TURKEY: Arts, Culture & Music

First impressions of Turkey reveal a society much more European than one expects, but echoes of a strong and proud heritage shine through in the arts, culture, music, and folklore. Tourists flock to those "Turkish Nights" shows expecting to cram in a few hours' worth of "authentic" folklore. But while a belly dancer in a glittery harem hat may seem the epitome of exoticism, this ritual crowd-pleasure is anything but a Turkish invention.

Turkish culture developed by absorbing the artistic traditions of conquered lands, so more than any one defining style, Turkish art is characterized by layers and layers of civilizations. From the time the Turkish tribes spread through Anatolia in the 11th century until the end of the Ottoman Empire, the Turks had incorporated decorative and architectural styles from the Sassanids (a pre-Islamic Persian dynasty), the Romans, the early Christians, the Byzantines, and Renaissance-era Europeans.

Nasrettin Hodja, a Turkish Treasure

Nasrettin Hodja is a folk hero of larger-than-life dimensions -- not only for images that depict him as a sizable man atop an unfortunate donkey, but for his humorous and positive outlook on life that has touched the collective funny bone of the nation. Born sometime during the 13th century, this irrepressible humorist and prankster is still Turkey's most popular story character. Turks continue to add to his ostensible repertoire by creating and updating stories in which he is the protagonist. Some of the anecdotes don't translate across cultures; nevertheless, UNESCO proclaimed 1996 the year of Nasrettin Hodja, for his universal commentary on human nature and weakness.

Sample tale: One day Hodja went to a hamam, but he was dressed poorly, and the attendants didn't pay him much attention. They gave him a scrap of soap, a rag for a loincloth, and a worn-out towel. When Hodja left, he gave each of the two attendants a gold coin. Considering the poor service, the two attendants were surprised. They wondered if treating him better might have gotten them an even larger tip. So when Hodja showed up the next week, they treated him like royalty -- massaged and perfumed him, gave him embroidered towels and a silk loincloth. As Hodja left the bath he handed each attendant the smallest copper coin possible. "This," said Hodja, "is for the last visit. The gold coins were for today."

Nasrettin Hodja's tomb is located in Aksehir, near Konya. It is fronted by a great padlocked gate with no walls -- Hodja always did get the last laugh.

Language

Turkish is the official language of Turkey, uniting not just its citizens, but a diaspora of Turkish-speaking peoples throughout Asia. The Turkish language originated in the highlands of the Altay Mountains of Central Asia and is heavily spoken in lands stretching from Turkey to China, including Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Özbekistan, Turkistan, Kazakistan, Kirgizistan, Tajikistan, and Northern Cyprus. At the height of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman language was a mélange of outside influences heavily infused with Arabic, the language of religion and law; Persian, the language of art and diplomacy; and French, well, just because it's French. Pure Turkish, spoken by the lower classes and the illiterate, was considered vulgar and its usage was discouraged.

Atatürk was convinced that pride in one's language was critical in instilling a sense of nationalism in a people, and one of his landmark reforms was the purging of foreign influences from the Turkish language and the introduction of the Latin alphabet. Words of Arabic origin still maintain a tremendous presence in daily usage, especially concerning religious matters, and knowledge of some foreign languages will nevertheless come in handy in places like the kuaför (coiffeur), the asensör (elevator, in French), or the likör (liquor) store. English is slowly creeping into the language, particularly in the area of technology, with words like telefon, Internet, and the less high-tech seks.

Turkish is an agglutinative language, which means that words (and sometimes whole sentences!) get formed by tacking stuff on to the root. Each suffix has some grammatical function but also provides for a discreet amount of flexibility in shades of meaning. To make matters worse, the suffix must follow rules of spelling and phonetics, so that there are eight ways of expressing the word "of."

In 1924, when Atatürk introduced the mandatory use of the Latin alphabet, Turkish became a phonetic language, and is pronounced exactly as it is written, making it relatively easy to read. Is it hard to learn? Compared to what? Will a novice's pronunciation be any worse than an American's attempt at getting his lips around French? Probably not. But Turks are so uncommonly adept at languages that in all likelihood your contact with Turkish will be kept to a minimum. In most major tourist areas and many secondary ones, the local merchant population speaks English, along with French, German, Spanish, Italian, Danish, and even Russian.

