The Third Annual International Graduate Student Workshop ...

form and meaning. Variety and excitement thrive in Istanbul but it is difficult to grasp
entirely which also gives it an urban character.
In his diary, on the 27 th of May 1657, Eremya gives a very detailed and vivid
description of the ceremony organized for the assault on Crete by the Ottomans. This
long passage in itself is meant to stun the reader with the scope of the enterprise and with
the level of involvement it gathered from all walks of the urban fabric. He presents all
parties involved in the ceremony in its hierarchical form and gives a vivid description of
the excitement and interest the people of the city showed from all social groups and ages.
This was an example of a an event that incorporates the whole city around a common
goal and spectacle contributing to the imperial civic culture created in Istanbul in a
unique way. Another site of urban engagement would be seen in the provisioning of the
city. Eremya presents wheat, meat, vegetable, fruit and water supplies and suppliers of
the city in his account. However, since his adopting father Haci Ambakum ran a bakery
business and made Eremya part of it, he dedicates a rather detailed account of the bread
supply for the entire city. While he includes different kinds of bakery items and bread
produced for the populace, he distinguishes the bread produced for the elite, which
included the households of the residents of the grandees, the old and the new palaces. The
process of supplying the city with a vital part of its daily diet is represented again as an
urban phenomenon but interestingly revealing the hierarchy of significance in it.
“Our city is of heavenly nature with its beautiful weather and unmatchable
water.” Eremya says in one of the few instances he explicitly praises Istanbul for its
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