I have been thinking all week: what if the most important issue in a Hillary-Obama debate was.....head scarves! I've had more discussions about that question in these days in Turkey than any other. The place is obsessed with it. And the country is in chaos over it.

For many years in this 'secular republic' girls in schools and universities have not been allowed to cover their hair. It was the rule, the dress code (or no dress code). To do so was thought to be disruptive to education as a flaunting of a particular piety. Not sure if the ban covered turbans for the boys.

But in the past week the new Islamist government here passed a constitutional amendment to lift the ban. But girls with...

So I finally got cheated in Istanbul, but it was worth it.

Yesterday I was in Ankara, mainly to see Dr. Halil Inalcik, probably the foremost scholar of Ottoman history in the world. Now 92 years old, he is an inspiration. Having published many books before, he's still at it. He was described to be beforehand as a man still living in the 16th century. When I saw his cherubic face and reflective demeanor, I thought perhaps I'd like to go back to that time myself. It was a glorious conversation, full of many insights. The passion of his career, he said, has been to correct the biases of Western scholarship about the Eastern Mediterranean. He seemed to scratch at my attitudes right away to see...