500 years of Turkish Coffee remembered at the Topkapi Palace Museum

Source: Topkapi Palace Museum website.

The Topkapi Palace Museum is hosting A Drop of Pleasure: 500 years of Turkish Coffee in collaboration with the Turkish Coffee Culture and Research Association. 

The exhibition is on till June 15 2015, and was inspired by the entry of Turkish coffee culture and tradition into the UNESCO "Non-Material Heritage" list in 2013. 

The museum separately announced that the first and third halls of the Treasury Section will be closed to visitors till August 14, 2015 for restoration.

Exhibition featuring the works of Kadıasker Mustafa İzzet Efendi on till March at the Topkapi

Source: Topkapi Museum website.

The exhibition Kadıasker Mustafa İzzet Efendi: Callıgrapher, Nay (Oblique Flute) Player, And Composer is running at the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul till March 10, 2015.

"No master musician ever reached the level of Kadıasker Mustafa İzzet Efendi in no calligrapher ever reached the kadiasker's degree of achievement in music," says M. Uğur Derman, author of  Letters in Gold: Ottoman Calligraphy. A kadiasker is a chief judge during the Ottoman empire, and Kadıasker Mustafa İzzet Efendi, 1801-1876, was much respected for both his calligraphy and his flute playing.

Kadıasker Mustafa İzzet Efendi is responsible for much of the calligraphy found in mosques in Istanbul, and more besides. The calligrapher wrote the inscriptions for the medallions in the dome at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Each of these is 25 ft in diameter. An inscription, sent by the Ottoman government to grace the Washington Monument in the US, also contains jalī ta'līq calligraphy by Kadıasker Mustafa İzzet Efendi. 

A hilye, or religious text written in a standard format during Ottoman times, by the Kadiasker can be viewed on Wikipedia here. His copy of text from the Quran is in the Sakıp Sabancı Museum in Turkey, and is available for viewing through Wikimedia here.

New book on private and royal life in the Ottoman Empire published

Blue Dome Press, a publisher of Islamic tradition and spirituality, Islamic history and arts books, has added a book about the Ottoman Empire to its portfolio. 

Source: Blue Dome Press.

The Ottoman Empire was once the biggest empire on earth, reigning over much of Eastern Europe and the Middle East from 1299 to 1923. For much of this period, Topkapi Palace, an architectural jewel on Istanbul’s historic peninsula, was the heart of the Empire. It was where the Sultan lived with his family and made important political decisions.

The new book, Private and Royal Life in the Ottoman Palace* by Ottoman historian and former Director of the Topkapi Palace Museum Ilber Ortayli, deepens our understanding of what life was like during one of the most remarkable empires in human history.

Exploring politics, architecture, and culture, Ortayli gives an unprecedented look at what life was like inside the palace. He explores the parts of the palace where decisions that changed an empire were made, and then looks at how the Ottoman court actually lived, dispelling many misconceptions in the process.

Istanbul-based Ortayli has written numerous books and articles on Ottoman history and is a frequent speaker on history and culture during the Ottoman era. 

*ISBN: 978-1-935295-45-7, paperback, US$11.95, 159 pages, published by Blue Dome Press. Email customercare@nbnbooks.com for more information.