place to come to buy miniature versions of the handmade brooms with mirrors set into them that used to play a part in marriage ceremonies as well as to buy soap in the shape of fruits. Of the original Roman Hadrianopolis only slight remains of the fortifications survive near the so-called Macedonian Tower, itself probably a part of the defences although much patched-up and altered over the ensuing centuries. Edirne Museum (Edirne Müzesi) contains collections of local archaeology and ethnography. In
4864-426: Is this incident that inspired him to record the previous events of his life. The dynamic of the slave-master relationship is a recurring theme throughout The White Castle . Hoja, the master, tries to assume superiority over the narrator several times throughout the story, whether by ridiculing him for his childhood, or for his weakness and paranoia as a slave. However, Hoja spends just as much time trying to learn from
4992-402: Is thought to be impossible. Istanbul Municipality's Directorate of Earthquake and Ground Research is responsible for analysing the methods to reduce the urban seismic risk , whereas the national government-controlled Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency is responsible for earthquake emergency response , and will be helped by NGOs such as İHH . The threat of major earthquakes plays
5120-764: The Allies occupied Constantinople on 13 November 1918. The Ottoman Parliament was dissolved by the Allies on 11 April 1920 and the Ottoman delegation led by Damat Ferid Pasha was forced to sign the Treaty of Sèvres on 10 August 1920. Following the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1922), the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara abolished the Sultanate on 1 November 1922, and
5248-607: The Battle of Adrianople in 1205. In 1206 the Latin regime gave Adrianople and the surrounding area to the Byzantine aristocrat Theodore Branas as a hereditary fief. Theodore Komnenos , Despot of Epirus , took possession of it in 1227, but three years later was defeated at Klokotnitsa by Emperor Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria . In 1362, the Ottomans under Sultan Murad I invaded Thrace and Murad captured Adrianople , probably in 1369 (the date
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5376-462: The Grand Bazaar ), porticoes, pavilions, walkways, as well as more than a dozen new mosques. Mehmed II turned the ramshackle old town into something that looked like an imperial capital. Social hierarchy was ignored by the rampant plague, which killed the rich and the poor alike in the 16th century. Money could not protect the rich from all the discomforts and harsher sides of Istanbul. Although
5504-525: The Latin Empire in place of the Orthodox Byzantine Empire. Hagia Sophia was converted to a Catholic church in 1204. The Byzantine Empire was restored, albeit weakened, in 1261. Constantinople's churches, defenses, and basic services were in disrepair, and its population had dwindled to a hundred thousand from half a million during the 8th century. After the reconquest of 1261, however, some of
5632-465: The Medieval Greek phrase eis tḕn Pólin ( εἰς τὴν Πόλιν , pronounced [is tim ˈbolin] ), literally 'to the city' and is how Constantinople was referred to by the local Greeks. This reflected its status as the only major city in the vicinity. The importance of Constantinople in the Ottoman world was also reflected by its nickname Dersaadet ( Ottoman Turkish : درساعدت ) meaning
5760-535: The Second Inspectorate General , in which an Inspector General governed the provinces of Edirne , Çanakkale , Tekirdaĝ and Kırklareli . The Inspectorate Generals governmental posts were abandoned in 1948, but the legal framework for them was only abolished in 1952 during the government of the Democrat Party . Adrianople was made the seat of a Greek metropolitan and of an Armenian bishop. It
5888-406: The Turkish War of Independence , Ankara replaced the city as the capital of the newly formed Republic of Turkey. Istanbul was the 2010 European Capital of Culture . The city has surpassed London and Dubai to become the most visited city in the world, with more than 20 million foreign visitors in 2023. The historic centre of Istanbul is a UNESCO World Heritage Site , and the city hosts
6016-589: The metropolitan area of Istanbul as result of urban sprawl . Istanbul is in north-western Turkey and straddles the Bosporus Strait , which provides the only passage from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean via the Sea of Marmara . Historically, the city has been ideally situated for trade and defense: The confluence of the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Golden Horn provide both ideal defense against enemy attack and
6144-503: The 'Gate to Prosperity' in Ottoman Turkish. An alternative view is that the name evolved directly from "Constantinople", with the first and third syllables dropped. Some Ottoman sources of the 17th century, such as Evliya Çelebi , describe it as the common Turkish name of the time; between the late 17th and late 18th centuries, it was also in official use. The first use of the word Islambol ( Ottoman Turkish : اسلامبول ) on coinage
