-
Pages
-
Categories
Mevlana: an early form of Humanism?
Culture
The trip to Bursa was an experience in the sense of experiencing Turkish culture and hospitality at its best. The city center is recommendable for it’s traditional old mosques and the viewpoint over the city on Bursa castle. While my friends and I were in the bus from the bus station to the city center, a friendly old woman spoke with my Turkish friend. She invited us to join and see the Mevlana dervishes in the evening. We decided to give it a try. My friends didn’t see it before but in my opinion it’s something you should watch when you’re in Turkey.
I’ve seen a Mevlana event three years ago in the cradle of Mevlana; in the city of Konya. There I watched it in a huge indoor arena with the performance centered in the middle. I adviced my friends to join me once to Konya for this. However I didn’t know that Bursa had a Mevlana center too. When we arrived there the hospitality was overwhelming. For the price of nothing we received free tea, sahlep (a typical Turkish sweet drink), lokma (crunchy fried dumplings) and toast. The “religion” is quite free in terms of real freedom. You can go whenever you want, you can think of it whatever you like. As long ‘love’ is the thing that should be in your heart. Be good for other people.
Mevlana can be considered more as a philosophy than a religion because it’s uniforming religions, which can be perhaps considered as an early form of modern humanism. When the founder of Mevlana, the famous Rumi died, the Jews, Christians and Muslims in Konya argued in a friendly way which group should transport him to his grave. It’s truely bringing people together instead of driving them away from each other.
The Soul of a Town
Travel log
Last weekend I was joining a trip with several exchange students to the small village Aizanoi nearby Kutahya. As proposed by our teacher Nezih at the friday evening dinner It was a great idea and a nice opportunity to see some of ruins and bits of remaining history of the old Roman empire in Turkey.
Arriving at the place it was simply amazing what was left of those times. Most untouched is an old Roman temple of the latest dynasty and the statue of Medusa. Most interesting however were the few remains of the first stock-exchange in the world and the collapsed structures of an immense and uniquely connected colosseum and amphitheater.
But Aizanoi has more than that to offer. Especially if you feel like an adventurous tourist. The place is really photogenic and it’s a completely antique leftover from the Ottoman era. There are no modern buildings and the houses there are slowly fading away. But they are still in use by some very nice and friendly people. People who probably lived there all there live without the comfort we know.
While taking pictures I noticed there were only old people in the village. Its imaginable because there are absolutely no things here for new generations. The village has no modern facilities and it’s an hour traveling from Kutahya. In all kind of perspectives this generation is the dead end of the old Turkey.
Talking a bit with fellow student Marcin about this while walking around in the small streets between the houses, he said “yes, in about thirty years this will probably all be gone”. Suddenly I realized we were witnessing something really special. Not only the Roman ruins but another time passing away right below our feet.
The collapsed houses we passed crossed my mind and I saw all the houses in this state in the future. If this generation will pass away, the last ones will turn of the light and Aizanoi will probably be a ghost town. Like other Ottoman villages which are still in use…
Unless they restore it for tourism the buildings can be saved. But whatever they come up with, whatever the future will bring… Nothing will bring back some of the extraordinary people that were there in that particular day. Money can safe the buildings but not the soul of a town.
Wings over Istanbul
Wings over Istanbul is a concept track. I wrote this piece of music last year, it’s inspired on traveling in the city of Istanbul. From the magic of the ancient Sultanameht area crossing the water of the Bosphorus and ending up at the classic trainstation of Haydarpasa. In the music you will hear parts of the call-for-prayer song from the Blue Mosque as well as the trainstation, seagulls and the boats on the Golden Horn.
Wings over Istanbul by arnemulder
Tagged: Istanbul
My project outline, bits of history and questions…
Project
My project will be a total promotion of the city Eskisehir and the Anadolu University with the goal to attract more students from Europe. The focus will be on students who are not thinking about studying abroad. The end results are a magazine and a prototype iPhone app.
For this project I started working on interesting topics and trying to view things in a different perspective than usual promotions. I will try to cover the city and people on how it is, instead of how it would be in travel promotion. With real stories from real people and not stripped away from any critics. I want to include parts of history but make them touchable and visible by questioning ‘who’ were the people living there and ‘how’ did they look like.
