Blue Mosque (Istanbul part 4 of 7)

Oh dear, I'm rapidly falling behind on posts. Last weekend, I took the Harry Potter train (also known as the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, but Harry Potter train sounds more exciting, no?) from Whitby to Pickering, so I have photos from the train & from Whitby to share, plus this weekend, I'm heading off to the Lake District, and I still have tons of things to say about Istanbul! And I should be working on my dissertation. But who wants to do that? I have a limited attention span whilst trawling through records trying to trace lineages amongst patrons of Ely Abbey. I think that's understandable. Anyway, I'd best get writing. Today's mini history lesson/photo explosion is brought to you by the colour blue.

The Blue Mosque, or the Sultanahmet Camii as it is properly known, is located just across a plaza and park area from the Hagia Sophia.

Now is that a cool picture or what? Unlike the Aya Sofia, the Blue Mosque is an active mosque, so it does close to tourists during prayers periodically throughout the day, so you'll want to check the times before heading off to visit. Just be sure to actually check the mosque's signs, because if you're just milling around, you can be sure that a carpet salesman will chat you up and try to persuade you to visit their carpet shop since the mosque is closed for prayers anyway regardless of whether or not prayers are actually happening at the time. But when I was there, I had 20 minutes to kill anyway, so I figured I'd let one of them give me his spiel. As part of the Turkish carpet buying experience, you can expect tea and chit chat with the salesman (without charge, assuming it is a reputable establishment). According to my new friend Yavuz over at Onur Carpets (I have his card if anyone wants to buy a carpet, he's totally nice and speaks English very well), I am dreadfully ill-prepared for marriage. I should have started hand knotting a carpet when I was 12. But since I haven't, I should go back to see him to pick out a carpet when I'm ready to take the plunge. Anyway, I share this because that photo is taken from the top floor of his shop, where he has a little sitting area for the aforementioned tea and chit chat. You just cannot get pictures that nice from the street. Here, I'll prove it.

Before heading inside, check out the tomb of the Blue Mosque's eponymous founder, Sultan Ahmet.

The tomb houses Sultan Ahmet, his wife, and three of his sons. Sultan Ahmet is perhaps best known (Blue Mosque aside) for establishing Kafes, the Cage. Fratricide had become accepted practice among the rulers of the Ottoman Empire. In order to avoid messy wars of succession, new sultans were expected to execute their brothers (and potential rivals for the throne). Ahmet I created a new way of dealing with extra brothers/sons by creating the Cage, a special part of the Harem within Topkapi Palace, where these rivals to the throne were imprisoned along with deaf mute servants (I'm not entirely sure how well that worked out, but I guess hand gestures sufficed to get their point across) and a harem of concubines who had had their ovaries removed in order to prevent even more rival heirs from being born. In theory, this practice was an improvement over just killing off brothers, but in practice, the Cage resulted in a whole slew of messed up younger siblings, several of whom did end up taking the throne and came out basically insane- one liked to practice his archery using prisoners of war as targets, while another had 278 of his 280 concubines placed in sacks and drowned in the Bosphorus and just generally killed people left and right. Right, maybe we should get back to the more pleasant stuff.

Built between 1609 and 1616, the Blue Mosque gets its nickname from the hundreds of thousands of blue and white ceramic tiles featuring designs of lilies adorning its walls. The tiles come from Iznik, which was once called Nicaea for any Christian/Biblical scholars out there. Before entering, everyone must remove their shoes. Plastic baggies are provided for you to carry your shoes with you once you enter, and visiting is free, although donations are requested. Guidebook and signs at the visitors' entrance all proclaim that women must cover their heads before entering, but apparently that has recently been dropped. When I was there, headscarves were not necessary, but shoulders/upper arms need to be covered for women (so no cute little cap sleeve t-shirts or they'll give you a blue wrap to cover your arms with) and both men and women need to have shorts/skirts that come down past the knee (and ladies, no tights/leggings as pants, that totally doesn't fly) or they'll give you that blue wrap to wear as a skirt. I was actually kind of disappointed, because I was totally prepared and had a scarf and everything. Alas.

The combination of electric candles and daylight (not to mention reflective gold leaf and shiny tiles) makes for a challenging photography situation, at least I found it to be with my Canon PowerShot. Although you lose some of the effect of all the gold everywhere, I think they come out much nicer in black and white.

Anyway, this is part of the prayer area. They rope it off and don't let the tourists. This is also why they make you take your shoes off; during prayers, Muslims kneel on the carpets, so they'd prefer to keep the carpets as clean as possible.

Here's a better shot of the chandelier hanging over the prayer area and some of the stained glass windows.

I realize this is all kinds of not in focus, but at least you can get a sense of the blue-ness and sadly this is the best shot of the stupid tiles I was able to get. You can see how reflective they are, with light glimmering everywhere.

For westerners, the Blue Mosque is an easy baby step towards a greater understanding of Islam; the people manning the entrance & exit speak decent English and can explain the various dress requirements. The Mosque also publishes a really nice little pamphlet about Islam, describing their faith and correcting some common misconceptions. And if that isn't enough, there is a little booth inside staffed with an English speaker available to answer any questions you might have about Islam or the Blue Mosque itself. With the state of the world today, I think it is really important to try to understand different belief systems/religions/cultures. And I sort of feel like most people are willing to give that a shot, but it seems like the majority of people are sort of waiting for someone to come up and explain it to them, rather than going out and actively seeking answers to their questions, when there are plenty of resources out there, waiting to be used. There are other mosques in Istanbul considered to be more impressive architecturally or with more history to them, but the Blue Mosque is the big tourist draw and I think they handle it very well.

Random closing thought: prayers from the Blue Mosque are broadcast over a loudspeaker system audible throughout the Sultanahmet area, and while prayers are going on, the ATM machines in the plaza are turned off, and many businesses will pause operations. I recorded part of the prayers being broadcast, but fair warning, I'd listen rather than watch this because I totally didn't think to pan around _slowly_, so it kind of makes me motion sick to watch!