6272-463: The 1930s, when Turkish authorities began to press for the use of Istanbul in foreign languages. Ḳosṭanṭīnīye ( Ottoman Turkish : قسطنطينيه ) and İstanbul were the names used alternatively by the Ottomans during their rule. The name İstanbul ( Ottoman Turkish : استانبول ; pronounced [isˈtanbuɫ] , colloquially [ɯsˈtambuɫ] ) is commonly held to derive from
6400-458: The 1950s the number of dolphin observations has become increasingly rare. Mediterranean monk seals were present in Bosporus, and Princes' Islands and Tuzla shores were seal breeding areas during summer, but they have not been observed in Istanbul since the 1960s and thought to be extinct in the region. Water pollution, overfishing and destruction of coastal habitats caused by urbanization are main threats to Istanbul's marine ecology. Apart from
6528-407: The 1960s as part of the process of Turkification . Further mass expulsions of Greeks took place in 1964–1965. As a result of these policies, the Greek population of Istanbul decreased from 110,000 in 1919 to 2,500 today. From the late 1940s and early 1950s, Istanbul underwent great structural change, as new public squares, boulevards, and avenues were constructed throughout the city, sometimes at
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#17328515348856656-569: The 19th century, leaving only the Galata Tower , to make way for the northward expansion of the city. Galata ( Karaköy ) is today a quarter within the Beyoğlu district, which forms Istanbul's commercial and entertainment center and includes İstiklal Avenue and Taksim Square . Dolmabahçe Palace , the seat of government during the late Ottoman period, is in the Beşiktaş district on the European shore of
6784-461: The 4,600 Eastern Catholics of the Ottoman vilayet (province) of Thrace and after 1878 - of the principality of Bulgaria . They had eighteen parishes or missions, six of which were in the principality, with twenty churches or chapels, thirty-one priests, of whom six were Assumptionists and six were Resurrectionists; and eleven schools with 670 pupils. In Adrianople itself there were only a few United Bulgarians, with an Episcopal church of St. Elias, and
6912-516: The 5th and 6th centuries, the center of episodes of unrest, including the Nika riots . Constantinople's location also ensured its existence would stand the test of time; for many centuries, its walls and seafront protected Europe against invaders from the east and the advance of Islam. During most of the Middle Ages , the latter part of the Byzantine era, Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city on
7040-487: The Ankara government, commanded by Şükrü Naili Pasha (3rd Corps), entered the city with a ceremony on 6 October 1923, which has been marked as the "Liberation Day of Istanbul" ( İstanbul'un Kurtuluşu ), and has been commemorated annually since. On 29 October 1923 the Grand National Assembly of Turkey declared the establishment of the Turkish Republic, with Ankara as its capital. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk became
7168-662: The Bosporus, to the north of Beyoğlu. The former village of Ortaköy is within Beşiktaş and gives its name to the Ortaköy Mosque on the Bosporus, near the Bosporus Bridge . Lining both the European and Asian shores of the Bosporus are the historic yalıs , luxurious chalet mansions built by Ottoman aristocrats and elites as summer homes. Inland, north of Taksim Square is the Istanbul Central Business District ,
7296-762: The Bosporus. The settlers built an acropolis adjacent to the Golden Horn on the site of the early Thracian settlements, fueling the nascent city's economy. The city experienced a brief period of Persian rule at the turn of the 5th century BCE, but the Greeks recaptured it during the Greco-Persian Wars . Byzantium then continued as part of the Athenian League and its successor, the Second Athenian League , before gaining independence in 355 BCE. Long allied with
7424-525: The Eski Cami ( Old Mosque ) in1403 but was not completed until 1422. It was designed in what is usually thought of as the Bursa style. Even finer is the Üç Şerefli Mosque (Three-Balconied Mosque) which was built between 1437 and 1447 for Sultan Murad II. It was the largest mosque built in the Ottoman provinces before the conquest of Constantinople . Both these mosques are in the centre of Edirne. Further away from
7552-406: The European continent and at times the largest in the world. Constantinople is generally considered to be the center and the "cradle of Orthodox Christian civilization ". Constantinople began to decline continuously after the end of the reign of Basil II in 1025. The Fourth Crusade was diverted from its purpose in 1204, and the city was sacked and pillaged by the crusaders. They established
