Journey to the East

A picture of Le Voyage d'Orient from Amazon. It was a different cover that I found in the library though.

724.60944 L467

That is the serial number for a book called Le Voyage d'Orient (Journey to the East). It is a small and modest book. An old and untouched one as well. Only those who seek it will find it, I presumed, as even the title can barely be seen now. Why was I looking for the book, when I should be researching on Le Corbusier's work? Well, it was, in a way, a research on Le Corbusier. For those of you who doesn't know Le Corbusier, he was named the "Architect if the Century" by the British Arts Council, in 1987. You know the concrete slab and columns used in many of the buildings nowadays? Well, thanks to him who introduced the construction system to the world. Well, just a brief introduction to Le Corbusier.



Le Voyage d'Orient was actually a visual diary of Le Corbusier's journey when he travelled to the Balkans and Asia Minor. It was said from this travel that he was influenced by the Ottoman architecture. It was a "muted but decided influence on his work" (Modern Architecture: A Critical History). It was quite surprising to discover that the Architect of the Century had once travelled to the Islamic countries during the last decades of the caliphate and was actually influenced by the architecture back then.



What excites me more is the fact that Le Corbusier experienced the life back then, and wrote it down in detail in this travel log book. It gives me yet another glimpse of the life during the caliphate era; an era when Islamic teaching was practiced and spread to the world. My first insight into this era was when I read about Mimarbasi Sinan.



I found some very interesting explanation in Le Corb's book. A description when he arrived at Adrianople,



"The Sultan Selim gives the city (Adrianople) a tiara of great splendor. The ancient Turkish capital has remained full of nobility. With their pure Eastern manners the fine old Turks who live here appear to us as holy men."



And then he continued describing the manners of the people,



"We were coddled, which means we were greeted by everyone and treated with kindness. In the cafes, the owner, crouching on a sofa, gets up and with pincers brings burning charcoal taken from the oven to light our cigarettes. We were seated in the street beneath a trellis. Kindly and curious Turks become interested and gather around. A pastry vendor offers us some of his goods and refuses to be paid. I knocked over and broke two water glasses. And the owner is offended because I want to reimburse him. He smiles, says thank you, salutes us and won't even accept payment for the coffee."



It was interesting. And to a certain extent, sad as well. On one side, people would see that that was how Muslims greet people. Kind, friendly, warm, generous, etc.. From another perspective, I was thinking that maybe the Muslims were beginning to recognise secularism introduced by the west. They celebrated a foreigner by offering them to smoke. Or maybe I was thinking too much.



This book was written in the early 1900s. Maybe just around the time when World War 1 exploded, around 1914. In 1924, the caliphate system was brought down. This means it was written during the last years of the caliphate era. I wonder how it was back then.



Perhaps I'll finish reading the book first.