THE GATEWAY TO THE EAST: BYRON’S FABULATION OF ISTANBUL IN AN ORIENTAL CONTEXT

Authors : Himmet Umunç

Pages : 223-231

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Publication Date : 2012-06-05

Article Type : Research

Abstract :Istanbul with its rich history and inspiring geography has always attracted travellers from Europe and captivated the European mind. Especially, since the early modern times, the Europeans have viewed it not only as a major centre of the classical and Byzantine heritage and eastern Christianity but also, more importantly, as a city which epitomized oriental cultures and civilizations. In this latter sense, it has invariably been mythologized and considered to be a gateway to the Orient. It was certainly with a perception of Istanbul as such that Lord Byron privileged it as “the capital of the East.” In fact, his readings in his early life about the Orient had so much influence on him that, as a young man of 21, he set out in 1809 on a two-year journey, which, beginning from Portugal and Spain, took him to Ottoman Greece and Turkey. In the early summer of 1810 he was in Istanbul for a couple of months and, during his stay, he explored not only the city and the Bosphorus in a historical and geographical context but also had a close look into the Ottoman life and culture. Hence, while, on the one hand, he gave in his letters a colourful account of his impressions and observations of Istanbul, on the other, in his works, especially in Child Harold’s Pilgrimage and Don Juan, he drew a romanticized and fictional picture of the city, situated in an oriental setting and informed by his personal reveries of oriental sensualism and exoticism. So, this paper is a study and discussion of Byron’s oriental fabulation of Istanbul and aims to demonstrate to what extent his fabulation turns Istanbul into an epitome of the oriental Other’s values and ways of life.
Keywords : İstanbul, Boğaziçi, Doğu, Şarkiyat, Byron