7680-566: The European railway network in the 1880s. Modern facilities, such as a water supply network, electricity, telephones, and trams, were gradually introduced to Constantinople over the following decades, although later than to other European cities. The modernization efforts were not enough to forestall the decline of the Ottoman Empire . With the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, the Ottoman Parliament , closed since 14 February 1878,
7808-584: The European side, and close to the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge , is Emirgan Park , which was known as the Kyparades ('Cypress Forest') during the Byzantine period. In the Ottoman period, it was first granted to Nişancı Feridun Ahmed Bey in the 16th century, before being granted by Sultan Murad IV to the Safavid emir Gûne Han in the 17th century, hence the name Emirgan . The 47-hectare (120-acre) park
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#17328515348857936-513: The European side, near the point of the peninsula ( Sarayburnu ), there was a Thracian settlement during the early 1st millennium BCE. Modern authors have linked it to the Thracian toponym Lygos , mentioned by Pliny the Elder as an earlier name for the site of Byzantium. The history of the city proper begins around 660 BCE, when Greek settlers from Megara established Byzantium on the European side of
8064-568: The Great effectively became the emperor of the whole of the Roman Empire in September 324. Two months later, he laid out the plans for a new, Christian city to replace Byzantium. As the eastern capital of the empire, the city was named Nova Roma ; most called it Constantinople, a name that persisted into the 20th century. On 11 May 330, Constantinople was proclaimed the capital of the Roman Empire, which
8192-423: The Narrator, and frustrated at the narrator when he withholds knowledge from him. The slave-master dynamic continues to deteriorate when the two realize they are able to switch identities. The power of knowledge is another major theme in The White Castle . The Narrator and Hoja are both seen as intellectuals. However, while neither can truly claim that they know more than the other at first, the narrator's knowledge
8320-423: The Ottoman period and was bound to, successively, the Rumeli Eyalet and Silistre Eyalet before becoming a provincial capital of the Eyalet of Edirne at the beginning of the 19th century; until 1878, the Eyalet of Adrianople comprised the sanjaks of Edirne, Tekfurdağı , Gelibolu , Filibe , and İslimye . After land reforms in 1867, the Eyalet of Adrianople became the Vilayet of Adrianople . Adrianople/Edirne
8448-406: The Ottoman period, Üsküdar (then Scutari) and Kadıköy were outside the scope of the urban area, serving as tranquil outposts with seaside yalıs and gardens. But in the second half of the 20th century, the Asian side experienced major urban growth; the late development of this part of the city led to better infrastructure and tidier urban planning when compared with most other residential areas in
8576-460: The Poles that they were attacking have obtained reinforcements from Hungary , Austria and the Cossacks . Fearing for his life, Hoja abandons the narrator and vanishes. The narrator goes into hiding as well. The book closes with the narrator, now in his seventies, talking about his life after the failure at Edirne. He is married, with children, and has done quite well financially while he worked as royal astrologer, though he resigned his post before
8704-488: The Republic's first President . A 1942 wealth tax assessed mainly on non-Muslims led to the transfer or liquidation of many businesses owned by religious minorities. The state-sanctioned 1955 Istanbul pogrom , in which hundreds of Greek men, women and children were attacked and raped and dozens murdered, led to the emigration of most of the remaining Greeks in Istanbul. Government persecution of Greeks and religious minorities, especially Christians , intensified through
8832-452: The Romans, Byzantium officially became a part of the Roman Empire in 73 CE. Byzantium's decision to side with the Roman usurper Pescennius Niger against Emperor Septimius Severus cost it dearly; by the time it surrendered at the end of 195 CE, two years of siege had left the city devastated. Five years later, Severus began to rebuild Byzantium, and the city regained—and, by some accounts, surpassed—its previous prosperity. Constantine
8960-411: The Sultan lived at a safe remove from the masses, and the wealthy and poor tended to live side by side, for the most part Istanbul was not zoned as modern cities are. Opulent houses shared the same streets and districts with tiny hovels. Those rich enough to have secluded country properties had a chance of escaping the periodic epidemics of sickness that blighted Istanbul. The Ottoman dynasty claimed
9088-415: The Turkish rendering of εἰς τὴν Πόλιν eis tḕn Pólin 'to the City', the appellation Greek speakers used since the 11th century to colloquially refer to the city. The city served as an imperial capital for almost 1600 years: during the Byzantine (330–1204), Latin (1204–1261), late Byzantine (1261–1453), and Ottoman (1453–1922) empires. The city grew in size and influence, eventually becoming
