Istanbul's Topkapi Palace

The Mandatory Last Stop of Our Tour

Surrounding Istanbul's many mosques and other historic sites is a modern, secular city.

Most men in Turkey dress in a way that would make them indistinguishable from the average resident of New York or Los Angeles.

Unlike the town of Dikili, where it seemed like women must either refrain from or not be allowed to go out in public, in Istanbul as much as 40% of the population out-and-about is female, depending on the part of the city.

In tourist areas like Topkapi Palace on a hot, sunny day, most of the women also wear American-style clothes, and those wearing Hijabs generally did not wear Khimars (veils) over their faces.

Tourist Area Near the Blue Mosque

Away from the tourist areas, more women wear traditional Muslim garments, but almost none were dressed in the extreme head to toe Burka or Abaya, or showed only their eye's behind a Niqab.

Still, you would not confuse the dress code for that found in Redondo Beach on a sunny day.

Traditionally Dressed Sitters at Topkapi Palace

When entering mosques, you are not allowed to expose your knees or shoulders, so despite being a hot day, most everyone wears long pants or skirts.

Like many other women, Julie brought a scarf to slip on in mosques, but it's not necessary to swelter under wraps all day as in some Muslim countries.

View From Above Our Restaurant

Beyond wearing long pants on a hot day, I never felt out of place, except a brief time on our way to lunch when I took too long trying to jockey for a photo of the Bosporus Strait.

I didn't feel unsafe among the crowd, but I worried I might never find my group again after everyone continued beyond the range of my ear piece to hear my guide.

Like Quinn trailing someone from a distance on the TV show Homeland, I had to make a quick choice: head further down the street and around the corner, or down a flight of steps to where hundreds of others were already eating lunch on a terrace.

Down the stairs I bounded.

Quickly scanning the outdoor seating, I saw no one I recognized, so I headed inside the restaurant.  A crackling sound in my ear alerted me I was heading in the right direction.

Julie and Our Table Mates At Lunch

The lobby area was jammed, so I cut down a server's hallway and came into a banquet area just as Julie walked in and the guide's voice clarified in my ear.

We sat at our window table with a view of the Bosporus Strat and enjoyed a delicious, multi-course lunch of regional foods.

First Course Included Great Hummus and Other Med Treats

Okay, it wasn't exactly edge-of-your-seat drama, but the thought of meeting Julie back on the ship that night and explaining how I could be so careless as to get lost in a city of 14 million people where I don't speak the language had my heart racing.

The city, however, doesn't feel menacing.  It is very clean, which in turn makes it feel safe.

Topkapi Palace Building With Identifying Sign

You don't see graffiti or slovenly dressed individuals.  Everyone seems quite polite.

It would be great if Istanbul would be used as a role model for other Muslim nations.

It should be noted that unlike in some countries, women officially have equal rights in Turkey, including the rights to be educated and to drive cars.

Julie at Entrance to Topkapi Palace

The modern, secular perspective. however, is put in historical context by the huge building that once housed the Ottoman Sultan's Harem, where the Sultan and his sons visited dozens of concubines with no other men allowed except black eunuch slaves who were guards, spoke for a different era under the Ottoman Empire.

Topkapi Palace Wall

Our tour did not include admission to the Harem, but our guide piqued our interest with a few words.

To be selected to join the Harem was deemed a great privilege.  The women of the Harem lived in relative splendor and received an education to read, write, play instruments, dance, sing and sexually please the Sultan.

Hagia Irene, a Byzantine church enclosed within Topkapi
Palace Walls, was used as armory, storehouse and then
museum by Ottomans.  Now, it's a classical music venue
Over Byzantine history, the church was re-built after
mulitple disasters  and also expanded from the original
basilica dedicated by Constantine I in the 4th Century.

Their job was to please the Sultan in any way possible, and their education was geared toward that objective, but during the 19th century, educational opportunities for other women began to open.

