Orientalism

Orientalism is the study of Near and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages and peoples by Western scholars. It can also refer to the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists. In the former meaning, the term Orientalism has come to acquire negative connotations in some quarters and is interpreted to refer to the study of the East by Westerners shaped by the attitudes of the era of European imperialism in the 18th and 19th centuries. When used in this sense, it implies old-fashioned and prejudiced outsider interpretations of Eastern cultures and peoples. This viewpoint was most famously articulated and propagated by Edward Said in his controversial 1978 book Orientalism.

Since I am living in Ð"ostanbul, Edward Said’s Orientalism attracted my attention while having studied it. Ð"ostanbul is like a bridge which connects Asia to Europe or East to West. As a result of this situation it becomes easy to observe both Eastern and Western way of living in this city. Also Ð"ostanbul is a fantastic city from the beginning. I mean from the history because it had been a homeland for many cultures.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

What is now called Asian Istanbul was probably inhabited by people as early as 3000 BC. Eventually, in the 7th century, Greek colonists led by King Byzas established the colony of Byzantium, the Greek name for a city on the Bosphorus. Byzas chose the spot after consulting an oracle of Delphi who told him to settle across from the "land of the blind ones. " Indeed, Byzas concluded, earlier settlers must have been deprived of their sight to have overlooked this superb location at the mouth of the Bosphorus strait. This proved an auspicious decision by Byzas, as history has shown Istanbul's location important far beyond what these early Greek settlers might possibly have conceived. Byzas gave his name to the city: Byzantium. In the early 100's BC, it became part of the Roman Empire and in 306 AD, Emperor Constantine the Great made Byzantium capital of the entire Roman Empire. From that point on, the city was known as Constantinople. The mid 400's AD was a time of enormous upheaval in the empire. Barbarians conquered the western Roman Empire while the Eastern, also called the Byzantine Empire, kept Constantinople as its capital. In 532 during the reign of Justinian I, antigovernment riots destroyed the city. It was rebuilt, and outstanding structures such as Hagia Sophia stand as monuments to the heights Byzantine culture reached. The attribute that made the city so desirable, its incomparable location for trade and transport between three continents, was also its nemesis. For the next several hundred years Persians, Arabs, nomadic peoples, and members of the Fourth Crusade (who for a time governed the city) attacked Constantinople.

Finally, weakened by almost constant battle, the Ottoman Turks lead by Sultan Mehmet II conquered Constantinople in 1453. Renamed Istanbul, it became the third and last capital of the Ottoman Empire. It was the nerve center for military campaigns that were to enlarge the Ottoman Empire dramatically. By the mid 1500's, Istanbul, with a population of almost half a million, was a major cultural, political, and commercial center. Ottoman rule continued until it was defeated in WWI and Istanbul was occupied by the allies.

When the Republic of Turkey was born in 1923 after the War of Independence, Kemal Ataturk moved the capital to the city of Ankara.

MIGRATION FROM ANOTHER REGIONS

After the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, Istanbul has continued to expand dramatically; today its population is approximately 13 million and increases at an estimated 700,000 immigrants per year. In The Location of Culture Homi Bhabha mentions “ …as migrant workers, part of the massive economic and political diaspora of the modern world, they embody the Benjaminian “present”: that moment blasted out of the continuum of history”. The term migration has many meanings in itself as moving from one place to another place brings many things with itself such as a new culture, a new language, a new style of life and so on. Ð"ostanbul is one of those cities people migrate from other regions of Turkey all the time. These are especially east regions of the country; for example, from the East Anatolian Region, the Middle Anatolian Region and the South-East Anatolian Region. This migration brings us to very near of our topic “Orientalism” , as people carry many things with them while moving. Among them I can count and give examples to language, architecture and art, eating habits, costumes, and traditions. First of all, one change in the life style of Ð"ostanbul is the language вЂ" the important thing about language needing to be talked about is that in Turkish Language there are many different accents in different regions but there is only one accent accepted to be correct is the Ð"ostanbul accent- furthermore, people from orient regions have contributed many accents in the Ð"ostanbul Language. In Ð"ostanbul one can hear unique Ð"ostanbul accent in towns like NiÐ*ÑŸantaÐ*ÑŸÐ"±, Cihangir, Emirgan, BeyoÐ"ÑŸlu, Taksim because these towns are in the European side of Ð"ostanbul and they are protected against migration. One of the reasons of this preserved language in the European side is could be the elite schools in this side. People living in this side of the city have always had the opportunity of having better education in such schools as, Robert College, Saint Joseph College or Galatasaray College. Any of these colleges cannot be found in any of the Eastern part of Turkey; as a result, a student graduated from Robert College sometimes looks down an Eastern student, as he/ she has more superb education than the other one.

Secondly, architecture is one of the items that is altered after the migration of Eastern people to Ð"ostanbul. Again, like language architecture shows apparent variances between the Anatolian Side and the European Side.. One of the two major districts on the Anatolian Side is KadÐ"±kÐ"¶y. The neighborhood, which embodies the shore road going along the districts of Maltepe and Kartal terminating at Pendik and BaÐ"ÑŸdat Street which is one of the five hundred best streets in the world, has the distinction of being the largest neighborhood in the Anatolian side. Ð"ÑšskÐ"јdar, the other