The main square of Kadikoy and about a mile of the major road leading to it were blocked off for a political rally staged by the Saadet (Felicity) party. The party was formed after a split in the leadership of the Virtue Party, an Islamist party which was banned for its anti-secular activities. The younger, more progressive members of the party rallied around now Prime Minister Erdogan and formed the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Those who remained more firmly committed to the Islamist agenda continued to follow Necmettin Erbakan, the founder of the Virtue Party. Erbakan's new party was called the Saadet party. Despite the seemingly large number of supporters who attended this rally, the Saddet Party has very little real political power. In the last election, the party failed by a long shot to meet the 10% threshold required for the privilege of sending representatives to parliament. Erbakan died just a few months ago and this was the first rally following his death. I listened to part of the speeches and heard them chanting "Mucahit Erbakan"- implying that Erbakan was a Mujaheddin, Muslim freedom fighter. Despite the possibly radical implications of this, the rally seemed to be totally peaceful. As I walked through the crowds heading toward the rally, I was politely ignored despite my bare arms and legs.
Kadikoy seems to be an odd choice for a location for an Islamist rally. Just yesterday, I was thinking about how this area has fewer obviously pious people, ie those with headscarves, scull caps or beards, than those neighborhoods I've seen on the European side. I'm not sure if the rally was purposely staged here to confront the local residents or if it was simply a matter of which municipality was willing to host them. I have not been able to find a write up about the rally in the English or Turkish language news sources. However, another political rally which was staged by leftists in European Istanbul once again ended with a police confrontation.
My destination as I walked against crowd flowing into Kadikoy was the Karaca Ahmet cemetery, one of the oldest and largest cemeteries in all of Turkey. Some of you may know that I have a strange and slightly morbid fascination with cemeteries. Old cemeteries almost always have an overgrown, decaying look which I find beautiful. Grave stones can quietly tell the story of a life.
After the founding of the Republic, the fez, turbans and any type of head gear that had religious connotations was banned from being worn in public. This ban seems to have carried over to the dead as well. Most gravestones became plain, bearing only the standard name, dates and maybe a short inscription. However, I found this stone from 1965 which was made in the old Ottoman style.
The dates on this grave reveal another Republican era reform. The lunar Islamic calendar, which starts counting from the date of the first Muslim's community's flight from Mecca, was replaced by the solar Julian calendar in 1925. Dates can be hard to translate between the two systems and this person left his birth date as it was under the Islamic calendar.
The most obvious contrast between the pre and post Republic gravestones is the script. Since their conversion to Islam, the Turks had used the Arabic script to write their language. Ataturk was convinced that in order for Turkey to become modernized, the Arabic script had to be discarded. So, over the course of just 3 months in 1928, he mandated that everyone relearn to read and write Turkish in a specially developed, modified Latin alphabet.
In the center of the Karaca Ahmet Cemetary lies the grave of Karaca Ahmet himself. He was a warrior who died in the Turkish conquest of the towns of Uskudar (where the grave is located) and Kadikoy. In addition, he regarded as a saint by a Turkish Islamic sect called the Alevis. The Alevis are a heterodox branch of Islam who generally do not follow the 5 Pillars of Islam, which are considered essential by orthodox Sunnis and Shi'ites. Instead, they practice their faith in a worship service called a Cem which combines music, dance and sacred poetry. They also have a devotion to Muhammad's son in law Ali similar to that of mainstream Shi'ite Muslims.
Though I did research on the Alevis this semester, I do not remember coming across anything regarding Karaca Ahmet. An internet search has also failed to turn up any additional information about his life and sainthood. However, he most certainly has a contemporary following. I came across a woman and her two children at the grave. One one side of the mausoleum is a metal box with candles melting into piles of hot wax. She and the children used this wax to stick a stone to a pillar of the structure. My guess is that when the stone falls off, their prayer request is supposed to come true.
The nights are gorgeous here. Warm and perfectly still but without any sticky humidity. From the front balcony of the apartment I'm staying in there is a view of the old city. On the left is the Blue Mosque and the right the Hagia Sophia. Tonight, the tiny sliver of a crescent moon made the view post-card perfect.
In a completely non-sequitur note, the director of one of the Ottoman palaces was caught trying to have a Sultan's throne moved from the palace museum into his house. He was thwarted when it was found that the throne would not fit through his door.
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