49 highly respects the practices of different religions and ethnics of its citizens.
Additionally, Pamuk uses hüzün to overcome the deep spiritual loss of the Islamic Ottoman tradition. Hüzün leads people to the answer of their sadness and relieve
the ache that can save their souls. Pamuk suggests to combine the two cultures in revealing the feeling of melancholy rather than living in one of those cultures or
only slavishly imitating Western culture therefore a new hybrid culture can be invented.
151
1.3. Cosmopolitanism in Pamuk’s Works
In my observation, Pamuk captures cosmopolitanism that has been mentioned in the two previous parts in his works. This cosmopolitanism can be
found in the two selected novels and it is mostly seen in My Name is Red. One of the cosmopolitanisms is the architecture of the house in İstanbul in the 16
th
century, as it is stated by Black who has just come back from his exile for twelve years in Persia as a letters carrier and tax collector and a secretary in the service of
pashas MNR, 7: Some of the neighbourhoods and streets I’d frequented in my youth had
disappeared in ashes and smoke, replaced by burnt ruins where stray dogs congregated and where mad transients frightened the local children. In
other areas razed by fire, large affluent houses had been built, and I was astonished by their extravagance, by windows of the most expensive
Venetian stained glass, and by lavish two-story residences with bay windows suspended above high walls. MNR, 9
Meliz Ergin supports the statement above by mentioning that Turkey is a unique site for promoting cosmopolitan, which accommodates an array of languages,
151
Pamuk, Other Colours, 369-370.
50 cultures, and histories. Pamuk, moreover, presents this mosaic by displaying the
historical buildings and architecture in the cities of Turkey to highlight the richness of cultures that have inhabited these spaces over centuries,
152
especially İstanbul where the two selected novels take place.
The large affluent houses, which have been built in the 16
th
century İstanbul using European architecture, is similar to the demolitions and urban
modernization in İstanbul in the 1950s. Many buildings were rapidly torn down and replaced by the newer, higher, developer-built multi-unit apartments. Sıbel
Bozdoğan, in The Cambridge History of Turkey mentions that the speculative apartment boom of the next few decades became the notorious symbol of the
sterility, banality, and repetitiveness of modern architecture and urbanism, turning major Turkish cities into “concrete jungle”.
153
Moreover, I see that the alteration of the architecture, mentioned in My Name is Red, becomes a symbol of
cosmopolitanism and forced modernization as well as an attempt of purification, which is embraced by the Turks.
The other old buildings are the hippodrome and the ancient church that are visited by Hoja, his Italian slave, and the sovereign to see His animal collections.
Hippodrome is a building that was used for horse races during the Byzantine era. In this place, the child sultan shows Hoja his animals and asks him to make
predictions on their future babies or health.
152
Melız Ergın, “East-West Entanglements: Pamuk, Özdamar, Derrida”, Dissertation, Vancouver: The University of British Columbia, 2009 223.
153
Sıbel Bozdoğan, The Cambridge History of Turkey: Turkey in the Modern World edited by Reşat Kasaba, Volume 4 New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008 450.
51 They’d gone by carriage to the hippodrome, to the lion-house. The lions,
the leopards, and the panthers the sultan showed Hoja one by one were chained to the columns of an ancient church. TWC, 43
I argue that these old buildings symbolize the harmonious relation between various cultures, religions, and ethnics in İstanbul for this city has been a
“complex rendezvous from various cultures and civilizations, such as Persian, Greek, Christian Byzantine, and Muslim Ottoman.”
154
Additionally, these buildings is a metaphors, which Pamuk displays as “an affirmation of the survival
of the traces left by Turks, Armenians, Kurds, Jews, and several other ethnic and religious communities…under the Ottoman Empire.
155
The other example of cosmopolitanism is Venetian gold coins, which overflow İstanbul. The gold coins show how the commercial relationship and the
trade between the Ottoman and Venetian have already closely intertwined. On the other hand, a rumour on the flooding of the counterfeit coins in the markets and
bazaars is similar to the numerous foreign people who live in İstanbul and cause moral degradation.
The pickle seller who passionately informed me about the cleric from Erzurum said that the counterfeit coins—the new ducats, the face florins
stamped with lions and the Ottoman coins with their ever-ending silver content—that flooded the markets and bazaars, just like the Circassians,
Abkhazians, Mingarians, Bosnians, Georgians, and Armenians who filled the streets, were dragging us toward an absolute degradation from which it
would be difficult to escape. MNR, 10 However, the overflow of Venetian gold coins also shows how inflation hit the
city, which makes the Ottoman coins no longer have any value in İstanbul, and the decline of the Ottoman Empire, which causes social and economic problems. In
154
Laksana, “İstanbul: Melankoli”.
