Meandering writings

Sadece iki metni---sonrasinda bir kaynak daha farkettigim icin uc demek lazim---paylaşıp bırakıyorum. Sonra vakit bulursam yorum yaparım. Korkunç bir intihal (plagiarism) örneği var karşımızda ve bunu yapan zat şu anda Türkiye'de bir yerlerde profesör ve ekranlara çıkmaktan herhalde akademik çalışmalarına vakit ayıramıyor olmalı ki hırsızlığa başvurmuş. Memleketimdeki akademik kalitenin üzücü bir göstergesi, ve dahi muhafazakarcı yazar-çizerlerin akademik bir versiyonu olarak şuraya koyuyorum. Önce kaynak: İsmail Aka, Timur ve Devleti (Ankara: TTK: 1991), 16-17. (Bana kolaylık olması hasebiyle İngilizce klavye ile yazıyorum.) "Subat ayi sonunda hareket eden ordu Yesi, Karacuk ve Savran uzerinden bozkira girmisti. Bozkir gecilince birkac gun dinlendikten sonra Uludag'a vardiklarinda, Timur dagin tepesine cikarak, askerlerin tas toplayip getirmelerini ve bu seferin hatirasi olmak uzere bir kitabe dikilmesini buyurdu. Nisan ayi sonlarinda dikilen bu anit-kitabe son ...

Maqdisi lived the last years of his life in Bursa. He was buried close to the convent built for his Zayni dervishes. The place quickly became the center of the Zayni sufi life. A mosque was built nearby and many of the adherents and disciples of Maqdisi were also buried in the graveyard adjacent to the mosque, which later came to be known as the Zayni cemetery. The Zayni graves are known for the peculiar tombstones at the head and foot of the grave. Unlike most other gravestones which are either cylindrical or are rectangular on shape except the dome-like tip, the Zayni gravestones are mostly like a square that is askew, with one of the pointy corners looking upwards, as can be seen in the picture below. This picture was taken in the Zayni cemetery in Bursa, which is actually close to the shrine complex of Emir Sultan. The whole cemetery went under a significant restoration a few years ago and is in good shape overall. Although many of the gravestones are not original but recently-made...

The mosque at the Emir Sultan shrine complex. Originally an early 14th century work. However, the building went under heavy repairs and modification during the 19th century. I took this picture on a sunny day (the election day, actually) in March, 2014, from the square just northwest of the mosque.

The THS building houses the offices of the THS as well as a library, which is quite good in terms of its holdings in Anatolian and Turkish history. What I find most interesting about this library is its architecture. I usually come here a couple of days a week to study on my dissertation. Despite the fact that the chairs and the desks are not modern and usable enough--especially when I compare it to the Regenstein Library at UofC---the building is inspiring. It tries to be modern yet it draws from the classical Ottoman architecture. The atrium in the centre of the building is three-stories high and it gets a lot of sunlight through the ceiling, which I find to be reminiscent of Ottoman---and Mamluk, mind you---madrasas. In some ways, I can think of the central atrium, covered by the offices, the library and the auditorium on three sides, a modern interpretation of a khan, or the Sultan Hasan Madrasa in Cairo. The major difference is of course the fact that the atrium in THS building...

Hello, salaam, peace to anyone who reads this post. I had been thinking of starting a blog to note things that occasionally came to my mind. Things that are pretty unrelated, in fact, so unrelated that I could not come up with a consistent blog idea. Now I suddenly have decided to do this blog which, I hope, would be a place I will post anything significant that I like to share with others. So be it, let me start by saying bismillah.