I’ve long appreciated cemeteries. As a teenager I spent a lot of time pondering over the lives of the many people buried in the Gore Hill Cemetery in St Leonards, Sydney, where I grew up. Even aged 14 I thought it ironic that rooms in the adjacent hospital overlooked the graves. Gore Hill was established…
Every year Muslims around the world take part in Ramadan when for thirty days they allow no food or drink to pass their lips in daylight hours. True believers are also required to abstain from sex. Doing without is a personal statement of faith and shows solidarity with those who have very little all the…
I’m neither a mad dog nor an Englishman and I never go out in the midday sun in summer, but this year the temperature in Istanbul from June through to August was set on high no matter the time of day. Nonetheless I still went out exploring, but tried to plan outings involving air-conditioned transport…
Summers in Istanbul are hot and humid so when I have to be out and about I always try to combine errands with a bit of exploring. I was a winter baby so heat and I don’t get on. This year summer started early so when I headed to Üsküdar in the last week of…
Kurban Bayram, known as Eid el-Adha in Arabic, is the most important Islamic festival of the year in the Muslim world. It falls about seventy days after Ramazan and the start dates for each are determined by the Muslim calendar, thus changing every year. Traditionally, all Muslims are expected to mark this occasion by sacrificing…
On a clear sunny winter’s day in Istanbul I paid a visit to the Yahya Efendi tomb, located halfway up a really steep hill in Besiktas. Born in Trabzon in 1495, Yahya Efendi was a famous scholar of the 16th century. His year of birth coincided with that of Kanuni Sultan Süleyman, whose mother also…
TURKEY EARTHQUAKE 2023 – How to help Turkey has a long and rich history easily seen in thousands of mosques, fountains, palaces and graveyards throughout the country. Library shelves groan under the weight of academic studies and research papers while internet sites and tourist guides abound, providing large swathes of information explaining important events and…
When Atatürk uttered the words “Ne mutlu Türküm diyene!” meaning “How happy is the one who calls themselves a Turk!” to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Turkish Republic in 1933, he wanted to promote unity. Although the majority of Turks are and have always been Sunni Muslims, they can also be Alevi, Bektaşi or…
Anyone who’s ever visited Istanbul, even for the shortest time, will have seen a kedi (Turkish for cat) or two (hundred). It’s no surprise really, as love for cats in Turkey goes all the way back to the life and times of the Prophet Muhammed, peace be upon him. Muhammed was raised by his uncle…
The word miraç in Arabic translates as ladder, to go up or rise. Muslims believe that on the night of Miraç Kandili the Prophet Muhammed was taken from the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca to the Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem and from there passed into heaven via Sidretul Munteha, which even the Angel Gabriel could not…