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The City of a Thousand Minarets

Istanbul in the age of the Ottomans was a city that seemed to float between two worlds, between Europe and Asia, between the ancient and the new. Its skyline was a forest of minarets, and across the Bosphorus, the sun turned the water to molten gold each evening. your child had come to Istanbul with Mama to visit Uncle Salim, the carpet weaver. His workshop was tucked in a winding street of the Grand Bazaar, and the smell of dyed wool and cedar filled every breath.