Thursday, December 21, 2006
Son Günlerim Türkiye'de
Alright, I'm about to leave on a bus for Istanbul and I've found time to make one last blog entry before getting back to the states. I'll make a full blog entry from the US reflecting more on my time here as a whole later next week. Last weekend was spent up in the Black Sea town of Amasra. This completes one of my travel objectives to visit every sea that touches Turkey. The town itself is very quite, as it is way out of tourist season. The scenery there is beautiful with lots of cool cliffs and small islands. There is something really cool about knowing there is only a thousand miles of water between you and the Crimea. To think at one time this gigantic body of water was essentially and Ottoman lake! Aside from the scenery, smells and sounds, there isn't a ton to do in Amasra besides eat fish and shop for trinkets. The fish there is quite good whether it is Hamsi (tiny sardine like fish) Mezgit (slightly larger fish) or the famous Istavrit (mackerel).
The other large event of the past week has been the passing of one of my teachers the great Stanford Shaw. He died on Friday after suffering a brain aneurysm a few days earlier, he was 83. It came as a shock to a lot of people in this community, surely this was a man of great importance to Ottoman history. He was the first outsider to be able to access the Ottoman archives, the founder of the International Journal of Middle East Studies, and a fantastic teacher at UCLA, Harvard and most recently Bilkent. What surprised us most though was that this man did not let age stop him from working. Every morning before our 8.40 class he would get up at 3 and work on his still unfinished book on the Turkish War of Liberation and the early years of the republic. As a teacher and friend he was incredibly approachable, and lectured as if he were some sort of walking dictionary. He was very successful at relating the life of the Ottoman Empire to his Turkish students, often posing such questions as "Do you know what the old name of Istiklal Caddessi is?". Most certainly his work must be continued and taken as a model for the rising class of Turkish historians.
Well, its just about time for me to get going. I'm staying one night in Istanbul and getting on the 4.30 flight tomorrow to Heathrow, from where I will transfer to New York. I really do miss all of you and hope to share some cool stories and pictures.
Noel Kutlu Olsun (Merry Christmas)
Mutlu Yıllar (Happy New Year)
The other large event of the past week has been the passing of one of my teachers the great Stanford Shaw. He died on Friday after suffering a brain aneurysm a few days earlier, he was 83. It came as a shock to a lot of people in this community, surely this was a man of great importance to Ottoman history. He was the first outsider to be able to access the Ottoman archives, the founder of the International Journal of Middle East Studies, and a fantastic teacher at UCLA, Harvard and most recently Bilkent. What surprised us most though was that this man did not let age stop him from working. Every morning before our 8.40 class he would get up at 3 and work on his still unfinished book on the Turkish War of Liberation and the early years of the republic. As a teacher and friend he was incredibly approachable, and lectured as if he were some sort of walking dictionary. He was very successful at relating the life of the Ottoman Empire to his Turkish students, often posing such questions as "Do you know what the old name of Istiklal Caddessi is?". Most certainly his work must be continued and taken as a model for the rising class of Turkish historians.
Well, its just about time for me to get going. I'm staying one night in Istanbul and getting on the 4.30 flight tomorrow to Heathrow, from where I will transfer to New York. I really do miss all of you and hope to share some cool stories and pictures.
Noel Kutlu Olsun (Merry Christmas)
Mutlu Yıllar (Happy New Year)
