Costak Files

The Taverns

2011-12-05T12:44:00.001-08:00

(click the text image to read full size)

The tavern culture has been a part of port culture. Seamen were single in the port they landed, and they had the time and money to be spent inside.When Turks conquered Istanbul and Galata, the taverns in this coastal city were world-class. 16. Latifi of Kastamonu, a writer of the century noted in his “Manual of Istanbul” that the taverns of Istanbul were mostly found in Tahtakale while Galata was “full of taverns”.The Muslim population usually obeyed religious restrictions but did not interfere in the customs of Non-Muslims. There were plenty of taverns in non-Muslim districts, particularly in Galata, and some customers were Muslims who escaped for a drink. The taverns, which were the places of drinking and eating for pleasure, were also subject to the guild system. Era of Mehmet the Conqueror (1451 – 1481)That era was one of reconstruction and settlement in Istanbul. His son Beyazit 2nd (1481 – 1512) promoted arts because of his devotion in pleasure and entertainment. Number of taverns rose in that era. During the era of his son Yavuz Selim (1512 – 1520), this number increased further, and drunkenness became more common in Istanbul.

When Suleiman the Magnificent inherited the throne, he prohibited drinking alcohol. During the era of Selim 2nd (1566 – 1574), however, the taverns were reopened with the support of Damat Ibrahim Pasha and his supporters, restarting the period of pleasure and entertainment. As a matter of fact, a decree was enacted when it was reported on 7 October 1573 that there were taverns even in the Muslim districts.When Selim 2nd died after falling while carousing in the palace bath, his son Murat 3rd (1574 – 1595) came to power, and he enacted a firman on 13 Mart 1576 allowing the taverns for operating freely except in the Muslim districts.But when Murat 3rd witnessed in person that Muslims were frequently going to the taverns in the Christian districts, he introduced a prohibition of alcoholic beverages (14 Mart 1583).

However, when alcoholic prohibition on soldiers was removed upon soldiers’ pressures, other people continued drinking alcohol, too. The Commander prohibited alcohol and wrote on the wall "Alcohol kills". Next morning, an answer was added under this sentence: “A soldier isn’t scared of death”.

Eremya Celebi Komurcuyan mentioned about Kasimpasa in his 17th century History of Istanbul as follows: "Ahead, there are Jewish houses and “rooms” on both sides thereof. These houses are on the coast and there are shops under them. They cook fish for the quests and serve pickles, dried sturgeon and codfish. Jewish butchers as well as seats where RAKI is sold are also in that place."We understand that the Bosporus restaurants of today were on the Golden Horn coast in the past. And in the 17th century, drinkers were offered raki made of muscat grape in those houses. Our grand grand father might go upstairs after being steeped enough.

In the past, taverns of Istanbul were named based on the trademarks such as a wooden or metallic boat, tower or a dagger hung on the shop instead of a signboard. For example: Hancerli (Dagger), Kurkcu Hani (Furrier’s Tavern), Yahudi (Jew’s), Kandilli (Candle Shop), etc. Some of these marks were those of Janissaries. Evening customers of these taverns and Janissary drinkers depending on the district were the most respected with the title of “Dayi” (Uncle). Dockers and artilleries were the customers of taverns from Kasimpasa to Findikli and Salipazari. Boatmen, carriers, bath attendants and rowdy rogues of Istanbul could not enter in these taverns; even if they could, they drink quickly and leave only when the evening drinkers were not present. These taverns were called "Regular Taverns".

Towards the end of Abdulaziz era, these became the "Taverns of Sultans". After regular taverns were established, the demos could go to illegal places called "Seat Tavern", side street groceries and greengrocers which sold alcohol in private. A portion of seat taverns was "civil seats". These drew civil servants and clerks who did not bring alcohol to their houses.In addition to small "seats", there were "Mobile Taverns". Mobile taverns were alcohol hawkers, most of whom were Armenian. Shop, stall, barrel, master, cupbearer were all in one person. Around their waist, they used to wrap a very long sheep bowel with plug on the end, filled with raki or wine. They wore a gown, where they carry a cup in their pocket. They put a napkin on their shoulders as marking. Mobile taverns were mostly active in Bahcekapi, Yemis Iskelesi, Galata and around.They were going into a grocery or greengrocer to watch around when a customer appears, fill the glass under their belt and serve the beverage heated with their body temperature. Swigging the glass, rowdy alcoholic might use a piece of grapes or another fruit of season as appetizer. Most of them used to wipe their mouth with backhand, which was called "punch appetizer".

Istanbul’s regular taverns were famous for their clean kitchens and talented chefs particularly on fish and meat meals. It was said that "Chefs of mansions are not able to cook cutlet and summer vegetable stew with meat as delicious as regulars". Wide and high ceilings of regular taverns were usually supported with pillars. Salty fish (sardines) barrel at the bottom of middle pillar was a characteristic of these taverns. Salty fish was brought in barrels from Malta or Aegean islands.Cleanliness was the focus of attention. Glasses and bowls were dried and shined with clean clothes. Floors were swept carefully while tables were cleansed. Event the servants and children serving to the drinkers were in clean clothes. Earth candle holders were put on the tables, candles were added on, and appetizers were laid around. On each table, there was also a salt shaker made of timber as a symbol of abundance. Chairs were usually short with wooden legs, while seating was made of mat. Stall customers of regular taverns were artisan foremen and apprentices called "four-browed", avoided meeting and becoming too familiar with their landlords, masters, etc. On the stall, there were always appetizers and snacks such as haricot bean salad, pickled cabbage and chickpeas. Raki and wine were first served from pumpkin, and then from a metal or glass pitchers “peeing from the stomach”. When the customer arrived at the tavern, the table was furnished with appetizer plates and drinking bowls. Heating up with the invitation of tavern keeper in but starting only after the candle on the table was lit, this drinking session used to last for hours. Appetizers, which were present when the customer sat at the table, were free. Only the beverage and appetizers ordered separately were charged. In Ramadan, taverns were closed. On the eve of holidays, the tavern keepers used to send stuffed mussel or mackerel to the prominent customers. This was called "stuffing for not to be forgotten".

SOURCE

Costak a Kouros

2010-12-08T18:16:00.000-08:00

A kouros is a statue of a standing nude youth that did not represent any one individual youth but the idea of youth. Used in Archaic Greece as both a dedication to the gods in sanctuaries and as a grave monument, the standard kouros stood with his left foot forward, arms at his sides, looking straight ahead. Carved in from four sides, the statue retained the general shape of the marble block. Archaic Greek sculptors reduced human anatomy and musculature in these statues to decorative patterning on the surface of the marble.

The kouros embodies many of the ideals of the aristocratic culture of Archaic Greece. One such ideal of this period was arete, a combination of moral and physical beauty and nobility. Arete was closely connected with kalokagathia,literally a composite term for beautiful and good or noble. Writing in the mid 500s B.C., the Greek poet Theognis summed this idea up as "What is beautiful is loved, and what is not is unloved." In a society that emphasized youth and male beauty, the artistic manifestation of this world view was the kouros. Indeed, when the poet Simonides wrote about arete in the late 500s, he used a metaphor seemingly drawn from the kouros: "In hand and foot and mind alike foursquare/ fashioned without flaw."

Piracy in Mediterranean

2010-11-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

Pirates operated in any remote areas advantageous for them to attack. Piracy was able to operate as a state without immediate reprucussions. In this case it was within the Byzantine Empire. Pirates could find quiet uninhabited areas of an island, build a camp near the water and attack ships as they came by. Or they could go to neighboring islands, surprise attack and return to their hideout. If the attacks were successful, they would probably come back to the same camp. The camp would eventually grow into a village after all the slaves and loot they would bring back.
Arab dynasties from North Africa were known to send out expeditions throughout the Mediterranean. These expeditions were usually preceded by many piratical raids. These expeditions and raids coupled with further expeditions would ultimately result in the complete conquest of certain areas, as was the case of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, and coastal areas of France and modern day Italy. Raids by Arabs included raids on Rome during the 800’s and 900’s AD.
In the case of the Arab conquest of Sicily, it was the Sunnite Aghlabids in the 800’s AD based out of Africa Minor (modern day Tunisia) that were responsible for the expeditions. Sicily was an important base for the Moslems, because it brought them closer to the mainland in Europe to conduct further attacks and trade.
Simultaneously, on the other side of the Mediterranean in the east was Crete. Crete was used by the Arab Muslims the same way Sicily was used in the west. The Muslims repeatedly attacked the Greek islands and mainland. Recent archeological findings in Athens have also found a possible Arabic settlement from that era in the 900’s AD.
During the Arab conquest, the islands in the Aegean had turned into pirate lairs for both Arabs and Christian mercenaries. The “profession” of piracy was considered honorable and profitable and was passed from father to son. The word leventes (brave handsome fellow) came from levante, which at the time signified a fearless pirate of the eastern Mediterranean. The east coast of the Mediterranean was also referred to as the Levante (Where the sun rises- from the Latin “levantar” which means to rise) and it included the coasts of Asia Minor, the Middle East and Egypt.
Levante was also what was referred to as the “east wind” in sailing. For educational purposes, here are the other winds and how they were referred to at one time during the middle ages.
Northwest wind: O Maestros
Southwest wind: O Garmbis
West wind: O Pounentes
Southeast wind: O Sorkos
Northeast wind: O Graigos
East wind: O Levantes
As mentioned earlier, a name tied with the people of Arab mixed with North African pirate origin is Sarakinos and all its variants. Sarakinos is a Greek word synonymous with the word Arab. There are many Greek island areas and mainland areas with the variant name of Sarakinos. There are also various other areas in other countries in the Mediterranean like in Italy and France which have either a variant of the name Sarakinos or other similar influences from pirates from North Africa. Most of these areas are located near coastline areas. These names come from North African immigrants (who were usually pirates) that settled those areas during the combined Saracen and North African raids by the various Caliphates throughout the era of the middle ages. Those raids and attacks conceivably started during the 600 AD’s and lasted arguably up till the middle 1800’s. “The town of Parparia also has some fields called “Tou Sarakinou” meaning “belonging to the Saracen”.
Piracy was directly related to the slave trade, which greatly flourished for many centuries, especially during the middle-ages starting from the 600 AD’s. Pirates made a lot of money selling people. The sufferings of the inhabitants of the coastal towns and particularly the Aegean islands at the hands of pirates of every race and origin can hardly be described. In 904 AD Arab pirates led by a Greek named Leo of Tripoli from Crete who had joined the Muslim forces, according to one source, carried off approximately 22,000 inhabitants from Thessalonica. This same Leo from Tripoli along with another Greek pirate who had converted to Islam, named Damianos, defeated the Byzantine navy off the northern coast of Chios during the Byzantine war campaign against the Arabs in an attempt to take back lost Byzantine territories.
Other towns in Chios have similar stories about Algerian (Alidzerini-Berbers) and Saracen pirates. Some of the ones I read about were Thymiana, Kardamyla, Kambia, Mesta and Neochori.
In the late 900’s AD, the island of Lesbos had the same types of attacks from a Saracen pirate chief named Sirhan. Saracens had attacked the bay of Stenacus but were defeated when the town set their ships on fire.
During the early part of the middle ages, pirate attacks on the island on Lesbos from Saracen invasions occurred in the years 821, 881 and 1055 AD. There are places on Lesbos with the name Sarikinou as well, which in all likelihood were pirate lairs at one time.
The island of Paros was also plundered by the Saracen pirate Nissiris between 821 AD and 827 AD. Nissiris as a pirate was active from 821 AD to 827 AD. Nissiris went to the island of Paros and stole all the church treasures. In Paros there are also places with the name Sarakoinou. The encounters with pirates on Paros were documented in the year 905 AD, when Nikitas Magister, a government official during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Leo VI was sent from Constantinople to Crete to negotiate with the Saracens (Crete was captured by the Saracens and Arabs in 823 AD). As they approached the island of Ios, winds drove them to the island of Paros (Which at that time was uninhabited). There he met a monk who told him about the island and their encounters with Saracen pirates.
In 961 AD the Byzantine army under emperor Nicephoros Phocas took back Crete from the Arabs and killed, according to one source 20,000 Arabs in the process. There is a town in Crete called Barbaro or Varvaro. The Byzantine soldiers that took over the town during the re-taking of Crete named it like that because of the people there who were Arabs or Berbers from Barbaria in North Africa. It is in all likelihood, the same way the town of Varvakorso and its people the Varvarousi got their names from the Greeks on the island of Chios.
There are dozens of accounts of Saracen pirates invading and settling areas of the Mediterranean between the 900’s AD and 1000’s AD. These places included
St. Tropez and La Garde Freinet (937 AD) in France
Fontanarossa (935 AD) in Italy
Malta (870 AD)
Sicily (827 AD)
Corsica (754 AD) and others. Corsica even has a pirate head as their symbol on one of their flags.

In some of these places, it was recorded that these pirate settlements once they were re-conquered by the Christians remained in those areas and converted to Christianity.
By paralleling history in other areas with pirate history in the Mediterranean an image starts to emerge for the the history of Parparia. Parparia’s history mimicks the history of dozens of other places in the Aegean that attribute their origins and history to Saracen pirates, especially islands.
The formula one sees is clear, once Christian armies started to push back Muslim forces and settlements, the prisoners or towns left behind were usually forced to convert to Christianity. In the areas of modern France, Spain and Italy, Saracens that converted to Christianity became Catholics. In areas of modern Greece they became Orthodox. The Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and a large part of southern France was under Saracen or Arab rule at one time or another. In parts of Spain, Muslim rule existed for almost 800 years (Granada).
It is written that between 840 AD and 1017 AD the three great nations in existence were the Byzantines (Greeks), the Saracens (Arabs) and the Franks (French).

Costumes from Aghia Mavra

2010-10-25T21:04:00.000-07:00

ANDRE GRASSET ST. SAUVER (painter) & E. BRIONE (1729-) (engraver)
Local attire from Parga, Preveza, Vonitsa and Aghia Mavra
1800, copper engraving, 15.5 x 20 cm
Source

Carlo I Tocco, count of Cephalonia and Zante

2010-10-08T17:27:00.000-07:00

Carlo II Tocco (died 1448) was the ruler of Epirus from 1429 until his death.

Carlo II was the son of Count Leonardo II Tocco, the younger brother and co-ruler of Carlo I Tocco, count of Cephalonia and Zante, duke of Leukas, and ruler of Epirus. In 1424 Carlo II and his sisters were adopted by their uncle Carlo I. Carlo II's sister Maddalena Tocco married the future Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos in 1428, but died in 1429.

In July 1429 Carlo II succeeded his uncle Carlo I in all his jurisdictions. His succession was opposed, however, by Carlo I's illegitimate sons, led by Memnone. Memnone and his brothers appealed to the Ottoman Sultan Murad II for help in securing the inheritance of their father, and the sultan duly sent forth a force under Sinan. The Ottoman general entered into negotiations with the anti-Latin faction in Ioannina and, after guaranteeing the privileges of the nobility, obtained the surrender of the city on October 9, 1430.

Carlo II continued to rule over the remnants of his principality in Epirus from Arta as an Ottoman vassal, while the illegitimate sons of his uncle received holdings in Acarnania as Ottoman dependents. Carlo II died in October 1448 and was succeeded by his son Leonardo III Tocco. Name of "Karlı İli" which was a sanjak of Ottoman Empire and its center was Preveza was derived from Carlo II.

Sexual Crimes and Improprieties in Late Ottoman Greece

2010-05-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

Evdoxios Doxiadis, Sexual Crimes and Improprieties in Late Ottoman Greece

Sexual crime and sexual improprieties in Ottoman Greece has been a neglected field of study, primarily due to the lack of sources. Unlike much of contemporary, and even earlier, Europe and much of the rest of the Ottoman world where such cases quickly found themselves in front of a judge or kadi, in Ottoman Greece cases of prostitution, adultery, unlawful fornication, or even rape have been rare thus far. By examining a variety of material, however, such as wills, dowry contracts, private correspondence, as well as the correspondence and decisions of the local authorities, we can at least extrapolate some idea regarding the concerns and behavior of the the notables in Ottoman Greece who often doubled as executive and judicial authorities.

The Ottoman judicial system, as well as the administrative one, was characterized by a remarkable diversity which allowed significant autonomy to religious and regional communities. In the Aegean, as in many other parts of Greece, this diversity led to the emergence, and often dominance, of communal executive bodies and courts, usually under the control of local notables. These bodies based their decisions upon customary laws that had their origins in the Byzantine-Roman tradition but which had evolved and changed significantly over the centuries. Few of these laws were codified before the late eighteenth century, thus allowing great flexibility in the rulings of the communal courts and councils. Sexual crime was of course clearly described by Canon as well as by Roman law and included nearly all acts not leading to procreating within a lawfully conducted marriage. The notables and even the population at large, however, do not appear very concerned with applying the penalties, or even persecuting many technically illegal activities. Practices like the infamous “kepinio”, a form of unlawful marriage of limited time duration, though denounced by the Orthodox Church, endured as did the institution of “syggria” in Mani, a form of bigamy. From the cases examined in this paper it becomes evident that the notables were quite willing to tolerate what was generally deemed as immoral behavior for years and even decades, allowing families to deal with such issues by themselves. Dowry contracts and especially wills show that illegitimate children were not rare, nor were cases of what could be prostitution or perhaps concubinage, despite the efforts of parents to control the sexual behavior of their offspring.

There were, however, occasions where the communal authorities asserted their authority over the sexual behavior of individuals in the community, and acted quickly and decisively in matters of sexual crime or sexual improprieties. These few cases present us with an insight into the concerns of these notables. Under certain circumstances sexual misbehavior could threaten the peace and even the cohesion of the community and in extreme cases it could invite the involvement of outside authorities, infringing upon the autonomy and power of the notables. As a result these notables, whether secular or religious, were quick to act in order to preempt such developments, but only when such behavior threatened to escalate and disrupt the community. When such behavior crossed the boundaries of private behavior and became a public concern, however, the notables were swift to act in order to diffuse the situation, and in order to assert their own authority and power over the community.
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Dr. Evdoxios Doxiadis received his B.A. from Tufts University in History, Economics and Classics, and his M.A and PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, where he also received the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor award in 2007. He has taught a number of courses on gender and on nationalism at U.C. Berkeley, and on Greece and the Balkans at San Francisco State University. He has been a post-doctoral research fellow at Princeton University, and is currently preparing his book "The Shackles of Modernity: Women, Property and the Law from Late Ottoman to Independent Greece".

Mediterranean Piracy

2010-01-17T19:56:00.000-08:00

Piracy was a prominent feature of the Mediterranean world up through the nineteenth century. The relative poverty of the soil, the inviting expanse of the sea with its lively commercial life, and the many hiding places provided by the islets scattered across the area—particularly in the Aegean—ensured that the coastal inhabitants would always be tempted by the life of the pirate. Such low-level raiding, as constant and predictable as it was, is almost an environmental given rather than a phenomenon that begs the attention of the historian. At times, however, piracy spilled beyond such narrow limits and became a vital instrument of state building or state destruction. At such times in the Mediterranean, any explanation of historical change must include piracy in the narrative.

