YOU can see him here – a picture of a ‘Holy Man’, defined thus :
1. who takes one step, followed by the next, and the next… and so on
2. and walks directly between places (observe the straitness of the road)
This will do to define a ‘Holy Man’ in Istanbul, standing here in the open-handed position of a man responding to the call to prayer common-place in that city.
But LOOK, there is so much else to see! On the far side of the road apartment blocks rise four or five storeys, buildings of modern concrete construction perhaps twenty years old, it is hard to say. The road is wide, four lanes or so, a dual carriageway that is divided by the hedge and small tree on the central reservation. One sees that he holds a map in his hands, so one might assume after all that he is not at prayer, that he is ‘reading’ the map. But note that the road appears empty of buses or cars, so it might indeed be one of the times during the day when the city stops.
It is possible that here he is both reading and at prayer…
Then there is the slender stemmed tree that rises in front of him, separating right from left in the picture, raising the possibility of two sides, there being more than one explanation: and on the left side of the tree in the far distance the road dividing, a roundabout, and traffic signs to north and south, east and west. Complexity on the left side of the tree: THISis the territory of the ‘sweet-toothed devil’, invisible here of course (like any good djinn, or the one who is "behind the camera" as we say), the clue to his presence is to be found by close reading the lettering on the side of the large municipal dustbin that straddles pavement and road. "FATIH BELEBIYESI" is written, (macaramic) reading for ‘fatty-belly…’ of course, in other words the one with the sweet tooth, and wide-mouthed appetite for all and sundry!
And it is possible that here he too is both reading and at prayer…
mmj