Summary. Here in Istanbul, the Turkish word kalender appears in the names of both a mosque and an officers’ club: Kalenderhane Camii and Kalender Orduevi. The mosque was earlier a house (hane) for dervishes, apparently of the Kalenderiye order; before that, a church. The officers’ club includes Kalender Kasrı, formerly a summer palace for members of the House of Osman, near where we live on the European side of the Bosphorus, halfway to the Black Sea from Seraglio Point. The palace was erected in its current form during the reign of Abdülaziz, who received there a French prince and was the first sultan to visit western Europe diplomatically. The first Ottoman palace at the site was constructed during the reign of Ahmed I (for whom also the Blue Mosque was built) by an officer called Kalender Çavuş. The location is also called Kalender, and presumably there is a connection, one way or other. Constantine Cavafy described a cafe there in “A Night Out in Kalinderi.” In Roman times, by the account of Dionysius of Byzantium, the adjacent bay was Pitheci Portus, or the Harbor of Pithex. Dionysius reported the story that Pithex had been a Barbarian king who helped a warrior cross over to Asia on his way to the Trojan War. This warrior was the ambidextrous Asteropaeus, who wielded a spear in either hand, but was nonetheless speared by Achilles. However, πίθηξ and πίθηκος can mean ape or monkey (as in Pithecanthropus, “Ape Man,” once the name of the supposed genus of the “missing link,” Java Man). Apparently the name of the bay in question has been interpreted that way.
People can walk around Istanbul without a clue as to what they are passing by. I was like that when walking past the Kalender Kasrı. As for the kalender himself, since he is a dervish, even one devoted to a particularly unconventional life, he may also be any person so devoted: a bohemian.
This blog has been around so long, I can hardly remember writing some of the posts. I look back at them sometimes, to see whether they still make sense, or whether I have been repeating myself. If I make changes to a post, I leave a note at the bottom.
I believe Thoreau kept his journal that way – albeit with a pencil, even one manufactured by the family firm. He wrote,
Contemplation of the unfinished picture may suggest its harmonious completion … Thoughts accidentally thrown together become a frame in which more may be developed and exhibited. Perhaps this is the main value of a habit of writing …
John R. Stilgoe quotes that, in his Preface for the abridgement by Damion Searls of Thoreau’s Journal: 1837–1861. I wrote about the book in “Thoreau by the Aegean,” August, 2015.
Longer than this blog has existed, I have lived in Istanbul. My wife and I came here from Ankara in August, 2011. We lived in the borough of Şişli until October, 2022. Then we moved to Sarıyer. Thus we came in sight of the third bridge over the Bosphorus Strait, where it meets the Black Sea.
Polytropy 