Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and the Suleymaniye. The Blue Mosque (officially, the Sultan Ahmet Cami, the Mosque
of Sultan Ahment) is graced by numerous domes and surrounded by six soaring minarets.
Its interior is suffused with a lovely light, reflecting more than 20,000 blue Iznik tiles and
more than 250 stained glass windows. Magnificent carpets evoke the aesthetic unity of the
Mosque: walls, windows, and an arabesque ceiling.
Up the Golden Horn (by water taxi, if possible) is the holy village of Eyup. Its
mosque is an important pilgrimage shrine, as it is dedicated to Eyub-Al-Ansari, thought
to be standard-bearer of the Prophet Mohammed and killed during the Arab siege of Con-
stantinople in 688. The cemetery at Eyup gives the traveler an introduction to Muslim
cemeteries (of which there are more than one hundred in Istanbul). Graves are marked by
headstones that face Mecca. Men's gravestones are usually topped by a turban (the number
of folds indicate the status of the deceased.) A woman's gravestone is often marked by a
rose.
WHICH ARE ISTANBUL'S MOST IMPORTANT MOSQUES?
Mosques are the great artistic achievements of Islamic Istanbul. Like the great Gothic
cathedrals of Europe, Istanbul's great mosques overawe the visitor with their vast interior
space, their softly diffused light, their huge chandeliers, and their beautiful carpets on
which the faithful stand and kneel at prayer. Muslim ritual commands that those who come
to pray first wash their hands, face, and feet at fountains just outside the mosque. Heads
must be covered, and when the forehead touches the floor during prayer, the logic of the
brimless cap becomes apparent. Shoes must be left outside the mosque, entrusted to its
doorkeepers. Non-Muslim visitors are sometimes welcome to enter between prayer times.
They, too, must leave shoes with gatekeepers. (To ensure getting one's own shoes back, an
opaque bag discreetly tucked under one's arm, might possibly, just possibly, serve as a shoe
repository.)
Minarets are tall towers that flank the mosque. The largest and most important will
have four; the Blue Mosque has six. The faithful pray five times each day. They are called
to prayer by the muezzin, who climbs the stairs of the minaret to call the faithful to their
duty. In times gone by, each muezzin had his own style, his own distinctive voice. Today,
alas, at most mosques, the muezzin's voice is tape-recorded, and the stairs are not much
used.
The mosque is a place of worship, but a Muslim may pray at any convenient place.
The mosque is a meeting place, a place where the prayerful assemble to experience a bodily
and spiritual communion with other Muslims and a place where, on the holy day of Friday,
those at prayer also hear a sermon.
Istanbul has several hundred mosques. Each usually has a garden, a fountain for ablu-
tion, and a cemetery. Flanking each mosque are one or more minarets. Flanked by four min-
Search WWH ::
Custom Search