155
Ergın, “East-West Entanglements”, 224.
52 addition, moral degradation that is mentioned above shows how modernity does
not always bring good influence to society that embraces it. It is also in the same vein with the social condition in modern-day İstanbul that can be seen in the
Social History of Ottoman İstanbul, that “Beyoğlu was the quintessential symbol of moral decline and...a sin city, which brought ruination to the good Muslim and
stripped him of his health, wealth, and faith”
156
. The encounter of the East and the West also happened in the area of
Mediterranean Sea. Mediterranean was an important place for the Ottoman. It was an important string of routes, straits, and passageways.
157
The Ottomans looked at the Mediterranean as a military region, a place to wage war. Actually, the
Ottomans experience the problem of otherness in cosmopolitanism, which grows their antagonism to conquer, capture, or even resemble the West. The Other the
West always appears as something that is more enchanting and the Ottoman’s rich cosmopolitanism has driven the desire to conquer and dominate the West.
Mediterranean becomes very important for the Ottoman because it is a way to conquer Europe. So, it is not by a coincidence as Pamuk emphasizes that it figures
as such for the 17
th
century-Turks and Italian who comes face-to-face to fight and take captives in The White Castle.
158
In this novel, the encounter between the East and the West can be seen in the opening story when “the Turkish fleets attack the
Italian ship, which was sailing from Venice to Naples” TWC, 13. The Ottomans take the ship and capture the crew ship the Italians as
slaves. In line with Said’s binary opposition, Europe is always stereotyped as
156
Boyar and Fleet, Social History, 325-326.
157
Pamuk, Other Colours, 194.
158
Pamuk, Other Colours, 195.
53 civilized while the Ottoman is seen as barbarian, a threat, and Europe’s contestant.
The West saw the Ottoman’s conquest of the Constantinople as “the most despicable, barbarous, and ignorant enemies of civilization”
159
. Moreover, the Ottoman ships that take captive the Italian ship can be seen as one of barbarian act
that threatened Europe. Kantar mentions that The White Castle seems like a conflict among Christians and Muslims in the opening story.
160
It can be seen when the Muslim slaves, after being set loose from their chains, set about taking
vengeance on the Italian sailors who have wiped them TWC, 15 and the other Christians are put to the oars TWC, 16. The Italian slave, on the other hand, is
characterised as a would-be martyr who refuses to convert to Islam even though he is forced and threatened by the Pasha. However, the religious difference
between the master and the slave does not seem to be a crucial issue in the novel.
161
In The White Castle, the cosmopolitanism—the contact, encounter, and cultural exchange between the Turks and the Italians—can be seen from the
Italians who have lived in İstanbul for many years, during Sultan Ahmed I’s period. In addition, most of them have converted to Islam, too. One of them is a
Genoese captain who meets the young Italian slave when he is captured by the Turkish fleet TWC, 15. The Italian slave has managed to meet the other Italians,
who are known by their new names as Mustafa Reis and Osman Efendi, during the 11 years he has been living in İstanbul TWC, 71.
159
Boyar and Fleet, Social History, 6.
160
Kantar, “The Stylistic Dialogue”, 128.
161
Kantar, “The Stylistic Dialogue”, 128.
54 European quarter of Galata is also mentioned in The White Castle. It is the
place where the young Italian slave meets a young monk who tells him about Heybeli Island. Many Europeans had lived in Galata and the Genoese had been
here before the Ottoman conquered Constantinople. Dubin, Gawthrop, and Richardson say that the occupation of Galata by the Genoese began when they
supported Byzantine emperor in the Crusaders. Moreover, during the early centuries of Ottoman rule, many Spanish Jews, Moorish traders, Greeks, and
Armenians settled in Galata, which became established as the city’s European quarter. Under his reign, Mehmet II allowed the Genoese to retain their
commercial and religious establishments. They subsequently built one of the city’s most famous landmarks here, the Galata Tower.
162
In modern İstanbul, Beyoğlu, the foreign quarter of Pera and Galata in İstanbul, is a symbol of
Europeanisation where technological and intellectual innovation, fast-changing fashion, as well as moral depravity can be found. Additionally, it became the
place where the Ottoman elite found an opportunity to prove themselves as “civilized” in the eyes of the Europeans who labelled them “barbarians”.
163
Pamuk captures İstanbul’s cosmopolitanism in his two works by presenting the architecture of the buildings that are adopting European
architecture, the commercial relationship and trade between the Ottoman and the Venetian, as well as the European that live in Galata, as seen in My Name is Red
and The White Castle.
162
Marc Dubin, John Gawthrop, and Terry Richardson, The Rough Guide to Turkey London: Rough Guides, Ltd., 2003 160.
163
Boyar and Fleet, Social History, 309, 326.
55
1.4. Turkification