9216-686: The beginning of the 21st century, indicate that Istanbul's historic peninsula was settled as far back as the 6th millennium BCE. That early settlement, important in the spread of the Neolithic Revolution from the Near East to Europe, lasted for almost a millennium before being inundated by rising water levels. The first human settlement on the Asian side, the Fikirtepe mound, is from the Copper Age period, with artifacts dating from 5500 to 3500 BCE, On
9344-406: The centre, the complex of Sultan Beyazid II , built between 184 and 1488, and has a lovely semi-rural location. It is the most complete surviving mosque complex in Edirne, consisting of an imaret (soup kitchen), darüşşifa (hospital), timarhane (asylum), hospice, tıp medrese (medical school), tabhane (accommodation for dervishes) bakery and assorted depots. Some parts of the complex now house
9472-757: The churches of St. Demetrius and Sts. Cyril and Methodius. The last is served by the Resurrectionists , who also have a college with ninety pupils. In the suburb of Karaağaç, the Assumptionists have a parish and a seminary with fifty pupils. Besides the Eastern Catholic Bulgarians, the above statistics included the Greek Catholic missions of Malgara (now Malkara) and Daoudili (now Davuteli village in Malkara), with four priests and 200 faithful, because from
9600-420: The city , there are, in fact, more than 50 hills within the city limits. Istanbul's tallest hill, Aydos, is 537 meters (1,762 ft) high. The North Anatolian Fault , under the Sea of Marmara , is locked just south of the city. This fault caused the earthquakes in 1766 and 1894 , and a quake of at least magnitude 7.0 is very likely in the 21st century, though an earthquake with a magnitude above 7.5
9728-629: The city was deported to Syria and Mesopotamia during the Armenian genocide on 27–28 October 1915 and 17–18 February 1916. Their property and businesses were sold at low prices to Turkish Muslims. During the Greek War of Independence , the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), Balkan-Muslims fled to Edirne and became known as Muhacir . Adrianople was a sanjak centre during
9856-439: The city's climate , however. The city's summers are warm to hot and moderately dry, with an average daytime temperature of about 28 °C (82 °F), and less than 7 days of precipitation per month. Despite the generally acceptable temperature range, mid-summer in Istanbul is considered moderately uncomfortable, due to high dew points and relative humidity. Winters, meanwhile, are cool, quite rainy, and relatively snow-rich for
9984-642: The city's monuments were restored, and some, like the two Deesis mosaics in Hagia Sophia and Kariye, were created. Various economic and military policies instituted by Andronikos II Palaiologos , such as the reduction of military forces, weakened the empire and left it vulnerable to attack. In the mid-14th-century, the Ottoman Turks began a strategy of gradually taking smaller towns and cities, cutting off Constantinople's supply routes and strangling it slowly. On 29 May 1453, after an eight-week siege during which
10112-432: The city's transitional, Mediterranean-influenced humid temperate climate. Chestnut , oak , elm , linden , ash and locust comprise the most prominent temperate forest genera, while laurel , terebinth , Cercis siliquastrum , broom , red firethorn , and oak species such as Quercus cerris and Quercus coccifera are the most important species of Mediterranean and Submediterranean distribution. Apart from
10240-636: The city. Edirne has three historic covered bazaars : the Kavaflar Arastası (Cobblers Arcade), next to the Selimiye Mosque and constructed to bring in an income to support the külliye ; the Bedesten next to the Eski Cami which was supported by the income from the shops; and the Semiz Ali Paşa Çarşısı (Ali Pasha Bazaar, AKA Kapalı Çarşı), another work of Sinan dating back to 1568. The Kavaflar Arastası
10368-554: The city. Much of the Asian side of the Bosporus functions as a suburb of the economic and commercial centers in European Istanbul, accounting for a third of the city's population but only a quarter of its employment. However, Kozyatağı – Ataşehir , Altunizade , Kavacık and Ümraniye , all together having around 1.4 million sqm of class-A office space, are now important " edge cities ", i.e. corridors and nodes of business and shopping centers and of tall residential buildings. As
10496-595: The civil point of view belonged to the Bulgarian Vicariate . Later however, the Roman Catholic diocese was discontinued, and exists only in name as a titular metropolitan archbishopric , under the full name Hadrianopolis in Haemimonto to distinguish it from several other titular sees named Hadrianopolis. In 2018, archaeologists discovered remains of a Byzantine church. The church was built around 500 AD and it
