29 October, Istanbul
Haci Mimi Apartment 53TL

A fantabulous penultimate day in Istanbul (tomorrow we pack, Friday we fly to Bangkok). We began our Turkey trip with a ride to Iznik and ended it today at the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii), famous for the 20,000 Iznik tiles which adorn its interior walls. The mosque was constructed in 1616 beside what used to be the Byzantine era Hippodrome. In 532AD tens of thousands of citizens, protesting Emperor Justinian’s high taxes, were massacred here by imperial forces. In 1826 the reformer Ottoman sultan Mahmud had the corrupt janissary corps (the sultan’s personal bodyguards) slaughtered here*. Today this peaceful open space is a popular promenade. Behind the mosque is a market and one of the prettiest Sultanahmet suburbs. Sultan Ahmet ascended to the imperial throne aged 13; he died one year after the mosque was completed aged just 27. The mosque has one main dome, eight secondary domes and six minarets. The Sultan, when “criticized for being presumptuous” for building six minarets, the same number as those at Mecca’s mosque, solved the issue by ordering a seventh minaret to be built at Mecca. The tiles include over 50 different tulip designs. It is not noticeable to the untutored eye, but apparently over the years it took to complete the mosque the quality of the tiles decreased as the “price to be paid for each tile was fixed by the sultan’s decree, while tile prices in general increased over time”. Our visit today was very different from my two visits in 1984** when there were hardly any tourists, when individual carpets overlapped to cover the floor, and when visitors were allowed to watch the prayer ritual. LOVE the Blue Mosque. LOVE Istanbul. LOVE Turkey.

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* Wikipedia: The Janissaries “began as an elite corps of slaves recruited from young Christian boys, and became famed for internal cohesion cemented by strict discipline and order. By 1620 they were hereditary and corrupt and an impediment to reform. The corps was abolished by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826 in the auspicious incident in which 6,000 or more were executed.”

** 11 September 1984: By the time I had taken two buses, walked several kilometres, seen someone at the tourist office, booked into a youth hostel near the Blue Mosque and taken a shower, it was after 7pm. I went out walking and quite by accident came across a lights and music and talk (in French) show at the Blue Mosque – which is a ridiculously beautiful building. It was lit up by vari-coloured lights which gave it a strange and lovely look against the night sky.

7 November 1984: And finally the Blue Mosque or Sultan Ahmet camii itself. Ridiculously beautiful as the outside. Lots of domes and columns and six minarets. All in grey. With a lovely courtyard. I arrived as it started to rain and as the Muezzin came out to call the faithful to prayer. Wonderful to stand in the covered domed walk around the courtyard and listen to his voice – intermingled with the sound of rain falling onto stone. In the courtyard were men selling Istanbul guide books, prayer beads and fezzes. After removing my shoes and putting on a headscarf, I entered the mosque to watch the prayer ritual. All the men congregated in rows at the stained glass windows which face Mecca. The women at the back of the room behind a curtain. The Imam’s wavering chants echoed through the room as everyone stood and knelt and touched their foreheads to the ground in unison. The walls are tiled. The room is supported by four GIANT columns, 40 steps around each. The floor is carpeted in many different carpets – the primary colour red. 

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