My Name is Red

Shekure admits that she used to fantasize about a man falling in love with her and writing her a beautiful letter, but now she is just confused. She reads Hasan’s love letter, noting that she is afraid of him and remembering his attempt to rape her. When Orhan enters, Shekure puts away the letters and asks the boy if he wants a father, but the boy tells her he wants to marry her himself.

She goes to see her father, who expresses his worry over Elegant’s murder. Shekure informs Enishte that she needs to marry again soon. Enishte counters that she is still married, but Shekure is sure her husband is dead, claiming that she dreamed of his death the night before. Enishte reminds her that her in-laws would fight a divorce petition and that a judge would need greater proof of her husband’s demise. Plus, if Shekure married again, Enishte would want a son in law who wouldn’t take her far away; her remarriage requires his approval. Shekure thinks about telling Enishte she knows he sleeps with the enslaved young woman Hayriye, but refrains. When Enishte finally asks Shekure whom she wants to wed, Shekure is silent. Later, in her room, Shekure cries.

Dressed warmly, Enishte goes to Elegant’s funeral. There, seeing the other miniaturists, Enishte remembers that Stork often criticized Elegant’s work. When Olive hugs him, Enishte judges him as a morally good man; he notes that Olive is the miniaturist who most believes in the secret book. Enishte also encounters Master Osman, who is upset by the Western art he’s been forced to produce for the Sultan and blames Enishte for his need to imitate Venetian artists. When Black embraces Enishte, Enishte realizes that Black is the one Shekure is considering as a husband. Enishte wonders if Black would consider living in their home if he wed Shekure.

As Enishte walks with the funeral procession, he encounters Butterfly, who assures the older man that Olive and Stork “are the ones behind this vulgarity” (93) and that they would use their knowledge of Butterfly’s poor relationship with Elegant for their own ends. Enishte tells Butterfly he doesn’t believe any of the miniaturists are guilty of Elegant’s murder. However, he realizes that the murderer is likely a member of the workshop, so he tells Butterfly that he’s decided to stop working on the secret book as the Sultan has stopped funding the project.

When Elegant’s smashed skull is revealed to the crowd, Enishte suddenly remembers a trip he took to Venice 30 years earlier. Assigned to tell the Venetian authorities that the Ottomans had issued a fatwa and intended to take Cyprus, Enishte toured Venice and marveled at its artwork. However, a group of Venetians sought to kill Enishte, so he was forced to hide in the Doge’s palazzo. This was the closest Enishte had been to death. Fearful of his mortality in the present, Enishte asks Black to take him back home and decides to finish the Sultan’s secret book no matter the cost.

Also present at Elegant’s funeral, the murderer weeps more than the other mourners, but moderates his grief after realizing that “the workshop gossips might suppose that Elegant Effendi and I had been in love” (96). The murderer thinks back to his early days in the workshop when Master Osman gave him and the other apprentices their nicknames. He recalls that although Master Osman beat the boys, he also encouraged their talents and showed them love.

The murderer confesses his nature has become divided since the killing. He’s adopted a second voice to use when thinking of himself as a murderer and he keeps this voice out of his regular life. He also admits that he doesn’t want the reader to know his identity for he fears being turned over to the Sultan’s torturers.

Although he and Elegant were once close friends, the murderer ceased their relationship after Elegant joined a conservative Muslim group. The murderer notes that he doesn’t mind that Enishte has decided to stop all work on the secret book. The murderer suspects that Enishte is working to figure out who killed Elegant. He watches Black and Enishte as they board a boat and follows them, contemplating how easy it is to kill another human being.

The narrator of this chapter, a 22-carat gold coin drawn by Stork, notes that it can be exchanged for several things, including the foot of an enslaved girl, 120 fresh loaves of bread, one-tenth of a horse, and one hour with a beautiful boy sex worker. The coin has spent time inside the sock of a shoe-maker’s apprentice and has a secret—it is not a genuine 22-carat coin, but instead a counterfeit made in Venice with adulterated gold.

For years, counterfeit coins have appeared in Istanbul, causing people to bite the coins to ascertain their genuineness. The coin finds it strange that the Venetians, who are famed for their realistic paintings, make fake coins. The coin itself traveled from Venice to Istanbul and was given to a gullible peasant in exchange for a real coin. Since then, the coin has spent most of its time in Istanbul; during the last 7 years, it has “changed hands over 560 times” (105). The coin contends that nearly all people love money, despite their claims to the contrary. The coin then relates the various people it has belonged to and the places it has gone, from a secret pocket in a chef’s sack to a wheel of kashari cheese. In the end, though, the coin entered the purse of Stork, whom it considers the greatest miniaturist in Istanbul.