Mehmet and Nurcihan’s Courtship and Marriage

Mehmet and Nurcihan’s Courtship and Marriage joins an extended courtship to a deliberate decision to marry, with premarital abstinence and shared cultural tastes at its center. Recounted largely through Zaim’s reports to Kemal, their relationship offers a counterpoint to Kemal’s private longing: theirs is a partnership moving toward a publicly announced wedding, even as its news reaches him as a painful surprise.

Courtship and Shared Outlook

By the time Zaim reported on them, Mehmet and Nurcihan had been seeing each other for three years. They had not made love and were telling people that they planned to marry. Nurcihan had had love affairs with French men during her years in Paris, yet she was determined not to have sex with Mehmet before marriage. She made light of the choice by saying that, in Muslim countries, premarital abstinence—not wealth—was the foundation of a true, lasting, happy, and peaceful marriage. Mehmet appeared to appreciate the joke, which belonged to a shared outlook rather than a solemn public declaration.

That outlook also surfaced in their affection for ancestral wisdom, old music, and the contentment associated with the old masters and their dervish temperaments. At parties, Mehmet could argue excitedly that the wines mentioned in Divan poetry were real drinks rather than metaphors, recite lines attributed to Nedim and Fuzuli, and raise his glass while looking into Nurcihan’s eyes in a toast to the love of God. The scene brings religious and literary reference together with conspicuous drinking: the couple’s attachment to inherited forms did not require them to present themselves as conventionally devout.

Reputation and Social Context

Zaim believed that Mehmet and Nurcihan’s drinking, however excessive, did not compromise their manners or elegance, helping explain why society did not brand them devout or reactionary. Their stance on sex before marriage was therefore part of a distinctive shared manner, expressed through jokes and social performance as well as through their stated plan to marry.

Their courtship also unfolded in the shadow of Kemal’s broken engagement to Sibel. That rupture had become a warning for girls in their generation of Istanbul society not to trust men too much before marriage; rumors suggested that mothers with marriageable daughters had urged extreme caution. The episode gives Mehmet and Nurcihan’s stated intention to marry a social resonance beyond their private choice. The narrator also stresses the intimacy of that society: a member’s shame could be felt as widely as within a small family.

The Wedding and Kemal’s Reaction

The planned marriage became concrete news when Zaim told Kemal that Meltem’s finances depended on Papatya and that he had arranged for her to sing the company jingle with the Silver Leaves at Mehmet and Nurcihan’s wedding. The celebration was to take place at Hilton Hotel, Istanbul, with the press present. Kemal had heard nothing about the impending wedding and was crushed by the announcement. Zaim assumed that Kemal would not attend, although he had expected him to know about it already.

Kemal asked what Mehmet thought of the situation. Zaim replied that Mehmet cared greatly for Kemal but was happy with Nurcihan in a way no one else could understand; he was so buoyant that he wanted no trouble to disturb that happiness. Kemal accepted this and resolved to drop the subject. The exchange makes the relationship’s two consequences visible at once: Mehmet’s friendship with Kemal remains real, but his commitment to Nurcihan and his approaching marriage set a boundary around the old friendship.

Narrative Significance

The courtship is conveyed through scraps of society news, a party anecdote, and the eventual wedding announcement rather than through scenes from Mehmet and Nurcihan’s private life. That indirect presentation keeps their relationship partly at a distance while giving it a clear arc: a three-year courtship, a shared position on premarital sex, an intention to marry, and a public celebration. In Kemal’s account, this forward movement sharpens the contrast with his own painful attachment and makes the wedding news a moment of personal loss, even though Mehmet’s happiness is not presented as a betrayal.