Turkey In Focus - Discover Turkey: Experience the Best of Turkey - page 707

ral Asian steppes. Incorporating Persian motifs and Chinese cloud patterns into their ro-
bust floor coverings and Islamic prayer rugs, by the 12th century the Turks had introduced
hand-woven carpets to Anatolia, where regional designs evolved. Uşak carpets, with star
and medallion motifs, attracted European attention, and carpet-making contributed signi-
ficantly to the Ottoman economy.
Village women still weave carpets, but usually work to fixed contracts for shops. Where
cooperatives produce carpets, their quality makes up for any losses in individuality; most
silk Hereke carpets are mass-produced, but to standards that make them highly sought-
after. Keep an eye out for 'project carpets', usually of high quality, that are produced by
projects to revive traditional weaving and dyeing methods in western Turkey.
Literature
Historically, Turkish literature was all about poetry: warrior epics passed down orally,
Sufi mystical verses by the likes of Rumi, and the legends and elegies of wandering aşık
(minstrels).
Yaşar Kemal's gritty stories of rural life were the first Turkish novels to attract interna-
tional attention. Memed, My Hawk, a tale of the desperate plight of Anatolian villagers,
has won Kemal nomination for the Nobel Prize for Literature on several occasions. Irfan
Orga's books, including The Caravan Moves On, recounting his travels with Yörük
nomads in the Taurus Mountains (Toros Dağları), were also published in the 1950s.
Notable contemporary writers include Elif Şafak; The Flea Palace is a wordy novel
about an elegant İstanbul apartment building fallen on hard times, and The Bastard of
Istanbul is a coming-of-age saga bristling with eccentric characters. Ayşe Kulin's Last
Train to İstanbul follows Turkish diplomats' attempts to save Jewish families from the
Nazis, and Farewell is set during the post-WWI Allied occupation of Turkey. Jewish-
Turkish writer Moris Farhi's Young Turk is pacy and episodic, and Latife Tekin's Dear
Shameless Death is a heady whirl of Anatolian folklore and magic realism.
Orhan Pamuk
The biggest name in Turkish literature is Orhan Pamuk, an inventive prose stylist who juggles elaborate plots and
finely sketched characters with the weighty issues confronting Turkey. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in
2006 - the only Turk to have won a Nobel Prize.