The early modern period in Mediterranean history—roughly the fifteenth through the eighteenth century—begins with the tapering off of one such period of piratical recrudescence. The final crumbling of Byzantine maritime power in the fourteenth century encouraged fierce competition between Latin Christians and Turkish emirs for control of the Aegean and its vital trade links. Both sides built up their navies, raided each other's territory, and preyed on each other's shipping in pursuit of supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean. Both sides recruited pirates (conveniently called corsairs once they were serving a legitimate political entity) to help them achieve their goals. The Knights of St. John, for instance, captured the island of Rhodes in 1308 with the help of a Genoese corsair (Inalcik, p. 186). The eventual victor in this fierce competition was the Turkish side, specifically the Ottoman Turks whose original base was inland but who eventually expanded outward to become a maritime power of the first order. With the conquest of Constantinople (1453), the Ottomans became masters of the vital commercial routes that linked the Black Sea and the Aegean. In 1522 they vanquished one of their most persistent naval competitors when Suleiman the Magnificent captured Rhodes and forced the departure of the Knights. Venice continued to have possessions in the eastern Mediterranean, but the Ottomans steadily eroded her power as well.

Having thus established control over the area, the Sultans quite naturally no longer looked with favor upon piracy and punished pirates whenever they were able to do so. Those who could be absorbed into the state apparatus—as naval commanders, for example—enjoyed a new life as Ottoman officials. Independent actors, however, were no longer tolerated. In 1504 the Ottomans seized the ships of a pirate who had served as a corsair in the recent wars with Venice. When he continued his raids in peacetime, he lost not only his ships; the authorities burned his house to the ground and executed seventy of his men (Brummett, p. 99). Ottoman maritime supremacy, combined with the Venetian desire to protect her commercial interests, ensured that the eastern Mediterranean enjoyed a long hiatus from piracy in the sixteenth century.

Farther to the west, in North Africa, the picture was largely similar. The corsairing captains who had raided the Spanish coastland on behalf of the Ottomans now settled down to life as the rulers of the newly acquired territories in North Africa. The high level of hostility between the sultan and the Spanish kings, however, meant that piracy was more tolerated in the western Mediterranean.

Things changed again after the Ottoman defeat at the battle of Lepanto (1571). Revisionist historiography has made it clear that this clash was not the watershed it was once presumed to be. It was important, however, in terms of piracy. The staggering and ever increasing costs of galley warfare convinced both the Ottomans and the Spaniards that it was best to turn their energies elsewhere. The Mediterranean was left to its own devices. The pirates once again took to the seas, and the seventeenth century was the golden age of the pirate republic. The slave markets of Algiers and of Valletta teemed with miserable captives from the other side, as both Muslims and Christians pursued their opponents with equal ferocity.

To a certain extent the pirates of the seventeenth century were operating on their own initiative and were motivated by the issues of economic scarcity that had always figured prominently. As with earlier centuries, however, shifts in the Mediterranean balance of power were working themselves out through piracy. It was in this period that northern newcomers—the Dutch and the English—put an end to Italian commercial supremacy in the Mediterranean and piracy was a vital instrument in this assault. The English pirate in his berton became a hated and feared figure for the Venetian merchant. This northern invasion is only the bestknown example, however. France backed Catholic pirates—particularly the Knights of St. John—as part of its ambition to replace the Venetians as the preeminent Catholic power in the eastern Mediterranean, and to hurt her economic competitors. The North African regencies of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers would prove similarly useful for English and French ambitions. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries these two powers signed a number of treaties with the North Africans, agreements that were designed both to protect their own merchants from North African piracy and to encourage raids on their competitors' shipping. In the eighteenth century the power of the regencies dwindled as they themselves devoted fewer and fewer resources to such assaults and European supremacy became ever more evident. Nevertheless, remnants of the system were still at work as late as the American Revolution. Once the Americans declared their independence from the British, Lloyds of London discreetly informed the North Africans that American ships were no longer under the protection of the British navy. North African attacks on the merchant shipping of the new republic predictably ensued.

In 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte captured the island of Malta and took the previously unimaginable step of freeing all the Muslim captives held by the Knights of St. John. His dramatic actions were an illustration of a more prosaic truth. By the end of the eighteenth century combatants in the Mediterranean were strong enough to fight their naval battles and conduct their trade without the help of Mediterranean pirates turned corsairs. Once the state turned its back, piracy never again achieved the international significance that it had enjoyed from time to time in the early modern period.

Bibliography

Brummet, Palmira. Ottoman Seapower and Levantine Diplomacy in the Age of Discovery. Albany, N.Y., 1994.

Earle, Peter. Corsairs of Malta and Barbary. London and Annapolis, Md., 1970.

Inalcik, Halil. "The Rise of the Turcoman Maritime Principalities in Anatolia, Byzantium, and the Crusades." Byzantinische Forschungen 9 (1985).

Tenenti, Alberto. Piracy and the Decline of Venice, 1580–1615. Translated by Janet and Brian Pullan. London and Berkeley, 1967.

—MOLLY GREENE

New 2010 Costak Teaser Logo

2010-01-10T10:47:00.000-08:00

Recipies for Costak | Braised Cod with Plums

2010-01-10T10:01:00.000-08:00

Another monastic dish Petri must have enjoyed it during his stay in Mount Athos.

Traditional versions of this dish call for salt cod, which is cod that has been salted and dried. Though delicious, salt cod can be tedious to prepare, as it must be soaked in water for hours to remove excess salt.

This version has been adapted for fresh cod, a substitution that also reduces cooking time.
BRAISED COD WITH PLUMS
Start to finish: 30 minutes
Servings: 4 to 6
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 pound plums, halved and pitted
1 1/2 pounds cod
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Ground black pepper, to taste

In a large, deep skillet over medium-high, combine the olive oil, garlic and onion. Saute until the onion just begins to soften, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Add the plums and saute another 2 minutes. Arrange the cod over the onions and plums, then add enough water to come halfway up the cod. Sprinkle the cod with salt, then bring the water to a simmer, cover and cook 15 minutes, or until the cod flakes easily.

Sprinkle the lemon juice and parsley over the cod, then season with pepper.

Nereids as Costak's Companion

2009-12-29T18:34:00.000-08:00

In his sea voyages did they keep Petri company?

In Greek mythology, the Nereids (neer'-ee-eds) (Νηρηΐδες) are sea nymphs, the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris. In modern Greek folklore, the term "nereid" (νεράϊδα, neráïda) has come to be used of all nymphs, or fairies, not merely nymphs of the sea.

Andromeda Chained to the Rock by the Nereids, painted in 1840 by Theodore Chasseriau

Malakos | Malaka

2009-12-28T21:25:00.000-08:00

Malakos [1] μαλακός means "soft" in Greek.
Malaka Male member in Turkish slang
Malakia "softness" is the Classical Greek term for effeminacy.
Malakas is the term for "wanker" in modern Greek.

Ancient Greek Prostitutes were divided into several categories. The "pornai" πόρναι were found at the bottom end of the scale. They were, as alluded to by the etymology—the word comes from pernemi πέρνημι "to sell"—the property of πορνοβοσκός / pornoboskós, or pimps, who received a portion of their earnings. This owner could be a citizen, for this activity was considered as a source of income just like any other.

In the classical era of ancient Greece, pornai were slaves of barbarian origin; starting in the Hellenistic era the case of young girls abandoned by their citizen fathers can be added. They were considered to be slaves until proven otherwise. Pornai were usually employed in brothels located in "red-light" districts of the period, such as Piraeus (port of Athens) or the Kerameikon in Athens. These establishments were frequented by sailors and by poor citizens.

In ancient Koine Greek, the word for effeminate is kinaidos (cinaedus in its Latinized form), a man "whose most salient feature was a supposedly "feminine" love of being sexually penetrated by other men." (Winkler, 1990)[1].

"A cinaedus is a man who cross-dresses or flirts like a girl. Indeed, the word's etymology suggests an indirect sexual act emenating a promisculous woman. This term has been borrowed from the Greek kinaidos (which may itself have come from a language of Ionian Greece of Asia Minor, primarily signifying a purely effeminate dancer who entertained his audiences with a tympanum or tambourine in his hand, and adopted a lascivious style, often suggestively wiggling his buttocks in such a way as to suggest anal intercourse....The primary meaning of cinaedus never died out; the term never became a dead metaphor." (Williams, 1999)[2].

Hetaerae (high-class prostitutes),entertain their clients, while a young girl plays the flute. Oneof the men seems to be distracted by the wine boy. | Outside of red-figure kylix (wine cup), fifth century BCE. Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge.

[1] Malakos as Soft, Christopher Lee traces the history of the Greek word on which the Latin malacus is based. In Homer, malakos usually means soft, as in a tangibly soft meadow. By Herodotus (484?-425 B.C.), it had come to mean 'soft' as in neither strong nor masculine -- in other words, 'effeminate'. Aristophanes (448?-385 B.C.) plays on the double meaning, but uses the term pejoratively. In Wasps (1455), according to Lee, Aristophanes describes a man who was once a hoplite (virile warrior), as now a degenerate malakos. In other passages of Aristophanes, as well as in Aeschines' (390-322 B.C.) attempt to discredit Demosthenes (383-322 B.C.) [Against Timarchus 131], malakos not only means soft and effeminate, but sexually submissive. Malacus, a term of Greek origin, was used by the Roman playwright Plautus (254?-184 B.C.) in conjunction with other disparaging terms to denigrate effeminate Greek males Source: Non-Standard Roman Male Sexuality

[1] Winkler, John J. (1990). The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece. New York: Routledge.
[2] Williams, Craig A. (1999). Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cretan Pederasty

2009-12-28T21:17:00.000-08:00

Can we find threads of Cretan pederasty in the relationship between Captain Lefteri|Lefteri Kaptan and Petri?

The Cretans, a Dorian people described by Plutarch as renowned for their moderation and conservative ways, practiced an archaic form of pederasty in which an adult aristocrat enacted a ritual kidnapping known as the harpagmos, or "seizing" of a noble boy of his choosing, with the consent of the boy's father.

The man (known as philetor, "befriender") took the boy (known as kleinos, "glorious") into the wilderness, where they spent several months hunting and feasting with their friends. If the boy was satisfied with the conduct of his would-be comrade, he changed his title from kleinos to parastates ("sidekick" indicating he had fought in battle alongside his lover) returned to the philetor and lived in close bonds of public intimacy with him. The function of the institution, beside teaching the youth adult skills, was to confirm the status of the best men, and to offer both lover and beloved the chance to give proof of a noble character deserving of respect.

Recipies for Costak | Mount Athos Soup

2009-09-16T19:15:00.000-07:00

(Left: Food: Kitchen Xeropotamou 1942 Source)

Recipies for Costak

Petri must have enjoyed it during his stay in Mount Athos during lent. Greek Orthodox Christians fast from meat and dairy, so they were always looking for something vegan to eat.

Mount Athos Soup
7-8 Tbsp. Tahini
1 cup rice
juice of 1-2 lemons
2 medium carrots finely grated
a few parsley sprigs finely chopped
salt
10 cups water (approximately)

Boil rice in water and salt until tender. Remove from heat and add lemon juice. In small bowl mix Tahiti with enough hot liquid from boiled rice to make a smooth paste. Pour mixture back into soup stirring constantly until liquids are blended. Add grated carrots and parsley and stir well. Serve. Note: Adjust amount of lemon juice according to individual taste.

The secrets of monastery cuisine are unveiled in the cookbook "The Cooking of Mt Athos" written by Mt Athos monk Epiphanios Mylopotaminos.

It includes roughly 130 recipes for fish, seafood, and ladera (vegetable, legume (pulses), and other non-meat dishes cooked with olive oil). Monk Epiphanios cooks in the fireplace or a wood stove, and uses only olive oil and no preservatives.
" The monks live by a harsh Byzantine routine that bears no relation to our normal views of time. Their day begins at 2am with a four-hour church service. There is no breakfast - the meal they have at 6am is called lunch. After this, they work till 2.30pm; each monk has a special job, whether it's cleaning, working in the kitchens or tending the vegetables.

Then it's back to praying, with an hour's service at 3pm, taking them to dinner at four. After that, they will talk until 7pm, when they retreat to their cells for bed. Except, this is, during the big festivals, dedicated, for example, to the Madonna or St George, when they must forego sleep altogether and pray from 7pm on one day to 7pm the next.

They keep body and soul together during this routine on a spartan diet. For most meals they have vegetable broth with chunks of homemade bread. They're allowed no meat, and fish only on Sunday. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, they eat just once and are forbidden olive oil. Wine is allowed only on special days and when they have fish."

Source: Tradition - On Holy Mountain

Horoz Sokak

2007-12-21T06:24:00.000-08:00

Horoz Sokak

Tha spáso koúpes

2007-11-24T13:33:00.000-08:00

Tha spáso koúpes "I will smash all the glasses" (a more Eastern Greece)/Asia Minor tsifteteli-çiftetelli song.ne de güzel kulakların var
altın küpe ister osman aga
tha spaso koupes gia ta logia
pou peskai potiraki gia ta pikra logakia
aman aman yanıyorum ben
aman aman seviyorum sen

Tha Spaso Koupes Greek & Turkish Song Versions (old)

The song Tha Spaso Koupes or Ehthes To Vradhi, a tsiftetelli dance tune, which was a favorite among the Greeks of Smyrna/Izmir and western Anatolia has remained a favorite to this day. Here are excertps from the oldest Greek recordings of this song (c. 1910) as well as a Turkish original.

Costak and Pasolini

2007-11-22T23:24:00.000-08:00

Truly a great influence for Costak came from Pasolini. The description from an upcoming retrospective explains why. Obvious isn't it?

Heretical Epiphanies | The Cinematic Pilgrimages of Pier Paolo Pasolini
November 28 – December 4, 2007 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center

Pier Paolo Pasolini was many things––a poet, a provocateur, a devout Catholic, an ardent Marxist, an openly gay man: in essence, an “inconvenient guest,” as he put it, at the ongoing party known as modern society. He was also a filmmaker, unlike any other before or since. He began his career in movies as a screenwriter for Mauro Bolognini, Luciano Emmer and Federico Fellini, among others. When he directed his first film –– Accattone, in 1961 –– he more or less reinvented cinema from the ground up. The links to neorealism and New Wave modernism were there, but Pasolini’s hieratic moviemaking felt like no one else’s: imagistically and linguistically exacting (no one knew Roman slang better than Pasolini), unflinching in its vision of society’s castaways and human refuse, yet radically tender. Pasolini’s cinematic pageants of abjection, humiliation and fury were based in the devotional humanism of early Renaissance painting. From Accattone through the notorious updating of Sade’s "120 Days of Sodom" that he completed just before his murder on the outskirts of Rome in 1975, his body of work amounted to nothing less than a cry of anguish at what he saw as the horrors of progress, and a plea to return to the more humane rhythms of existence in a pre-industrial world. Pasolini stood alone, proudly and defiantly, and he stood for the common man.

Dragoman

2007-09-01T12:03:00.000-07:00

Sir David Wilkie, R.A. Scottish (1785-1841) |Portrait of Sotiri, Dragoman of Mr. Colquhoun,1839-40 |Watercolor and bodycolor and oil, over graphite on buff paper |47.5 x 32.8 cm.
Through Wilkie’s journals and John Nash, his lithographer, an account is provided for all the individuals within the scene. Sotiri, who sits in the center of the page, was an Albanian dragoman (a translator of Arabic, Turkish, or Persian employed in the Middle East) for Mr. Colquhoun. The boy is the son of Mustafa, the Janissary of Mr. Cartwright Consul-General in Constantinople. Wilkie could well have witnessed the interaction pictured here between Sotiri and the boy, as they were apart of the British diplomatic community in and around Constantinople and could have known one another. But, a similar drawing by Wilkie, Captain Leigh and his Dragoman (1840), involving like gestures around a hookah demonstrates that the scene was posed. It is hard to say whether this has meaning outside of purely formal concerns, though both include the elaborate illustration of smoke filling the glass chamber of a hookah and the composition may have merely been an excuse to produce an effect the artist liked.

The cityscape in the upper left of the drawing depicts the suburbs of Constantinople. To the right of Mustafa’s son there is a suggestion of architecture, possibly a niche or the frame of a window. The cityscape was perhaps originally intended to be a full vista and upon abandoning the drawing as a presentation work Wilkie also gave up on such a complicated background. The inclusion of the woman and child in the far left is a curious addition. Least developed of the portraits (though remarkable in detail), they were mostly likely added last, after the limits of the paper had become apparent. Sources identify her as Wilkie’s Landlady and focus of a later solo portrait, Madame Giuseppina, an unlikely acquaintance to either Sotiri or the boy. Isolated in the foreign city and having lost those dearest to him fourteen years earlier, a lonely Wilkie most likely manufactured a family scene from the people around him.

Dragoman from Arabic Tarjuman, Turkish Tercüman, official interpreter in countries where Arabic, Turkish, and Persian are spoken. Originally the term applied to any intermediary between Europeans and Middle Easterners.

1841 Lithograph David Wilkie / The Dragoman of Mr. Moore English Consul at Beyrout

Peruz 4

2007-03-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

See some 'Kanto's by Peruz

Sahnelerde Kurulan Dünyalar | Ergun Hiçyılmaz (Turkish)

Peruz 3

2007-03-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

First comes, perhaps, a howling dervish...

2007-03-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

Howling Dervish photo by El Chark studio.

"First comes, perhaps, a howling dervish on his way to a performance, where, with his fellows, he will hurl himself about and howl the name of Allah, until, with foaming lips, protruding eyes, and matted hair, he falls exhausted, as if convulsed with epilepsy. Following him, one may behold, within five minutes, a richly-turbaned Arab, with gold-embroidered jacket; a tattooed Nubian from the upper Nile; a Jew with a long, yellow coat and corkskrew curls; a group of Persians bedizeded with cheap jewelry: a black eunuch escorting a carriage of veiled ladies; groups of Bohemians; venders of melons, dates, apples and pop-corn; a florid-faced English merchant; a Roman Catholic priest; a Damascus camel-driver; a pilgrim just returned from Mecca: a Chinaman with hie queue; a missionay of the American Board, and even a "personally conducted" party of excursionists. Pick up a hand-bill dropped here by a passer-by, and you will find it printed in five or six different languages. As many more strange tongues may possibly be overheard by you while walking from Stamboul to Galata. Such at least has been my experience at this point where two worlds meet,- the Orient and the Occident,- the pontoon bridge of the Golden Horn."

Constantinople as described by John Stoddard in 1897

[1] Pascal Sebah's studio, El Chark, opened in 1857, and it was Sebah who took all the photographs for the album of Ottoman costume published for the Vienna Exposition in 1873. Sebah went into partnership with Policarpe Joaillier in 1888, after which the studio was renamed Sebah & Joaillier.

