Efendi Faruk Terzihan is a respected goldsmith and a renown head of the Keldani-ler (Chaldean church community) of Istanbul. He radiates a distinctly calm, very composed aura of a person at peace with himself. His deeply set dark-brown eyes and noble features, occasionally lightened with a barely perceptible smile, beacon a delicate mix of self-confidence, reliability, polished manners and inner strength. Like most of his colleagues, he had an assistant standing in front of his small shop on the main thoroughfare of the Kapali Carsi, the famous Covered Bazaar off Beyazit square. These assistants are per vocation mind-reders: they know who to approach in the river of people passing by. I walked from one to another stringed shop-window inspecting the dazzling shine of jewelry mainly unperturbed by the assistants for they must have read my face or posture as a "non-customer". Mr Terzihan was standing next to his assistant and I nearly stumbled on them. Something, probably the selection of his wares in the shop-window or his honest, serious looks, made me stop and ask him whether he had any old gold coins. -Please be welcome,- he said and led me the way in. Once behind the glass-covered counter he opened a cabinet and drew a small plastic pouch, half the size of his palm, which contained about a dozen gold coins. They were mostly old Ottoman pieces, mainly Sultan Reshad's or Napoleons. -These are too big, - I said, hesitatingly,- for me. I would definitely not have anything heavier than a quarter of an ounce. Actually, about an eighth. And then these are all males. What I have in mind would be a Victoria or Theresia, the smallest you have...to suite my grand-daughter, as a pendant, a token from this trip to Turkey. She is not even two of age and this would be for latter. -That will be very difficult to find,- he said, drawing out another plastic pouch and inspecting the coins. Then he drew a third one. His eyes glistened and taking one very thin piece he said: -How long will you stay? -Another week or so. Do not bother searching. It is not worth the trouble. He totally disregarded my remark and asked: -Do you know what this one is? There was this paper-thin round piece of gold with a hole near the rim. Women would put a string of those, as if a tiara, on their foreheads, over the scarf, to indicate their wealth. This reminds me of the first cover for my book on Turkey but I tell him that brides or fiancees would have a dozen of those ("Hundreds",- he corrects me) on special occasions. -Nishan, this is nishan,- he said.- Very much a part of our folklore. -Ours too,- I add, tempted to sing to him the verse of an elegiac song about Despina, one of my favorite Macedonian melancholic tunes. "Nishan" means "a mark", "a sign". -How much? He surprises me with the answer. It is about 600 gr. of shrimps at the fish-market and I tell him that I'll take it, but that is NOT the present I have in mind for Gabriela. Half a kilo of shrimps from Istanbul for my only grand-daughter? Then, my eyes gliding over the miniscule items, mainly old, antique pieces, earrings, bangles, bracelets, medallions, chokers, necklaces, crosses, I notice something I like. He follows my stare and then, by pure guesswork, he takes a pair of tiny, diamond-studded earrings out. -This should suit you, - he says, - and your grand-daughter. She will be able to wear them even when she be only five or six. -That will not be a problem,- I say. -Her mother, my daughter, will wear them for her until it is the right time for a transfer,- I say. The sound of the word 'transfer" sobers me up. -You know, the problem is I have completely forgotten the meaning of the word "bank" or "money transfer". And my sojourn here was totally unproductive. These look expensive. -Why don't we have a glass of tea or a cup of coffee before we talk about the price and you tell me what brought you to Istanbul? -Tea would be fine,- I say and decide to expose my ages of hard work on producing a very fine guide on Turkey. His assistant is gone without a sign and at the moment when I take a whale-like breath of air to dive into my story while he is all courteous attention I notice a lap-top in the niche of the wall on his right hand-side. When he replies that he definitely is connected to the Internet I quickly scribble www.turcija.net and ask him to open the URL. He uses a modem but being very patient he waits for the web-site to open up and we carry on chatting. Then he goes over the site and appears more than impressed. I show him the part about Islam, about the provinces, about the Ottomns, about the army, police and the Med, the arts and then more mosques. Then I show-off with my homepage and when he sees me with Arafat he says: -You write so much about Islam and its culture. Are you a Muslim? -No, I am born as an Eastern-Orthodox, my grandfather was a Macedonian priest, but I am, well, an agnostic traveling on a Dutch passport. Diamonds are not as expensive in Amsterdam as they are here. That is why I would like a small elaborate piece of about 6-7 gr and lots of craftsmanship. You weigh the gold and then we hackle over the price. Like they do in Khan el Khalili in Cairo. He laughs, showing two rows of perfect, white teeth. Then I nearly tell him that there, in Cairo, decades ago, when Anvar el Sadat went to Jerusalim and I had written about the historic voyage, I had been taught, by a Copt, the subtleties of buying gold and was blessed by his cousin, a Copt priest. Instead I throw in that couple of days ago I was received and blessed by His Holiness Bartholomew here in Istanbul. -Oh, is it so. I know him too. I happen to be the head of