Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
break with the plan of Haghia Sophia: in one way or another the
mosques all try to centralize their plan as much as possible, so that the
entire area is visible from any point. At the west side a broad corridor
divided into domed or vaulted bays and, extending considerably
beyond the main body of the mosque, creates the efect of a narthex.
This is a transitional feature, retained from an older style of mosque;
it appears only rarely later on. At each end of this “narthex” rise the
two fine minarets, their shafts picked out with geometric designs
in terra-cotta; they stand far beyond the main part of the building
in a position which is unique and gives a very grand efect. At the
end of the south arm of the narthex, a small library was added in
the eighteenth century by the Şeyh-ül Islam Veliyüttin Efendi. An
unusual feature of the interior of the mosque is that the sultan's loge
is to the right of the mimber instead of the left as is habitual; it is
supported on columns of very rich and rare marbles. The central
area of the building is approximately 40 metres on a side, and the
diameter of the dome about 17 metres.
THE PIOUS FOUNDATIONS OF THE BEYAZİDİYE
Behind the mosque - or, as the Turks say, in front of the mihrab
- is the türbe garden; here Beyazit II lies buried in a simple, well-
proportioned türbe of limestone picked out in verd antique. Nearby
is the even simpler türbe of his daughter, Selçuk Hatun. Beyond
these, a third türbe in a highly decorated
Empire
style is that of the
Grand Vezir Koca Reşit Paşa, the distinguished leader of the Tanzimat
(Reform) movement, who died in 1857. Below the eastern side of the
türbe garden facing the street is an arcade of shops originally erected
by Sinan in 1580; it had long since almost completely disappeared,
but one of the happier ideas in the redesigning of Beyazit Square was
to reconstruct it.
Just beside these shops is the large double sibyan mektebi with
two domes and a porch; this is undoubtedly the oldest surviving
primary school in the city, since that belonging to the külliye of Fatih
Mehmet has disappeared. It has recently been handsomely restored
and now houses the hakkı tarık us Research Library. (hakkı tarık us
was a journalist who, like the poet e.e. cummings, had an aversion to
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