What is more beautiful, Hagia Sophia or Suleymaniye mosque, Suleymaniye mosque or Khora church?.. To compare the beauty of temples and monuments in Turkey is simply meaningless. All these are beautiful; the rest depends on your taste. In my opinion, Byzantine churches are humbler, but more magnificent. For those who are not used to, mosque domes’ ornaments are too complicated, and make you feel dizzy. However, Turks would not deserve their image is they did not manage to combine the both styles in their mosques. I have already told how. They simply transformed churches into mosques without destroying any original feature. Weel, things went so in the beginning. Afterwards, they had to build their mosques de novo.
...Sultanahmet mosque, also known as the Blue mosque, is located right opposite to Hagia Sophia. Sultan Ahmet was famous for his giantomania and ordered to build the new mosque whatever the means. When it was finished, he exclaimed,
"I overpowered you, Constantine!"
Passionate young Sultan meant that his mosque was larger than Hagia Sophia. Here, let’s see whether Ahmet was right. Right between the temples are a few benches for tourists. Water-hawkers always wander to and fro here, offering a glass of cold water, tea, or hot sherbet. So, drink whatever you have chosen, stand up, and compare the two’s heights. Of course, Sultanahmet domes and minarets are a little higher than the highest point of Hagia Sophia, are they not?.. Sit down again and order one more tea. Now remember, Hagia Sophia is HIGHER than the Blue mosque. Do not blame for your vision and do not plan visiting ophthalmologist. From the point you stood the mosque DOES SEEM higher. Smart architects simply chose such a place for the mosque where it would seem higher than it was. In fact, Hagia Sophia was not excelled. Constantine could not reply anything to Ahmet for he had been dead since long ago by then. Well, let us do the thing.
"Ahmet, you lost, poor old boy!"
XXX
Now, let us visit Suleymaniye mosque...
Istanbul mosques are beautiful both in their exterior and interior. People who built them had unusual imagination power. For instance, they hanged an... ostrich egg under the mosque dome. You see it, gilded, high above? Well, in was not something sacred for Turks, none it is now, therefore, to understand the reason of its presence here, look down your feet. By the way, I hope you have taken your shoes off before entering the mosque?
Special thanks to those ladies who covered their heads before entering. It is not obligatory, but Muslims appreciate it very much. In fact, so do Christians, for ladies’ heads should be covered before entering a church as well.
Here, we are standing on carpets, now. Each is for one man. During holidays, however, the religious gather here, and as many as 12.000 people can be inside of the mosque at the same time. It is all right to-day, but in the past it posed serious problems regarding the hygiene. Carpets are an ideal biotope for insects. Muslim architects remembered that ostrich eggs’ specific smell can not be tolerated by bugs. So, they ask Sultans to bring the eggs from Africa, and hang the things inside the mosques. Amazingly, the thing worked well. Now of course less exotic ways of disinsection are used, but the eggs are still there. In Suleymaniye, for instance, there are three of them.
Sit down, if you want, it is allowed. Though looking small, the carpet is quite comfortable for sitting. Moreover, it is totally safe to be inside a mosque – even when there is an earthquake. Earthquakes have been the curse of this otherwise fertile land since Roman official Byzantium founded a city here. So why is this huge mosque with huge domes still here? Why wasn’t it destroyed by an earthquake? It stands on... water!
There is a special water-full reservoir under the mosque basement. When an earthquake occurs, water absorbs the hits, and flows out through special apertures on mosque corners. This system had been planned from the very beginning by architect Sinan, though its purpose was not earthquake safety. In had been a heating system. There have been bathes nearby, and Sinan had decided that the used hot water would better come to the mosque and heat it rather to go to the sewers uselessly. The thing works brilliantly – even in winters it is very warm, inside Suleymaniye.
You must have notices that there are electric bulbs in the huge candlesticks on mosque walls. In the past, real candle lit the enlightened the mosque. So why aren’t the domes black of smoke? Turn back and look above the mosque gate. There is a long narrow hole there. Again, Sinan’s device: the smoke is sucked into the hole due to the bare air flow that can not be even felt by people. Behind the hole is a special room where smoke precipitates on the special stone plate. The plate was cleaned every year, and returned back to its place. Now I will tell you what thrifty Turks did with the soot.
Here, they used it instead of ink to type the books! There is a special section in one of the mosque libraries, where almost 8.000 books written with such "ink" are stored. Amazingly, these books are in no way worse that the usual ones, and can be stored as long as the latter.
INFORMATION
?oca Mi‘mar Sinan Aga (Ottoman Turkish) (April 15, 1489 - July 17, 1588) was the chief Ottoman architect&civil engineer for sultans Selim I, Suleiman I, Selim II and Murad III. He was, during a period of fifty years, responsible for the construction or the supervision of every major building in the Ottoman Empire. More than three hundred structures are credited to his name, exclusive of his more modest projects, such as his Koran schools (sibyan mektebs).
His masterpiece is the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, although his most famous work is the Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul. He had under him an extensive governmental department and trained many assistants who, in turn, distinguished themselves, including Sedefhar Mehmet Aga, architect of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. He is considered the greatest architect of the classical period, and is often compared to Michelangelo as a Western contemporary. The stature of Michelangelo and his plans for St Peter's Basilica in Rome were well-known in Istanbul, since he (and also Leonardo da Vinci) received an invitation to build a bridge over the Bosphorus
Ahmed I (Ottoman Turkish: A?med-i evvel, Turkish:I.Ahmet) (April 18, 1590 – November 22, 1617) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 until his death.
Ahmed I succeeded his father Mehmed III (1595–1603) in 1603 at age 13 and became the first Ottoman sultan who reached the throne before attaining his majority. He broke with the traditional fratricide and send his brother Mustafa to live at the old palace at Bayezit along with their grandmother Safiye Sultan. He was known for his skills in fencing, horseback riding, and fluency in numerous languages.
In the earlier part of his reign Ahmed I showed decision and vigour, which were belied by his subsequent conduct. The wars which attended his accession both in Hungary and in Persia terminated unfavourably for the empire, and its prestige received its first check in the Treaty of Zsitvatorok, signed in 1606, whereby the annual tribute paid by Austria was abolished. Georgia and Azerbaijan were ceded to Persia.
Ahmed was a poet who wrote a number of political and lyrical works under the name Bahti. He was devoutly religious, spending much of his wealth to support the works of scholars and pious men. He also attempted to enforce conformance to Islamic laws and traditions, restoring the old regulations that prohibited alcohol and he attempted to enforce attendance at the Friday Mosque prayers and paying alms to the poor in the proper way. Ahmed I died of typhus in 1617.
Today Ahmed I is remembered mainly for the construction of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque), one of the masterpieces of Islamic architecture. The area in Istanbul around the Mosque is today called Sultanahmet. He is buried in a mausoleum right outside the walls of the famous mosque.
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