10624-583: The counter-revolution attempt known as the 31 March incident . A series of wars in the early 20th century, such as the Italo-Turkish War (1911–1912) and the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), plagued the ailing empire's capital and resulted in the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état , which brought the regime of the Three Pashas . The Ottoman Empire joined World War I (1914–1918) on the side of the Central Powers and
10752-480: The dome to be higher than that of Hagia Sophia , the former Byzantine Orthodox Cathedral in Istanbul , but modern measuring methods seem to suggest otherwise. Named after Sultan Selim II (r. 1566–1574) who commissioned it but did not live to see its completion, the mosque is decorated with Turkish marble and magnificent İznik tiles. It is the centre of a considerable complex of contemporary buildings. Work started on
10880-419: The expense of historical buildings. The overall population of Istanbul began to rapidly increase in the 1970s, as people from Anatolia migrated to the city to find employment in the many new factories that were built on the outskirts of the sprawling metropolis. This sudden, sharp rise in the city's population caused a large demand for housing, and many previously outlying villages and forests became engulfed into
11008-452: The failure to modernize, of the Ottoman Empire is hinted at throughout the story, before becoming a major symbol during the climax. The failure of The Ottoman Empire, and its modern counterparts, such as Turkey, to modernize along with its rivals is a common conflict and theme throughout Pamuk's work. The failure of the Ottomans to capture Dobbio is described by the narrator as their failure to attain something pure, perfect. Ambiguity of self
11136-664: The government was willing to give up the city created a scandal for the Ottoman government in Constantinople (as Adrianople was a former capital of the Empire), leading to the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état led by the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) under Enver Pasha . Although it was victorious in the coup, the CUP was unable to stop the Bulgarians from capturing the city after fighting resumed in
11264-576: The grounds outside can be seen an example of the sort of dolmen to be seen at nearby Lalapaşa. In the town centre stand the Rüstem Pasha (1560–61) and Ekmekcioğlu Ahmed Pasha caravanserais , designed to accommodate travellers - in the case of the Rüstem Pasha by Mimar Sinan - in the 16th century. The Rüstem Pasha Caravanserai now serves as the Kervansaray Hotel. The Balkan Wars Memorial Cemetery
11392-412: The headquarters of numerous Turkish companies, accounting for more than thirty percent of the country's economy . The first known name of the city is Byzantium ( Ancient Greek : Βυζάντιον , Byzántion ), the name given to it at its foundation by Megarian colonists around 657 BCE. Megarian colonists claimed a direct line back to the founders of the city, Byzas, the son of the god Poseidon and
11520-402: The intrigue got him killed. He has accepted that travelers that he sees are not coming to see him. He ponders what became of ‘Him’, who'd escaped to Italy. A traveling author, Evliya Chelebi, seeks him out, hoping to learn about Italy, as he'd once owned an Italian slave. The narrator agrees, and the two men share stories over the course of two weeks, before departing. The narrator tells us that it
11648-460: The last Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed VI , was declared persona non grata . Leaving aboard the British warship HMS Malaya on 17 November 1922, he went into exile and died in Sanremo , Italy, on 16 May 1926. The Treaty of Lausanne was signed on 24 July 1923, and the occupation of Constantinople ended with the departure of the last forces of the Allies from the city on 4 October 1923. Turkish forces of
11776-450: The last Roman emperor, Constantine XI , was killed, Sultan Mehmed II "the Conqueror" captured Constantinople . Sultan Mehmed declared Constantinople the new capital of the Ottoman Empire . Hours after the fall of the city, the sultan rode to the Hagia Sophia and summoned an imam to proclaim the shahada , converting the grand cathedral into an imperial mosque due to the city's refusal to surrender peacefully. Mehmed declared himself as
11904-400: The manuscript. The preface ends with Faruk noting that the publisher chose the title of the book, and a remark on the nature of modern readers will try to connect the dedication to his sister to the tale that follows. (See metafiction ). The story proper begins with an unnamed narrator being captured by the Turkish fleet while sailing from Venice to Naples. When the captain hesitates, the ship
12032-540: The mosque, visited the young wife-to-be of his vizier, Damad Ibrahim Pasha and was shown around the Selimiye Mosque. Adrianople was briefly occupied by imperial Russian troops in 1829 during the Greek War of Independence and in 1878 during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 . The city suffered a fire in 1905. At that time it had about 80,000 inhabitants, of whom 30,000 were Turks; 22,000 Greeks; 10,000 Bulgarians; 4,000 Armenians; 12,000 Jews; and 2,000 more citizens of unclassified ethnic/religious backgrounds. Adrianople
