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fragrant with the wine of merciful being and every person takes that wine which is in accord with his own evolution.
121
In Hafiz’s concept, everyone receives certain wine based on their capability therefore a wine of one person is not a wine for another. The state of drunkenness
as a result of wine drinking symbolizes the lovers’ journey toward union with the Divine. It is said the more the lovers drink from the wine of love the closer they
draw to the Beloved.
122
In similar string, raki in Pamuk’s three novels in question
also reveals the journey to the Beloved that becomes nearer as the characters have more raki. Ka will be able to receive his muse and his longing for union with God
are intensified when he drinks his raki. In Kemal’s case, the more raki he drinks
with Füsun’s father the longer he will stay in Füsun’s house and enjoy the time he spends near his Beloved.
3. Mirror as the Symbol of Unity
Mirror has become one of the images in Sufi tradition that constantly recurring in Sufi mystical poems, range from Attar d. 1220 to Rumi d.1273.
123
In Islamic culture, mirror is recognized as a symbolism that one Muslim has to look himself of another Muslim. The prophet has said that one Muslim is the
mirror to another Muslim. Each Muslim will find in the other Muslims, the inspiration to walk on the mystic path. Thus, the image of mirror will reflect the
121
Hafiz, The Green Sea of Heaven, trans. Elizbeth T Gray. Jr Oregon: White Cloud Press, 1995, 25.
122
Ibid, 25.
123
There are many versions concerning the day of Attar and Rumi’s demise. To this particular issue, this study refers to Rumi, The Masnavi. Book One, Trans. Jawid Mojaddedi Oxford: Oxford
UP, 2008: xiv-xv.
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beauty of the Beloved and the lovers strive to be united with the Beloved as described by Hoopoe
124
“A lover is one whom all thought of the Self have died.
125
Having lost its own identity, it has become more He than He himself, and thus constitutes the only gift which the lover can offer to the Beloved.
126
The Black Book that recounts Galip’s frantic search for Rüya by becoming
Celâl is an allusion of the story of Rumi when he lost Shams.
127
And the only possible way for Galip to discover Celâl who happens to be his childhood hero is
to study his columns. In doing so, Galip will secure Celâl’s daily columns and
garden of memory. Celâl’s missing is caused by his lost memory that leads him to his inability to write his columns. When Galip imitates Celâl and answers a phone
call from Celâl’s devoted reader, he is advised that in order to remember Celâl’s past and bring back all Celâl’s memory is by studying Celâl’s old column.
”You’ve either lost or destroyed your memory, or perhaps you don’t want to
124
Hoopoe hudhud once was the go between Solomon and the queen Sheba. Hoopoe leads the birds’ journey to meet their king, simurgh that resides in mount Kaf. The story about this soul-
birds’ quest is beautifully written in one of the best Sufi poems entitled Mantiq Ut-tair The Conference of the Birds written by Attar. See Attar, The Conference of the Birds, trans. Afham
Darbandi Dick Davis London: Penguin 1984.
125
Attar, The Conference of the Birds, trans. Afham DarbandiDick Davis London: Penguin 1984, 32.
126
Rumi Masnavi I, 3192.
127
Shamsodin from Tabriz or Shams i- Tabriz, is an enigmatic figure who helped to lead Rumi to a higher level of Sufi mysticism. The period of times Rumi spent with Shams provoked jealousy
among Rumi’s disciples who eventually drove Shams away from Rumi. The tale says that Shams was killed by Rumi’s disciples, but only limited evidence found to prove this claim. In Rumi’s
point of view, Shams was the most complete manifestation of God. Rumi wrote his gazals, or lyrical poems upon Shams’ disappearance and named it Divan e- Shams or ‘The Collection of
Shams’ as his acknowledgement of Shams who had provided him inspirations to write poetry. See Rumi, The Masnavi Book One, trans. Jawid Mojaddedi Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004:
xvi-xvii.
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remember. Take a look at your old columns; read a few of them while you’re at it-
then you’ll remember” BB, 238. This resemblance and being complete
in other’s image is firstly appeared in Pamuk’s obsessive novel on double identity The White Castle. The first time the
captured Venetian sees Hoja he feels like he looks at mirror and discovers his self there. Tangled with a subservient bond, the master Hoja- Venetian slave
relationship exposes how proximity and physiological likeness dissolve the Self into the Other: “I began to believe”, as the Venetian says “that my personality had
split itself off from me and united with Hoja’s, and vice versa” Pamuk, White 115. After many years of a distinctly odd slavery, the Venetian is more than
willing to trade his place in Venezia and live with Hoja because, as he says “ I
knew that if I should return to Venice I would not be able to pick up my life where I had left it” Pamuk White 102. Hoja, on the other hand being worn- out of the
provinciality of the Ottoman Istanbul, seems to be delighted in the opportunity to secure that life.