TURKISH VESSELS OFF CONSTANTINOPLE c. 1870

2007-02-07T15:36:00.000-08:00

From 1870 Cassell's Illustrated History of England.

1870 | Constantinople Firemen

2007-02-07T15:32:00.000-08:00

"CONSTANTINOPLE FIREMEN", published in "Harper's Weekly" July, 1870. Size 9" x 9"

Notes on Costak 2

2006-12-01T20:53:00.000-08:00

“El-mecâzu kantaratü’l-hakîkah” Metaphor is the bridge of reality.

What Costak, for that matter what Petri stands for? For what? What reality we have in the film? In his real or imagined life? Criminal history?

Why I find a certain connectedness in the story 'the somewhat meaningless crime and death' of an immigrant dishwasher who worked long and silent years in a nondescript hotel kitchen in North America?

The curator? What is his achievement if he only gets and displays the slippers without truly understanding the connections in the story? Is he just curious about the story or the object.

Notes on Costak 1

2006-11-28T16:28:00.000-08:00

Guillermo del Toro in his notes for his latest film Pan's Labyrinth says "Fairytale logic is not linear, it's random". This idea appeals to me in constructing the movie version of Costak. There is already a linear crime story which I hope to find (microfilm archives in Ataturk Library, Taksim, Istanbul) in it's extended version as it was serialized in possibly Tercuman newspaper pre-1972. But Costak is different and involves a modern story and shifting moments from Petri's life enhanced with images, feelings and songs. The historic realities of the day will be in the background. However it will not interfere with his behavior. How interesting this randomness can be is a challange of course.

November 2006
Tyson's Corner

Costak as Ganymede

2006-08-15T19:09:00.000-07:00

Costak and Lefteri Kaptan as Ganymede and Zeus. The slaying of Lefteri kaptan adds another 'killing of the missing father' angle to the story

Ganymede by Mia Gibson
Ganymede is the young, beautiful boy that became one of Zeus' lovers. One source of the myth says that Zeus fell in love with Ganymede when he spotted him herding his flock on Mount Ida. Zeus then came down in the form of an eagle or sent an eagle to carry Ganymede to Mount Olympus where Ganymede became cupbearer to the gods. According to other accounts, Eos kidnapped Ganymede, to be her lover, at the same time she kidnapped Tithonus. Zeus then robbed Eos of Ganymede, in return granting Eos the wish that Tithonus be immortal. Unthinkingly, Eos forgot to ask that Tithonus remain youthful. Everyday, the faithful Eos watched over Tithonus, until one day she locked him in a room and left him to get old by himself.

Upon hearing that Ganymede was to be cup bearer as well as Zeus' lover, the infinitely jealous Hera was outraged. Therefor Zeus set Ganymede's image among the stars as the constellation Aquarius, the water carrier. Aquarius was originally the Egyptian god over the Nile. The Egyptian god poured water not wine from a flagon.

All of Zeus' scandalous liaisons have allegorical meanings. Some sources say that Zeus' affair with Ganymede was a (religious) justification for homosexuality within the Greek culture, yet others state that this is merely a reflection of Greek life at that time. Before the popularity of the Zeus and Ganymede myth spread, however, the only toleration for sodomy was an external form of goddess worship. Cybele's male devotees tried to achieve unity with her by castrating themselves and dressing like women.

Apollodorus argued that this myth emphasized the victory of patriarchy over matriarchy. This showed that men did not need women to exist, therefor they did not need the attentions of women. The philosopher Plato used this myth to justify his sexual feelings towards male pupils.

Bostan

2006-07-05T14:49:00.000-07:00

Petri lived in a ruined shack in a bostan(large garden for growing vegetables). The are known as Bostan Neighborhood is now part of the Beyoglu (Pera) District and is inhabited mostly by Romany (Gypsy) families. The pub he frequented on Kalyoncu Kulluk was nearby. During De Amicis visit in 1870's the creek that gave it's name to the area Dolapdere was dry. Since the creek required a device called "dolap" to raise water it had a week run. One of the side strets are called Dere Ustu today.

Edmondo De Amicis (October 21, 1846—March 12, 1908), is a notable Italian novelist, journalist, and short-story writer. Journeying to Constantinople by boat, Edmondo De Amicis is initially dismayed to discover that his first glimpse of this much-awaited city will be obscured by fog. Yet, as he will come to appreciate, the slow unveiling of rooftops, domes and minarets is in fact the best introduction to Constantinople he could wish for. Throughout his stay in this most cosmopolitan of cities – with Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Gypsies, Catholics and Jews sewn together in a patchwork of life – he encounters the inhabitants’ endless vitality, in a city which provides an inexhaustible source of beauty and mystery.
Costantinopoli (1878)

I had De Amicis' text ready when I came to Istanbul. For he had seen what I cannot see today' - Umberto Eco (from his foreword)

Hotel de Marseille

2006-06-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

1944 | Nomidis and Schneider [1]| Archaeological and Topographical map of Galata

Early Istanbul hotels differed from the traditional han (caravanserai) and provided a bed instead of an empty room. Mostly operated by minority Christians and some other nationalities, the Galata hotels were the first to emerge due to the proximity of the port and they used western names to increase their appeal to foreigners. Some recorded names were Hotel de Marins (Sailors’ Hotel), Hotel de Voilier (Hotel of Sailboat) and Hotel de Marseille.

In 1874 Petri the Knife slashed his protector Lefteri Kaptan to death in Hotel de Marseille. He was about 17-18 years old. The hotel was described as a two story structure with two bed and three beds with a capacity of 24 guests. On the murder night the police recorded 58 inhabitants at the hotel.

Among them:
-a volunteer fire fighter (tulumbaci) Camur Salih of Uskudar (age 30)
-a volunteer fire fighter Ablasiguzel Mustafa (age 30)
-a navy private Yunus, (age 20)
-a ship record keeper of Hamburg and a young Greek kalopedi
-two Black Sea boatmen and a street prostitute

See: Ahmed Midhat Efendi’s novella “Durdane Hanim” has a colorful section where the heroine Ulviye cross dresses as a man and ends up in a Galata hotel with a Circassian man.

[1]Schneider-Nomidis, Galata = Schneider, A.M. - Nomidis, M.I., Galata, Estambul 1944.

Abstract | Children in Byzantine Monasteries

2006-06-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

"Children in Byzantine Monasteries"
Richard Greenfield
Many, perhaps a majority, of those involved in the world of Byzantine monasticism clearly believed that the monastery or convent was no place for children, just as it was not a place for eunuchs or members of the opposite sex. Others, however, could not so easily forget the exhortation of Jesus in the Gospel to "Let the children come to me," nor the precedent set by influential individuals in the early history of monasticism who did permit children in their foundations. As a result, despite frequent prohibitions and dire warnings of the consequences, children appear quite regularly within the fabric of Byzantine monastic life. It is evident that they were present in many communities throughout the period, albeit usually in small numbers and under carefully controlled circumstances.

In the late seventh century, the Sixth Ecumenical Council established the age of ten as the minimum at which a child might begin life in a monastery, but most later monastic founders and commentators set the bar much higher at the mid-teens to the early twenties. The temptations of sexual misconduct were always prominent in the minds of ascetics and monastic regulators, and the fear that the presence of beardless youths might prove too much for the monks clearly lies behind most attempts to exclude them. Also at work in such prohibitions, however, was evidently a desire to prevent women or eunuchs slipping undetected into monasteries, to ensure that vows were taken only by those who knew what they were doing, to forestall the ordinary distractions that might be produced by frivolous and irresponsible youths and girls, and to keep monks and nuns from the attachments of family life. The ban on children was extended in some places to cover not only those testing a vocation but also those who might be brought to an institution out of need (orphans or beggars, for example), in the course of everyday life (on errands or on feast days, perhaps), or in the course of work (such as apprentices or the offspring of manual laborers).

Such attempts to exclude children ran largely counter to the practice and sentiment evident in monastic institutions of the early Byzantine period, however, and it is clear that many individuals and communities in the later centuries, even during the period of reform, still saw no need to comply with the wishes of the rigorists. Hagiographies thus abound with saints and monastic founders who flee their families at a very early age and find a welcome in the monastic communities for which they pine, while relatives of prominent monks and nuns are adopted in their infancy and reared within the institution, often becoming ascetics and monastic administrators in their own right. At the same time orphans are cared for, prospective monastic or clerical candidates are educated and trained, young relatives are allowed to visit, youthful servants and workers are employed, and sick or possessed children are treated. Typically in the Byzantine world, behind the rhetoric of principled declarations and legal documents requiring the exclusion of children from monasteries, lies a rather different reality where children flit through the shadows of the courtyard and peep from the doorways of the outbuildings and dependencies of the monastic community.
|
Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC | Byzantine Studies 2006 Spring Symposium |
April 28–30, 2006 Becoming Byzantine: Children and Childhood in Byzantium

Knife Fighting in Nineteenth-Century Greece

2006-06-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

Petri the Knife also belonged to this knife obsessed culture.

Honor, Masculinity, and Ritual Knife Fighting in Nineteenth-Century Greece
THOMAS W. GALLANT

On the sweltering night of July 26, 1830, Tonia Theodoros from the village of Agios Theodoros on the island of Kerkyra brutally slashed the face of his fellow villager Gioragachi Mokastiriotis. Theodoros then spit on his prostrate victim and left the wine shop where the incident had occurred, while five other men, including the proprietor Panos Landates, looked on. Ten days later, Constable Andreas Sallas approached Theodoros, served him with an arrest warrant, and took him into custody on the charge of assault with a deadly weapon. At his trial in police court on August 28, the various versions of Theodoros's assault on Mokastiriotis were recounted. There had been bad blood between the men for some time; no one was quite sure why. That night at the bar, both had been drinking heavily when Theodoros called Mokastiriotis a fool and a braggart. Mokastiriotis loudly replied that he would rather be a fool than "the lord of a house full of Magdalenes." Theodoros erupted from his chair, drew his pruning knife, and demanded that Mokastiriotis stand and face him like a man. None of the other men in the room intervened as the knife-fighters traded parries and thrusts. Finally, Theodoros with a flick of his wrist delivered a telling blow that cut his victim from the tip of his chin to halfway up his cheek. As the blood flowed, Mokastiriotis fell to his knees cursing his assailant. When asked by the presiding magistrate at the police magistrate's court in the town of Kerkyra why he started fighting, Theodoros sternly replied that no man would call his wife and daughters whores and get away with it. His reputation would not allow it. As a man, he would not stand for it.
Full text archive

Kemence/Lyra

2006-06-10T13:31:00.000-07:00

"Costak" soundtrack uses the sounds of the area Petri lived and includes a song played by a Greek lyra. A closely related instrument of of the Black Sea kemence. Here is a nice folk belief relating to music provess and a Cretan hilted dagger.

"Whoever wants to become a good lyra - player should go to an isolated crossroads at midnight. First he should trace a circle on the ground with a black - hilted dagger, then enter it, stay there and start playing the lyra. A little later the Fairies will come and start hanging around him. Their purpose is not good, they want to do him harm, but since they cannot enter the circle, which has been traced with a black - hilted dagger, they try to lure him out in every possible way. They use blarney, they sing him nice songs, they wheedle him in a thousand and one different ways, but if he is wise, he must remain calm and continue to play the lyra without leaving the circle. If they fail, they invite him out of the circle in order to teach him how to play the lyra better. He must refuse. Then they will ask him to give them the lyra. The lyra - player should give it, cautious to let his arm or other part of his body out of the circle, because it will be amputated or he will go insane.

Then a Fairy starts playing the lyra with great virtuosity and afterwards they return the lyra to him, hoping that he will be persuaded to leave the circle and they will be able to harm him". According to the description of Nikos Politis, the continuous interchange of the instrument between the Fairies and the lyra - player, without anyone of them passing the limits of the circle traced with the black - hilted dagger, continues all night long until the first cock crows. Then they ask him to give them something of his own and they promise to teach him how to play the lyra like them in return. The lyra - player usually gives them one of his nails and they in turn teach him how to play the lyra with great virtuosity and then disappear at daybreak.

For this reason, in earlier times, if a lyra player played his instrument with outstanding virtuosity, he used to say: "What do you think? I learnt to play the lyra at the crossroads".

Source: The Cretan Dagger
http://www.explorecrete.com/traditions/cretan-dagger-1.htm
http://www.explorecrete.com/traditions/cretan-dagger-2.htm
http://www.explorecrete.com/traditions/cretan-dagger-3.htm

A Knife for Petri

2006-06-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

Was that boy asleep, or did he stand waiting at the foot of Slightly's tree, with his dagger in his hand?
The Adventures of Peter Pan by Barrie, James Matthew

length: 10 3/4"
blade: 6 3/8"
blade width: 1 3/16"
grip: 4 1/4"
weight: 4.8 oz

Greek knife from the Isle of Crete. The knife was made in the city of Khanya and dated 1951. Hilt has traditional "two eared" style reminiscent of Turkish yataghan, and is most likely goat or cow bone with a working-life repair to one side of the v-notch. The Cretans have been known as "the people of the dagger" since knives are worn as part of male and female folk costume, and knife making and decoration is a handicraft relatively widely practised.

Another rare greek knife, from the greek island of Crete.The greek inscription says: Chania.The embossed silvered metal scabbard with 4 silver coins attached from 1800's.
length : 81/2 inches ( 211/2 cms)
blade: 43/4 inches (12 cms)
handle: 33/4 inches (91/2 cms)

A Knife to the Heart

2006-06-10T12:44:00.000-07:00

Part of the "Costak" preproduction involves planning the visual style of the murders. The passion or the reason involved in the murder seems more to the point than blood being spilt everywhere. "Costak" is not about gore but things that might terrify us beyond gore. What helps in this view is the method used by Petri. Most of Petri's murders are committed with a knife to the heart. A side benefit to a murder like this is less blood squirting out since heart almost immediately stops pumping blood.

A found this tidbit in a book called "Mobspeak".

Mobspeak: The Dictionary of Crime Terms (Paperback) by Carl Sifakis
352 pages Checkmark Books (September 2003) ISBN: 0816045496

1880| Petri the Knife

2006-06-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

Galata
Petri at a Kuledibi brothel
Night of flames at Horoz Street
Petri meets two lovers that night
Aliki, young prostitute her young lover Ahilea
Kalikratya
They take Petri to Kalikratya fishermen's village
Petri hides at Kalikratya
Petri finds a peaceful existence
Ahilea Andoni "suslu balikci"
Aliki and Ahilea live in fear since they know who Petri is
Petri learns of Canto singer Peruz from the fishermen
Galata
Trip to Casino with the fishermen | Galata Avrupa Gazinosu
She is her Peruz and in the arms of a navy sailor at the bar
Murder #14 | Ahmed
Knife ?
Salipazari
Someone recognises and follows Petri
Murder #15 | Hasan
Knife to the heart
A few moments later petri is on board a ship
There is no hope of going back to Kalikratya
Tophane
Andon Kaptan, a night thief helps Petri's escapeto Odessa
Odessa
Petri finds work as a stoker. S/s Ayvazofski, a Russian ship
Kefalonians only works in Greek boats
Petri is safe from the Avengers from Kefaloniya
at sea
Captain's wife Alexandra is after Petri
Alexanda and Petri find a night of love in a lifeboat
Köstence
Next day Petri runs away in Rumanian port of Köstence
Befriends Milolis of Sile
Petri returns to Istanbul on board a Greek boat
Petri's first sight is a young prostitute Magdalena
Magdalena is Kiryakica, Lefteri Kaptan's daughter
Petri can not recognize her
They make love at Magdalena's room
Early morning…Petri leaves
Lambo, a sailor and young brother of Lefteri kaptan waits
Petri was also Lambo's zenane for four years
Early morning ambush
Galata
Last Murder | Death of Petri by Lambo 8/28/1880
Petri file closes once more

1879| Petri the Knife

2006-06-10T12:32:00.000-07:00

Mt. Athos
Murder #11 | Zahari
Knife ?
Murder #12 | Apostolos
Knife ?
at sea
Escape with a row boat
Petri looks for Nikola, Dragoman from Raguza
Nicola is an alcholic now
Kalyoncu Kullugu bar is their old place
Nicola is half mad with their photo in hand
"Bu ben, bu da Mavri, putana'm (fahisem)./This is me, this is mavri, my prostitute"
Perti appears at the door and shoots Nicola
Murder #13 | Nicola
Gun shot to the heart

1878| Petri the Knife

2006-06-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

Mt. Athos
Petri stays at Haci Kosta Vatakis
Petri grows beard
Vatakis has a young priest's helper (comez) called Apostolos
Apostolos (Vatakis calls him Spartakus)
Petri and Apostolos are bed mates
Avenges look for Petri for more deaths
Zahari arrives and befriends Apostolos
The two plot a plan to kill Petri

1877| Petri the Knife

2006-06-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

Mt. Athos
Petri lives with the Mt. Athos Fishermen

1876 | Petri the Knife

2006-06-10T12:28:00.000-07:00

1876 s/s Galicya, Austrian ship arrives in Beirut
Beirut Petri meets a young prostitute in a bordello
Prostitute tips Petri about an avenger
Beirut Murder #4 | Anesti
Knife
at sea Escape as a sailor
Italian Ship of Captain Humberto
at sea Saloniki-Istanbul run of the ship
Esther the singer on the boat
Esther to sing at Princci Casiono
Petri and Esther make love
at sea Ester becomes Petri's kept woman
Petri never stays at Esther's over the night
Dolabdere Petri finds home at a Dolabdere shack
Petri sees an avenger at Cadde-i Kebir
Pera Murder #5 | Toma
Knife
Murder night at Esther's
Pera Following night at Pirincci Casino
A Turk harasses Esther
Galata Murder #6 | Turk
Gun murder
Galata Esther's police interrogation
Galata Murder closes Pirincci Casino
Galata Esther decides to return to Saloniki
Galata Gem stone to Kaloferia
Dolabdere Rape of Peruz
Pera Peruz at the photo studio
Galata Zambo finds about the avengers
Arnavudkoy Zambo sets a trap invites Petri
Petri arrives one night
Arnavudkoy Murder #7 | Argiri Papazi
Knife
Arnavudkoy Murder #8 | Zambo
Knife
Pera Raif identifies Petri based on Esther's description
Raif hesitates between arrest and shoot to kill
Pera Petri evades arrest by Raif
Pera Petri finds refuge at Russian Embassy
Authorities request Petri's delivery to police
Pera Petri has Austrian Passport
Pera Petri sent to Austrian Embassy
Pera Police kept in the dark by the Russian Embassy
Pera Petri meets Dragoman Nicola
Dragoman is in love with Petri just like Lefteri
Safe passege arranged in two days to Trieste
Galata Nicola takes Petri to a bar
Galata Petri wants to get picture of Peruz before the voyage
Dolapdere Petri returns to Dolapdere shack
Dolabdere Raif coming out of shack
Dolabdere Ambush at the well
Dolabdere Murder #9 | Raif
Knife to the heart
Galata Nicola waits. Petri returns to bar
Sirkeci? Nicola and Petri photo at Vafiadis
Embassy officers take Petri to s/s Tirol
Esther is a deck passanger on s/s Tirol
at sea Murder #10 | Esther
Knife to the heart
Dardanelles Petri jumps to dark waters
Galata Petri assumed dead due to strong currents of the straits
Galata Police report stamped "dead' and closed
Aegean sea Petri lives by grabbing a passing row boat
Cretan Huseyin Arnabudaki Kaptan finds Petri in the boat
Arnabudaki kaptan leaves Petri in a Sisam fisherman's village
Sisam Island Petri changes name to Kiryako
Sisam Island Petri in love with prostitute Aspasya
Sisam Island Avengers at Sisam and Kiryako knows that petri is in danger
Hristodolos is one of Kiryako's "beau"s
Sisam Island Escape from Sisam with Hristodolos
at sea Hristodolos agrees to take Petri to Mt. Athos
at sea Petri becomes Hristodolos' zenane
Mt. Athos Hristodolos becomes a monk

