The Bastard of Istanbul

During their first two days in Istanbul, Rose and Mustafa answer a myriad of questions about America. They are asked more personal questions, including why they didn’t have children together. 

Rose enjoys being the focus of their attention, while Mustafa recoils from it. He spends most of his time reading newspapers, devouring political news. The Kazanci women are united in their disgust for politicians, most of them male. Auntie Cevriye says that only the military is trustworthy. Auntie Feride agrees and adds that they must admit more women. 

Grandma Gülsüm asks Mustafa, who is 40, when he’ll complete his military duty; the deadline for training is age 41. While painting her nails, Zeliha notes that Mustafa is nearing the age at which their father died, and figures that he must be nervous to be so close to death. Outraged, Grandma Gülsüm stands, with a tray of rice still in her hands, and demands that Zeliha leave the house. Zeliha complies. 

On the third day of Rose and Mustafa’s visit, Mustafa falls ill with a fever and remains in his room. Rose, Armanoush, and three aunts walk the streets of Istanbul. That night, while Rose is sleeping, Mustafa whispers to her that he wants to fly home the next day. Rose insists that they stay for the remaining five days. Auntie Banu knocks on their door and delivers a bowl of ashure, decorated with pomegranate seeds. Mustafa thanks her, but Banu’s presence unnerves him. Banu is the opposite of Rose: inscrutable and shadowy. Mustafa asks Banu where Asya’s father is. He recalls the story their mother told him about Zeliha being briefly engaged to Asya’s father, before she was abandoned by him. Banu asserts that this is a lie. Mustafa figures that Banu’s djinni must have told her all that she wants to know, and she admits that she does, indeed, know more than she’d like. Mustafa’s heartbeat quickens. He closes his eyes but still sees “Banu’s piercing gaze” and another pair of eyes, glittering in the dark (336). 

When Mustafa awakens, he’s alone beside Rose. The ashure is on the bed table. He realizes what he must do—with his left hand. He starts to eat the ashure in small bites. He feels good, as though he’s leaving behind both his past and his future. Seconds later, he experiences an abdominal cramp so sharp that he can’t breathe. Two minutes later, Mustafa is dead at the age of 40 and ¾.

Mustafa’s corpse is cleansed with fragrant daphne soap. The Kazanci women want to take the body home but the dead-washer refuses, saying they’ll disgrace Mustafa’s memory by allowing his body to stink from decay. Moreover, it goes against the tenets of Islam. The women insist that they want the neighbors to view the corpse. Auntie Cevriye tips the dead-washer generously, and he relents. 

The body is loaded into a traditional, sage green hearse. Asya and Armanoush sit with the coffin, despite the driver’s initial disapproval of women sitting in the front of a hearse. In an icy voice, Zeliha tells him that there are no more men in their family. Rose drives nervously behind them in the Toyota Corolla that she and Mustafa rented at the airport. Grandma Gülsüm rides with her. Behind them, Zeliha drives her “metallic silver Alfa Romeo, with her three sisters crammed inside and Sultan the Fifth curled in a basket on Auntie Cevriye’s lap” (341). Aram drives his yellow Volkswagen alongside Zeliha. 

Some soccer hooligans in a cab closely follow the hearse. Their boisterousness and undignified behavior outrage the driver. One of the hooligans leans out of the window of his taxi, dropping both his cell phone and his drumstick. He emerges from the cab to retrieve them, holding up traffic, and sees the sage green hearse. He stares at it momentarily before getting back in the cab, more subdued than he was a moment before. 

When Asya and Armanoush arrive home, Auntie Zeliha is waiting in front of the konak. The other cars are lined up in front of the house, which is full of guests waiting for the coffin to be brought in. Asya and Armanoush enter the house, which has become “a jam-packed, all-female space” (347). The aunts prepare trays of ashure, originally intended to celebrate Mustafa’s return. 

Auntie Banu is at the kitchen counter, slicing lemons. She slices an onion for Zeliha, to help her cry. Banu insists that Zeliha must pretend to mourn Mustafa. In the living room, Rose is sitting on a floor cushion. She registers her confusion about the funerary rites to Armanoush, wondering where they’ll bury Mustafa and why she, his wife, feels left out of the decision-making. 

The funerary party lays the body out on the divan and begins rites, which include burning sandalwood. An imam recites prayers from the Holy Koran. Petite-Ma sits beside him. Newcomers kiss her hand and express their condolences. After the imam leaves, the hired wailer suddenly shrieks, crying over someone she has never seen, to encourage the other mourners to cry. Asya is sitting on the couch with neighbors when her mother sits beside her and whispers into her ear. Asya goes pale from hearing Auntie Zeliha’s words, then says that she doesn’t believe her mother. Asya then rises and stares at the body, thinking about how the dead man is both her uncle and her father. Somewhere in the room, Rose wails, and a concert of women join her. 

It was potassium cyanide that Auntie Banu had used to decorate Mustafa’s ashure, along with a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds. Cyanide smells like bitter almonds. Banu tells Mr. Bitter that she gave Mustafa the ashure, and he chose to eat it, knowing that it would be better than living with the burden of his past. She knows that she will go to hell for what she’s done, but she had to do something with her knowledge. Mrs. Sweet asks if Banu will tell Armanoush about her grandmother’s secret. Auntie Banu says she won’t, but she will give Armanoush the brooch. 

Late in the afternoon, Zeliha steps into the garden, where Aram has been waiting for hours. She brings him a cup of tea. He compliments her on the “lovely tea glass” (357). Zeliha recalls buying the set 20 years ago. She never believed that the glasses would survive for so long without one of them breaking. Moments later, Sultan the Fifth slowly emerges from the house, curls up beside Zeliha, and licks his paw. He stops when he feels droplets of rain, which send him running back into the house, deeply dissatisfied. The cat doesn’t know the rule about not cursing what falls from the sky.