As one of the most visited cities in the world, it should be no surprise that Istanbul has a lot of hotels. On the main avenues are all the usual big chains, but the narrow, winding and cobbled side streets of the touristy areas offer something different – an incredible range of little hotels and hostels.
Alternating with these in equal number are the carpet shops. And that brings me to Ahmed.
I met Ahmed as I was leaving Hagia Sophia, the massive Byzantine basilica-turned-mosque-turned-museum. This is perhaps Istanbul’s most famous tourist location, and a perfect spot for enterprising young Turks to engage foreign visitors in a quick bit of lively conversation as a prelude to offering a visit to their carpet shop.
But Ahmed was different from the other touts. When he saw I wasn’t going to take up his offer to look at carpets he surprised me by asking, “Are you interested in philosophy?” And then, “Who’s your favourite philosopher?”
We spent the next half hour walking and talking philosophy. Ahmed left school at 12, but has read widely and is a self-taught “scholar” on the subject. (His favourite philosopher is Spinoza.) I was utterly charmed, and when he asked again about visiting his shop it seemed churlish to say no.
At the carpet shop I was offered tea and lunch while Ahmed and I carried on 
our conversation about the big questions of life. After lunch he led me to the shop’s carpet expert who spent the next hour educating me about carpets in general and the unique qualities of Turkish carpets in particular. We looked at many carpets.
After making my purchase – yes, I bought a particularly fine, hand-knotted runner that will (I trust) look perfect in the front hall – Ahmed rejoined me and offered to take me to a place for tea and Nargile, or “shisha.”
Ahmed has a warm, easy-going and charismatic personality. As we walk through the touristy Sultanahmet district he is constantly greeted by shopkeepers at storefronts along the way.
Sitting at an outdoor café under the shade of a great leafy tree Ahmed told me his story. He was born in the Anatolia region of Turkey where his father was a shoemaker. On leaving school Ahmed joined the family business. When he was 20 his father died and he came to Istanbul where he initially worked in a shop in the Spice Bazaar. Now 31 and virtually fluent in English, he has worked for his current employer for eight years. He tells me other storeowners keep trying to lure him away, but none are as well established as his current employer.
Ahmed is married but unhappy with his wife who, he says, is very conservative. He has two young children and also supports his mother who lives with the family. He has tried a separation from his wife, but her parents are even more conservative and would not let her return to the family home with the children – to punish both her and Ahmed. He says they reserve a special hatred for him.
To relieve himself of these troubles at home, Ahmed combines his work with pleasure by being a gigolo for women tourists. He tells me he has “made sex with very many women” and can say I love you in 25 languages. His dream is to one day find a rich foreign woman he can truly fall in love with, and to emigrate to her country where he can make lots of money.
I try telling him this is not a good plan and that he should instead look for opportunities in his own country. But he tells me he has thought a long time about this, and even has a woman in mind who will be coming to visit him again soon. I fear things will not turn out well for Ahmed.