1854-1875 | Petri the Knife

2006-06-01T23:39:00.000-07:00

1854 Ayamavri
Petri's mother raped
1855 Ayamavri
Petri's birth
Mother works as a prostitute
1868
Life with Petri
Mother has a client
Petri sent to Daskalos
Daskalos rapes Petri
Petri works at sailors café
1869
Petri's mother killed
Petri lives at Daskalos' home
1871
Ayamavri Murder #1 | Ispiro | Knife to the heart
Villagers support Petri
Lefteri takes Petri to his ship
Petri becomes Lefteri's zenane
Lefteri is a pirate
1872 at Sea
1873 at Sea
After 4 years as a zenane
1874
Petri and Lefteri arrives to Galata
Murder #2 | Lefteri
Petri steals Lefteri's gem and gold belt
Kalopedi, a ruffian in a sailor's den
Galata
Murder #3 | Kalopedi | Gun murder
A bum introduces Zambo, the caviar vendor
Zambo finds an escape boat
Return to Ayamavri
Avangers after Petri
A fishermen helps Petri to escape
Catania
Petri goes to Catania
Trieste
Petri goes to Trieste
Changes name to Pietri Mavri
Austrian Maritime Shipping hires Petri
Petri starts work as a stoker
1875
at sea s/s Galicya

Costumes for Costak | 6

2006-06-01T23:37:00.000-07:00

Cargees, or Watermen of the Bosphorus

Sketch in A Coffee-House, Constantinople

Seller of Sweetmeats, Constantinople
Sketches of character and costume in Constantinople, Ionian Islands &c. from the original drawings made on the spot by Capt'n. Forbes Mac Bean, 92nd Highlanders, lithographed by J. Sutcliffe (published 1854)

Costumes for Costak | 5

2006-06-01T23:27:00.000-07:00

Greek bride from Pera (Turkey). 1799 & earlier
Published Date: 1859-1860 From Costumes anciens et modernes : habiti antichi e moderni di tutto il mondo. (Paris : Firmin Didot, 1859-1860.) Vecellio, Cesare (ca. 1521-1601), author.

Monastir ; Thessalien. Published Date: 1913

Costumes for Costak | 4

2006-06-01T23:21:00.000-07:00

Greek woman late 19th--20th c.

Costumes for Costak | 3

2006-06-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

Asia Minor-Pontus

Peloponnese- Mani

Costumes for Costak | 2

2006-06-01T22:04:00.000-07:00

Greek Priest Constantinople 1878

Costumes for Costak | 1

2006-06-01T21:59:00.000-07:00

Printed on border: "Trachten XX. Costumes XX." Written on border: "[fig.] 1. Greek Islands. [fig.] 2. Turkey in Europe. [fig.] 3. Druses, Turkey in Asia. [fig.] 4. Turkey in Asia."
Source: From Bilderbuch für Kinder : enthaltend eine angenehme Sammlung von Thieren, Pflanzen, Blumen, Fruchten, Mineralien, Trachten und allerhand andern unterrichtenden Gegenstanden aus dem Reiche der natur, der Kunste und Wissenschaften. (Weimar, Germany : Industrie-Comptoir, 1792-1843.) Bertuch, Friedrich Justin (1747-1822), author.

Costume that once belonged to an Aid-de-Camp of Capodistria, First Governor of Greece. Museum of Popular Art, Nafplio, Greece. Special features of this costume are the long foustanella and the silk turban worn by the wealthy around their fez. Over the red silk sash men wore a gold selachi finely embroidered.

This particular costume has three jackets: the inner ghileki, second the fermeli with sleeves worn properly (not thrown over the shoulders), and the fermeloto guileki worn on top.

Bride's costume, Attica, c. 1890, Museum of Folk Art, Athens

Life of Petri 1855-1880| An Ottoman Chronolgy

2006-06-01T21:36:00.000-07:00

1853: Start of the Crimean War with Russia, which, though won with British, French and Sardinian aid, further demonstrated how backward the Ottoman military had become.
1856: Establishment of a united Romanian autonomous state.

Abdulmecid Ottoman sultan (ruled 1839-1861)
Abdülaziz Ottoman sultan (ruled 1861–76)

Balkan discontent was fanned by nationalist agitation supported by Serbia and by émigré Slav organizations. It culminated in uprisings largely of Christian peasants against Muslim lords in Bosnia and Herzegovina (July 1875) and in Bulgaria (August 1876). Ottoman efforts to suppress the uprisings led to war with Serbia and Montenegro (July 1876) and to attempts by European powers to force Ottoman reforms.
1876 : Occupation of Cyprus by Britain. Perhaps more significant than external changes were the internal political developments that brought about the first Ottoman constitution on Dec. 23, 1876

Mehmed Murad V Ottoman sultan (ruled May 30- August 31 1876).
Abdülhamid II Ottoman sultan (ruled 1876–1909)

(clipping above) Troops from Jerusalem arriving at Stamboul, Constantinople.

1877: Another war with Russia (Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878).
1878: March 3 Treaty of San Stefano - recognition of Romanian and Serbian independence, as well as the establishment of an autonomous Bulgarian principality under nominal Ottoman protection. Austria-Hungary occupies Bosnia by default.
1881: As the Empire celebrates its 600th anniversary, Tunisia becomes a French colony. (December 1881) the Ottoman public debt was reduced from £191,000,000 to £106,000,000, certain revenues were assigned to debt service, and a European-controlled organization, the Ottoman Public Debt Administration (OPDA), was set up to collect the payments.

Palace of Venice, Constantinople

2006-06-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

Austro Hungarian Embassy

Tatavla | The Maniots

2006-05-31T08:38:00.000-07:00

The inhabitants of Tatavla where Petri found refuge and anonimity were mainly resettled by the Ottomans with the Greeks of Mani region. They worked mostly at the admiralty shipyards of Kasimpasa by Halic/Golden Horn. The region where they came was mountainous and inaccessible hence they historically must have developed sailing skills. Homer's "Catalogue of ships in the Iliad mentions the cities of Mani: Messi, Vitilon (Itilo), Kardamli (or Skardamoula), Enopi, Gerinia, Pefnos, Avia, Githio, Kotronas, etc.

The Maniots (or Maniates; Greek: Μανιάτες)

The Mani Peninsula, also known as Maina, is a region in Greece. The Mani is the central peninsula of the three which extend southwards from the Peloponnese in southern Greece. The name "Mani" is thought to have originally meant "dry" or "treeless." Administratively, The Mani is divided between the districts of Laconia and Messenia. Messenian Maniot surnames almost uniformly end in -eas, whereas Laconian Maniot ones in -akos.

Homer refers to a number of towns in the Mani region. The area was occupied by the Dorians in about 1200 BC, and became a dependency of Sparta. The Mani was self-governing for a time before being absorbed into the Roman Empire in the 2nd century. As the power of the Byzantine Empire declined in the 9th century AD, the fortress of Maini in the south became the area's centre. After the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, Italian and French knights (known to the Greeks as Franks), occupied parts of the Peloponnese. In 1249 the Mani was occupied by the Venetians, who made it one of the twelve baronies of the Principality of Moreas and built the fortresses of Mystras, Passavas, Gustema (Beaufort) and Megali Maini.

In 1460 Mystras fell to the Ottomans, but the Mani was not subdued and retained its internal self-government in exchange for an annual tribute. The Maniots continued to bear arms and sporadically refused to pay levies and taxes imposed by the Ottomans. The Maniots survived by becoming pirates. Very ferocious closely-knit clans united by blood evolved. Local chieftains or beys governed Mani on behalf of the Ottomans. As Ottoman power declined, the mountains of the Mani became a stronghold of the kleftes, bandits who also fought against the Ottomans. There is evidence of a sizeable Maniot emigration to Corsica sometime during the Ottoman years. The last bey of Mani, Petros Mavromichalis was among the leaders of the Greek War of Independence. He proclaimed the revolution at Areopoli on 17 March 1821. The Maniots contributed greatly to the struggle, but once Greek independence was won they wanted to retain their local autonomy. During the reign of Ioannis Kapodistrias they violently resisted outside interference. The Mani's local autonomy was abolished in 1870, and the area gradually became a backwater as the inhabitants abandoned the land through emigration.

Peruz | 2

2006-05-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

Kalkin tayfalar
Gemi yapalar (yalpalar)
Icelim sarap
Olalim harap
Lariccom, trelelli hahahay!

Or

Misirimi kavururken
Dumanini savururken
Ayaklarim yoruluyor
Sokak sokak dolasirken
Bugday misir kitir kitir
Bugday misir citir citir!

Or

Ayna gibi supurgelerim var benim

Canto by Samran Hanim

2006-05-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

Canto by Samran Hanim in Rast mode

OCAGIMA INCIR DIKTI

o-dja-gi-ma in-djir-dique-di
ya-vouk-li-gim beni-ter-quith-di
dewrth-sene-lique e-meque-le-rim
ey-vah bo-chou-na-mi ghit-di

Ocagima incir dikti
Yavuklugum beni terk etti
Dort senelik emeklerim
Eyvah bosuna mi gitti

Paralarimi hep yedi
Ben seni istemem dedi
Dun ben burada yok iken
Asirdi sandigi sepeti

Samran Kelleciyan Hanim (1870 Istanbul- March 14,1955 Istanbul)

Educated at Surp Lusavorcyan. After his divorce in 1895 found herself on stage with the support of her cousin Peruz and became one of the most famous Canto singers of Istanbul (1900-1925). married to Aleksan Hagopyan (1909). She also performed at the theaters of Sevki bey and Kel Hasan Companies and with Nasit Ozcan until 1935. She composed solos, duettos and cantos.

Patriarchs of Constantinople

2006-05-28T17:32:00.000-07:00

Patriarchs of Constantinople during the life of Petri 1855-1880

Anthimus VI (1845-1848, 1853-1855, 1871-1873)
Cyril VII (1855-1860)
Joachim II (1860-1863, 1873-1878)
Sophronius III (1863-1866)
Joachim III (1878-1884, 1901-1912)

Basil Zaharoff of Tatavla

2006-05-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

Petri was living on the fringes of Tatavla. The early life of Zaharoff gives a good indication of the opprtunistic life style and street smarts of the time.

Sir Basil Zaharoff, originally Zacharias Basileios, (1849, Muğla, Turkey - 1936, Monte Carlo, Monaco) was a Greek-Russian arms trader and financier, the director and chairman of the Vickers-Armstrong munitions firm during the World War I. It was said that he fuelled conflicts in order to sell weapons to both sides.
Early life
Basil was from a Greek family in Constantinople. The name Zaharoff was adopted when the family was in exile in Russia as a result of the anti-Greek Easter pogroms (1)of 1821. The family returned to Turkey in the 1840s and lived in the Anatolian town of Muğla. By 1855 the family was back in Constantinople where they lived in the poor quarter of Tatavla where Basil was a street kid.

Little Basil’s first job was as a guide for the tourists to the Galata, or prostitution district of Constantinople, helping his clients to find the forbidden pleasures that went beyond the bounds of normal prostitution. He was then to become a fireman. The 19th century firemen of Constantinople were not at all effective at extinguishing fires, but were quite effective at rescuing the treasures of the rich for a healthy commission. Many also engaged in protection rackets and outright robbery.

Basil then took on the job of a money changer. In this career there is an unverified accusation that he would pass counterfeit currency to tourists who would not notice until they were safely on a boat steaming away from Constantinople

(1) A pogrom (from Russian: meaning "wreaking of havoc") is a massive violent attack on a particular ethnic or religious group with simultaneous destruction of their environment (homes, businesses, religious centers). The term has historically been used to denote massive acts of violence, either spontaneous or premated, against Jews, but has been applied to similar incidents against other minority groups. Massive violent attacks against Jews date back at least to the Crusades or earlier, but the first pogrom is often considered to be the 1821 anti-Jewish riots in Odessa after the death of the Greek patriarch in Constantinople, in which 14 Jews were killed. St Gregory V, Archbishop of Constantinople, occupied the Patriarchal throne three times (1797-1799, 1806-1808, 1819-1821 AD). On the day of Holy Pascha, April 10, 1821 AD, St Gregory was hanged before the doors of the Patriarchate. Those doors have remained shut since that day. After three days, the Saint's body was sold to a Jewish mob, who dragged his body through the streets, then threw it into the sea.

Sait Faik | A Hilly Road to Dolapdere

2006-05-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

Petri lived in a shack in Dolapdere's Bostan Neigborhood.

"Bir tarafında randevu evlerinin, öte tarafta umumi evlerin kaynaştığı bölge...Karidesçiler, elektrik amelesi, ekmekçi, sirkeci, marangoz çırağı, garson, berber, akordeoncu, kitaracı, bar artisti, revü figüranı, terzi çırağı gibi esnafın birbiri üzerine yığıldığı yokuşta, birbirine karışmış her din ve mezhep, Türk, Rus, Ermeni, Rum,Nasturi, Arap, Çingene, Fransız,Katolik, Levanten, Hırvat, Sırp, Bulgar, Acem, Efganlı, Çinli, Tatar,Yahudi, İtalyan, Maltız, daha her türlü milletin birbirine karıştığı bu garip mahalleden sel yatağına her akşam küçük figüran kızlar iner. Onların ve terzi kızların arkasından berber çırakları yürür; berber çıraklarının arkasına da burma bıyıklı bir Arnavut takılır."

Sait Faik Abasıyanık (18 November 1906 - 11 May 1954) was one of the greatest Turkish writers of short stories and poetry.

Petri on Kathara Deftera Day

2006-05-25T01:28:00.000-07:00

The day after Tyrofagis Sunday is Kathara Deftera (ΚΑΘΑΡΑ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΑ) which in Greek means "Clean Monday", and its the 1st day of Lent. End of February beginning of March. A first Monday for sure, not only the residents of Tatavla (1) but denizens of other neigborhoods (2) enjoys life at the bars like Ararat, Panoroma, Akrapolis, Paris, Lemonia. And Petri was hiding in Bostan District in a garden shack in half ruins. Did he don a mask and joined the crowds? Was Tahta Kilise/ Wood Church standing nearby? Church of the Annunciation of the Mother of God, at Tatavla foothils is not yet built in its place at the parish of the Virgin Evangelistria Propodon.

On this Shrove Monday (Kathara Deftera) He is alone and can only dream the flatbread (lagana), the kite, the olives, the fasolada and tarama salad…Picture of Peruz dimly lit by a window sill. Dragoman still waiting for him at a Kalyoncu Kulluğu dive? In love. Drunk?.. and suddenly a joyful Laterna music was heard...

Karoçeri Trava, na pame sta Tatavla
Posa Talira yirevis, ya na pas ke na mas feris!
Büyükdere ke Therapia; Tatavla ke Nihori
Afta ta tessara horia, pu stolizune tin poli

Carriage driver, take us to Tatavla
How many bills of five you need to take us there
Büyükdere and Tarabya; Tatavla and Yeniköy
Four places that make this city (İstanbul) real nice

Çek arabacı Tatavla'ya gidelim
Bizi oraya götürmek için kaç beşlik istersin
Büyükdere ve Tarabya; Tatavla ve Yeniköy
İstanbul'u güzelleştiren işte bu dört köy.

(1) Tatavla, area known in Byzantine times as the Tabula which means "horse stable" in Greek, is a cosmopolitan neighbourhood of Şişli today called Kurtulus whose population consists of Turks, Albanians, Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Kurds, Jews and Alevis. It was originally built as a residential area reserved for Ottoman citizens of Greek descent. First settled by Greeks from the Mani who worked in the Imperial Ottoman dockyards of Kasımpaşa. To the Greek visitor it aroused similar and even stronger emotions than the Rio dei Greci in Venice and the Griechengasse in Vienna. Till the mid 18th century Tatavla was one of the most distinctly working-class neighbourhoods - a legendary neighbourhood nonetheless, known indeed as 'legendary Tatavla'. It was remarkable for its dashing young men (Bishop Pamphilos Melissinos dubbed them "spirited and mettlesome "), young men who would not hesitate to take on the gendarmes who overstepped the bounds and became excessively oppressive, and for the efficiency of their volunteer fire-fighters and renowned housewives: 'a Tatavlian housewife' was high praise for the mistress of a house.

(2) Şakakları zülüflü, beli kuşaklı, bol paçalı Tatavla, Yenişehir, Papasköprüsü palikaryaları; pabuç kaşlı, gaga burunlu, pos bıyıklı Feridiye, Elmadağı, Pangaltı ahbarları; vapur dumanı fesli, göğsü çapraz camadanlı, yumurta ökçe şıpıdıklı tulumba reisleri; fiyakalı omuzdaşlar; saltalı, poturlu esnaf; frenk gömlekli, kravatlı kalem katipleri; kürklü yakalı, altın saat köstekli mirasyedi beyler; sırma kordonlu, çifter çifter madalyalı bıçkın hünkâr yaverleri..

SERMET MUHTAR ALUS Source: (İstanbul Yazıları, İBBKİDBY, 1994 / 19 Şubat 1944)

See also:
Greek Archives, Vol. 9: Constantinople in Old Recordings
and
Guardians of Hellenism, Vol. 5 This album has a good mix of popular music styles from Constantinople and its environs dating to the 18th and 19th century.

