Sultan Ahmet 1st wished to build an Islamic place of worship that would be even more majestic than the ex-christian church turned mosque (the Aya Sofya). The Hagia Sophia, better know as the Blue Mosque is the result. The mosque was designed by architect Mehmet Aga, whose unfortunate predecessor was found wanting and executed, so he tried a lot harder. The two great architectural achievements now stand next to each other in Istanbul's main old town square, and it is up to visitors to decide which is more impressive on the outside. On the inside there is no contest as the Blue mosque’s interior walls that are covered with tens of thousands of Iznik blue tiles (hence its name) and more than 200 windows that give it a bright airy magical luminescence.
After coming from Sofia Bulgaria, here is Aja standing in the Aya Sofya in Istanbul one of the world’s greatest buildings with a massive dome soaring 53 meters over the old city. This building is one of the first of the several amazing buildings you see as you enter the old quarter of the city, where we were staying in Istanbul. The Aya Sofya, originally built as a Christian church in AD 527, was such a masterpiece of architecture and so impressed the conquering Muslims, in the 1400s, that, instead of destroying it, simply tossed out a few statues and chipped away and plastered over the religious icons thereby converting into a Muslim Mosque. It became a museum in 1935.
The beauty and brilliance of the religious icons in the Aya Sofya are being restored. When the church was converted to a mosque the icons were mostly plastered over, which covered, but did not destroy them. Now that the building is a museum, rather than a holy place, the local Muslims have allowed the restoration of the mosaic icons to enhance the historical independent ambiance and beauty of the building. When the icons were covered the inside of the building, despite the majesty and wonder of the architectural design, was quite plane and boring compared to the ornate insides of the mosques. The restoration of the icons makes the museum more comfortable and pleasure to visit and spend time in. When commenting upon the religious icons of the past Pope John Paul II said that the idols of modern society are pleasure, comfort and independence (because people have closed their hearts and become selfish.) Now the museum has the icons restored it is a wonderful place to visit to idle away part of any day.
I love the amazingly artistic forms of calligraphy of the Muslims. Calligraphy in the Islamic cultures provides a link between the languages of the Muslims and the religion of Islam. The Arabic alphabet consists of 28 letters and 18 different forms of writing making it as decorative as it is communicative. Calligraphy has become to Islam what the vast number of religious Icons, drawings and statues are to the Eastern Orthodox church. Muslims do not allow the use of figurative art in holy places and mosques as they saw the overuse of human images and statues in churches as a step back to older forms of pagan and Roman idolatry. The adoration of pictures and statues of the saints, Mary and even Jesus was seen as taking away from the worship of the one God. So calligraphy replaced religious icons in holy places as the main form of spiritual and artistic expression.
A style of shopping that defines not only picking up the essentials (and many non essentials) but also a way of life that has not changed in many centuries. The Grand Bazaar is known the world over. There are some 4,000 merchants selling their wares on this series of covered streets. Opened in 1461, it has to be the world’s oldest shopping mall. Normally when you think of arab markets you think of dirt floors and narrow dark alleys, however, here you find wide walk-ways and even high soaring arched ceilings. Anything you may want to buy in Istanbul can be found here and bought with a little haggling. No matter how long you look around the grand bazaar it is impossible to see everything, however, saying you have gone to Istanbul and not gone to experience the Grand Bazaar is also impossible.
Being part of the coffeehouse culture of the west coast, and non-drinkers, we have always enjoyed the outstanding coffee experiences of 'the broken paddle' in Mechisin and other fine independent cafe's and I even enjoy timmies and Starbucks. So we delighted in the older coffeehouse culture of Europe which was different but totally amazing mixed with chocolate and old european ambiance. Being there in the late fall and early winter, the cafe's gave us a great place to hang out to read and write while escaping the cool and the rain. Then to come to Istanbul and discover the many delightful coffeehouses in this even older coffeehouse culture, developed in the ottoman empire, was the most primal and delightful of all our coffee drinking experiences. The word for "coffeeshop" in modern standard Arabic is maqha, literally meaning "place of coffee-ing." As I understand there is no special variety of coffee bean that is used. Turkish coffee is rather an expression of the preparation used, not the raw material. Everyone has their unique secret method of brewing the coffee and as much as I could squeeze out of one barista was that it is prepared by boiling finely powdered roast coffee beans in a pot (cezve), possibly with sugar, and then serving it in a small cup, where the dregs settle into a fine coffee mud at the bottom. Apparently you can also have your fortune told by reading the dregs. Aja looked at mine but all she could see was 'the grim', but of course she had just finished reading the Harry Potter series...or maybe she just thought it was grim. Anyway to the rest of you good fortune and happy coffee-ing.
This stone in Istanbul, standing at the corner opposite to Hagia Sophia, was part of a Byzantine arch that was used to indicate the center of the known universe. Litterally the zero-mile-marker for the Roman Empire. All roads in the vast Roman empire were measured from this point. In England we stood at the end of one of these roads which was, as all Roman roads, marked with a tree. The tree which the Romans planted at the end of every road is known as the Sadrat-el-Muntaha, the tree beyond which there is no passing.... (For mystics it is a metaphor for the Prophet of God in each age.) What also makes this place special is that we live in Victoria B.C. which is mile ‘0’ for the trans-Canada highway which crosses from there to Newfoundland. We all know what to think of the end of the road in Newfoundland, with little or no trees, but I wonder if anyone in Victoria would be so bold as to consider themselves to be the center of the universe as those living at this point in the world did...