To be selected as a concubine was an honored position.  If she played all of her cards perfectly, gaining the highest favor of the current Sultan, she might rise to become the future Valide Sultan, or mother of the next Sultan, and be in charge of the Harem.  This was the highest position attainable for a woman in the Ottoman Empire.

While definitely Muslim at its heart, the Ottoman Empire in many ways carried on traditions of the Byzantine Empire.

Ornate Ceilings are Topkapi norm.

Constantine-conqueror Sultan Mehmed II and his successors didn't needlessly destroy buildings which could be re-purposed, and they took the same approach to conquered people.

Early on, Ottomans accepted soldiers from conquered kingdoms into their own military and rewarded top performers with a great deal of responsibility as officers.

Eventually, some Christians and Jews earned positions in government administration, and as long as they were essentially monotheistic (notwithstanding the Roman Catholic tradition of the holy trilogy which was a point of contention in the Eastern Orthodox Church), the Muslims were for the most part tolerant.

Polytheists, like Arabs committed to regional religions that existed prior to Mohammed's revelation, were not acceptable to the Ottoman new world order, and they were chased away from civilized regions into the barren desert wasteland we now call oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

Prior to the rise of Islam, Arab tribes were in constant conflict with each other.

Raiding and taking plunder from other tribes was a way of life.

Mohammed declared that this practice of plundering fellow Muslims to be a sin, and cutting off this method of redistribution of wealth, the Muslims warmly embraced the honored alternative of raiding and plundering infidels of foreign lands.

The territory captured was to the glory of Allah, so the military found motivation in heavenly as well as earthly reward, as did the Sultan.

By the time the Ottoman Empire began in 1299, the Byzantines and Persians (latter day Iran) had been significantly weakened by centuries battling each other.  Intrigues in Europe derailed a new Crusade, and the Ottoman Empire grew rapidly.

The Ottomans eventually controlled most of Eastern Europe, closing in on the border of present day Austria.

As you may recall, the Muslim Moors had previously conquered Spain in 711, sweeping through the Iberian Peninsula.  They challenged France with designs deeper into Europe, but Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer) stopped their advance at the Battle of Tours in 737.

As a side note, Charles Martel was the first Carolingian Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (western Europe) and the grandfather of the enlightened Emperor Charlemagne.

The Spanish Reconquista did not drive the Moors from Europe until 1492, the same year Spain financed the first exploratory voyage of Christopher Columbus.  That was 39 years after Ottomans captured the capital of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), Constantinople, which is now called Istanbul, on May 29, 1453.

Sultan Mehmed II set up court in the Great Palace of Constantinople, but he found it in ill repair, so he sought a new location, settling on the site of the Byzantine Acropolis.  He laid out the palace behind new high walls in a pattern that would be preserved for the ages.

The powerful Ottoman Empire became incredibly wealthy through control of trade and conquest of new territories.

The overused adjective palatial doesn't adequately describe Topkapi Palace, with its opulent buildings among sprawling grounds.  The total area is about 50% larger than Vatican City.

Perhaps even more impressive than the palace itself are the treasures housed within it, including decorative and deadly weapons, intricate clocks and a Pink Panther-enticing trove of shimmering jewels, which were received over centuries from kingdoms and other wealthy traders in tribute to the Sultans whose lands and waters they traversed.

One brooch holds the 86 carat Spoonmaker's Diamond, which is surrounded by 49 smaller but sizeable diamonds.

Photography is not allowed inside the museums, but check out the video below for some indication of what we saw.

It's truly astounding to see all of these symbols of wealth on display.

I couldn't help wondering how these collections managed to remain preserved through the fall of the Ottoman Empire, occupation by the British and subsequent founding of the Republic of Turkey, when financial demands could undoubtedly have been used as justification to sell most if not all of it.

Hagia Irene in Foreground with Blue Mosque in Distance

In the final analysis, Topkapi Palace, like other castles in Europe, makes a wonderful tourist attraction.  It continues to yield rewards to the Turkish government treasury while preserving precious artistry and gems of the past for future generations.