Blue Mosque

After lunch at the Cok house, Recep walked me over to the Blue Mosque. This building is the largest, most distinctive structure on the Istanbul skyline. Its six minarets rise up while the vast dome pushes out with a series of 21 half domes and secondary domes.

The architect was a student of Sinan. In this case the student seemed to have learned his lesson well.

Right across from the Blue Mosque is a park, really a part of the old hippodrome that the Byzantines used to race horses. With gladiatorial contests frowned upon in the Christian Byzantine Empire, horse racing was the best pastime. But now the horses, track, and spectator seating is gone. Instead is a lovely park separating the Blue Mosque from its architectural forefather, Hagia Sophia.

Upon entering the mosque gate, a young man offered me a free tour. He tried to get me in a side door where the local worshiper line up. Rebuffed harshly by the guard, he followed me to the back where tourists were queued up to go inside. It shouldn't be a surprise to those who have read an earlier post to know that this man was a carpet salesman interested in hooking me in for a post-tour visit to his shop. I pushed him away with the idea that I under no circumstances purchase a carpet today.3

Instead of a free tour, I got a tour by an older man who worked at the mosque. I took off my shoes, placed them in a plastic baggie, and passed by a group of women tourists who were awkwardly trying to put on the headscarves required before entering.

My tour guide narrated the simple story of the Blue Mosque. Built by Sultan Ahmed in just seven years in the 1600s, the mosque gets its name from the glorious tiles inside. The space inside is expansive. The vaulted ceiling rises up gloriously on a series of half domes and four columns covered in marble.

Tourists are restricted to the back, while people who are worshiping can cross over a small rail (looks like a chancel rail in a church) to approach the side that faces Mecca. My guide, with some degree of authority, led me past the rail so that I could see up close the architectural detail of the qiblah wall and the mibrah niche.

The mibrah in the Blue Mosque is special since it has a small piece of the black meteorite stone from the Ka'aba in Mecca. Seriously. I guess that since all of the Ottoman sultans were also the caretakers of the holy sites in Arabia, they could take what they wanted. I got a close look.

 

[In the center of this mibrah is a small five-sided black stone.  That is the piece of the Ka'aba meteorite.]

Other than the dazzling tile work and vaulted domes, the most interesting parts were the ornamented stairway and chair where the imam gives his sermons. In the Blue Mosque it is covered in gold leaf.

I was also allowed to inspect the chair that apparently Sultan Ahmed constructed with his own hand. A fine piece of workmanship, it had elaborate carvings and inlays of mother of pearl. I had heard before that each sultan had to take up a craft. Sulieyman, for example, was known for his gold work. I wonder how the sultan could rule his vast empire given the various distractions of court life, the harem, and his required craft.

I could not quite figure out my guide. Although knowledgeable about the site and quite willing to tailor the presentation to suit a world history teacher, he didn't strike me as altogether authentic. The only official actions that he took on my tour that made him seem as an employee of the mosque were the occasions that he shooed away women from coming forward past the railing. The women seemed like pious Muslims there for prayer. Women, he mentioned, mainly come to this mosque during Ramadan. Then they open up a balcony for them that is quite out of sight of the men.

I paid him well for his guide services, which I now had guessed were freelancing, preferable by far to a carpet salesman. Did I actually have any authority to walk where I did in the holiest parts of the Blue Mosque? I'm not sure, but I did get a close up look at some stunningly beautiful religious furnishings.