Istanbul Ansiklopedisi by Resat Ekrem Kocu

2006-05-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

This is the cover of the issue where Petri the Knife, Galata Canavari article appears

First Edition 1944 - 1951 (Larger format and better quality paper)
About 4 Volumes 1088 pages
Aba -Bahadir Sokagi
last issue Number 34
Ed. Resat Ekrem Kocu

Second Edition
(issue information corrected and updated Dec 27,2006)
Volume 1
Istanbul Ansiklopedisi Ed. Resat Ekrem Kocu Tan Matbaasi, 1958
Issues 1-16 pages 1-576 Aba - Alafranga

Volume 2
Istanbul Ansiklopedisi Ed. Resat Ekrem Kocu Tan Matbaasi, 1959
Issues 17-32 pages 577-1152 Alageyik Sokagi - Asik Efendi

Volume 3
Istanbul Ansiklopedisi Ed. Resat Ekrem Kocu Tan Matbaasi, 1960
Issues 33-48 pages 1153-1732 Asiret Mektebi - Baba

Volume 4
Istanbul Ansiklopedisi Ed. Resat Ekrem Kocu Tan Matbaasi, 1960
Issues 49-64 pages 1733-2308 Baba - Bayrampasa Medresesi

Volume 5
Istanbul Ansiklopedisi Ed. Resat Ekrem Kocu Tan Matbaasi, 1961
Issues 65-80 pages 2309-2884 Bayrampasa - Bogazici

Volume 6
Istanbul Ansiklopedisi Ed. Resat Ekrem Kocu Tan Matbaasi, 1963
Issues 81-96 pages 2885-3469 (3470 blank) Bogazicinde iskele Kayik ve Sandallari - Cemil Bey

Volume 7
Istanbul Ansiklopedisi Ed. Resat Ekrem Kocu Tan Matbaasi, 1965
Issues 96-112 pages 3471-4036 Cemil Bey - Ciroz

Volume 8
Istanbul Ansiklopedisi Ed. Resat Ekrem Kocu Tan Matbaasi, 1966
Issues 113-128 pages 4037-4609 Ciroz - Dis

Volume 9
Istanbul Ansiklopedisi Ed. Resat Ekrem Kocu Tan Matbaasi, 1968
Issues 129-144 pages 4613-5188 Disci - Eristeci

Volume 10
Istanbul Ansiklopedisi Ed. Resat Ekrem Kocu Yaylacik Matbaasi, 1968
Issues 145-160 pages 5189-5760 Eritmek - Firinlar

Volume 11
Istanbul Ansiklopedisi Ed. Resat Ekrem Kocu Tan Matbaasi, Milli Egitim Matbaasi, 1971
(begins with issue 161) pages 5771-7076 7000 -7076 pagination error Firin - Gokcinar

Reşat Ekrem KOÇU | Monster of Galata

2006-05-23T15:33:00.000-07:00

Reşat Ekrem KOÇU serailaized the story of Petri the Knife the Monster of Galata. I have not seen this and I am trying to locate clippings or microfilms. There is an abridged version from Istanbul Ansiklopedisi that was the basis of "Costak, the Movie"

Historian, novel and storywriter (b. 1905, İstanbul - d. 7 July 1975). He was a graduate of Bursa High School (1927), İstanbul University, Faculty of Literature (1931). He taught history at İstanbul Kuleli Military High School, Pertevniyal and Vefa High Schools.

He is known for his research in the field of history. His columns and interviews about history were published in journals and reviews. He died before he completed the encyclopedia İstanbul Ansiklopedisi (İstanbul Encyclopedia, 1944-51, 1958-71, 11 volumes).

He was writing in the journal Tercüman before he died. He is buried in Sahrayı Cedit Graveyard. Doğan Publishing House started reprinting his works in 2002.

WORKS:

POETRY: Acı Su (Bitter Water, 1965).

HISTORICAL SHORT STORY-NOVEL: Çocuklar (Children, 1930), Forsa Halil (Forsa Halil, 1962), Haşmetli Yosmalar (Regal Pretty Women, 1963), Erkek Kızlar (Male Girls, 1962), Patrona Halil (Patrona Halil, 1963), Kabakçı Mustafa (Kabakçı Mustafa, 1968), Fatih Sultan Mehmet (Fatih Sultan Mehmet, 1975), Haydut Aşkları (Bandit Loves, 1981), Kızlar Ağası Piçi (The Bastard of The Black Chief Eunuch in the Sultan’s Harem, 2002).

RESEARCH-PAPERS: Eski İstanbul'da Meyhaneler ve Meyhane Köçekleri (Bars and the Bar Dancers in Old İstanbul, 1947), Osmanlı Padişahları (The Ottoman Sultans, 1960), Hatıralar (Memories, with some chapters from Aşçı İbrahim Dede’s periodical and M. A. Akbay, 1960), Dağ Padişahları (Mountain Sultans, rebellions in the Ottoman history, 1962), Yeniçeriler (The Janissary Corps, 1964), Türk Giyim Kuşam ve Süslenme Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Turkish Clothes, Finery and Adornment, 1969), Yangın Var (Fire! - The Firemen of the Old İstanbul, 1981), Tarihte İstanbul Esnafı (İstanbul Tradesmen in History, 2002), Aşk Yolunda İstanbul'da Neler Olmuş (What Happened for Love in İstanbul, 2002), Köşem Sultan (Köşem Sultan, 2002).

1891 | Plan de Galata

2006-05-21T20:42:00.000-07:00

This plan gives a good idea of the streets of Galata and its environs during Petri's times.
Plan de Galata de l'Annuaire Oriental au 1/4000ème, dessiné par l'ingénieur Godeffroy (1891)

(click on image to enlarge)

1854-1880 | Petri, a Life

2006-05-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

1880 Petri the Knife
1879 Petri the Knife
1878 Petri the Knife
1877 Petri the Knife
1876 Petri the Knife
1854-1875 Petri the Knife

Levirentos of Galata

2006-05-19T16:11:00.000-07:00

Petri worked as a server in similar Galata meyhane/wine pub.

Mavi Boncuk |
From left Barbo(owner), ahci (cook), tezgahdar (counter help/bar tender), saki padimu or mugbace (server) and kocek (dancer). Wine barrels at he back. Samiha Ayverdi sketch drawing.
(source: Istanbul Ansiklopedisi)

Barbo:
Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese: from barbo ‘barbel’ (the fish), hence a metonymic occupational name for a fisherman or possibly pub owner since fishermen opened these original pubs to begin with.

Source: Istanbul Ansiklopedisi | istanbul Encyclopedia | Kocu Publication (1972) Issue 165 Volume 11 | pages 5888-5892 | item written by Husnu Kinayli |

1876 | Sisam

2006-05-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

1876 | Perti found a short period of refuge there

Samos Greek Σάμος; Turkish Sisam

Mt. Athos

2006-05-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

Detailed map of Mt. Athos where Perti found refuge with the fishermen.

(Detail from Map)The Balkans. Entitled Turkey and Greece, this map by Edward Weller, Issued by Blackie & Son about 1875

Santa Maura and Cephalonia

2006-05-17T08:58:00.000-07:00

Detailed map of Petri's home. Island of Ayamavri and Lefteri Kaptan's Kefalonya

Santa Maura/Leukadia and Cephalonia(Detail from Map)The Balkans. Entitled Turkey and Greece, includes the provinces of Roumania, Servia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Montenegro, as well as Moldavia, Roumelia and Greece. Map by Edward Weller. Issued by Blackie & Son about 1875.

formerly Levkás (both: lfkäs´)or Leucas (l´ks), mountainous island (1991 pop. 19,350), c.115 sq mi (300 sq km), W Greece, in the Ionian Sea; one of the Ionian Islands. Lefkás (1991 pop. 6,344), the chief town and the capital of Lefkás prefecture, is at the northern end of the island. Olive oil, currants, wine, and tobacco are produced. The island was colonized (7th cent. B.C.) by Corinthians, and Corinth and Lefkás were allies in the Peloponnesian War. Lefkás later was the capital of the Acarnanian League (3d cent. B.C.). The island was captured (1697) from the Ottoman Turks by Venice, which held it until 1797. There are ruins of Cyclopean walls and a temple to Apollo Leukates. Sappho is said, probably falsely, to have committed suicide by plunging into the sea from a cliff of the island. Lefkás is also known as Santa Maura.

Eight Murders of Costak

2006-05-14T22:44:00.000-07:00

Since Costak is a fictional story based on Petri the Blade all events were re-structured, re-arranged and murders do not replicate the descriptions of real life police reports of 1880's.

Costak Basic Structure (90 min. Breakdown of events)

Opening Titles Dipsamena, Dipsamena Petri's Tavern Song (01:45)

Part I (45 min.) "I die everyday"
1880 Petri's death in a Galata cul-de-sac (05:00)
MURDER 1 Kefalonians get their man Blood Feud
Today Dishwasher kills a man and jumps to his death from the police station (08:00)
MURDER 2 hotel kitchen Innuendo
1865 A Mother's Love (01:00)
1865 Daskalos rapes Petri (07:00)
Today Curator is trying to get the slippers from the dishwashers apartment (03:00)
1870 Petri's first murder (06:00)
MURDER 3 Aya Mavri Kafeneion Escape

Part II (45 min.) "My name is Petri "
Today Curator talks to shoemaker in Istanbul (05:00)
Life at Sea With Lefteri Kaptan (15:00)
MURDER 4 LEFTERI KAPTAN at Hotel de Marseille Money
Life of Petri The Monster of Galata (28:00)
MURDER 5 Policeman on Cadde-i Kebir Rebel
MURDER 6 Dragoman in Galata Mercy "This my love will end your pain"
MURDER 7 Eshter on the ship Escape from a Lover
MURDER 8 Sailor at the Pirincci Music Hall and Gazino Jealousy
Today Curator finishes the notes (02:00)
1865 A Mother's Love (07:00) "I will live forever"
End Credits (01:15)

Ten Songs for Costak

2006-05-14T22:17:00.000-07:00

Opening Titles Dipsamena, Dipsamena
Song 1 Petri's Tavern Song (01:45)

Part I (45 min.) I die everyday Songs 2/3/4/5
1880 Petri's death in a Galata cul-de-sac (05:00)
Song 2 Istanbul Laterna
Today Dishwasher kills a man and jumps to his death from the police station (08:00)
1865 A Mother's Love (01:00)
Song 3 Costak Theme
1865 Daskalos rapes Petri (07:00)
Song 4 Island Song from Ionian Seas 1
Today Curator is trying to get the slippers from the dishwashers apartment (03:00)
1870 Petri's first murder (06:00)
Song 5 Tavern Song 1

Part II (45 min.) My name is Petri Songs 6/7/8/9/10
Today Curator talks to shoemaker in Istanbul (05:00)
Life at Sea With Lefteri Kaptan (15:00)
Song 6 Island Song from Ionian Seas 2
Life of Petri The Monster of Galata (28:00)
Song 7 Sea Songs of Catania Trieste Beirut
Song 8 Mt. Athos | Songs of Greek Fishermen
Song 9 Black Sea | Kanto
Song 10 Tavern Song 2
Today Curator finishes the notes (02:00)
1865 A Mother's Love (07:00)
Song 3 Costak Theme
End Credits (01:15)
Song 1 Dipsamena, Dipsamena Petri's Tavern Song (0:45)
Song 3 Costak Theme (0:30)

Costak | Basic Structure for 90 Minutes Cut

2006-05-14T21:21:00.000-07:00

Costak Basic Structure (90 min. breakdown of events)

Opening Titles Dipsamena, Dipsamena Petri's Tavern Song (01:45) Song 1

Part I (45 min.) I die everyday Songs 2/3/4/5
1880 Petri's death in a Galata cul-de-sac (05:00)
Today Dishwasher kills a man and jumps to his death from the police station (08:00)
1865 A Mother's Love (01:00)
1865 Daskalos rapes Petri (07:00)
Today Curator is trying to get the slippers from the dishwashers apartment (03:00)
1870 Petri's first murder (06:00)

Part II (45 min.) My name is Petri Songs 6/7/8/9/10
Today Curator talks to shoemaker in Istanbul (05:00)
Life at Sea With Lefteri Kaptan (15:00)
Life of Petri The Monster of Galata (28:00)
Today Curator finishes the notes (02:00)
1865 A Mother's Love (07:00)

End Credits (01:15)

May 2006 Chantilly

A Marine Chart for Petri

2006-05-14T20:28:00.000-07:00

These are some of the locations Petri sailed in the Mediterannean. I do not know if Lefteri Kaptan used a similar map.

Kephalas. [Nautical map of the eastern Mediterranean], in Greek. Paris: Nikolaos Kefalas, 1818. 1 map. 97 x 66,5 cm. with 2 insets: Dardanelles hydrographic maps. This is the first chart to be constructed by the sea captain and adventurer Nikolaos Kephalas.

Between the 14th and early 17th centuries, portolan (or pilot-book) charts provided the main navigational aids between the seaports of the world. The term portolan (from the Italian 'portolano') refers to written sailing directions for seafarers. By networks of lines indicating the direction of one port from another, navigators were able to set their necessary courses. From such works, accumulated over generations, the first marine charts were drawn.

Genoese World Map (1457) [a portolano, or sea-chart, with scale bar]

Sappho's Tragic End

2006-05-13T20:30:00.001-07:00

Not only Petri but Sappho had a tragedy connected with Lefkada.

(Left) Sappho at Leucate by, Antoine-Jean Gros (b. 1771, Paris, d. 1835, Meudon) 1801 Oil on canvas, 122 x 100 cm Musée Baron Gérard, Bayeux

The young Gros moved his Salon audience in 1801, with his unearthly Sappho at Leucate, in which the poetess, in agonies of rejection, casts herself into the sea. Touched by the moonlight shimmering through her transparent veil, Sappho seems poised between two worlds; behind her on the cliffs stands a sacrificial altar.

Lefkada, or Leucas (Greek: Modern: Λευκάδα, Ancient/Katharevousa: -as) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, connected to the mainland by a long causeway and floating bridge, as well as the island's capital city.

Sappho, an artistic notion of the Greek poet by Charles-August Mengin (1877).

The myth about Sappho's suicide at Cape Lefkatas is related to other myths linking the island to the ancient Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, and to Odysseus, the hero of Homer's Odyssey. The German archaeologist Wilhelm Dörpfeld proposed the theory that the island of Nidri off the southwest coast of Lefkada was the real historical Ithaca, home of Odysseus.

Sappho was born into an aristocratic family, which is reflected in the sophistication of her language and the sometimes rarified environments which her verses record. References to dances, festivals, religious rites, military fleets, parading armies, generals, and ladies of the ancient courts abound in her writings. She speaks of time spent in Lydia, one of the wealthiest and most powerful countries of that time. More specifically, Sappho speaks of her friends and happy times among the ladies of Sardis, capital of Lydia, once the home of Croesus and near the gold-rich lands of King Midas.

A violent coup on Lesbos, following a rebellion led by Pittacus, toppled the ruling families from power. For many years, Sappho and other members of the aristocracy, including fellow poet Alcaeus, were exiled. Her poetry speaks bitterly of the mistreatment she suffered during those years. Much of her exile was spent in Syracuse on the island of Sicily.

Got Costak?

2006-05-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

Costak as a word and as a name has no meaning. Maybe it sounds a bit like Constantine (in Greek Kostak). We do not want you to have any concrete ideas about the film based on it's name. We want it to be as if it is an untitled work, a nameless piece. However as a feature film "untitled" did not sound right. We feel it has the right sound and musicality by itself if we called it "costak" and if you really force us to come up with anything... we think it is about a certain feeling of love and loss unique to Levantine ports and sleepless nights wasted on whatever passion one has. If you know what this state of mind is ... you have "Costak".

Costak...Synopsis

2006-05-13T20:29:00.000-07:00

The film interweaves story of Petri the Knifer (Blade), with a police investigation of a murder suicide of an immigrant dishwasher in an unnamed North American city and a curator that is in preparation for an exhibit at a shoe museum. One of the items he is researching is a sipidik, a slipper style backless street shoe, that ruffians wear during Petri's times.

The byline of Costak the movie at the time of pre-production tells it all:
"Costak...10 songs, 8 murders and a pair of slippers..."

Costak, the movie is based on Petri. GALATA CANAVARI BICAKCI PETRI | PETRI THE KNIFE, GALATA MONSTER . Source: Istanbul Ansiklopedisi | istanbul Encyclopedia | Kocu Publication (1972) Issue 165 Volume 11 | pages 5888-5892 | item written by Husnu Kinayli |

Petri as a "Zenane" of Lefteri Kaptan

2006-05-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

Sabiha Bozcali drawing for R.E.Kocu's serialized but unpublished in book form novel "Galata Canavari Bicakci Petri / Galata Monster Petri the Knife" showing Lefteri Kaptan, his crew and Petri on the far right Petri as a "Gemi Zenanesi/male lover on boat".(Below) Dancing Köçek with a tambourine.Photograph,late 19th c. Private collection.

Zenane (from Zenne) man acting in a woman's role (in a dress or with sexual behavior). In the Ottoman tradition of zenne (boys dressed up as women who sing and dance to entertain others. The köçek phenomenon is considered to be one of the most significant symbols of Ottoman Empire culture. The köçek was typically a very handsome young male rakkas, "dancer," usually dressed in feminine attire, employed as an entertainer and sex worker. Similarly derived from the Persian kuchak, "little," "small," or "young, "The köçeks (plural köçekler in Turkish) were usually children of non-Muslim peoples living under Ottoman rule. Their ranks were filled from the ethnic groups colonized by the Turks (such as the Albanians, Circassians, Balkan Slavs, Armenians, Jews, Roma, Moldavians and Greeks) since the profession was held to be below the dignity of a Muslim and thus forbidden to Muslim boys.

Peruz Terzekyan | Kanto Singer

2006-05-09T23:05:00.000-07:00

Peruz Terzekyan...Dates do fit. Could she be the "Little Peruz", a singer of cantos and a love interest of Petri.

1876 He fell in love with the bordello owner Kaloferiya's 12-13 year old daughter Peruz. He gave a valuable jewel from Lefteri Kaptan's belt to her mother, took the young girl to his Dolapdere shack and raped. Later he had her picture taken at a potrait studio. (unknown location, possibly a Pera Studio. The photo was lost.)

1880 Upon hearing rumors of a new singer named Peruz in Galata casinos, Petri with fishermen buddies from Kalikratya decided to check if she was his Little Peruz. indeed she was. Petri killed a sailor named Ahmet when he found the unlucky suitor in an amourous embrace with Peruz at the bar of Avrupa Tiyatrosu in Galata. Peruz escaped. So did Petri. Possibly police found a pair of slippers at the crime scene.

Peruz Terzekyan (b. Sivas 1866?- d. .....Istanbul) , the Kanto Singer

Started singing cantos in 1880 ies when she was almost 14. She composed her songs and was also the lyricist. Her stage life lasted until 1912. Her songs were published as "Nese-i dil ". Peruz was a pioneer with Şamiram, Baydzar, Büyük Amelya, Küçük Eleni, Virjin Avantiya, Mari Ferha and Agavni all non-muslim (mostly Armenian) canto singers.

