Rhapsody of Cihangir
Cihangir is a district where caricaturists, painters, and actors live in Istanbul; a true “bohemia” with its cafes, where debates about theater, cinema, literature, and philosophy spill into daily life. This is Cihangir.
A warm August morning… we are in Cihangir. One of the loveliest districts of Istanbul has already opened its eyes to morning. The streets are vibrant, but you don’t see grumpy people hurrying in a rush and running around trying to reach a place. It looks as if this place is not a five-minute walk to Taksim Square. It is more like an Aegean village lying by the seashore: calm, peaceful, and comfortable. It is as though everybody is here for vacation. Looking around, there is a couple sitting in the small café just across the road. It is obvious that they are foreigners. Thanks to the tables placed on the pavement, if you forget for a moment that you are in Istanbul, it is possible to feel like you’re in Paris.
The District Is Bigger Than Itself
One of the best breakfast places in Istanbul is Cihangir. After enjoying breakfast here, we decide to go to the mukhtar of the district to find information on the area and to ask where we should go and which places we should see. We ask one of the shopkeepers: “Hi! We are looking for the mukhtar…” Guess what the answer was: “Which one?”
While we think that every district has one mukhtar, to our surprise Cihangir has four. As we try to figure out the reasons for this extraordinary situation, we find out that the district we are calling Cihangir is actually not quite only Cihangir. There is a Cihangir district ancillary to the borough of Beyoğlu, but when you add the Kılıç Ali Paşa district, including the houses facing the sea, the Firuzağa district where the Firuzağa Mosque is located, and the Pürtelaş district, this wider area is what many of us call Cihangir.
If you need a breather, you can sit and relax at the coffee house in front of the mosque, under the shade of trees. We consider that we just can’t grasp it from a distance, so we head for the closest mukhtar, the mukhtar of Cihangir, Sündüs Ulaman. Miss Sündüs answers our questions in a pleasant and charming manner. And with the information we receive from her, we start touring Cihangir.
We go uphill, we go downhill, we stop by the famous stairs of Cihangir. We pass through streets surrounded by low buildings, at most five floors, buildings that do not oppress you. We pet the cats sleeping on top of cars parked in the shade of little trees by the streets, inside fences by the road, almost everywhere.
Cats, cats, cats.
There is a reality about Cihangir that simply has to be mentioned: cats. Cihangir is like heaven for them. In all colors and all ages, they are everywhere. They sleep anywhere they like, and as you know, there is no other creature on earth that sleeps that much. To be honest, you feel like becoming a cat as you see so many of them sleeping carelessly on a cornerstone, on the stairs, underneath the trees.
Especially when we were just about to take a picture of a cat, an old lady came out of nowhere, giving the cat a handful of dry feed and saying, “Mama has come, mama has come.” You climb these stairs slowly. The long stairs of Cihangir are one of its most famous features. You run into them at almost every corner. It is as though Ahmet Haşim wrote his famous “Stairs” poem about these very steps.
With their beautiful view, the stairs of Cihangir remind you of another poet, Orhan Veli. He once said, “Towards Gemlik, you will see the sea. Don’t be surprised.” You should not be surprised either when you see the beautiful view of the Bosphorus, Üsküdar, and Maiden’s Tower when you climb the stairs.
Levantines, Professors, Actors, Painters, Caricaturists
Cihangir is a small neighborhood with its grocers, greengrocers, cafés, bookstores, taxi drivers, plumbers, and cats. It is the kind of neighborhood where we used to play ball and run in the streets, while our mothers called our names from the windows and slipped a piece of bread, cheese, apple, or tomato into our hands. And when it got late, they called us home by saying, “Come home, it is too late.”
On the other hand, it is a bohemian zone where painters, caricaturists, actors, writers, journalists, foreigners, and minorities live. A bohemia where cinema, theater, literature, and philosophy are discussed at countless corners, banquettes, alleys, cafés, and bistros along the road.
In the late 19th century, Levantines used to live here, just as in Pera. In the 1920s and 1930s, Cihangir only consisted of two districts. In the 1940s and 1950s, the people working at entertainment spots in Beyoğlu began to live in Cihangir. This led to the construction of luxurious buildings, and the district became a settlement for well-endowed people.
After the second half of the 1990s, with the support of public bodies and the efforts of non-governmental organizations, the district gained its recent identity. The derelict houses of the district were reconstructed. When this chain of events merged with the beautiful scenery of the area, the rents began to rise, and this changed the identity of the residents. With that change, Cihangir slowly evolved into a city apart from the city, a subculture that creates its own culture.
One side of it maintained its small, cozy spirit, and the other side combined the bohemian aura brought by its residents with the traditional spirit of the district. This was done so successfully that neither the spirit of the district was damaged nor the bohemian aura lost its taste. As in the Tünel district, people complain about these developments—about the popularization of the area, rising rents, and the traditional fabric being damaged. However, we should note that most of them are happy about this. Finding such special places that create their own culture is difficult. So, the best thing to do is to enjoy Cihangir, isn’t it?
Where to Go in Cihangir
There are many cafes to visit for conversation, a drink, a bite to eat, and a little rest. Among the most popular are Susam, Kahvedan, Meyra (former Leyla), and Smyrna. For fish, you can drop in at Doğa Balık, and to embrace the sea you may go down to the shore through the stairs to Fındıklı.
If you want to continue exploring on foot, Cihangir’s location also makes it easy to connect your day with nearby landmarks such as Galata Tower. For practical transport updates in Istanbul, check official city resources such as IETT. For broader historical background on the neighborhood, you can also consult Wikipedia.
Why Is Cihangir Called Cihangir?
The lexical meaning of the word Cihangir is “the person that captured the major part of the world”; however, it is curious that such an ambitious word became the name of this mild district. To understand it, we need to go back to the time of Suleiman the Magnificent.
Suleiman the Magnificent had a son with Hürrem Sultan, named Cihangir. In memory of his son, who died young, Suleiman had a mosque constructed in this place that looked like a large rock protruding from the sea. The mosque was built by Mimar Sinan between 1559 and 1560 and was named Şehzade Cihangir Mosque. This is how the district began to be called Cihangir.