The White Castle complicates an endless of the Self- Other binary opposition as Hoja is both the
Venetian’s master and his novice at the same time. He is also master twice over: in his native Istanbul and in his Venetian slave
’s native city. The Venetian, for his part, is a slave- teacher in Istanbul and later
because of their uncanny resemblance, he has to remain as “master” to replace
Hoja who escape to his dream life in the Western world- as [Hoja] ”wanted to
establish relations with ‘their’ men of science…he wanted to correspond with men of science in Venice, Flanders, whatever land occurred to him at that moment”
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Pamuk White 121. Eventually the nameless master and his slave swap their identities in a seamless transition: the searcher and the object of his search
changes places.
128
Each character in these works shows that in order to be united with their beloved they live the way their beloved’s live and forget all about their own
attributes. In his predicament for searching Celâl and Rüya, Galip discovers that Celâl had bought his childhood home to use as library and museum. Galip starts to
work on acquiring Celâl’s garden of memory. Galip then sneaks into and takes Celâl’s flat, clothes, files, and phone calls. His transformation to another ‘world’
initiates when “he took off his clothes and stepped into Celâl’s pajamas” BB, 25. He sleeps on Celâl’s bed, sat down at Celâl’s desk to read, helps himself with a
cup of coffee, and recalls how “Celâl sat down at his desk wearing his blue stripped pajamas to correct his copy with the same green ballpoint pen, he also
smoked a cigarette” BB, 251. Living in Celâl’s flat as Celâl, Galip eventually can see the world the way Celal does. Studying Celal’s columns and unfolding the
mystery behind each of them Galip “feels closer” to Celâl. He believes that he can write everything that Celâl writes: “I’ve read everything you’ve ever written, I
know everything about you, read everything there is to know” BB, 321. “By now he knew everything Celâl had ever written as well as if he’d written himself” BB,
324. Reinventing Celâl’s garden of memory, Galip lost his own and he then assumed a new identity and new life. Galip does no longer exist; the seeker
becomes one inextricably intertwined with the object he sought. Just like the
128
See Orhan Pamuk The White Castle, trans. Victoria Holbrook New York: Vintage International 1990.
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thirty soul birds performs a hazardous journey to meet their king, Simourgh that lives in Mount Qaf. After passing seven valleys they discover that what they seek
is themselves. By the end they become Simourgh, “thirty birds”.
129
In Rumi’s words
,”Everything is the Beloved- and the lover a veil, Living is the Beloved, and the lover is dead.”
130
Eventually Galip becomes one with Celâl, the object he sought. He no longer lives as himself but as Celâl.
In the course of Kemal, his awareness of the other part of himself raises at the time he wants to exchange the Jenny Colon handbag he purchases for his
girlfriend. While waiting for Füsun to finish with her customer, he cannot help to look at Füsun and feels that he sees nobody else but himself. He finds some
identical features of Füsun that reminds him of himself. Seeing Fü sun’s figure, he
feels as if he looks at a mirror and finds his own reflection. Fü sun’s image that
reflects Kemal’s image invites him to be united with her and tugs his feeling toward union with this other self.
Kemal feels that… “When I looking at Füsun, I saw someone familiar, someone I felt I knew intimately. She resembled me. I felt
I could easily put myself in her place, could understand her deeply” MoI, 15. “Her body, with its long limbs, fine bones, and fragile shoulders, reminded me of
my own. Had I been a girl, had I been twelve years younger, this is what my body would be like” MoI, 17.
In Snow, the issue on resemblance or being ‘dead’ to live in the Beloved’s
attributes is not presented as thick as in The Black Book and The Museum of
129
See Attar, Mantiq Ut-tair “The Conference of the Birds,” trans. Afham Darbandi Dick Davis
London: Penguin 1984.
130
Rumi Masnavi I: 30.
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Innocence. This issue is highlighted in the beginning of the novel, when Ka feels his resemblance on Necip, a young Islamist school boy who long to be a writer
and is preparing Islamic science f iction. Ka feels that this boy ‘steals’ his heart in
the first time he meets him. Yet, the longing of the lover to discover his Beloved is represented by Pamuk who takes a
part in this novel as Ka’s best friend. Pamuk visits Ka’s apartment in Frankfurt following his demises to collect Ka’s belonging
and “to find the thing I coveted the most” Snow, 257. In his visit Pamuk traces back Ka’s daily ‘ritual’ such as walking down the route Ka’s performs before his
death. Following Ka’s footsteps and visiting places he visits during his life,
Pamuk feels like he does not travel on Ka’s memory but his own: “I felt I was
looking at my own memories” Snow, 251. On the time he spends at Kars to retrieve Ka’s poems, Pamuk states that “There had been many moment when I felt
I was Ka” Snow, 411.
3. The Scent of the Beloved’s Belonging
