Delicious, oozing syrup and nutty flavour, baklava is one of the oldest known flaky pastry desserts. Its popularity goes back to the 15th Century’s Ottoman Empire when Sultan Mehmet II set to conquer Byzantium and capture Constantinople. At the age of 21.
Baklava. D3000 f/4; Exposure Time 1/125sec; ISO-100
In 1453, and accompanied by his chief ministers, imams and his bodyguard, Sultan Mehmet II rode down Constantinople’s principal thoroughfare, the Mes, to St. Sophia. Dismounting outside the central doors, he stooped to pick up a handful of earth which, in a gesture of humility, he sprinkled over his turban. Then he entered the Great Church of Holy Wisdom. The decision was made immediately: to convert the Church, built between 532 and 537, into the city’s chief mosque.
Syrupy baklava, mountains of it, I am sure the Sultan ate that night in celebration of his conquest.
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