Peruz was also credited as a lead in 1919 silent short " Fahri Bey Makarna Tenceresinde/Mr. Fahri in Pasta Pot" by Ismet Fahri Gulunc. Rusen Hakki and Gulunc himself were other actors. Gulunc directed another short film of the same year "Tombul Asigin Dört Sevgilisi/Four Darlings of Plump Lover" . The film was not completed de to a legel dispute and there were no credit records for Peruz. However we know that Peruz was really a plump woman at her youth and could be the women in this film also.

See also: http://costak.blogspot.com/2005/12/kantocu-peruz.html

GALATA - TOPHANE

2006-05-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

During the times of Petri there were no piers in Galata. Only in in 1879, the construction of modern piers began.

Throughout history, the Golden Horn has been the harbor of İstanbul. During the Byzantine period, piers constructed along the shores of the Golden Horn provided links to other commercial centers within the city. In subsequent periods, the Latin colonies constructed their own piers at Galata. When the Genoese began using these piers in the 13th century for trade, İstanbul became an international maritime port.

In the 17th century, Tophane was the primary port of call for foreign vessels from Europe. Then, every maritime agent had his own buoy and team of boatmen. Passengers and cargo were transported to and from the shore on caiques. But as maritime traffic got heavier and the number of passengers arriving at Istanbul increased, the need for modern piers grew. In order to satisfy this need, in 1879, the construction of modern piers began.

1891 saw the establishment of the Ottoman Pier, Warf and Warehousing Company of Constantinople with the financial support of Dupracy and Credit Lyonnais. In October 1895, the 785-meter long pier between Tophane and Karaköy was completed.

Pirinççi Music Hall / Gazino

2006-05-09T21:44:00.000-07:00

1978 | After the murder (Murder #4) in Labanon, Petri left on Captain Humberto's italian ship as a sailor. On a trip from Selanik he met Esther (Star/Yildiz) a jewish singer on her way to Pirinççi Music hall in Galata. She became his lover (kept woman) in istanbul.

Pirinççi Gazinosu | KEMANÎ TATYOS EFENDİ (1858-1913) performed with musicians like Hanende Karakaş, Tanburî Ovakim and Kanunî Şemsi at Galata's Pirinççi Gazinosu. At the beginning of the twentieth century, in the waning days of the era of modern reforms in the Ottoman Empire (1808-1918), gazino customers were Turkish intellectuals and non-Muslims of the Beyoglu district of Istanbul.

See: Article by Münir Nurettin Beken "Aesthetics and Artistic Criticism at the Turkish Gazino"
http://www.muspe.unibo.it/period/ma/index/number8/gazino/bek_00.htm

The history of the word casino reveals a transformation from a cottage to a gambling palace. The source of our word, Italian casino, is a diminutive of casa, “house.” The term originally meant a small villa, summerhouse or pavilion built for pleasure, usually on the grounds of a larger Italian villa or palazzo. There are examples of such casinos at Villa Giulia and Villa Farnese. Central to the transformation is the development of the senses of casino in Italian. The word then came to be used for a social gathering place, a room or building where one could dance, listen to music, and gamble. This last pastime seems to have gained precedence over the others, at least as far as the development of the word is concerned, and casino took on the meaning “gambling establishment.” These senses of the Italian word have all been borrowed into English, the sense “social gathering place” being recorded first in the 18th century, the sense “gambling establishment” first in 1851.

Poetry by R.E. Kocu

2006-05-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

Bitter Water / Aci Su (Kocu publications, 1965)

Aci Su

girdik
gün ışığı değmemiş denize,
yattık
altımızda çakıl, kum,
üstümüzde acı su,
omuzlarımıza kadar örten,
topuklarımıza kadar çekilen
acı su,
bizi kıskanmayan büyük acı su.

from Külhan Türküleri

yavrum

gönlüm tüyleri boz, gözleri al
dağlar üstünden uçan bir kartal.
yaylalarda güheylan istiyorum:
yavrum,
seni istiyorum

gönlüm bir yarasa, gözleri kan
kanadı mehtap, sesi kehkeşan.
bilmem ki canım, ateş mi, kül mü istiyorum,
bilmem taranmış baş mı, perişan kakül mü istiyorum,
yavrum,
seni istiyorum

gönlüm yol kesen asker kaçağı,
belinde öndördünde bir ceylan bıçağı...
beni öldürecek candarma, kurşun istiyorum,
bağrıma bir bıçak da bu güzel vursun istiyorum:
yavrum,
seni istiyorum.

SABiHA RÜŞTÜ BOZCALI (1903-1987)

2006-05-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

Illustrator of the Galata Canavari/Monster of Galata, article on Petri the Knifer in R. E. Kocu's Istanbul Encyclopedia

SABiHA RÜŞTÜ BOZCALI (b. istanbul 1903- d. Istanbul 1987)

Sabiha Rüştü was the daughter of Rüştü Pasha and the granddaughter of Memduh Pasha, a former Minister of the Interior. She was born in Istanbul. In those days girls never went to school, normally receiving their education from private tutors, but with the help of her uncle. Sabiha Rüştü managed to go to Italy and study to Rome, making copies of the works in the Vatican collection in order to be able to afford lessons from a famous teacher. During the Armistice period after the end of the First World War she worked in the Haiman studio in Berlin, and then studied for three year in the Munich Academy. She also worked for a year together with Namık İsmail in the Corinth studio. She contributed works to the Galatasaray exhibitions of 1922 and 1923, but these consisted entirely of sketches. She revealed herself as having a fine command of line in the style of the Western masters. “Design is the basis of all painting”.

After her return from Europe she spent the years 1926-1928 continuing to paint in her old friend Namık Ismail’s studio in the Academy of Fine Arts. At the same time she regularly contributed works to the annual exhibitions in the Galatasaray Lycee. Many years passed by in this way. As a painter she gave great importance to mirroring truth and reality in everything she painted. She visited Paris and Rome, and in 1931 she worked in Paris with the pointillist painter Paul Signac. During her three years stay in Paris she painted portraits of Signac’s wife and daughter. She was particularly successful in three types of painting: landscapes, flowers and portraits. She converted the stable of her villa at Kireçburnu into a studio and produced very large-scale paintings there. In 1 947-1949 she worked in Rome with Severini, Massimo Cam pigli, De Pisis and the founder of modern Italian painting, De Chirico.

Sabiha Bozcalı, was at the same time a highly accomplished illustrator, and for twenty-five years she contributed illustrations to the newspapers. She also illustrated works such as Nezihe Araz’s Anatolian Saints (Anadolu Evliyaları), and Yunus Emre, and made a number of designs and sketches for the Istanbul Encyclopedia edited by Reşat Ekrem Koçu.

Lloyd Austriaco /Triestino

2006-05-09T20:40:00.000-07:00

1875 | Petri worked as a stoker for an Austrian shipping company. (Galicya Vapuru ?) there are two ships owned by Austrian Lloyd with similar names. Only one matches in date
Galatea built 1871 in service until 1908. 1,352 tons
Galicia built 1902 in 1919 transferred to Lloyd Triestino, Trieste. 2,836 tons

Lloyd Triestino was founded as Austrian Lloyd in 1836 and became one of the World's biggest shipping companies by managing most oversea trade and passenger travel of Austria-Hungary until 1918. The Austrian Lloyd was running regular services from Trieste to the Near East, India, China and the Far East, Brazil the USA and Northern Europe. It also was the first to use steam ships.

Lloyd Triestino was formed in 1919 as the successor to Lloyd Austriaco following the incorporation of Trieste into the Kingdom of Italy on January 3rd 1919. Lloyd Triestino or Triestian Lloyd is a shipping company based in Trieste, Italy.

Laterna of Istanbul

2006-05-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

It is quite possible that laterna music will be included in Costak | Sources CD and will influence the soundtrack of the film.

Istanbul Laternasi: nostalgic music from the old times

According to author Cemal Unlu, the laterna traveled from Turkey to Greece in 1923. Some excerpts (edited and condensed):

The laterna, a mechanical instrument which repeated programmed melodies, first appeared in Istanbul at the end of the 19th century. This type consisted of the laterna and a "civili laterna" (laterna with pins). The civili laterna was a model developed by the Swiss Aristide Janivier in 1776.

A Leventine [one born in an eastern Mediterranean land] by the name of Guiseppe Turconi began to sell laternas which he imported from Italy to his shop in Istanbul. Naturally these laternas were programmed to play Italian melodies and waltzes. Most of the laterna masters were primarily Istanbulites who migrated to Greece after the population exchange of 1923. (Fearing Turkish reprisals, an estimated 50,000 Greeks fled Istanbul following the Asia Minor Campaign of 1919 and the Greek destruction of Turkish Smyrna (Izmir) in 1922. The Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 caused even more Greeks to flee, even though Istanbul was specifically exempt from the population exchange.) In taverns in the countryside and in Greek religious festivals, the laterna constituted the mainstay of musical entertainment, replacing performances by live musical ensembles.

In Pire, Istanbul-born Nikos Armaos dedicated his life to this instrument and was probably the greatest master of all time. Thus the Istanbul laterna came to life again in Athens, Greece. Nikos Armaos organized, collected and made new arrangements of many zeybek and kasap melodies. He added some "2,000 works, of which the majority were his own compositions that were not drawn from songs", by attaching pins. Nikos Armaos was recorded on two LP records in Greece; he died in Athens in May 1979 at the age of 90.

Label reads: Giuseppe Turconi Fabricante Pianoforti Ed Cilindro 1900

Petri...a Greek Pirate

2006-05-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

Petri pobably was a Greek Pirate on the ship of Lefteri Kaptan.The Latin term pirata -- from which the English "pirate" is derived -- derives ultimately from the Greek for "to attempt."

Pirates of Greece

The coves and small islands of Greece have long sheltered enterprising shipowners who preyed on the unwary. Sometimes, the unwary was the enemy, and the pirates became national heroes. Ship flags that once inspired fear instead inspired hope. Piracy knew no gender barriers - Spetses' Laskarina Bouboulina is a famous, and now revered, pirate turned freedom fighter. And the hopeful still search the island of Skopelos for Adrina's pirate treasure while staying at the hotel of the same name.

Often, the victim of Greek pirates was another Greek island. Paros suffered greatly from pirate attacks. Skiathos built fortresses to deter them, but still endured their depredations. On Corfu, the pirate attacks forced the inhabitants to seek Roman help, and so established the first Greek foothold for the Romans.

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Later, pirates abducted a young Pelekas bride on her wedding day. Legend says her mother cursed the pirates, who turned into stones still visible offshore. The bride turned to stone along with them, the result of some unfortunate phrasing on the part of her mother. On the mainland near Thessaloniki, the village of Pefkohori appears to have recovered nicely from being destroyed by pirates in 1805.

Some islands became known as pirate lairs. The fortress built by one Genoese pirate Pascatore still stands at Ierapetra on Crete. Saracen pirates earlier made a base out of the interesting small island of Gavdos, where the inhabitants had to cultivate their fields secretly to avoid the enemy. Monasteries chose their locations carefully, always aware that the convenient ports and bays of small islands would be equally convenient for pirates on the attack. Want to find a monastery? Look up, as at Patmos, where hillsides made defense a little easier for the religious recluses. The threat of invasion from the sea made its mark on the architecture of the islands. Narrow pathways and twisting, winding streets were a practical deterrent to attack.

Caravel

2006-05-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

CARAVEL: from the Greek karabos or Arabic qârib

The caravel (also spelled carvel) is a light sailing ship that that was developed by the Portuguese in the late 1400's, and was used for the next 300 years. The Portuguese developed this ship to help them explore the African coast.
The caravel was an improvement on older ships because it could sail very fast and also sail well into the wind (windward). Caravel planking on the hull replaced thinner, less effective planking. Caravels were broad-beamed ships that had 2 or 3 masts with square sails and a triangular sail (called a lanteen). They were up to about 65 feet long and could carry roughly 130 tons of cargo. Caravels were smaller and lighter than the later Spanish galleons (developed in the 1500's).

Two of Christopher Columbus' three ships were caravels (the Niña and the Pinta).

Source: Henry C. Murphy. The Voyage of Verrazzano: A Chapter in the Early History of Maritime Discovery in America. New York: 1875. Memorial University of Newfoundland & Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

1900 | Fire Brigade

2006-05-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

1900 | Fire Brigade | Tulumbaci(s) | Pompiers courand a l'incendie

This picture gives a good idea to certain dress codes of the time and some members wear a certain backless street shoe "yemeni / sipidik / slipper" that Petri must have used.

At the time Istanbul had no fire brigade. What it did have were tulumbaci, who would run to the scene of the fire carrying water pumps on their backs, more of a competitive sport than a public service. Each neighbourhood had its own team of firefighters. They were young men, good-looking, fast runners, and, of course, poor. The point of the competition was not putting out the fire but getting to the scene of the fire first. The sport had its own rules. A person would think twice before asking "Where’s the fire?", for fear of insult. The first proper fire brigade was set up by the Hungarian Count Szecseny, who was made a pasha in 1874, after the famous fire of Pera in 1870 when 3,000 buildings burned down.

The last surviving tulumbaci, Kemal Güleçin at Balat in Saffet's cafe playing card games like melot, prafa or pişpirik. He gets in the mood and shouts like the tulumba crew called “Tulumbacı Narası” .“Yaman gelir, yaman gideriz, Fethiyeli aslan tulumbacılarız”... “Karada aslan, denizde kaplan, var mı bize yan bakan”!

"Costak...10 songs, 8 murders and a pair of slippers..."

2006-04-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

This is Costak's first official logo (April 23,2006)

Petri committed more murders during his short life. "Costak" is however a film that brings characters from today into the times and tribulations of Petri and is not his full life story. Changes were made for the film and the real life provides only an inspiration. It is a legend that after each murder as he ran away he casted his slippers to run faster. Police in many cases connected the murders to Petri solely on the base of slippers found near a crime site.

Kanto Article by Cemal Ünlü

2006-03-25T22:41:00.000-08:00

Kanto by Cemal Ünlü

Italian theater and opera has had a profound effect on Turkish culture in the past century. Like the terminology ofseamanship, the terminology of music and theater derived from Italian. In the argot of the improvisational theater of Istanbul the stage was called "sahano", backstage was referred to as "koyuntu", backdrops depicting countryside were "bosko", the appiause was "furi" and the songs sung between the acts and plays were called "kanto".

The improvised pieces were stage adaptations of the Karagöz (shadow puppet) and Ortaoyunu (traditional form of Turkish theatre performed in the open) traditions, aithough in much more simplifled form. The themes explored in these traditional theater arts as well as their stock characterizations and stereotypes were used as the framework tor the new extemporaneus performances of the tuluat (improvised) theater.

As with their Italian counterparts the Turkish troupes employed songs and music before the show and between the acts to peak people's interest and draw in customers.

Kanto: songs sung between the acts as solos or duets, based on traditional eastern makam (modes) but performed on western instruments.

Kanto: "first the introduction, then the lyrics, shake your shoulders to a violin, solo, cock your head and shimmy in oriental dance style, leap around like a partridge, then slowly disappear behind the curtain."

Kanto: the irreplaceable unifying feature of ali Turkish tuluat theater.
We can divide kanto into two periods. The division, particulariy in terms of musical structure, is very clear between the early kanto and the kanto of the Post-Republic perlod. It is further possible to identify two styles within the early period. Galata and Direklerarası (both neighbourhoods of Old Istanbul).

Kanto first took root in the musical the aters of Galata, a part of town frequented by sailors, rowdies and roustabouts. Ahmet Rasim Bey paints a vivid picture of the Galata theaters in his novel Fuhs-i Akit (An Old Whore).

"Everyone thought Peruz was the most flirtatious, most skillful and the most provocative. The seats closest to the stage were always crammed full... They said of Peruz, 'she is a trollop who has ensnared the heart of many a young man and has made herself the enemy of many. 'Her songs would hardly be finished when chairs, flowers, bouquets and beribboned letters. Come flying from the boxseats. It seemed the building would be shaken to the ground."

Direklerarası was a littie off the beaten track and İn comparison to Galata was a more refined center of entertainment. Direklerarası was said to be quite lively at night during the month of Ramadan (Ramazan in Turkish) and certainly once its attractions was its family atmosphere. It was here that the troupes of Kel Hasan and Abdi Efendi and later that of Neshid enjoyed a great popularity. It was under the influence of these masters that kanto experienced its golden years.

The troupes orchestra would be made up ofsuch instruments as the trumpet, trombone, violin, and trap drum and cymbals. The orchestra would start to play popular songs of the day and marches in front of the theatre about and hour before the show to drum up interest. This intermission or Antrak music ended up with the well known Izmir March, a sign that the show time was approaching. The play began as the musicians went in and took their places at the side of the stage.

The kanto singers of the period were also composers. Set to extraordinarily simple melodies which were the fashion of the day, the lyrics relied heavily of tensions between men and women as well as reflecting topical events. The compositions were in such fundamental makams as Rast, Hüzzam, Hicaz, Hüseyni and Nihavent. Kanto songs are remember both by the names of their interpreters and by their creators, artists such as Peruz, Shamran, Kamelya, Eleni. Küçük and Büyük Amelya, Mari Ferha and Virjin. That kanto brought an erotic element to the stage performance was an important aspect and one that should not be overlooked or separated out.

Art and cultural life gained new dimensions with the changes brought about by the 1923 formation of the Turkish Republic. It was a period of rapid transformation and its effect were widespread. Turkish women had finally won the freedom to appear on the stage, breaking the monopoly previously held by Rum (Istanbul Greek) and Armenian women who performed in musical and non-musical theatre. Institutions like Darulbedayi (Istanbul City Theatre) and Darulelhan (Istanbul Conservatory of Music) had long been turning out trained artists.

Western lifestyles and western style art put pressure on the traditional Turkish formats and these were swept off to the side. The operetta, the tango then later the Charleston and the fox-trot overshadowed kanto. Kanto's popoularity began to fade, the citys centers of entertained shifted and the theaters of Galata and Direklerarası were closed down. Turkish female artists were unreceptive to kanto's inherent ribairy and chose to keep their distance from it.

But there came a change agah in the 1935's, there was a revival of interest in the kanto form. Aithough rather far from its fundamental principles a new type of kanto was önce again popular.

It is important to point out that kanto had now moved from the stage to the recording studio. While the subjects dealt with in the lyrics were stili the same old quarreis between men and woman, mixed in with satirical takes on fashion and current events. the songs were being written with the 78 rpm phonograph in mind. So much so that every record label hired their own kanto composers-and rather famous ones at that! With Columbia at the fore, record labels commissioned kanto from Kaptanzade Ali Rıza Bey, Refik Fersan, Dramalı Hasan, Sadettin Kaynak, Cümbüş Mehmet and Mildan Niyazi Bey. The makams were the same but the instrumentation had changed. Kanto were now accompanied by cümbüş (a fretlees banjo like instrument) the ud (a fretless) lute, and calpara (castenets). Foxtrot, Charleston and rumba rhythms dominated. The tunes were being written and sung more tor listening than tor dancing. Female soloists include Makbule Enver, Mahmure, and Neriman; Beşiktaşlı Kemal Senman was the most sought after male singer tor duets.

