Book | Kiraze by Solmaz Kamuran

See Mavi Boncuk : Jewish Kieras | Esperanza Malchi, Esther Handali and Kiera Esther

Solmaz Kâmuran, Kiraze, inkılap Kitabevi, i stanbul, 2000 (Turkish Edition)

Mavi Boncuk |
Kiraze Paperback – November 15, 2015
by Solmaz Kamuran[1]

Paperback: 350 pages | Publisher: Garnet Publishing [*](November 15, 2015)|Language: English |ISBN-10: 1859643809 |ISBN-13: 978-1859643808 

In this dazzling novel set in the Ottoman Empire during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, best-selling Turkish author Solmaz Kamuran has brought to life a woman known to history only in glimpses.

Esther Handali (nicknamed "Kiraze," or "Cherry")[2] was the widow of an Istanbul rabbi and daughter of a family that had fled the Spanish Inquisition. She established herself during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent as a kyra: an intermediary between the women of the seraglio and the world outside the harem to which they were confined. Entrusted with the worldly desires of the sultan's concubines as well as with their hopes, fears, and news of their illicit liaisons, her connection to the Imperial Palace ended only under Mehmet III, Suleiman's great-grandson.

Esther's longevity in such a sensitive position owed much to her charisma, intelligence and resourcefulness, as well as her ability to sidestep—and manipulate—the dangerous politics of the harem. Inevitably, however, she eventually succumbed to the intrigues of the Palace: a careless indiscretion led to her downfall and persecution at the hands of a mob, with unspeakably dreadful results . . .

SEE ALSO: OSMANLI’NIN ENG IN HOGÖRÜSÜ, YAHUD LER VE B R KADININ YÜKSELISI N iN ÖYKÜSÜ | TOLERANCE OF OTTOMAN STATE, JEWISH COMMUNITY AND STORY OF RISING OF A WOMAN: KIRAZE BY Dr. Melih ERZEN (PDF) 

[1] Solmaz Kamuran was born in Istanbul in 1954. She graduated Kadikoy Anadolu Lisesi (Kadikoy Maarif Koleji) and from Istanbul University, Faculty of Dentistry. Even though she started working as a dentist, she didn’t loose her interest in and love for literature, but couldn’t write professionally until she quit her medical career and devoted herself to her writings. 

Her first book, published in 1997, was called Intoxicated Transparency and was followed by Murder of a Silkworm, a biographical story of (her husband) the famous Turkish writer and columnist Cetin Altan. Her biggest success so far was with her third novel, Kiraze, which was published in 2000 and sold more than 110.000 copies in Turkey. Kiraze is the saga of a Sephardic Jewish family that has forced to migrate out from Spain to Turkey. 

Kiraze, her first novel, sold three hundred thousand copies in Turkey. She acquired a reputation amongst academics for her expertise in this historical period. Kamuran was among the 20 writers who were invited by Sorbonne University in 2003 for a conference on Sephardic Jews and literature. Her second novel, Minta, was published in the beginning of 2002. Minta tells the story of five generations of an African family separated by slavery and haunted by struggle and tragedy. Solmaz Kamuran is also a well-known literary translator from English to Turkish and wrote scripts for TV series and traveling reports that have been published in several newspapers and magazines.  

Works (selection): Kiraze (Esther Kyra), 2000, novel; Minta (Minta), 2002, novel; The Bank (Banka), 2004, novel; Boreas – Wind of Dardanel (Boreas – Çanakkale Rüzgarı), 2005, novel; The Obscure Odysses of Ibrahim the Hungarian Convert (Macar – Tefrika-i Müteferrika), 2010, novel

www.solmazkamuran.com

 [2] Esther is a kyra|kira (economic agent), member of a caste of Jewish women authorized to act as intermediaries between the Ottoman Sultan's harem and the wider world. During the 16th century a few Jewish women were active in the harems of the sultans by rendering various services. These women had the title *kiera. The most famous kieras were Strongilah, Espiranza Malki, and Esther Handali. 

In 1566 R. Moshe Almosnino prepared a list of court Jews in Istanbul who helped him to obtain the Writ of Freedom (mu'afname) from the sultan for the Jewish community of Salonika: Joseph Nasi, Judah Di Sigura, Abraham Salma, Meir Ibn Sanji, and Joseph Hamon. Generally those court Jews were very wealthy and attempted to help their brethren in Istanbul and other Ottoman Jewish communities by using their political connections, Sometimes they became involved in internal quarrels of other communities. Gracia Mendes and Joseph Nasi used their status in the Istanbul community and at court, after the burning of the anusim in Ancona in the year 1555, to ban the harbor of Ancona and transfer the Jewish Ottoman mercantile representatives to the city of Pesaro. 

From 1564 R. Shelomo Ashkenazi served as the personal physician of the sultan; he was sent by the sultan Selim II to arrange the peace treaty in 1573 between the Ottoman Empire and Venice. During the reign of the sultan Murad III (1574–95), however, the Jewish community was shaken by a decree ordering the killing of Jews, which resulted from the appearance of men and women in the streets in rich clothing and jewels. As a result of the intervention of the physician R. Solomon Ashkenazi at court, the decree was mitigated, but Jews were forbidden to wear such apparel. Subsequently, the rabbis of Istanbul and the community leaders reached an agreement that "the women and the girls shall not go out in grandiose apparel, golden jewelry, and precious stones." Bula Ikshati Ashkenazi, the wife of Solomon Ashkenazi was also active as a physician at court at the turn of that century.

[*] Garnet Publishing is an independent publishing company specializing in trade books, with special interest in the Middle East. We publish in the fields of architecture, art, Fiction, cookery and travel, and also in the areas of culture, heritage and history of the Middle East. Founded in 1973, Ithaca Press is a leading English-language publisher of academic books devoted to the Middle East Studies. Its authors are academic experts drawn from all over the world and the company has links with many major universities in the UK, the USA and Europe that have departments or faculties with Middle Eastern and Arab studies programmes. Ithaca Press is an imprint of Garnet Publishing Limited. http://www.garnetpublishing.co.uk Founded 1993