In Istanbul’s private retreats of the sultans, time stands still

Inside one of the elegant pavilions known in Istanbul as a kasir, the clamor and chaos of big city life recedes. The noise of car horns and shouting vendors is replaced by near silence. Listen carefully for the imagined whisper of silk rustling in the breeze or the echo of a once vital conversation abruptly curtailed. In these discreet and sophisticated structures and summer palaces, built only for the sultans, time stands still. Ostensibly…