Around the Blue Mosque - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 121

the Okmeydanı overlooking the Golden Horn and the other at
Anadolu Hisarı on the Bosphorus; but this is the only one left in the
old city.
After leaving the namazgah, we cross to the street at the southern
side of the park and turn left. This street soon brings us to a large open
field, Cinci Meydanı, which is bordered on the side by the railroad
line. Cinci Meydanı, the Square of the Genii, is named after Cinci
Hoca, a favourite of Sultan Ibrahim, who once owned land on this
site. When Ibrahim first came to the throne there was some doubt
as to his sexual potency, and so his mother Kösem sought out Cinci
Hoca, who had acquired a considerable reputation as a büyücü, that
is, a wizard quacksalver. Cinci Hoca would seem to have done his job
well, for Ibrahim soon had the Harem swinging with cradles and was
performing sexual spectaculars which are still recalled with awe. But
when Crazy Ibrahim was deposed in 1648, Cinci Hoca fell too, and
he and his friend Pezevenk (the Pimp) were torn to pieces by an angry
mob in the At Meydanı. The Square of the Genii is today a football
field, which we pass and continue eastward, following a narrow lane
parallel to the railroad track.
SS. SERGİUS AND BACCHUS
At the end of this lane, we come to one of the entrances to the
courtyard of the beautiful Küçük Aya Sofya Camii, the former
Byzantine church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus. The church was begun
by Justinian and his Empress Theodora in 527, five years before the
commencement of the present church of Haghia Sophia. It thus
belongs to that extraordinary period of prolific and fruitful experiment
in architectural forms which produced, in this city, buildings so
ambitious and so diferent as the present church, Haghia Sophia
itself, and Haghia Eirene - to name only the existing monuments -
and in Ravenna, St. Vitale, the Baptistry and St. Apollinare in Classe.
It is as if the architects were searching for new modes of expression
suitable to a new age. The domes of this period are specially worthy
of note: the great dome of Haghia Sophia is of course unique, but
the method of transition from the octagon to the dome here is
astonishing: the dome is divided into 16 compartments, eight flat