books @ cc.

by Orhan Pamuk (1979)

Part meta-, part historical fiction, The White Castle is the story of the narrator (whose name is never revealed), a young Italian savant and his ambivalent relationship with his Turkish double. In 17th century, caught by the Ottoman fleet during his journey from Venice to Naples, the narrator was brought to Istanbul as a slave, yet his various skilled knowledge acquired him better treatment and fame. Summoned to medicate the ailing pasha (and suceeding), he was then dispensed to assist the Hoja — a master-teacher — who could easily pass for his twin.

A Biography of the Prophet
by Karen Armstrong (1991)

Initially written in the height of Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses crisis in 1990 (with a new introduction for the post-9/11), the book was written not as an an all-inclusive biography, but rather as a readable introductory account of Muhammad’s (frequently misunderstood) life and teachings. There is, as such, much to find in the current context of the common (mis)conceptions of Islam, particularly in regard to the Rushdie affair, the question of jihad, polygamy, and female role in Islamic societies.

by Orhan Pamuk (1998)

In Istanbul, in the late 1590s, the Sultan secretly commissions a book to Enishte Effendi, instead of his head illustrator, Master Osman. Working with the most prominent miniaturists of the day: Elegant, Butterfly, Stork, and Olive, Enishte is to create a book that will display the Sultan’s prominence and power to the infidel Venetians — illustrated in the Frankish manner, i.e. using shadows, perspective, etc. to make the subjects recognisable and representational.