12160-546: The most frequently contested spot on earth. The city was reestablished by the Roman Emperor Hadrian on the site of Orestias (named after its mythological founder Orestes ), which was itself built on a previous Thracian settlement known as Uskadama , Uskudama , Uskodama or Uscudama . Hadrian developed it, adorned it with monuments, and changed its name to Hadrianopolis (which would later be pronounced Adrianopolis and Anglicised as Adrianople ). Licinius
12288-456: The narrator is able to do so, Hoja is unable to, as he is unable to find any flaws within himself. As the narrator continues to write about his past, Hoja becomes increasingly malicious and taunts the narrator over his past misdeeds, and claims that while he cannot admit his faults, because the narrator can, Hoja can claim superiority over him. When the plague breaks out, he uses the narrator's fear of it to torment him further. When it appears that
12416-413: The narrator is the subject to Hoja's cruelty, ambitions, and inquiries. Using the narrator's knowledge of astronomy, as well as tales from Italy, he's able to entertain the young sultan. Hoja reveals his goal of gaining the sultan's favor in order to obtain the position as court astrologer. As Hoja becomes interested in the narrator's past, the two try to swap stories of “why” they are the way they are. While
12544-530: The natural flora, Platanus orentalis , horse chestnut , cypress and stone pine make up the introduced species that got acclimatized to Istanbul. In a study that examined urban flora in Kartal , a total of 576 plant taxa were recorded; of those 477 were natural and 99 were exotic and cultivated. The most prominent native taxa were in the Asteraceae family (50 species), while the most diverse exotic plant family
12672-617: The new Kayser-i Rûm , the Ottoman Turkish equivalent of the Caesar of Rome, and the Ottoman state was reorganized into an empire. Following the capture of Constantinople, Mehmed II immediately set out to revitalize the city. Cognizant that revitalization would fail without the repopulation of the city, Mehmed II welcomed everyone–foreigners, criminals, and runaways– showing extraordinary openness and willingness to incorporate outsiders that came to define Ottoman political culture. He also invited people from all over Europe to his capital, creating
12800-502: The nymph Ceroëssa. Modern excavations have raised the possibility that the name Byzantium might reflect the sites of native Thracian settlements that preceded the fully-fledged town. Constantinople comes from the Latin name Constantinus , after Constantine the Great , the Roman emperor who refounded the city in 324 CE. Constantinople remained the most common name for the city in the West until
12928-537: The one in Tarlabaşı ; some of these projects, like the one in Sulukule , have faced criticism. The Turkish government also has ambitious plans for an expansion of the city west and northwards on the European side in conjunction with the new Istanbul Airport , opened in 2019; the new parts of the city will include four different settlements with specified urban functions, housing 1.5 million people. Istanbul does not have
13056-413: The plague has killed him, the narrator runs away. Hoja, still alive, reclaims him. Hoja continues trying to learn about the narrator's past. After the plague subsides, Hoja obtains the post of imperial astrologer. Competing over the influence of the sultan's mother and his youthful impatience, he sets out to create a great weapon that will prove his brilliance, and that of the Ottoman Empire's. They work on
13184-453: The seat of Ottoman power until 1453, when Mehmed II took Constantinople (present-day Istanbul ) and moved the capital there. The importance of Edirne to the early Ottomans explains the plethora of early Ottoman mosques , medreses and other monuments that have survived until today although the Eski Sarayı (Old Palace) was largely destroyed, leaving only relatively slight remains. Also, there
13312-562: The small Fatih Bridge over the Tunca river. The splendid appearance of the palace in the late 1460s when it glistened with gold, silver and marble was described by Kritovoulos of İmbros in his History of Mehmed the Conqueror. Dating back to 1909, the Grand Synagogue of Edirne was restored and re-opened in March 2015. A Roman Catholic and two Bulgarian Orthodox churches are also to be found in
13440-532: The spring. Despite relentless pressure from the Great Powers, the Ottoman empire never officially ceded the city to Bulgaria. Edirne was swiftly reconquered by the Ottomans during the Second Balkan War under the leadership of Enver Pasha (who proclaimed himself the "second conqueror of Adrianople" after Murad I ) following the collapse of the Bulgarian army in the region. The entire Armenian population of
