‘Seven days. Seven deaths. Seven brides for seven rivers…’ It is New Year’s Day. The city of Galata, with its ancient river-streets, is slowly sinking into the sea. But for one week its citizens want to forget this, and celebrate the city’s thousand-year anniversary. For Joseph, a jaded ex-detective, the day brings a glimmer of hope. Last night he met and kissed Celice, a free-spirited artist. Tonight he is meeting her again. But Celice never turns up. Then her body is pulled out of the canal. There are papers on her; charred at the edges, with mysterious writing on them. As Joseph teams up with his former police colleague J. D, they discover this may be just the first in a series of eerily similar crimes that took place on exactly the same week, 100 years ago. Is history about to repeat itself? And can they stop it happening again? Cover: Photos by Andrea Piacquadio; Background by Lise-Noor Lemmens

Galata Mawlawi Lodge served as a dervish lodge for 434 years. This dargah raised influential figures such as Ankaravi İsmail Dede, Shayk Galip, Fasih Dede, Esrar Dede and master neyzan Osman Dede, besides occupying a place in the hearts of several Ottoman sultans like Sultan Selim III and Sultan Mahmud II. During the last years of the lodge, it had wellknown visitors and muhibs such as Walad (Chalabi) İzbudak, Ahmed Jalal ad-Din Dede, Selman Tüzün, Cemaleddin Server Revnakoğlu, Mithat Bahari Beytur, Ahmet Bican Kasapoğlu, Necati Ergin and several other tasawwuf cognoscenti.

Every day, the Galata Bridge over the Golden Horn is crowded with anglers plying their skills on the Haliç. What brings them to the bridge and what are their stories when not angling? This books introduces eight anglers, each very different in character, age and background, but each one drawn to the Galata Bridge to fish, to philosophise, to dream.

Dear Traveler, Welcome to the WanderStories™ tour of the Galata Tower in Istanbul. We, at WanderStories™, are storytellers. We don’t tell you where to eat or sleep, we don’t intend to replace a typical travel reference guide. Our mission is to be the best local guide that you would wish to have by your side when visiting the sights. So, we meet you at the sight and take you on a tour. WanderStories™ travel guides are unique because our storytelling style puts you alongside the best local guide who tells you fascinating stories and unusual facts recreating the passion and sacrifice that forged the beauty of these places right here in front of you, while a wealth of high quality photos, historic pictures, and illustrations brings your tour vividly to life. Our promise: • when you visit the Galata Tower with this travel guide you will have the best local guide at your fingertips • when you read this travel guide in the comfort of your armchair you will feel as if you are actually visiting the Galata Tower with the best local guide Let’s go! Your guide, WanderStories

Historian Eric R Dursteler reconsiders identity in the early modern world to illuminate Veneto-Ottoman cultural interaction and coexistence, challenging the model of hostile relations and suggesting instead a more complex understanding of the intersection of cultures. Although dissonance and strife were certainly part of this relationship, he argues, coexistence and cooperation were more common. Moving beyond the "clash of civilizations" model that surveys the relationship between Islam and Christianity from a geopolitical perch, Dursteler analyzes the lived reality by focusing on a localized microcosm: the Venetian merchant and diplomatic community in Muslim Constantinople. While factors such as religion, culture, and political status could be integral elements in constructions of self and community, Dursteler finds early modern identity to be more than the sum total of its constitutent parts and reveals how the fluidity and malleability of identity in this time and place made coexistence among disparate cultures possible.