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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 Carsi,
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 Carsisi or Spice Bazaar, next to Yeni Mosque in Eminonu,
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
Carsisi (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 Atakoy Galleria
Mall in Atakoy 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 Carsisi and Cinaralti 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 Carsisi is a collection of shops that sell
furniture of varying age and quality. The flea market in the Topkapi
district, on Cukurcuma Sokak in Cihangir, on Buyuk Hamam Sokak in
Uskudar, in the Kadikoy Carsi Duragi area, and between Eminonu and
Tahtakale, are open daily. After a Sunday drive up the Bosphorus,
stop between Buyukdere 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
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