13568-507: The status of caliphate in 1517, with Constantinople remaining the capital of this last caliphate for four centuries. Suleiman the Magnificent 's reign from 1520 to 1566 was a period of especially great artistic and architectural achievement; chief architect Mimar Sinan designed several iconic buildings in the city, while Ottoman arts of ceramics , stained glass , calligraphy , and miniature flourished. The population of Constantinople
13696-425: The sultan, he sends the narrator in his guise. There is also ambiguity in the final chapter of the book. The unreliable narrator , many years later, claims that he was inspired to write the story while exchanging stories with a traveler. Whether or not the story actually took place, and if it did, whether or not the narrator was the unnamed slave or Hoja is left unknown. Neither Hoja nor the narrator are mentioned, only
13824-505: The surrounding park. The Kırkpınar oil-wrestling tournament is held every year in late June or early July. Kakava , an international festival celebrated by the Romani people in Turkey is held on 5–6 May each year. Bocuk Gecesi is a festival of Balkan origin celebrated in mid-January on what is expected to be the coldest day of the year. It is a sort of Turkish take on Halloween. Edirne's economy largely depends on agriculture. 73% of
13952-511: The transcript, fascinated by its presence in such a place. During his breaks from work, he begins trying to find a source for the tale, hoping to authenticate its events and author. He is able to connect the author to Italy, but is unable to make any further progress. An acquaintance tells him that manuscripts such as the one he found could be found throughout the many old, wooden houses of Istanbul, mistaken for ancient Korans, and left venerated and unread. With some encouragement, he decides to publish
14080-404: The waters of Istanbul has dwindled in the recent decades. From around 60 different fish species recorded in the 1970s only 20 of them still survive in the Bosporus. Common bottlenose dolphin (Turkish: afalina ), short-beaked common dolphin (Turkish: tırtak ) and harbor porpoise (Turkish: mutur ) make up the marine mammals presently found in the Bosporus and surrounding waters, though since
14208-434: The weapon for the next six years. During this time, the narrator is shocked at how much Hoja knows about his past, and his mannerisms, and can imitate him perfectly. The narrator has nightmares about his loss of identity. The weapon is completed in time for a siege on Edirne , with the goal of a taking the titular white castle, the castle Doppio. The narrator learns from a distance that the weapon has not only failed, but that
14336-555: The wild land mammals Istanbul hosts a sizeable stray animal population. The presence of feral cats in Istanbul ( Turkish : sokak kedisi ) is noted to be very prevalent, with estimates ranging from a hundred thousand to over a million stray cats. The feral cats in the city have gained widespread media and public attention and are considered to be symbols of the city. Rose-ringed parakeet colonies are present in urban areas, similar to other European cities as feral parrots , and considered as invasive species . Air pollution in Turkey
14464-504: The working population work in agriculture, fishing, forests and hunting. The lowlands are productive. Corn, sugar beets and sunflowers are the leading crops. Melons, watermelons, rice, tomatoes, eggplants and viniculture are important. The through highway that connects Europe to Istanbul , Anatolia and the Middle East passes through Edirne. Industry is developing. Agriculture-based industries (agro-industries) are especially important for
14592-531: The world. Gradually Hoja and the narrator are introduced to the Sultan , for whom they eventually design an enormous iron weapon. The slave is told to instruct the master in Western science and technology, from medicine to astronomy. But Hoja wonders why he and his slave are the persons they are and whether given knowledge of each other's most intimate secrets, they could actually exchange identities. The story begins with
14720-443: Was Rosaceae (16 species). Turkish Straits and Sea of Marmara play a vital role for migrating fish and other marine animals between Mediterranean, Marmara and Black Sea. Bosporus hosts pelagic , demersal and semipelagic fish species and more than 130 different taxa have been documented in the strait. Bluefish , bonito , sea bass , horse mackerel and anchovies compose the economically important species. Fish diversity in
14848-679: Was defeated here by Constantine I in 324, and Emperor Valens was killed by the Goths here during the Battle of Adrianople in 378. In 813, the city was temporarily seized by Khan Krum of Bulgaria who moved its inhabitants to the Bulgarian lands north of the Danube . During the period of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the Crusaders were defeated by the Bulgarian Emperor Kaloyan at