For the history of the city I held an interview with mrs. Taciser Tüfekçi Sivas. She’s a professor and archaeologist leading the excavation of Dorylaeum, an ancient Roman city on the corner of Eskisehir dating back all the way to the phrygian time, but it might be as well much older than that She told a lot of interesting things about Dorylaeum, the Phrygian Valley and the Ottoman part of Eskisehir (Odun Pazari)
It was quite remarkable that three years ago after I went on a trip to the valley of King Midas / Midas Sehri, I’ve received a leaflet in which an image was drawn of Phrygian people. They were pictured as kind of how you would picture old Egyptians, only the piramids were not there but the Midas Valley.
This image puzzled me and after I spoke with mrs. Sivas, she explained by evidence that the Phrygians as people were most likely closer connected to the ancient Greek. Next week I want to talk with some people of the fine-arts faculty about working out some other drawings of people and their clothing and include them in the magazine. It would be a giving some kind of face to this ‘Mysterious’ civilization.
Tagged: Dorylaeum, Eskisehir, Phrygians, Tacicer Sivas
Arrival and first weeks in Turkey, a summary
Summary
It was the 7th of january that my plane left from Amsterdam after traveling there by Schiphol Taxi from the north of the Netherlands. After saying my family and friends goodbye in Leeuwarden and Bergum it took a night-flight to Istanbul and I arrived there at the early morning.
Unfortunately the Correndon bus didn’t show up but I found a cheaper solution towards the address I had to go to. I met with a good friend and her friendly family at which I was received with real hospitality. The next day they brought me to Eskisehir where they were about to visit their son who studied there.
The night after, I arrived in Eskisehir, the city where I studied in 2008 as Erasmus exchange student. It had changed a lot since the time in terms of new places. Eskisehir is a typical student city with all possible facilities students wish to have.
This year it will be the same semester and many good months are waiting since the weather will only get better day by day. However this time I will not take part of the Erasmus program but focus on my graduation project. I will develop a promotional magazine which will aim on getting new Erasmus students from Europe to study in Eskisehir and increasing the amount significant. The target groups are those people who didn’t think about studying abroad, making the program more visible outside the Erasmus offices at schools.
I met with many of my old friends again and stay with them in their apartment as their new flatmate. It’s one of the best apartments around in terms of space, distance from the campus, view and affordability. I didn’t have an own room the first two weeks , but the temporary one was ok as well. I met with fellow Dutch student Uko and Priit from Estonia. They’ve at the end of the month. I visited my office with Ertan and had a great dinner together with him and his girlfriend Tulay who I knew from Holland as well with Priit and Uko.
I had a meeting with Nezih Orhon, he is my former teacher in several courses and coordinator. He is really friendly and helpful in arranging and helped me well to arrange things for my project. He’s is one of the best people to meet because he can be an opening to possibilities that makes things easier.
I took and worked-out the first interviews, in total i finished the month completing three interviews. One double with Yasemin and Irem, two students who studied in France, Mustafa a primary school teacher who studied in Holland and Gozde; a singer and a girl who did internship in filmmaking over there. For the upcoming month I want to interview a doctor who studies at the other university in Eskisehir and a guy who studied in Germany. I try to find a broad range of people with different education and backgrounds. This stories have to color the magazine and trigger the attention of students who are planning to study abroad.
At the end of the month I went to Ankara where one of my friends had an engagement party, I actually visited two of this parties since another friend also had one in the beginning of February… more about this later.
Internship on a Landbridge between East and West
Introduction
During the whole summer holiday I’ve made plans and worked them out for graduation in Turkey. With the approval of both the ‘Anadolu University’ in Eskisehir and my NHL University of applied sciences, the agreement is allready a fact.
The project will be an indirect spin-off from the promotion film “Erasmus in Eskisehir” which can be found on my portfolio and which i’ve developed together with my fellow project members Jaap Ruurd, Jelmer, Denes, Albina and Pina. Before I go i have to arrange a lot of things making both my current internship and the internship abroad succeed. Im looking forward to the upcoming year(s?)
Tagged: Anadolu University, Internship, NHL University, Turkey