Around the Blue Mosque - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 116

important part of the present structure is the great hall, which takes up
most of the upper level of the south wing on the side overlooking the
Hippodrome; this would have been Ibrahim Paşa's Hall of the Divan,
and the two large rooms to its west would have been antechambers
to this. The long western or inner side of the palace on the upper
floor has at its rear a row of 13 cell-like cubicles opening onto a long
corridor with a stone sofa overlooking the garden. This corridor turns
the corner to pass along the north wing, which is only half as long
as the south wing, with five cells along the inner side and a sixth
overlooking the courtyard. The southern end of the corridor here is
connected with the coutyard by a stairway, the entrance below being
through a foyer with a great round-arched entryway. The lower level
of the palace around the courtyard consists of a series of splendid
vaults, supported by a single row of piers in the north and south
wings, creating two aisles, while in the south wing there is a triple
row of piers, one row engaged in the walls on the courtyard side, thus
creating three aisles there. Some of these vaults are used to house the
ethnographical collection of the museum, while the other exhibits are
on the upper level of the palace.
The main collections on the upper level include rare and beautiful
works from all periods of the Turkish and Islamic world, including
objects from the Ummayid, Abbasid, Mamluk, Selçuk, Beylik and
Ottoman periods, ranging in date from the seventh century to
the nineteenth. The collections include carpets, manuscripts and
calligraphy, miniatures, woodwork, ceramics and glassware, metalwork
and folk-arts, altogether an extraordinary exhibit, superbly displayed.
The ethnographical collection consists principally of objects belonging
to the Yürük, the nomadic Turkish people of Anatolia, whose way of
life has not changed in its essentials since the first Turcoman tribes
made their way into Asia Minor after the battle of Manzikert in 1071.
The most fascinating exhibits here are the black goat-hair tents of
the Yürük, furnished with objects that these nomads still use in their
daily life, a living heritage of Anatolian Turkish culture.
We now leave the At Meydanı by the street at the south-western
end, walking alongside the building there, now the Rectorate of
Marmara University. At the first turning we pass through a gate and