The Muslim call to prayer echoed through the streets of Istanbul at 4:45 a.m. while Hillsdale interns slept undisturbed in their Airbnb. After weeks in a city originally foreign to them, the chanting came to shape the rhythm of their days.

“Allahu Ekber Eşhedû en lâ ilâhe illallah Eşhedû enne Muhammeden.”

Four students — seniors Adam Bentley and Joseph Perez, junior Ciaran Smith, and sophomore Sebastian Breeland — spent their summers interning in Istanbul, Turkey.

Breeland interned at the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and spent his day recording information from historical documents.

“My primary job was taking important details from each document I looked over, such as spatial coverage, dates, and organizing these details into a spreadsheet in order to digitize every document with accurate information,” Breeland said.

Breeland learned about the program from Assistant Professor of Medieval History Charles Yost, who taught a course last spring on the history of Istanbul.

“The purpose of the course was to give students a sense of the centrality of this city in the history of the West and the world,” Yost said. 

Yost and Professor of History Richard Gamble led the college’s annual trip to Turkey in mid-May. 

“I hope that the students who accompanied us to Turkey came away with a concrete, spatial sense of Istanbul and western Asia Minor,” Yost said. “From now on, when they read about the history of this region, it won’t be some mythic land but a concrete place in their minds.”

The trip lasted two weeks and included tours of Troy, Ephesus, Pergamon, and Myra. 

But the internship spanned two months, from the start of June to the end of July. Interns stayed in an Airbnb in Galata, the historic Genoese quarter of Istanbul.   

Senior Joseph Perez interned for both the American Research Institute and the Netherlands Institute in Turkey. He worked with digitizing and translating cemetery records, which  included burial permits and burial applications. Among the documents he worked with was a diplomatic correspondence from Nazi Germany to the Turkish government. 

“The work itself introduced me to the logistics of running an archive, which was completely new to me,” Perez said. “I also read a ton of 19th-century diplomatic papers, which helped sharpen my French.”

After work, the interns would often go out for dinner and visit famous sights in the city. 

“Eating out for most meals was not only more normative in Turkish culture, it was also quite practical,” Perez said. “Buying groceries in Turkey is hardly less expensive than eating at a restaurant.”

Perez and Breeland both said they were in awe of Suleymaniye Mosque, commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1557 and located on the third hill in the old city. 

“It’s among the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen, interior and exterior,” Perez said.

While many imagine Istanbul as part of a mythic middle eastern culture, the city itself varies throughout the different neighborhoods, according to Breeland.

“You think of Istanbul as this hyper-Middle Eastern city, and pockets of it are similar to that. But at the end of the day, it is very Western and probably even more secular,” Breeland said. “At the same time, Istanbul is a massive city. While corners of it might feel like your typical Mediterranean city, others feel like downtown Tehran.”

The interns also befriended other students working in the city, including students from the University of the Bosphorus in Istanbul. Perez said the group would regualarly play poker with the students he met at his internship.

While religious devotion varies throughout the city, Islam remains the prominent religion in Turkey, which characterizes each day.

“Hearing the call to prayer five times a day and seeing mosques everywhere without almost any still-operating churches were constant reminders that I was away from home,” Breeland said.

On the last day of the trip, Perez and Smith took the Istanbul Metro to ride the ferry across the Golden Horn one last time. On the way back, traveling up hill, the metro suddenly stopped. 

“The lights were flickering on and off,” Perez said. “No one knew what was going on. No transportation official was working. After 10 minutes, Turkish passengers forced open the door, jumped out, and started walking down the passage tunnel. Ciaran and I did the same.”

Four internship positions are open for next summer, and Yost encouraged anyone interested to contact him. The study abroad experience impacts the student beyond educational value or even tourist travel, he said.

“I know that our interns came away from this experience profoundly changed by their time as residents in the ‘Queen of Cities,’ as Constantinople was called by the Byzantines,” Yost said. “Once you go there you realize why so many men have fought and died to possess this city.”

Despite missing the familiarity of home, Breestand said the experience was incredible.

“I would go back in a heartbeat,” Breestand said. “Turkey is a beautiful country.”