Outside of little Hagia Sophia was an ancient Islamic graveyard. I noticed Byzantine graveyards immediately outside the city walls, after the Roman tradition. Muslims didn’t have the same thoughts about location of graveyards, so they built their burial sites outside the mosques. Our guide, fluent in Ottoman script, was able to read the inscriptions on the tombstones. He mentioned that the size and type of top on the gravestone says a great deal about who is buried below. He picked one of the stones randomly and read the inscription. It was of one of the most significant of the people buried in the cemetery. The inscription gave the date of death (which was 18th century) his role (which was of palace eunuch) the date of his pilgrimage to Mecca, and some other details of his life.
The tops of the graves of men have a carved reproduction of the hat that the guys wore. Hats signified official positions and often membership in particular religious orders. Women typically had floral designs on the tops of their graves.
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