Exquisite rugs decorate walls and carpet every surface in Turkey so when we found ourselves in the harbor city of Antalya, we decided to do a bit of shopping on a whim. I figured a Turkish carpet would be an easily portable souvenir for my mother who is already a great collector of treasures from the Far East. We did not know a single thing about carpet shopping, but decided to try our luck in Antalya just to get an idea of what to look for later on. We had no intention of spending money at a shop that happened to be in a more upscale area of the harbor surrounded by luxurious hotels and restaurants.
The shop we did end up stumbling upon was small, but its walls were dressed with monstrously large carpets. As soon as we walked in, the store owner, a young man who appeared to be in his 20’s and who spoke English, invited us to take a seat while he pulled out carpet upon carpet for us to view. It was very interesting to sit there as he exhibited all these rich carpets…it was like I was a fashion editor, the carpets being the models.
We found out that his name is Kamuran Sercan, but he goes by “Sercan”. He was able to tell us where the carpets were made and how old they were just by looking at them. He explained that the colors and patterns determine what region of Turkey it came from as people in these regions have a certain style. He pointed out the designs and explained the meaning of the designs; some of them being religious. He could also identify the age of the carpet by the wear and tear on the fibers. Sercan described how carpet is like art work, it gets more valuable with age. He said that some carpets, including his pile in the corner, can even be more than 100 years old. We couldn’t imagine the events in time that brought these carpets to their current location in this little shop in the middle of Antalya.
We were quite impressed with Sercan’s knowledge of Turkish rugs considering most of the rugs were 4 times older than him. He told us that his father used to be a seller and that he himself has been selling them since the age of 12 or so. He even sold them in Iraq to American soldiers for a few years. In fact, if you look up “Kamuran Sercan”, you can find an article written by an American journalist who had interviewed him while he was there. Because of his time in Iraq working around other vendors, he was able to list off Iowa State University as soon as he found out I was from Iowa. We were floored because we had not met anyone, especially a Turkish person, who knew about the state of Iowa much less its universities. Needless to say, we became instant customers as we felt him an appropriate vendor to purchase a carpet from. Go Cyclones!
I decided on a small red and blue piece, which was made locally and was approximately 40-60 years ago according to him. We did a bit of haggling to get the price down, but it was a timid exchange. He shared that his prices during the high season would be 3 times the price he sold it for so I felt like I had gotten a pretty good deal and I was pleased to have had such a pleasant exchange with this man who had been to Iraq and back.
When it was time to pay, we tried to hand him our money, but he told us to put it on the floor. To our confused reaction, he said that putting money on the floor and leaving it there for the day would bring him good luck as we were his first customers at this location. Perhaps, his business is on its way to success now that we gave it a healthy jump start.
At the end of this exchange, he invited us to have a cup of tea in his shop and we obliged as we have learned that this is the custom in many of the Middle Eastern countries we had already been in. Plus, he had apple tea as an option and I had found that apple tea is my favorite tea of all and seemingly only found in Turkey.
We chatted a bit more over our teas and he said he had something to show us from his time in Iraq if we would be willing to come by later in the afternoon. Although we were couchsurfing and hoping to catch our host around that time, we agreed to meet up. The afternoon went by quickly as we explored the rest of Antalya and we found ourselves back in his shop late and in a bit of a rush. Upon entering, he handed us a few wooden plaques that held large coins inscribed with “Operation Iraqi Freedom” on one side and the name and logo of an athletic team on the other side. It was these medals with their sport’s teams that had helped him identify our university. We were intrigued and shocked when he told us to pick one of the plaques to take with us. We couldn’t believe his generosity and fervently refused, but he insisted citing again the fact that we were his first customers and going to bring him luck. We finally accepted and picked one with an Arizona Cardinals logo on the back. We left feeling very touched by his kindness and happy with our luck at coming upon his shop.