English
Few places in the world have given us so much literature throughout time as Istanbul, the ancient capital of Byzantium. Of all the books that inspired the city, perhaps the most unique is the huge project of writing an encyclopedia of Istanbul, the first encyclopedia of the world on a city, conceived in 1944 by the Turkish writer and city lover Re?at Koçu Ekrem (1905-1975).
It was a massive project which combined in an unforgettable way literature and history through a seductive mix of strange stories, interesting facts, accurate information and almanac material, creating a wonderful tapestry in which he emphasized the image of a city that invited you into a journey of fantasy and longing. Koçu spent his entire childhood witnessing the gradual disintegration of the Ottoman state and the condemnation of Turkey to poverty of which it would take decades to recover from. This painful decline of the city probably conditioned the melancholy and bitter tone of his writings although if he thought that Istanbul was the only thing that consoled him from feeling defeated in life.
In the encyclopedia, there is a sensual tour of homoeroticism where visual recreation of the beauty of the bodies of the young boys that roam the streets is present. Memorable episodes were collected as the feat of the balancing acrobat that due to the the celebrations of the circumcision of Prince Mustafa in the eighteenth century crossed the Golden Horn on a wire stretched between the masts of two ships. Or stories like the creation of a cemetery of executioners in the meadows of Karyagdi as they were not being worthy of being buried with the rest of us. Or the story of Osman and Madame Upol, two madmen from the time of Abdülhamit II who were baned from the Galata bridge because when they were at it they would fight amongst them with passionate ferocity. This story is even more striking by the fact that he walked naked through the streets and, in contrast, she had the custom of wearing every piece of cloth she found
Ekrem Re?at Koçu didnt forget the more sinister and lurid stories of torture, murder and revenge. Despite his eagerness for documentation (he was an avid document searcher who spent most of his life in bookstores, libraries and archives tracing facts to be able to give the encylopedia a true historical value), one of the great charms of his unfinished book is to determine whether the stories it tells are real or invented, as the entire book can be read, like the city itself, as a fable.
In 1951 Koçu encyclopedia had to stop due to lack of funds to continue. He had managed to write a thousand pages that did not take him beyond the letter B. In 1958 he restarted the project and did not stop until 1973, shortly before his death. After writing eleven volumes he still was at letter G.
Paul Oilzum
In this incomparable work you can find some of the best written texts where the true spirit of the city resounds just as it does in the incredible and magical stories found in the Encyclopedia. Just rent apartments in Istanbul to experience it.
Translated by: Marc