the Keldani Ler community of Istanbul,- he says and passes me his card. Mr. Faruk Terzihan. He reads my confusion and adds, very benevolently: -You would know us as Chaldeans or Assyro-Chaldeans. This rings, barely, a very distant bell. He notices that I am not quite sure and decides to elaborate: -We are Christians. I come from Mardin and most of my people come from that region. Do you know where it is? -Of course I do: just off Diarbekir (his eyes smile with approval) the biblical land, Abraham, the father of nations, Canaan valley, North-East of Urfa. My grandmother insisted on driving into my memory that the real heroes of the macedonian liberation movement were sent to Diarbekir to serve life sentences there. But you, you are Turk, aren't you? -Yes, of course,- he says. Then he briefs me about the Chaldeans, about Mrs. Mitterand's efforts and eventual success to help allegedly some 60,000 of his folk leave the region (mainly from Iraq) and resettle in France and the West. It appears that religiously and morally they are on a level with the other Catholic communities of the Oriental Rite. The Chaldeans still hold on to their East Syrian liturgy of Addai and Mari, performed in Syriac (a language close to Aramaic, the only one used by Jesus Christ). They are becoming daily better instructed, owing in part to the zeal and devotion of individuals like Mr. Terzihan, supported by regiments of Latin and other missionaries. -Well, this is most interesting but it is really my time to go,- I say, slowly pushing off the glass with some tea left on the bottom, the sweetest gulp, and indicating to the earrings, ask: "How much?" He takes the pair, inspects the price-tag and then tells me the price looking directly into my eyes. -This is the best possible offer. It is half of what they are priced. -I will take the "nishan" now, will leave you some extra money to keep them for me, but now I have to go and try to find something else, a tiny coat for my grand-daughter, similar to the one her mother wore at roughly about that age. Do you know of a fine store for kids and babies? -Well, not really, I live on the opposite side, in Asia, and commute daily. If you decide to cross the Bosphorus, which I suggest, you will find very many better stores there. -Along Baghdad Caddesi? -So you know. That is the best shopping street in the country,- he says and I happen to share his opinion. -OK, I'll see what I'll do. Maybe I'll settle just for the earrings. Till tomorrow then. The return from kapali carsi to Beyoglu is equally interesting. The tram takes me directly at the mouth of the very steep street which climbs up to the residence with a majestic view over the city and the Bosphorus. My grand-son and daughter-in-law spring to action and we enjoy a great hour or two before I set the search-engines dig everything about the Chaldeans. Turco-Persian Chaldeans form a group of very few adherents of this rite. The territory now occupied by these Chaldeans belonged once to the ancient Sassanid Empire of Persia, later to Omayyad and then the Abbassid caliphs. Turkish and Mongol invasions shattered effectually the earlier political unity of this region. Ever since the end of the sixteenth century the territory of the Chaldeans has been under Turkish or Persian rule. In fact many of the mountain tribes are only nominally subject to either. The Chaldean Patriarch of the Province of Diarbekir usually resides at Mosul and keeps for himself the administration of this diocese and that of Baghdad. There are five archbishops and seven bishops. Eight patriarchal vicars govern the small Chaldean communities throughout Turkey and Persia. The clergy have a number of missionary stations in the mountain districts. There are 233 parishes and 177 churches or chapels. The Catholic Chaldean Clergy number 248 priests. There are about fifty-two Chaldean schools (not counting those conducted by Latin nuns and missionaries). The Holy Apostolic and Catholic Assyrian Church of the East is a Christian church that traces its origins to the See of Babylon, said to be founded by St Thomas the Apostle. Geographically it stretched to China and India. The Chaldean Catholic Church of today can boast close to a 1.5 million members. It's the largest Christian church in Mesopotamia with followers in Turkey, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Georgia, and Egypt and wherever its members immigrate to. Actually, the Diocese of St. Thomas the Apostle in the US can boast over 150,000 members with close to 100,000 of them in Detroit area alone. For a time, the Catholic Church suspended Hurmizd from his office and it was not until 1838 that he was recognized as Patriarch of the Chaldeans and only after he had agreed that he would abstain from admitting any of his relatives to the Episcopal order. Having thus abrogated the law of lineal succession, the Vatican appointed a stranger to the Chaldean patriarchate to succeed Hurmizd. The new Uniat patriarch was not only the first primate who was not from the Nestorian "Bayt al-Ab," but in 1844, he became the first to obtain (through the influence of the French government) an imperial firman recognizing him as Patriarch of the "Chaldeans" instead of the "Nestorians", the term used in all the previous firmans. Thus it was as late as 1844 that the Chaldean Uniat Church was finally established on a strong foundation, and its members, as Catholics, were legally recognized by the Ottoman government as "Chaldean millet distinct and separate from the Nestorians." I will be ready for another bout with Efendi faruk Terzihan tomorrow.

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