Among the topics explored by the new kantocu (singer or composer of kanto) perhaps the most frequent subjert of satire was the new role of women brought about by the formation of the Republic. Songs like Sarhoş Kızlar (Drunken Girls) or Şoför Kadınlar (Women Drivers) were sung seemingly in revenge tor ali the suffering they had endured at the hands of men in the past. Other topical songs include Daktilo (The Typewriter) whic brought to mind the newly formed Secretaires 7 Society. Songs such as Bereli Kız (The Girl with the Beret) and Kadın Asker Olursa (Women Were Soldiers) were full of mockery and ridicule.

The early period kanto were largely nurished by Istanbul culture. It was much the same in the Post-Republican period. The city's large and diverse population provided both the characters and the events that were the mainstay of kanto. Kanto was heavily influenced by musical theatre. Roman (gypsy) music and culture. which was itself of the subject of satire, left its mark on kanto form. Another major influence was Rum music. The importance of the Istanbul Rum, who were so fond of entertainment and of singing and playing, must not be underestimated. It is a natural and inevitable resuit of cultural exchange. As it was, almost all the kanto singers were either Rum or Armenian, artist like Pepron, Karakas, Haim, Samran and Peruz who performed during the period following 1903.

Eventually kanto became more of a definition, a generalized genre than a musical term. Any tune that was outside of the days musical conventions, anything light that appealed to current trends and tastes was labeled kanto. Any music played with different instruments that was free rhythmic or somehow novel was labeled kanto, it was the product of a middie class urban culture, of urban Istanbul.

This music, kanto, from the beginning of this century has been accepted as the forerunner oftoday's pop culture and it succeeded in remaining popular tor close to halt a century.

Çiçekçi yosmaları

2006-03-25T22:23:00.000-08:00

Sinema ses mühendisi Necip Sarıcıoğlu'ndan, yüzyılbaşı İstanbul'unu titreten bir numaralı kabadayı Hrisantos'un bu sokakta büyüyüp yetiştiğini öğreniyorum. Bir çok güzel kadını kapatan, eşcinsellere düşkünlüğü ile de bilinen Hrisantos'un Çiçekçi Sokağı'nda 46 numaralı evde oturmuş olabileceğini söylüyor Necip Sarıcıoğlu. Daha o yıllarda travestik ve eşcinsel fuhuşun da bir geleneği olsa gerek Çiçekçi Sokağı'nda. Özellikle iki tane ev var ki, bu evlerin sermayeleri olan delikanlılar kadın kılığına girip pencere ve kapı önlerinde, civar kahvehanelerde ve sokaklarda boy gösteriyorlar. Bütün evlerin uşakları da aynı boydan gençler ve adamlar. Çiçekçi Sokağı'nda fuhuş yapan kadınlara "Çiçekçi yosmaları" veya "Çiçekçi'nin gülleri" deniyor.

Bir de sokak ile aynı adı taşıyan bir koltuk meyhanesi var. 1880 ile 1890 arasında Doktor lakabı ile anılan İstelyo isminde bir Yunan uyruklu tarafından işletiliyor. Çiçekçi Sokağı ile Yeniçarşı Sokağı kavşağındaki bu mekan her iki sokağın fahişelerinin uğrak yeri olarak tanınıyor. Fuhşun acemisi olanların eşiğinden içeri adım atamadıkları "Çiçekçi"nin müşterileri ise Yunanlı, İtalyan, Rus, İngiliz ve Fransız gemiciler. İçeride Rumca konuşulur, kapısından sokağa neşeli kahkahalar, küfürler, Rumca şamata ve yaygarası taşarmış. 1890 kışında işlenen bir cinayet sonucu kapanan "Çiçekçi"nin sahibi doktor hakkında da cinayet davası açılmış. Daha sonra da doktor sınır dışı edilmiş.

ÇİÇEKÇİ SOKAĞI CİNAYETİ

2006-03-25T22:22:00.000-08:00

ÇİÇEKÇİ SOKAĞI CİNAYETİ

Çeşitli zabıta vakaları ile ünlenmiş bu sokakta işlenmiş benzeri az rastlanır bir cinayet olayı.

Katil 17 yaşındaki Kız Yani. Bir yıldan beri beraber yaşadığı Perikli adındaki kayıkçı ile bir gece müdavimi oldukları tavernadan çıktıktan sonra Çiçekçi Sokağı'ndaki genelevlerden birine giderler ve birer kadınla yatarlar. O gece Kız Yani'yi konuk eden, asıl adı Viyolet, muhitindeki takma adı Deniz Kızı Despina olan 35 yaşındaki kadın güzel oğlana aşık olur ve kendisinden on sekiz yaş küçük olan bu delikanlıyla sevgili olur. Üç ay süren yakın dostlukları sonunda birbirlerine hayat hikayelerini anlattıklarında korkunç gerçek ortaya çıkar. Despina ve Yani kardeş olduklarını öğrenirler. Facia bu kadarla da kalmaz. Despina kendisini kandırdıktan sonra yüzüstü bırakan ve fuhuş girdabına düşmesine neden olanın kayıkçı Perikli olduğunu söyler. Despina Aranvutköy'deki baba evinden ayrıldıktan sonra Yani dünyaya gelmiştir. Daha sonra iki kardeş intikam amacı ile kayıkçıyı öldürme kararı alırlar. Kız Yani kopuk aşığıyla bir gece Çiçekçi Sokağı'ndaki geneleve geldiklerinde bir işret sofrası kurulur. Perikli sarhoş olup sızar ve iki kardeş tarafından kendi kuşağı ile boğularak öldürülür.
Cinayet davası iki yıl sürer. Suçlu olarak yalnız Yani sorguya çekilir. Ablasının adı, en küçük ayrıntıya dahi girmeden, "Müntehir Despina," diye geçer. Cinayeti işlediği zaman 17 yaşını doldurmamış olması, ağır tahrik ve başka hafifletici nedenlerle Yani yedi yıl hapse mahkum edilir.

Kanto

2006-03-25T22:14:00.000-08:00

Polyphonic music, which developed in the West over many centuries, is alien to traditional Turkish music. Polyphony finally entered Turkey with light music such as operettas, tangos and kantos in the Nineteenth Century.

Erken Dönemde Kanto
Kantoyu iki döneme ayırabiliriz. Gerçekte de hem biçimi hem müzikal yapısı ve yorumlanışı açısından erken dönem kantoları ve Cumhuriyet sonrası kantoları önemli farklılıklar gösterir. Erken dönem kantoya, Galata tiyatroları ve Direklerarası kantosu demek de mümkündür. Daha çok gemicilerin ve bıçkınların uğrakyeri olan çalgılı Galata tiyatroları. Ahmet Rasim Bey'in naklettiğine göre "Birinci perdeleri ekseriya soğuk, pandomima usulunde; bir komediyen veya zamanın komikleri Paskal Andon, Corci, Todori gibi aktörlerin Rum şivesiyle, bozuk Türkçeyle oynayıp, namına tiyatro dedikleri, Ortaoyununun sahneye çıkarılmış kaba bir taslağından ibaret, saçma sapan söz döküntüleridir". Birinci perdeden sonra, ikinci derece şantözlerin okuduğu kanto faslı başlar. Tiyatronun "devşirme orkestrasının ahengi" arasında kemani Kıvırcık Toni yahut klarnetçi Salih Efendi, "Peruz'un ya da Küçük Amelya'nın gelişini müjdeler"

Ahmet Rasim Bey Fuhş-i Atik kitabında, Galata tiyatrolarırı ayrıntılı bir biçimde anlatır. "Peruz daha işveli, daha marifetli, daha şehvetli daha munis görünüyordu. Onun için tiyatronun sahneye yakın yerleri dopdolu bulunurdu. Tersane topçu neferlerinden, sıkma potur üstüne kukuletalı sako giyimli natırlardan, tellaklardan, hafiyelerden, mavnacı, salapuryalardan tütün da kalem mümeyyizlerine, on dört on beş yaşlarında çocuklara varıncaya kadar hekes buralarda yerini alır. O zaman Peruz için derlerdi ki: Çok kimsenin katili olmuş çok gencin caninin yakmış bir kahpedir. "Sarkışını bitirdi mi, localardan sandalyeler, çiçekler, buketler, fiyongalı mektuplar atılır, şangırtı, höngürtü, patırtıdan bina yıkılacak zannedilirdi. Rakipler arasında tokattan, sopa, usturpadan başlayan çekişme, ustura, bıçak, demir çekme, bazen de tabanca atmakla" son bulurdu. Gerçekten de Peruz ve öteki kantocular için bu türden sonu acı biten pek çok sevda hikayesi anlatılır. Peruz'un Ayvansaraylı hamal kahyası bir sevgilisi olduğu, ona sıkı sıkıya bağlı ve sahneye savrulan paralara yan gözle bile bakmayacak, pas vermeyecek, namuslu bir kadın olduğu da söylenir." O sadece çiçeğe meraklıdır. Kim bir çiçek atarsa onu alır, koklar ve göğüsüne takardı". Bu Galata tiyatrosu hikayelerinin en acılısı da, Agavni isimli bir Ermeni kantocunun başından geçenlerdir. İki erkeğin rekabeti neticesinde belalısı 'Mart Dokuzu' tarafından sahnede kurşunlanmış ve kendisine aşık, saraya mensup bir paşanın sahneye fırlattığı çiçek demetinin yanında can vermişti.

Ayak takımının pek uğramadığı Direklerarası, Galata'ya göre daha sakin bir eğlence merkezidir. Özellikle Ramazan geceleri çok hareketlidir ve en önemli özelliği ailece gidilebilir olmasıdır. Burada önceleri, Kel Hasan ve Abdi Efendilerin, daha sonraları Naşid'in toplulukları büyük rağbet görmüş ve kanto sanatı, gerçekten de parlak yıllarını bu ustaların idaresi altında yaşamıştır. Topluluk orkestrası keman, trompet, trombon, klarnet ve bir trampetle zilden oluşur. Büyük bir ihtimalle de batı çalgılarını çalanlar Muzika-yı Hümayun sazcılarıdır. Orkestra temsilden bir saat önce kapı önünde günün sevilen şarkılarını, kimi oyun havalarını ve marşları çalarak seyirci toplamaya çalışır. İzmir Marşı ile son bulan bu "Antrak müziği" artık gösterinin başlayacağınin da bir işaretidir. Toparlanan orkestranın gidip sahne kenarındaki yerini almasıyla da gösteri başlardı. Dönemin kantocuları aynı zamanda bestecileridir. Son derece basit ezgileri olan kantolar günün modasını, güncel olayları yansıtan, en çok da kadın erkek çekişmesine dayalı güfteler üzerine söylenmiştir. Yangın, Çoban, Değirmenci, Dondurmacı, Sevda Pazarında, Avcı Kantosu, Sarı Liralar, Seni Budala Şaşkın kantoları gibi.

Bazı güfteler, Pencereden Gördüm Ayı, Ocağıma İncir Dikti, Leblebici kantolarında olduğu gibi, mizahi özellikler de gösterir. Rast, Hüzzam, Hicaz, Hüseyni, Nihavend gibi temel makamlarla bestelenmiştir. Kanto, hem okuyucusu, hem bestecisi kantocunun adıyla anılır. Peruz, Şamram, Kamelya, Eleni, Küçük ve Büyük Amelya, Mari Ferha, Verjin gibi hanım kantocular ve Niko, Naşid gibi erkekler solo ve düet yaparlardı. Kanto ritimlerine uygun olarak raks etmek, basit adımlar ve omuz titretmelerle kantoyu erotik bir sahne gösterisine dönüştürmek işin bir önemli yanı, ayrılmaz parçasıdır.

Kantolar

Murat Belge

Türk müziğinde kanto, birtakım insanların "ayıp olur" kaygısıyla tutkularını itiraf edemedikleri ve adı geçince "Ha, o mu? önemli değil. Ciddi bir şey değil, " diye geçiştirmeye çalıştıkları bir sevgiliyi andırır. Çünkü kanto bütün özellikleriyle "saygıdeğerlik" idealinin karşıtı değilse dışındadır, aynı zamanda da çok sevilmiş bir türdür.

Dünyada her yerde böyle müzik türleri bulunur. Ya da, tarih boyunca, bazı müzik türlerine bu gözle bakıldığı uzun dönemler olmuştur. Romantizm'in çıkışma ve sonra milliyetçiliğin gelişmesine kadar halk müziği aşağılanan bir türdü. Kentleşme sonrasında, kentlerin alt sınıflarının ürettiği müzikler de kibar çevrelerde görmezlikten, işitmezlikten gelindi. Denizci türküleri, yalnız alt sınıfa ait oldukları için değil,
güfteleri genellikle kabul edilmiş "edep" normlarına aykırı gittiği için küçümsendi.

Ama gene birçok yerde ve birçok dönemde, sınıfsal snobizmle yok sayılan müzik türleri rehabilitasyona da uğradı; New Orleanslı zencilerin blues'ları, Arjantinli apaşların tangoları v.b. Kanto ise pek böyle bir "saygıdeğerleşme" sürecine de giremeden yok oldu. Bunun bir iki istisnası oldu: ellilerde, Türkiyenin ilk nostalji dalgalarından biri olan Radyo'daki "Ramazan Eğlenceleri" programları ve bir de, altmışlarda, Altunizade'de bir avuç insanın birkaç yıl gene Ramazan dönemlerinde dirilttiği "Direklerarası" atmosferi. Bu sınırlı canlanmalarda kantoyu sevenler (hatırlayanlar ya da yeni işitip hoşlananlar), artık olmayan ve olmayacak bir şey olarak onu sevdiler. "Artık olmama"sıydı, önemli olan.

Demek ki, kanto kendisini ortaya çıkaran toplumsal koşullara fazlasıyla bağlıydı. Bu koşulların neler olduğunu görmeye çalışalım.

En başta Osmanlı toplumunun batılılaşmasını ve İstanbul'un da bu sürece ayak uydurmasını saymak gerekiyor. Bu sürecin dinamosu Beyoğlu'nda çalışıyordu, ama İstanbul'un başka semtleri de oraya ayak uydurmakta çok gecikmediler. Beyoğlu bugün bildiğimiz biçimini 1871 yangınından sonra almaya başlarken Direklerarası da 1880'lerde alternatif eğlence yeri haline geldi.

Direklerarası İstanbul'un "eğlence" kavramını değiştirdi. Bundan önce eğlence bayram gibi belirli zamanlara özgü bir şeydi ya da düğün ve sünnet düğünü gibi özel kutlamalarda, kutlayanın kesesine göre, çevre halkını da içerecek biçimde düzenlenirdi. ilk olarak Direklerarası, adresi belli ve sürekli bir "eğlence yeri" olarak ortaya çıktığı gibi eğlencenin bazı biçimlerini de -tiyatro,kanto (v.b.) - geleneksel İstanbul halkı, geleneksel eğlencelerin yanısıra, ilk burada tanıdı.

İstanbul başından beri sınıfsal bir esasa göre kurulmuş bir şehir olmadığı için, eğlencenin paylaşımı da çoğu zaman "umuma" açıktı. Bayram yerine herkes giderdi; değindiğim sünnet düğünü tipinden eğlencelerde de, düğün sahibi, orta halli ve yoksul mahalle sakinlerini olaya katmaya özen gösterirdi. Bu alışkanlığın Direklerarası'nda da devam ettiğini biliyoruz. Varlıklı ile yoksulu bir arada memnun etme durumu, özellikle kanto gibi bir türde hayal gücünü üretkenliğe teşvik eden bir etkendir.

Kanto, toplumda bir değişimin ürünü ve aynı zamanda ürünü olduğu değişim hakkında bir "commentaîre"dir. Sırf bir "şarkı" olarak baktığmızda, ezgisi, temposu, sazları ve söyleniş biçimiyle, o zamana kadar bilinen bütün "şarkı"lardan farklıdır. İlk Kanto örneklerinde çok belirgin olmayan bu farklılıklar (Örneğin "Seni her dem anıyorum" gibi bir parça "curcuna" usulünde bir şarkı ya da kanto tavrında söylenebilir, ikisine de gider), zamanla, önceki "mahcubiyet"lerinden sıyrılır ve açılan yolun sonuna kadar giderler. Bütün bu farklılıklar içinde en çarpıcı olanı, kadının varlığıdır. Kadının kendini sahnede göstermesi yetmiyormuş gibi, elbisesi de onu genellikle, hiç alışılmadık biçimde gösterir -bütünüyle "mahrem" kalmış bedenin- bazı bölümlerini açarak. Ama kanto yalnız bir "şarkı" değildir; aynı zamanda, kendisini izleyecek olan oyunun bazı "teatral" özelliklerini de içerir. Kantoyu söyleyen, jest ve mimikleriyle güfteyi pekiştirir. Ayrıca, sözlerin arasındaki müzikli bölümlerde küçük bir dans icra eder "Düet"in ortaya çıkmasıyla, (bunun da fazla zaman almadığı anlaşılıyor) bu "teatral" özellik iyice ön plana çıkar. Düetin en yaygın biçiminde bir kadın ve bir erkek vardır, ama bazılarında yer yer başka "figüranlar"da belirip güftede anlatılan bir durumu "dramatize" edebilirler.
Ve bütün kanto ya da düetler, bir biçimde, mizahîdir. Türün temel niteliklerinden biri budur. Birinci amacı, seyirciyi eğlendirmek olduğuna göre, böyle olması doğal. Ama sanırım bunun daha derine inen bir nedeni de var. Daha önce yazdığım bir yazıda belirttiğim gibi, kanto "Batılılaşma" sürecinin durmadan yarattığı şokları hafîfleştirerek ve komikleştirerek "dayanılır" kılan bir türdür. Mizah bunun için zorunludur.
Son derece geleneksel ve göreneksel, ayrıca, kendi alışık olduğu değerlerin üstünlüğü konusunda son derece "burnundan kıl aldırmaz" Osmanlı toplumu, bilinen nedenle ve kaçınılmaz bir biçimde, batılışma sürecine girdi. Biraz "hem ağlarım, hem giderim," üslubunda bir gidişti bu. Böyle bir "paradoksallığı" zamanın ciddi edebiyatında da gözlemleriz: Örneğin roman Batı'dan gelmiş bir türdür ve "roman yazmak", başlı başına, "Batılı" bir etkinliktir. Gelgelelim, her romancı, romanında, batılılaşmanın aşırı, gülünç, mutsuzluk getiren v.b. sonuçlarırı eleştirmekten geri durmaz. Romanda bu eleştiri çok zaman, tam anlamıyla trajik olmasa da, acıklı sonuçlarıyla gösterilir, bir çeşit "Şarkılı sentimantal trajedi" kılığına bürünür (İntibah, Araba Sevdası, Zehra vb.). Kantoda, doğal olarak, bu "trajedi"nin de yeri yoktur. Kantoda batılılaşmaya gösterilen tepki güler yüzlü bir "fesuphanallah" gibidir.

