My legion of fans continues to grow

Yesterday I led a group of students on a tour of the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art in the historic section of the city. (I may have taken some of our loyal MelbaBlog readers around there back in 2001.) Originally this trip had been intended to just be for the (two) students in my History 412 class, but it turned into a full-fledged activity of the Yeditepe History Society, complete with a shuttle service to take the students from the university to the museum and back. The tour got off to a late start – I had come directly from home, intending to meet the group at the museum entrance, but ended up cooling my heels for an hour while their shuttle sat in traffic – but after that it went pretty well. There were nine of them, and to my considerable surprise they were quite interested in what I had to say, asked good questions, etc. (I say "to my considerable surprise" because I am accustomed to the students in my Humanities classes, who are for the most part total bricks.)

I was particularly tickled by one student who, upon being shown a large Ushak carpet, asked me how the Ottomans would have transported it from Ushak to Istanbul, since (he thought) it was too big for a camel to carry. I hemmed and hawed, since I had never thought of that, and finally he decided they probably lugged it to Izmir and then sailed it up the coast. Turns out he's not in the History Department, but rather the Department of International Logistics and Transportation – and he's from Ushak to boot!

After the tour we had lunch nearby before returning to the campus. It was a nice opportunity to chat more with the students, who seemed to have enjoyed the tour as well as their tour guide. For instance, they asked where my office on campus was, and when I told them I don't have one (grrrr) they acted disappointed, as if they had been hoping to come see me. Also, I mentioned that my main interest is manuscript painting, and that I'll be giving two talks on it in the near future (one at Yeditepe in May and one at a conference being organized by a friend at Sabanci University in June). That made 'em light up. In fact, they had misunderstood, thinking I was giving two classes on manuscript painting, and were apparently excited to be able to learn some art history in addition to boring old regular history. It's nice to feel appreciated. Hopefully they will communicate their appreciation to the powers that be, and maybe I'll get that office after all.