A view of the Gülhane Walls from Hüdavendigâr Street… Directly across from us is the Karaki Hüseyin Çelebi Mosque. The tram approaching us from the left lane is a first-class car on the “12” Fatih-Harbiye tram line… Judging by the leaves on the trees and the pedestrians’ attire, it must be a rainless but overcast and cold autumn day. The direction and length of the faint shadows on the ground indicate that it is around 1:00 p.m.
Most likely, at that very moment, the noon call to prayer is being recited in the Rast mode from the Yenicami Mosque and Hüseyin Çelebi’s modest minaret. The gentlemen walking side by side on the sidewalk are likely local employees and shopkeepers who have taken a break from work to go out for lunch…
Those were the years when elegant wooden and stone buildings still dominated the Istanbul skyline… On that Istanbul afternoon, not yet choked by traffic and concrete, walking at a leisurely pace toward Sirkeci must have been such a pleasure, right at that very moment…
(Photo from the archive of my late grandfather, İbrahim Hilmi TANIŞIK)