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D. Panikkar @dpanikkar.bsky.social · 13h

The Blue Mosque. Istanbul.

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D. Panikkar @dpanikkar.bsky.social · 14h

At the bird market. Ayvansaray, Istanbul.

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D. Panikkar @dpanikkar.bsky.social · 14h

Red Balloons. Galata, Istanbul.

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D. Panikkar @dpanikkar.bsky.social · 14h

Street scene. Phanar district, Istanbul.

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D. Panikkar @dpanikkar.bsky.social · 23h

Street scene. Fener district. Istanbul.

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The river Loudias. Central Macedonia. Greece.

Street scene. Ayvansaray district, Istanbul.

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Street scene. Edirnekapi district, Istanbul.

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Street scene. Edirnekapi district, Istanbul.

Street scene. Çarşamba district. Istanbul.

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It is choppy in the bay but the Gods seem unmoved; and I did get the distinct impression that they returned my pagan gaze with a benediction. There is no snow atop Olympus. Perhaps the El Nino is to blame. The Christ child has been the bane of these Greek divinities for some time now; since Hypatia!

Out along the promenade fishermen are protesting. Greek Fisheries,a large black sign reads. The perils of the Union, when slippery French fishermen have the same access to the markets across Greece, I guess. I did not ask for the provenance of the skorpina in my pasta. No one protested the linguine!

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Last light. Thessaloniki, Greece. Mt. Olympus looms.

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View of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus from the terrace of the Süleymaniye Mosque. Istanbul.

The Hooded Crow. Corvus Cornix. Easily spotted hereabouts. According to local legend it is a spy sent by the Djinns. Except I'm the one spying on him.

Evening light. Walls of the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul.

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Street scene. Kadiköy, Istanbul.

Street scenes. Fener district, Istanbul. ‘The Republic turns 100’.

On the grammarian with a cough, a super intelligent friend was stumped: 'If Fermor had a historical figure hovering in the background, there are several plausible Constantinopolitan grammarians and philologists—Moschopoulos, Planudes, Triclinius, Chrysoloras—but not enough evidence to pick one out.’

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Galata Manes (Vasta Kardia Mou)

The wail of amané. I couldn't find one from the Phanar. Galata was the closest I got. The sound lends weight to the idea, once again being floated, that the Greeks are a near-eastern people, not all that Western. Galata Manes. Antonia Diamantidis Dalgas. 1925-1935. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NIy...

youtube.com

YouTube video by Antonis Diamantidis Dalgas - Topic

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Sunlight on fig leaves. Phanar district, Istanbul. Once a thriving Greek neighbourhood. Following the Cyprus crisis most Greeks left. Still the spiritual center of the Eastern Orthodox Church and seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Phanariot elite were often high officials in the Sublime Porte.

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Earlier on Istiklal Street, Cuneyt, an ichthyologist disguised as a fishmonger educated me in halting English of the six different names for Bosphorus bluefish in order of size. They sounded like some magical incantation: küçük, çinekop, sarikanat, lüfer, kofana, sirtukara. Here he holds up a lüfer.

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Here, Tanpinar looks a bit startled at the sight of an early visitor to his memorial. But perhaps it was just the strong morning light. Manuscripts, books, pens, typewriters, even watches of famous Turkish writers fill the quiet rooms. There is even a bust of Orhan Pamuk so bad I fear for his hüzün.

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The bluefish season was a recurring theme in Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar's writings about the Bosphorus Civilization. An air of autumn festivity swept the city. Poets and lovers went out on moonless nights, the lamps of countless boats magical in the fog. And drifting in the air the smell of fish grilling.

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"Constantinople is the Emperor’s acclamation, the commination of Chrysostom, a lament for the Fall, the wail of amané, a grammarian’s cough and the mewing of cats"—Patrick Leigh Fermor, Roumeli. Icon of Saint John Chrysostom. Of unknown provenance. Nineteenth century. Hagia Sophia Museum, Istanbul.

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Mosaics. Byzantine era Chora Church, Edirnekapi area, Istanbul.

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D. Panikkar @dpanikkar.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Byzantine era Chora Church, now the Kariye mosque. In the Edirnekapi area (Adrianopolis Gate), Istanbul.

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A sema performed by the Rumi order of Sufis at Kasimpaşa Mevlevihanesi, Istanbul.

D. Panikkar @dpanikkar.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Tomb of Şeyh Galip, poet and mystic. Galata Mevlevihenesi. Istanbul. “Since becoming a sharer in the secret of your glance my heart became a friend of the friend, a stranger to the stranger.”

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D. Panikkar @dpanikkar.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

They smell of tobacco and fish, mostly fish, and talk animatedly, long poles braced under their arms. Any moment the line can go taut; then the boys will go home, victorious for the day, with a few çinekops or even a lüfer and, of course, fresh stories and the latest gossip from all the köys around.

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D. Panikkar @dpanikkar.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

It's October. The Black Sea is already cold. There is a dusting of snow atop the Caucasus, I am told. Down the Bosphorus the bluefish are running. By November there will be fatter kofana among them. As always the Galata Bridge is thronged with fishermen, despite the lateness of the hour on a Sunday.

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D. Panikkar @dpanikkar.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Scenes from a passing taksi. Istanbul.

D. Panikkar @dpanikkar.bsky.social · 14/08/2016

Reposted by D. Panikkar

Lilt and lyricism. Brigitte Menon. French Sitarist. Raga Bageshri. Jor. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFRUZxNGEdE

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D. Panikkar @dpanikkar.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It is here, finally, the storm. Sniffing, hissing, whistling and growling about the eaves of my many-timbered house. It is too early in the season for such weatherly violence. The trees, their branches still fully enleafed and thus ensailed, swoosh in anguish, bending to the wind's whim and caprice.