Even so, it's absolutely the minimum of courtesy to put yourself out there in an attempt to communicate a few words in the native land of the country you are visiting, and knowing a few basics will help you feel less isolated and helpless.

Local Lingo -- Walking through a bazaar or past a restaurant entrance may elicit a "buyurun" or "buyurun efendem," both of which are expressions of courtesy. Buyurun has no English equivalent; it's used as an invitation to "Please feel free" (to look, to come in), or as a "You're welcome," much like the Italian prego. Efendem is a highly polite gender-neutral form of address that also means "Pardon?"

Music

Much like the art, architecture, and even food of Turkey, Turkish music blends a wide range of styles and cultures, from Anatolian troubadours on horseback bringing messages of love, to the commercially successful tunes of arabesque at the top of the charts. Different combinations of styles and genres have given rise to countless new sounds that despite being modern still sound unfamiliar to a Western ear untrained in Eastern modes. An irregular meter called aksak, typical to Turkish folk music that originated on the Asian steppes, may sound strange to ears trained on the regular cadences of double, triple, and 4/4 time.

This style was kept alive by lovelorn troubadours singing the poetic and humanistic words of folk icons like Yunus Emre or Pir Sultan; only recently was the music written down. Folk music endures in the rural villages of Turkey, coming to life for wedding celebrations, a circumcision ceremony, or as an amalgam in a nightly folkloric show.

Classical Turkish music began as the music of the Ottoman court, and in an empire composed of a patchwork of cultures, the top composers were Greeks, Armenians, and Jews. Turkish classical music has its origins in the Persian and Arabic traditions, and eventually, the music of the Mevlevi became a major source as well.

Military music had an important role in the successes of the Ottoman Empire, with its thunderous use of percussion aimed at demoralizing an enemy before battle. The Janissary band influenced 18th- and 19th-century European music, in alla turca movements written by Mozart and Beethoven, and operas written by Lully and Handel.

The "Europeanization" of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century brought many foreign musicians to the court, including Giusseppe Donizetti, brother of the more famous Gaetano Donizetti, who was given the position of head of the Imperial Band in 1831.

Pop music took hold of Turkey in the 1950s and '60s, much as it swept the Western world. But pop in Turkey took on a different form, first with the popularity of the tango in the 1950s, and then with the re-recording of Western favorites using Turkish lyrics. It wasn't long before Turkish musicians began composing their own forms of pop. In the 1970s, as the rural population began to migrate to the cities in search of their fortunes, a widely disparaged form of music called arabesque swept the nation off its feet, with the sounds of unrequited love, sentimentality, and even fatalism. Arabesque was a fusion of the new pop, folk, and traditional music that developed into a new and highly commercial style; today, these both exotic and catchy phrases blare from every taxicab, long-distance bus, and discotheque.

Art

Whereas Byzantine art featured elaborate religious interiors and the use of luxury materials like gold and silver, Islamic hadith frowned on the use of luxury items in its mosques, favoring instead unpretentious items like ceramics, woodcarvings, and inlay. Additionally, because of the Islamic prohibition against the representation of religious images of living creatures, Turkish decorative arts were channeled into alternative features like flowers, geometric forms, and Arabic script.

The Selçuks introduced the use of glazed bricks and tiles in the decoration of their mosques, and by the 16th century, the Ottomans had developed important centers of ceramic production at Iznik and Kütahya. Ottoman tiles incorporated a new style of foliage motifs, and used turquoises, blues, greens, and whites as the dominant colors. Spectacular uses of tile can be seen all over the country, in mosques, palaces, hamams (Turkish baths), and even private homes.

Woodworking and mother-of-pearl or ivory inlay were primarily used in the decoration of the minbar (pulpit), but this craft extended to the creation of Koran holders, cradles, royal thrones, and even musical instruments.

