Amida

Authors: Max Van Berchem, Josef Strzygowski, Gertrude Lowthian Bell

Prepared by: Şeyhmus Diken

ILLUSTRATED-COLORED-LARGE SIZE

Amida is, in a sense, the name of the common adventure of three individuals who trace ancient texts. A Swiss, an Englishman and an Austrian sat down in 1910, in the first quarter of the last century, and wrote a book. The name of the book is Amida.

The three authors of the book, whose story and narrative are entirely about a city; Max van Berchem, Jozef Strzygowski and Gertrude Lowthian co-edit Bell Amida. The reader of Turkish has probably not had such detailed information about the three authors of the book until today; When you look at their biographies, you can see that the most famous one is Gertrude Bell. Many readers know him as an aristocratic traveler who traveled and photographed the entire Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Middle East geography on his horse many times.

It is immediately obvious that the authors prepared Amida with ethical professional concern and intellectual responsibility. Strzygowski and Berchem work with meticulous curiosity, as if they were scouring the monumental spaces of the city. They comment on very fine details, from ancient Persian art to the artistic structures of Greek civilizations and even historical buildings in Europe and the Middle East, and they are recorded in history.

Although architectural concern comes to the fore a little, the historical background and the spatial stories, features and even the way of relationship of the different geographies they connect are an element that makes Amida indispensable and always keeps it on the agenda.

The question of why such a book has not met Turkish readers until now will of course be the first question of the curious reader. How has such a voluminous and important book about the city been neglected and failed to meet its readers until now? Amida is a book published in 1910. A meticulous copy of Amida always remained in our foundation's archives. We wanted to have it translated many times and publish it as a foundation publication. In fact, we submitted it to various institutions of the city many times to get it published, but it did not happen. We couldn't do it with our own foundation resources for various reasons! We always postponed it, it was not possible. But it never left our agenda.

Amida will present comparative space narratives about the historical and cultural heritage that the City has accumulated from a century ago, much earlier, until the mentioned date of 1910. A historical discussion about detailed architectural features in a place in another part of the world that you would never expect! In fact, the order of priorities and feature emphasis will surprise you. Then you will come to the conclusion that; It turns out what important riches we have! The need to meet with books like Amida, which you hold in your hands to realize them, will then be more meaningful.”