Ama bu mizah, aynı zamanda, güçlü bir enerji ya da dürtüyü dizginleyen ve kamufle eden bir örtüdür; kadınla ilgili, bilinçliliğin çeşitli derinlik düzeylerinde yer alan bütün tasarımlar, genel hayatta olduğu gibi bizzat kanto temaşasının kendisinde harekete geçmiş haldedir. Bu gerilim ve yoğunluk, ancak mizah yoluyla ehlileştirilebilir, yatıştırılabilir.

Dolayısıyla, kantolar hayatın her alanı ve yeniliği üstüne bir "commentaire" olsalar da, sonuçta hepsi toplumun yeni "kadın kültürü" üzerindeki etkileri en canalıcı yanlarıdır. Tüllere, peçelere alışmış Osmanlı toplumunda, kanto da bazı koruyucu, ama aslında "şeffaf " tüllerle, kadının kendisine tanınan yerden dışarıya çıkmasını örter ve açar: gayrı müslimlerin söylemesi, hafif meşrep, hovarda tiplemelerin seçilmesi, bir yandan "canım, bunlar gördüğünüz gibi, özel kadınlar. Her kadın böyle olmaz." der gibi görünürken, aslında böyle olabileceğinin işaretini verir. Erkek toplumu ise, hem bundan korkar, hem bunu çok ister.

Dolayısıyla -ve özellikle bu çerçevede- kanto günahkardır; günahı yumuşatmak için de mizahî ve hafiftir. Bu özelliklerine, bireyselleştirici bir yanı olduğunu da ekleyebilirim. Geleneksel Osmanlı müziğinde yazılmış şarkıların herhalde yüzde doksanı aşk konusunu işliyordu. Ama aşk şiiri olduğu halde, bireyselliğiyle ayırdedilen bir "aşk şairi" olmadığı gibi, anlatılan durumlar da geneldi. Bu, divan şiirinin, şairi bir hayli anonimleştiren (zenaat loncalarındaki gibi) idealinden ileri geliyordu. Kanto, "teatral" özelliğinden ötürü, şarkıyı söylediği varsayılan "kahraman"ı bireyselleştirir. Bunlar şüphesiz birtakım toplumsal "tiplerdir: hafif meşrep kadın veya hovarda delikanlı, Laz, Arap kızı veya Çingene gibi etnik tipler, sarhoş ya da köylü ya da arabacı gibi. Ama aynı zamanda, gözümüzle gördüğümüz somut kişilerdir, o anlamda bireyselleşirler. Türk hafif müziği, tangodan arabeske, daha sona aldığı biçimlerde, bu bireyselliği ve bu somutluğu bir daha yakalayamadı.

Kanto bütün bu özellikleriyle, Liza Minelli'nin olağandışı parlak bir örneğini (aynı adı taşıyan filmde) verdiği "kabare" müziğine bir hayli yakındır, İtalyan tipi "belcanto"dan türediği halde, koşulları gereği, aslında hiç tanımadığı "kabare'ye yaklaşmıştır. Cinsellikle kurduğu ilişki ona benzer (Türkiye'nin bu alanda, yukarıda değindiğim büyük acemiliği dışında); toplumsala ve politik olaylar ve değişimlerle ilişkisi de öyledir: dolaylı, örtük, ama sonuna kadar. güncel.

Sonuç olarak, kendini ürüten bu somut koşullara gerçekten sıkı sıkı bağlı ve hatta bağımlıydı. Onun için, bütün kanlı canlı görünüşüne rağmen aslında nahif ve kırılgandı. Böylece, koşullar değişince kanto da uçup gitti, sevimli bir anı oldu.

Bel canto

2006-03-25T22:10:00.000-08:00

Bel canto means, most literally, "beautiful singing." It is a term used to describe all Italian singing, but in particular the light, bright quality that Italian opera singers use to charm audiences. Despite bel canto's popularity, it is shrouded in obscurity. The history of this art is a complicated and mysterious one.

Bel canto emerged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but its roots lie all the way through the Middle Ages. It began in the singing instruction that Italian masters provided their students. Because singing must be mastered internally, teaching singing is tricky. Italian masters relied on a system of teaching and listening to their pupils. When the pupil created a tone or sound that was of admirable quality, the master would urge that pupil to repeat the sound until it was ingrained in their memory. This practice became so inherent to Italian singers that Italian singing became shrouded in mystery. Many thought that Italy was protecting its singing mastery from foreign countries, when in reality it was simply espousing a valuable teaching style.

Bel canto was initially used by men, and, at its earliest, by male religious singers. The Italian castrati were famous for their use of this singing style. During the time of the Renaissance, the period when opera was created in Italy, bel canto became the singing style used for this new art form. Later, it became famous through use by other operatic singers, notably sopranos. Today, it is sopranos like Joan Sutherland and Kathleen Battle that keep this tradition alive.

The secret to bel canto, some claim, lays in continuity of tone. Many singers are judged on their ability to pass from one musical phrase to the next with little to no interruption. The art of sustaining passages to create a beautiful line can be seen in the performances of the most famous bel canto singers.

Italian singing itself is very dependent upon the Italian language. Italian words often contain consonants strung together with vowel sounds. Because of this, their language is very fluid and, when spoken correctly, it resonates in the facial structure. Italian singers make full use of these vowels, because they allow long, continuous lines in singing. Italian singing contains little distinction between the start of tone and the intake of breath. This, too, contributes to a continuous line. Finally, Italians consider singing to be a natural act instead of an unnatural one. Therefore, true Italian singing, and true bel canto singing, is an extension of normal speaking and voice expression.

Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Marcello and Pacini are some of the most famous bel canto composers. In their operas, one finds the light, soaring soprano and tenor arias that have made Italian opera famous. While many consider bel canto to be an art that has "died," bel canto is, by its very nature, Italian singing. Therefore, it will exist as long as Italian singing does. From the popularity of Andrea Bocelli and other Italian singing stars, one can see that bel canto will be around for quite a long time.

Song | Yabandan Gel (Kostak Yörü)

2006-02-11T22:36:00.000-08:00

Yabandan Gel (Kostak Yörü)

From Niğde- by Rıfat Çavuş- Collected by Muzaffer Sarısözen

Yabandan Gel Usul Da Boylum Yabandan (Aslanım Hey Hey)

Refrain:
Amman Yörü Yörü
Çapraz Yörü Yörü
Kostak Yörü Yörü
Yörü Yörü Yörü

Aldım Haberini De Çobandan (İmanım Hey Hey)
(repeat refrain)
Yaban Ellerinden De Özendim Geldim (Aslanım Hey Hey)
(repeat refrain)
Gördüm Cemalini De Efendim Geldim (İmanım Hey Hey)
(repeat refrain)
Yaban Ellerinde De Yatmış Uyumuş (Aslanım Hey Hey)
(repeat refrain)
Ela Gözlerini De Uyku Bürümüş (İmanım Hey Hey)
Şirin Yörü Yörü
Tek Tek Yörü Yörü
Bebek Yörü Yörü
Kostak Yörü Yörü
Usul Yörü Yörü
Güzel Yörü Yörü
Yörü Yörü Yörü

Kostak Family Name

2006-02-11T22:35:00.000-08:00

The Kostak surname is derived from the personal names Kosty and Kost, which are pet forms of the male given name Konstanty, which is the Polish form of the name Constantine. The name Constantine is a derivative of the Latin name Constantinus, which means steadfast and faithful. This name was borne by the first Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, Constantine the Great (280-337). Constantine rebuilt the city named Byzantium, renamed it Constantinople and made it the capital city of the Eastern Roman Empire. Constantinople is the modern city of Istanbul, Turkey.

Cadde-i Kebir and Pont du Galata

2006-02-01T12:34:00.000-08:00

Imagine Petri at Galata or dodging the police at Cadde-i Kebir in Pera.

Galata Bridge
Sinan imprint, 36

Cadde-i kebir, Pera / İstiklal Caddesi, Beyoğlu
Editeur Zellich Frères, 34

Tabachaniotika

2006-02-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

Tabachaniotika Listen sample

The tabachaniotika (sing., tabachaniotiko) songs are a Cretan urban musical repertory which belongs to the wide family of musics, like the rebetika and music of the Café-aman, that merge Greek and Turkish elements. This genre represents an outcome of the Greek-Turkish cultural syncretism in Crete during the period of Ottoman domination. According to Chaniá musicians, the tabachaniotika probably arose in Crete in the towns of Chaniá and Rethymnon around the middle of nineteenth century. It was then the typical musical repertory of the so-called turkokritikoí, Muslim Cretans. It developed mainly after the immigration of Smyrna's refugees in 1922, as did the more widespread rebetika.
Various conjectures are advanced to explain the meaning and origin of the term "tabachaniotika." Kostas Papadakis believes that it comes from tabakaniotikes, which may mean places where hashish was smoked and music performed, as in the tekédes of Piraeus. But a quarter named Tabahana existed in Smyrna and the name had a Turkish root (Trk., tabak: tanner; tabakhane: tannery). In Chaniá too, there was a quarter with the same name, where refugees from Smyrna lived after the 1922 diaspora. Tabachaniotiko was also the name of a song of the amané genre, which was popular in Smyrna in the period before 1922, together with some other songs called Minoré, Bournovalio, Galata, and Tzivaeri (Kounadis 1993: 23). Compare the Greek-Turkish ballos performed by a Greek ensemble in New York City in 1928, included in the article by Karl Signell.

See more from the Article's Source posting

Petri's Tavern Song

2006-02-01T07:26:00.000-08:00

Petri wrote the lyrics of this song and sang it in Galata taverns/dives (meyhane). His song remained popular years later and was remembered. We have no record of his song today. As part of a sources music project for Costak we want the greek wording to be proof-read and are planning a new composition based on the historic style and we plan to record it both for the film and the Sources CD that will be released before the film.

Dose mu krasi
Yemise tis asimenies palames sou
Na pio to krasi ap'tis fuhtes sou
Dipsasmena dipsasmena

Δώσε μου κρασί
Γεμισέ τις ασημένιες παλάμες σου
Να πιώ το κρασί απ'τις φούχτες σου
Διψασμένα Διψασμένα

Bana sarap ver
Gumus avuclarina doldur
Sarabi avuclarindan iceyim
Kana kana

Give me wine
Fill your silver palm
I will drink from your hands
With a great thirst

My friend Leigh Kline wrote back:"It could be done as a Kamilieriko -sort of a zeybek type but a little faster" .

The Hellinic zeimpekikos is a slow 9/8 rythm with a 15 syllable verse broken into 2, one 8 syllable and one 7. In the 'school' of Pireas the well known troumpa there was a variation of rythms, which is why we find songs from Bambakaris, Tsitsanis etc. played in a 9/18 rythm or the 'fast' 9/8 seen in the 'aptaliko' and the 'kamilieriko'.

Baloz

2005-12-24T20:38:00.000-08:00

Baloz: a type of Galata dance club patronized by sailors and port workers. The name probably derived from the "ballo italiano" italian ballo/baloz (from Latin: balare/to dance). In contrast to all male Galata Taverns -mostly basement or ground floor- baloz was an upper floor affair for dance and music and women were found as well working as a "konsomatris/ En.hostess,escort /Fr.consommatrice ". Today's "b-girl" woman employed by a bar to act as a companion to male customers.

Baloz became popular during the times of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz (1830-1876) who visited Western Europe in 1867, being the first Ottoman sultan to do so, and he was made a "Knight of the Garter" by Queen Victoria. Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph (appointment annulled 1915) and the Russian Tzar Alexander II also received the same title in 1867.

Further Source: Perhaps the most important late eighteenth-century technical manual was Gennaro Magri's Trattato teorico-prattico di ballo, published in Naples in 1779. By the end of the eighteenth century, the differentiation between theatrical and social dance was nearly complete; professional dancers were performing increasingly complex steps while social dancers were concentrating on the growing genre of group dances.

Palikarya

2005-12-24T09:21:00.000-08:00

"Pallikari" (plural Pallikarya). (Turkish: yigit) Greek word for young men, brave men, it connotes strength and youth. In Petri's times Palikarya was usually assigned to Rum/Greek street gangs of istanbul.

The Pallikari of Nesmine Rifat by David Solway

For his celebrated poetry collection Saracen Island, David Solway took on the voice of a Greek poet named Andreas Karavis. So artful were these poems that many readers believed they were authentic translations from Greek by Karavis. The Pallikari of Nesmine Rifat continues Solway's inspired poetic ruse. In this new book of ostensible translations, he adopts the persona of Karavis's spurned lover, Turkish Cypriot poet Nesmine Rifat. Lushly sexual and sparkling with wit and intelligence, these extraordinary poems take the form of a series of undelivered letters, penned in the wake of Karavis's desertion and eventual marriage to Anna Zoumi. With great subtlety and sensitivity, Solway portrays a powerful woman and gifted poet undergoing a violent emotional journey from explosive anger and arrogant disdain to bitter melancholy and undying passion.

Petri at the Holy Monastery of Zographou

2005-12-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

Petri stayed with Haci Kosti Vatakis a fishermen of the Holy Monastery of Zographou during 1877-1879. He grow a beard and befriended and shared a bed with a priests desciple of Vatakis.

Holy Monastery of Zographou

2005-12-24T08:38:00.000-08:00

It was built during the tenth century by three brother, the monks Moses, Aaron and John (Ioannis) from Achris (Ohrid). It is dedicated to Saint George. It occupies the ninth rank in the hierarchical order of the twenty Athonite monasteries. It is inhabited by 15 monks (1990) and is coenobitic (communal). Initially, the monastery was inhabited by Bulgarians, Greeks and Serbs. Its monks are all Bulgarian, since 1845, and the services are performed in Bulgarian.

The monastery is situated on a slope of the S.W. part of the peninsula. The Katholicon was built in the beginning of the last century and follows the athonite type. The monastery was founded, according to tradition, in the 10th c. by three brothers, Moses, Aaron and Ioannis from Achris. In the Late Byzantine period, the monastery is destroyed by Catalan pirates and rebuilt with the financial support of the Paleologan dynasty, as well as that of rulers of eastern Europe.

Besides two miraculous icons of St George and other two of the Virgin of the Akathistos and the Virgin Epakouousa, the monastery owns and other heirlooms and ecclesiastical vessels. The library is located in the monastery's tower. It features rare manuscripts, Greek and Bulgarian codices, and 10,000 printed books in Greek and the Slavic languages. Its most prized treasure is the codice 1, which contains Bulgaria's first history, written by the monk Paisios in 1745.

Paramours of Petri

2005-12-24T08:29:00.000-08:00

Apostolos Kastro (aka Spartacus) at Aynaroz /Mount Athos
Ahilea Andoni (aka Suslu Balikci / The Chic Fisherman ) at Kalikratya, (Mimarsinan), Catalca, Istanbul
Miloris of Sile at Kostence / Constanta, Romania

Kiryakica

2005-12-24T08:22:00.000-08:00

Daughter of Lefteri Kaptan.

She met Petri under the assumed name of Magdalena, a prostitute. When Petri ended up at her room in a cul de sac in Galata he was ambushed and killed by Lambo a brother and a sailor of Lefteri Kaptan. When he was killed one early morning in August 28 1880, Petri was about 24-25 years old.

Kiryakica is the female version of Kiryaki, a greek name. Turkish shadow play karagoz and street theater in the round "orta oyunu" has a doctor character called 'Nikolaki', 'Apostal', 'Niko', 'Kiryako' a westerner (frenk), greek or balama (a rum/a grrek native of Ottoman domain) who speaks a melange of Italian and Greek and the incomprehensibility of this tongue is the main point of humor.

Kalyoncu Kollugu

2005-12-24T00:42:00.000-08:00

After his 7th murder incident, a double murder of Argiri papazi of Kefalonya and Havyarci Zambo (Zambo the Caviar Merchant), Petri went to a tavern at Kalyoncu Kullugu with Dragoman Nikola of Raguza . The Ottoman Admiralty was responsible for the policing of Kasimpasa and Galata neighborhoods and each area was assigned a Sergeant who would patrol the shores all night long (kol gezmek) with his sailor police teams who were headquartered at Kalyoncu Kollugu.

Kalikratya (Mimarsinan)

2005-12-23T23:56:00.000-08:00

One of Petri's hideouts was among the fishermen in a village near Catalca called Kalikratia (today's Mimarsinan) after his murder number 12.

The village of Mimarsinan is part of Buyukcekmece County of Istanbul. Travellers used to cross this area by using rafts pulled by ropes hence the names of the lakes called Buyukcekmece and Kucukcekmece. (cekmece meaning pull). Near the Sinan designed bridge there is place called Dalyani. Famous traveler Evliya Celebi does not mention any fishing activity but mentions yilan (eel) and pisi (Flounder/ Platichtys flesus) and this is where Petri must have found some work.

(1) DALYAN (FISH WEIR OR FISH TRAP) the fisherman may periodically check to see how many fish have been caught, in order to determine if it is time to harvest the catch. Traditionally, the fisherman would employ a "feeler" who drops a weighted wire into the weir and -- by observing how the fish bump into the wire--determines the volume of fish contained in the weir.

Petri in Beirut

2005-12-23T23:30:00.000-08:00

This shows the time period when Petri was in Beirut.

From Fuad Debbas' book of postcards from Beirut (1880 - 1930)

Panorama of Beirut toward the east, a photo by the Bonfils family

Click on pictures for larger images.

Bicakci Petri | Murder Number 4

2005-12-23T23:12:00.000-08:00

1876 Petri knifed and killed Anesti at a Hotel in Bcharre north of Beirut. (Kocu article says Beirut Hotel called Bisare) Anesti (*) was a Kefalonian looking for him to avange lefteri kaptan. At the time he was working as a stoker for a Trieste based Austrian company ship Galicia under the name Pietri Mavri.

(*) Christos Anesti means Christ is risen.

Lloyd Austriaco had a ship called Galicia but it was built in 1902. Dates do not match. We think the ship Petri worked could be Galatea built in 1871 and in service until 1908. In truth both ships are named after the same Celtic root word.

Lloyd Austriaco / Austrian Lloyd

Started steamship operations in 1836 based at Trieste, which was then under Austrian rule. Initially traded to the Adriatic and later extended to the rest of the Mediterranean, India and the Far East. The company name changed in 1872 to Austrian Hungarian Lloyd (Lloyd Austro-Ungarico) but reverted to Austrian Lloyd in 1891. In 1881 the company company started services to New York, Brazil and the River Plate, but only made one New York voyage, which was not a financial success. Sailings to South America continued until 1885 when the service was withdrawn. Other routes flourished and by 1886 the company owned 86 ships. Services were suspended during the Great War and the company was re-established as Lloyd Triestino under the Italian flag in 1919. Austrian Lloyd was reconstituted in 1978 as a cargo company.