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 The village of Güzelyurt held the former Church of St. Gregory, now a somewhat abandoned mosque. Despite its lack of congregation, we sat inside with a friendly local imam and listened as he revealed the secrets of Islam and the Qur’an. Sidar translated the imam's words. I listened to him and to the large wall clock tick-ticking behind me, to an occasional rooster crowing or donkey hee-hawing in the distance. Hearing the imam sing verses from the Qur’an in the original Arabic was particularly enlightening. Sidar explained that most Turks did not read or speak Arabic, but still revered the language as a link to their religious past—somewhat analogous to Christians and Latin. Leaving Güzelyurt, I spied small dust storms rolling across the flat plains of south central Anatolia out the bus window. |
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