Shops are usually open between
8:3019:00 and normally closed on Sunday.
Turkey, as a result of its
geographical location, is a treasure-house of
hand-made products. These range from carpets and
kilims, to gold and silver jewelry, ceramics,
leather and suede clothing, ornaments fashioned
from alabaster, onyx, copper, and meerschaum.
When purchasing carpets, jewelry
or leather products, it is advisable to consult
your guide or do your shopping at a reputable
store rather than in the street from vendors.
One could visit Istanbul for the
shopping alone. The Kapali Çarsi, or Covered
Bazaar, in the old city is the logical place to
start. This labyrinth of streets and passages
houses more than 4,000 shops. The names recall
the days when each trade had its own quarter:
Goldsmiths' street, Carpet sellers' street,
Skullcap makers. Still the commercial center of
the old city, the bazaar is the original
shopping mall with something to suit every taste
and pocket
Turkish crafts, the world-renowned
carpets, brilliant hand painted ceramics, copper,
brassware, and meerschaum pipes make charming
souvenirs and gifts. The gold jewelry in
brilliantly lit cases blinds passersby. Leather
and suede goods of excellent quality make a
relatively inexpensive purchase. The Old
Bedesten, in the heart of the bazaar, offers a
curious assortment of antiques. It is worth
poking through the clutter of decades in the
hope of finding a treasure.
The Misir Çarsisi or Spice Bazaar,
next to Yeni Mosque in Eminönü, transports you
to fantasies of the mystical East. The enticing
aromas of cinnamon, caraway, saffron, mint,
thyme and every other conceivable herb and spice
fill the air. Sultanahmet has become another
shopping mecca in the old city. The Istanbul
Sanatlari Çarsisi (Bazaar of Istanbul Arts) in
the l8th century Mehmet Efendi Medresesi, and
the nearby l6th century Caferaga Medrese, built
by Sinan, offer a chance to see craftsmen at
work and to purchase their wares. In the Arasta
(old bazaar) of the Sultanahmet Mosque, a
thriving shopping arcade makes shopping and
sightseeing very convenient.
The sophisticated shops of the
Taksim-Nisantasi-Sisli districts contrast with
the chaos of the bazaars. On Istiklal Avenue,
Cumhuriyet Avenue and Rumeli Avenue, you can
browse peacefully in the most fashionable shops
that sell elegant fashions made from Turkey's
high quality textiles. Exquisite jewelry as well
as finely designed handbags and shoes can also
be found. The Ataköy Galleria Mall in Ataköy and
Akmerkez Mall in Etiler have branches of
Istanbul's most elegant shops. Bahariye Avenue,
Bagdat Avenue, and Capitol Mall on the Asian
side, offer the same goods.
In Istanbul's busy flea markets
you can find an astonishing assortment of goods,
both old and new. Everyday offers a new
opportunity to poke about the Sahaflar Çarsisi
and Çinaralti in the Beyazit district. On
Sundays, in a flea market between the Sahaflar
and the Covered Bazaar, vendors uncover their
wares on carts and blankets. The Horhor Çarsisi
is a collection of shops that sell furniture of
varying age and quality. The flea market in the
Topkapi district, on Çukurcuma Sokak in
Cihangir, on Büyük Hamam Sokak in Üsküdar, in
the Kadiköy Çarsi Duragi area, and between
Eminönü and Tahtakale, are open daily. After a
Sunday drive up the Bosphorus, stop between
Büyükdere and Sariyer to wander through another
lively market.
Leather
Leather processing is a
traditional handicraft in Turkey and was
developed greatly during the Ottoman period.
Istanbul's traditional leather manufacturing
industry was concentrated in the district of
Kazlicesme, where Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror
had 360 tannery shops built to be rented out to
leather craftsmen. Over the next 500 years
Kazlicesme became a notorious eyesore which
could be smelt long before it came into sight
and the hundreds of small manufacturers have now
been moved to a spacious modern industrial
estate in Pendik.
Although it is a big industry,
leather-wear is still very dependent on personal
appeal and touch. It is also risky, time-consuming,
laborious and therefore costly. It takes about
45 days to transform a skin into leather ready
for dying and nearly 60 days from skinning to
the finished garment. Also the volume of
livestock in Turkey is not increasing at a
sufficiently high rate to keep up with the
industry's demand.
Despite all these difficulties,
the leather sector comes after textiles in terms
of export figures. The principal markets for
Turkish leather goods today are the European
Union countries led by Germany and then France.
When purchasing leather goods,
one should be aware of the very wide range of
products; different animal skins, baby lamb,
lamb, suede, nubuk, pelluria, etc.
and their differing qualities and prices
Carpet
A carpet is more a work of art
than an article which people step on for
everyday use.
70% of the tourists coming to
Turkey return to their homes with carpets
because Turkey is a treasure-house of carpets.
To understand how valuable
Turkish carpets are, it is better to go back to
their origin. For a nomad who lived in a tent,
home was a simple place; a combination of walls,
roof and floor. The floor was not usually an
elaborate structure, just a simple carpet laid
directly onto the earth. The carpet was a bug-excluder,
soil leveler, temperature controller and comfort
provider all in one.
The texture of the material
beneath one's feet was sensual proof that this
was home and not the wild.
As for the history of the carpet,
various fragments exist from the 56C AD, but it
is only from the Seljuk period in Anatolia that
many more pieces have survived. Marco Polo,
during his journey through Seljuk lands towards
the end of the 13C reported that the best and
finest carpets were produced in Konya.
Since a carpet is more of a work
of art, the deeper meanings of each design
cannot be neglected. A carpet can be likened to
a poem; neither can tolerate any extra element
which does not contribute to its wholeness and
value. Therefore, just like in a poem, each
pattern of a carpet is chosen for its beauty and
motifs are carefully arranged to form rhymes.
Turkish carpets carry a wide
range of symbols. For many centuries, Anatolian
women have been expressing their wishes, fears,
interests, fidelity and love through the
artistic medium of carpets. Even so, there are
typical repeated motifs changing from region to
region; geometric designs, tree of life, the
central medallion design, the prayer niches in
prayer rugs, etc.
Turkish carpets are made of silk,
wool or cotton. A silk pile gives a carpet the
great brilliance. Cotton-warped carpets almost
always have a more rigid and mechanical
appearance than woolen-warped. Yarns have been
used in their natural colors or colored with
dyes extracted from flowers, roots and insects.
Carpets are made on vertical
looms strung with 3 to 24 warp (vertical)
threads per cm (8 to 60 per in) of width.
Working from bottom to top, the carpet maker
either weaves the rug with a flat surface or
knots it for a pile texture. Pile rugs use 57.5
cm / 23 in lengths of yarn tied in Turkish (Gordes)
or Persian (Sehna) knots with rows of horizontal
weft yarn laced over and under the vertical warp
threads for strength. After the carpet is
completely knotted, its pile is sheared and the
warp threads at each end are tied into a fringe.
The finer the yarn and the closer the warp
threads are strung together, the denser the
weave and, usually, the finer the quality.
The best-known flat-woven rug is
the kilim which is lighter in
weight and less bulky than pile rugs. It has a
plain weave made by shooting the weft yarn over
and under the warp threads in one row, then
alternating the weft in the next row. The
sumak type is woven in a herringbone
pattern by wrapping a continuous weft around
pairs of warp threads.
Taking a tour of a carpet
production center is highly recommended in order
to have firsthand experience of this art and to
see a full range of the different designs
exhibited