14976-455: Was 570,000 by the end of the 18th century. A period of rebellion at the start of the 19th century led to the rise of the progressive Sultan Mahmud II and eventually to the Tanzimat period, which produced political reforms and allowed new technology to be introduced to the city. Bridges across the Golden Horn were constructed during this period, and Constantinople was connected to the rest of
15104-506: Was a vital fortress defending Constantinople and Eastern Thrace during the Balkan Wars of 1912–13. It was briefly occupied by the Bulgarians in 1913, following the Siege of Adrianople . The Great Powers – Britain, Italy, France and Russia – attempted to coerce the Ottoman Empire into ceding Adrianople to Bulgaria during the temporary winter truce of the First Balkan War . The belief that
15232-644: Was an early Byzantine period building. Edirne has a borderline humid subtropical ( Cfa ) and hot-summer Mediterranean climate ( Csa ) in the Köppen climate classification , and a temperate oceanic climate ( Do ) in the Trewartha climate classification . Edirne has hot, moderately dry summers and chilly, wet and often snowy winters. Highest recorded temperature:44.1 °C (111.4 °F) on 25 July 2007 Lowest recorded temperature:−19.5 °C (−3.1 °F) on 14 January 1954 Edirne consists of 24 quarters: Edirne
15360-580: Was ceded to Greece by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, but recaptured and annexed by Turkey after the Greek defeat at the end of the Greco-Turkish War , also known as the Western Front of the larger Turkish War of Independence , in 1922. Under the Greek administration, Edirne (officially known as Adrianople) was the capital of the Adrianople Prefecture . From 1934 onwards Edirne was the seat of
15488-539: Was elected as the new mayor of the city of Edirne, succeeding Recep Gürkan , who had been mayor for 10 years and did not stand for re-election. The city was founded and named after the Roman emperor Hadrian as Hadrianopolis ( Adrianople in English, / ˌ eɪ d r i ə ˈ n oʊ p əl / ; Ἁδριανούπολις in Greek ) on the site of the Greek city of Orestias , which was itself founded on an earlier Thracian settlement named Uskudama. The Ottoman name Edrine (ادرنه)
15616-458: Was founded as Byzantium in the 7th century BCE by Greek settlers from Megara . In 330 CE, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great made it his imperial capital, renaming it first as New Rome ( Ancient Greek : Νέα Ῥώμη Nea Rhomē ; Latin : Nova Roma ) and then finally as Constantinople ( Constantinopolis ) after himself. In 1930, the city's name was officially changed to Istanbul,
15744-519: Was in 1730 during the reign of Sultan Mahmud I . In modern Turkish , the name is written as İstanbul , with a dotted İ, as the Turkish alphabet distinguishes between a dotted and dotless I . In English, the stress is on the first or last syllable, but in Turkish it is on the second syllable. A person from the city is an İstanbullu (plural İstanbullular ); Istanbulite is used in English. Neolithic artifacts, uncovered by archeologists at
15872-493: Was later owned by Khedive Isma'il Pasha of Ottoman Egypt in the 19th century. Emirgan Park is known for its diversity of plants and an annual tulip festival is held there since 2005. The AKP government's decision to replace Taksim Gezi Park with a replica of the Ottoman era Taksim Military Barracks (which was transformed into the Taksim Stadium in 1921, before being demolished in 1940 for building Gezi Park) sparked
16000-403: Was later permanently divided between the two sons of Theodosius I upon his death on 17 January 395, when the city became the capital of the empire; during the following millennium of Roman history the state is commonly referred to as the "Byzantine Empire". The establishment of Constantinople was one of Constantine's most lasting accomplishments, shifting Roman power eastward as the city became
16128-452: Was named after Mehmed II ( Turkish : Fatih Sultan Mehmed ), corresponds to what was the whole of Constantinople until the Ottoman conquest; today it is the capital district and called the historic peninsula of Istanbul on the southern shore of the Golden Horn , across the medieval Genoese citadel of Galata on the northern shore. The Genoese fortifications in Galata were largely demolished in
16256-477: Was reopened 30 years later on 23 July 1908, which marked the beginning of the Second Constitutional Era . The civil strife and political uncertainties in the Ottoman Empire during the months after the revolution encouraged Austria-Hungary to annex Bosnia and Bulgaria to declare its independence in a jointly coordinated move on 5 October 1908. Sultan Abdul Hamid II was deposed in 1909, following
16384-405: Was ultimately defeated. The deportation of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915 was among the major events which marked the start of the Armenian genocide during WWI. Due to Ottoman and Turkish policies of Turkification and ethnic cleansing , the city's Christian population declined from 450,000 to 240,000 between 1914 and 1927. The Armistice of Mudros was signed on 30 October 1918 and
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