A city looks different from the sky, from a doorstep, and from a narrow opening in an old wall. From above, a square becomes a pattern of streets and shadows. At ground level, it is a place where people pause, work, and pass one another. Beneath the stones, the same city may be little more than footsteps, vibrations, and the promise of shelter.
Istanbul Stories is the English-language home of Alek Misi Rubi, a series of literary historical fables written for adult readers.
The stories are rooted in the real history of Istanbul and Constantinople. Their witnesses, however, are imagined: a seagull, a cat, and a mouse, each with a different way of experiencing the city.
Meet Alek, Misi, and Rubi
Alek the Seagull knows Istanbul from the air. He follows the shapes of its walls, squares, and shorelines, and remembers how they have changed across the centuries. Yet distance has its price. From high above, a crowd may form a pattern while the people within it become impossible to distinguish.
Misi the Cat lives close to people. She notices a hand that remains still, a change in someone’s step, or a familiar doorway left open. She cannot know what people are thinking, and she has concerns of her own. A patch of sunlight or a passage suddenly blocked may matter more to her than the event drawing everyone’s attention.
Rubi the Mouse moves through the spaces that larger creatures overlook. In storerooms, beneath wooden floors, and between old stones, he hears voices without always seeing who speaks. He feels approaching footsteps through the ground. Much of the world remains beyond his reach, though he is often closer to its workings than anyone realizes.
Sometimes the three witnesses are present at the same event. What one notices, another may never see.
The story emerges from the distance between them.
First Story: Thirty Days, Thirty-Two
Constantinople, AD 390.
An ancient Egyptian obelisk is being raised in the Hippodrome. Wooden windlasses turn. Ropes tighten. Workers struggle to bring an immense piece of stone upright.
Above the arena, Alek watches the movement of the men and the changing outline of the monument.
Near the workers, Misi pays attention to things that have little to do with the emperor’s achievement.
Beneath the wooden structure, Rubi waits for the shaking to stop.
Centuries later, the obelisk still stands in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet Square. The inscriptions on its marble pedestal disagree about how long the work took: thirty days in Latin, thirty-two in Greek.
But what happened around it was never entirely written down.
Read the Story: Thirty Days, Thirty-Two
Where History Meets Fiction
The events behind these fables belong to Istanbul’s documented past. Buildings, dates, inscriptions, and known historical figures are treated as matters of evidence, not freely invented details.
The animal witnesses, their encounters, and the lives imagined around the historical record belong to fiction.
Each story is accompanied by The History Behind the Fable, a section explaining the historical foundations, the sources used, and where imagination enters the account.
The Writer Behind Istanbul Stories
I’m Serhat Engul, a licensed tour guide and writer based in Istanbul.
For more than twenty years, I’ve explored the city’s history with visitors, explaining its buildings, monuments, and the people who shaped them. That work taught me to pay attention to evidence and to the traces the past has left behind.
But it also made me curious about the lives that rarely enter the historical record.
What was happening at the edge of a great public event? What did ordinary people do while the monuments were being built? And how might that same moment appear to a creature with no interest in emperors, victories, or inscriptions?
Alek, Misi, and Rubi grew from those questions.
I wanted to remain faithful to the historical record while allowing the stories themselves to move beyond the familiar voice of a guide.
Read More About Istanbul Stories
The Stories Continue
The first fable begins with a stone rising in the Hippodrome. Other stories may take us into the courtyards, streets, harbors, and hidden spaces of a city that has lived through many centuries and many names.
The Turkish-language stories are published at AlekMisiRubi.com. The two editions share the same characters and historical foundations, but their stories are written independently for each language rather than translated word for word.
Production note: AI tools may assist with research support, drafting, editing, review, and illustration. All published content is evaluated, edited, and approved by Serhat Engul.