Calligraphy is intimately related to the Islamic faith and dates back to the earliest surviving Koran manuscripts. Over the centuries, different styles of calligraphy emerged, with one of the basic requirements being that the text is legible. The Selçuk period brought about a more cursive graceful script, while the earlier Arabic script was more suited to stone carving. The ornamentation of holy manuscripts became an art in itself, as seen in pages that are gilded with gold leaf or sprinkled with gold dust, and in script whose diacritical marks are accented with red ink.

Besides the use of calligraphy in religious manuscripts, under the Ottomans the application of an imperial seal or tugra (pronounced too-rah) on all official edicts became customary. The earliest example of a tugra can be traced back to Orhan Gazi on a 1324 endowment deed, with each successive sultan creating his own distinct and personal representation. Today these seals are significant works of art, bearing price tags that stretch into the hundred- or even thousand-dollar ranges.

The art of marbled paper is another traditional Anatolian art that flourished under the Ottomans. Known as ebru, the art of marbling calls for natural dyes and materials, and a precise hand to create a collection of one-of-a-kind designs.

The art of carpet weaving has a complex heritage that goes back for thousands and thousands of years based on the necessity of a nomadic existence. As tribes migrated and integrated, designs and symbols crossed over borders as well. Carpet designs parallel those of the other artistic media, with geometric patterns a common feature of the 13th century. Turkish carpets became one of the more coveted trappings of status in Europe, appearing in the backgrounds of many a Renaissance artist such as Giovanni Bellini and Ghirlandaio. But for the traditionally nomadic Turks, their carpets had more practical functions: warmth and cleanliness. Wool carpets provided warmth for the harsh winters, while kilims, also placed on the ground, provided coverings for cushions in a sark- (Oriental-) style setting that could later be used to transport the contents of the tent. Prayer rugs, identifiable by a deliberate lack of symmetry (the "arrow" will always be lain in the direction of Mecca) continue to be one of the more beautiful categories of traditional Turkish rugs.

Architecture

The architectural and decorative arts of Turkey are closely linked to the Islamic faith, which gave major importance to mosques, medreses (theological schools), and mausoleums. Almost all mosques follow the plan of Mohammed's house, which was composed of an enclosed courtyard surrounded by huts, with a building at one end for prayer and an arcade to provide shade. Whereas in Mohammed's time the call to prayer was sung from the rooftops, minarets were added later for convenience and style.

The main objective reflected in Selçuk architecture was the proliferation of the purist Sunni orthodoxy, which was achieved by concentrating its efforts on the construction of medreses and other public works such as mosques and baths. To provide a means of safe passage for trade as well as the means for communication from one end of the empire to another, the Selçuks built a network of fortified caravansaries. Although Rum Selçuk architecture at first reflected the influences of the Iranian Selçuks, over time they developed a distinct style, incorporating features like pointed arches from the Crusaders and lofty arched spaces from Christian Armenians and Syrians employed under the sultan. They also developed the squinch, a triangular architectural device that allowed the placement of a circular dome atop a square base, laying the groundwork of what was later to become an outstanding feature of Ottoman mosque architecture. The Selçuks also combined traditional Arabesque styles with indigenous Anatolian decorative motifs that literally flowered into a unique style of geometric architectural ornamentation.

A defining feature of Ottoman architecture became the dome, a form that expanded on earlier Turkish architecture but was later haunted by the feat of superior engineering accomplished in the soaring dome of the Ayasofya. As the Turks conquered Christian lands and churches were converted into mosques, traditionally Byzantine ideas were crossing cultural barriers and finding their way into the Selçuk and Ottoman vocabulary.

Ottoman architecture reached its zenith in the 16th century under Süleyman the Magnificent, in the expert hands of his master builder, Sinan. In the service of the sultan, Sinan built no less than 355 buildings and complexes throughout the empire, including the Süleymaniye, whose grand and cascading series of domes has become not only a defining feature of the Istanbul skyline but a pinnacle in Ottoman architecture. (Sinan succeeded in surpassing the Ayasofya with the Selimiye in Edirne, a destination not covered in this guide.)