Tag: Haghia Sophia

  • Traveling to Istanbul (I)

    Traveling to Istanbul (I)

    Traveling to Istanbul (I)

    Dome, The New Mosque

    Dome, The New Mosque

    This is farther east and still in Europe than I’ve ever been, outside of Moscow—farther than Bucharest, farther than Athens. A lot like both, though—even though the place has been Islamic for five hundred years, it still feels pretty Orthodox as well—you can’t just disappear that 1300 years of Christianity. What it mainly feels like, though, is bustling. This is one busy city. Thank god for the excellent tram system. I’m a big fan of cities with trams anyway, and this one is superb. It makes Boston’s system look like the medieval relic it really is. And the traffic makes Boston’s look positively care-free.

    Our hotel, though, is nicely located, a couple of blocks from just about everything, right in the middle of the Eminönü area. So we’re a block from the train station, the relevant tram stop, the ferries up the Bosphoros and into the Golden Horn, and no more than a fifteen minute walk to the Hagia Sofia and the Topkapi Palace. Lots of good restaurants nearby as well, with the only thing lacking being a place to get recent (ie since last Wednesday) English newspapers. But we’re fully wired—isn’t everyone these days, including what appears to be every resident of Istanbul, each and every one of whom apparently has a mobile phone? Packing for trips these days has become an exercise in wire management—we have the ipad charger, the laptop charger, the charger for the phone, which fortunately is the same as for my Blackberry from work, the battery chargers for the two cameras, the little box for uploading photos from cameras and phones and ipads onto laptops…what could I possibly have left off this list?

    And, since it’s Easter, I had to bring along The Book of Common Prayer, to compensate for the fact that we haven’t been to an Easter service for years, and here we are, in a country where the Orthodox Easter won’t come around until May. Plus we spent the entirety of Easter visiting mosques. These cultural markers do mean something after all.

    The mosques are quite neat, and not quite what I expected, at least the larger ones. These are large palaces of light, really, designed to be as open and as bright as possible. I’m still trying to sort out Islamic aesthetics, which I imagine will tell me why many of the interiors we’ve seen—especially at Topkapi—seem designed to not blend with each other—to just be, as Mrs W put it, bright and shiny, with no sense of overall room design. Well, that’s probably just us—and it certainly isn’t a criticism that could be made of the mosques that we’ve been in. These are big and airy, with high domes (everyone literally trying to outdo Hagia Sofia, apparently), lots of windows, and sublimely tasteful settings of verses from the Koran.

    So far we’ve done most of the major mosques, including some designed by the master architect of mosques, Koka Mimar Sinan (“Great Architect Sinan”). Sinan was appointed Chief Imperial Architect by Suleyman and held the post for more than half a century. His output was astonishing, including 81 large mosques, more than half of which were in Istanbul. The major ones are the Süleymaniye, probably the largest and best known of Istanbul’s mosque complexes, and the Şehzade Camii (Camii is Turkish for mosque), which Suleyman had built in memory of his son, who died at 21. These are grand constructions. I would have to say that if I had a favourite, it was this one—the nicest balance of light and space of all of them. But this is subjective, obviously.

    They are also interesting socially. This is a patriarchal culture and religion, so no surprise that there is a separate prayer area for women. Still, people are wandering around everywhere—except at our last mosque, where they asked visitors to stay in the back. But this wasn’t the case at other mosques, and people were just wandering around at most of them. Men were praying, yes. But men were also chatting up a storm, talking on their mobiles, and taking pictures of each other. Families were sitting around talking—not loudly, but certainly not whispering either. Children were running around all over the place. Maybe it’s because it was Sunday, and that’s a social day—you meet the neighbours at the mosque, have a nice chat, and move on. But what it most reminded me of is what medieval cathedrals were supposed to be like—large spaces where everyone got together regularly, and lots of stuff happened, not just services.

    And Turkey is certainly a family place. There are kids everywhere. When we were visiting Topkapi Palace on Friday, it seemed as if every school group in Istanbul was there as well, not to mention about ten thousand mothers with strollers. What is lacking is lots of Disney stuff—we haven’t exactly been looking for it, but so far no kids in Little Princess outfits. However, there do seem to be LOTS of Burger Kings and McDonalds, which I suppose is inescapable these days. Still, plenty of good food pretty much everywhere. We’ve already had some excellent real meals, and some excellent light fare from the kebab shop down the street. This a city with of 12 million people or whatever it is, so you can get pretty much whatever you want here, so long as it’s lamb. But not just the lamb—Turkish cuisine is full of nuts and seeds, and not only do they spice everything up nicely, but it’s also good for you. Forget all that crap about the Mediterranean diet. It’s what they eat here that’s good for you—olive oil, dates, figs, olives, and lots of seeds and nuts. I could eat this stuff forever.

    Anyway, according to David Macaulay’s excellent Mosque, the ideal proportions for a mosque are a perfect cube, covered by a half hemisphere. The perfect cube comes from the Kaaba at Mecca; and the dome comes from, of all things, Hagia Sofia. Because when Mehmed finally conquered Constantinople in 1453, he began a mosque building campaign. Hagia Sofia itself was turned into a mosque (it is no longer a mosque—it was turned into a museum in 1935.) But it was also the impetus for a new model of mosque—one that emulated the Sofia, and, in particular, one that outdid its magnificent dome. It became a model for a number of mosques designed by Sinan, including Süleymaniye and Şehzade.

    Hagia Sofia, from the Gallery

    Hagia Sofia, from the Gallery

    So one of the first things you do here is head over to Hagia Sofia, which is what we did on Thursday, along with, apparently, everyone who happened to be in Istanbul that day. And it’s worth it—it’s one of the most impressive buildings ever. It’s very large, and yes, the dome is gigantic—that’s 182 feet straight up. There was scaffolding along one of the walls in the nave, and some complaints on TripAdvisor about that, but really, you’re going to complain because your fifteen minutes in this marvellous building was ruined by scaffolding? Americans, go home. There is some great mosaic work throughout, especially in the narthex, and upstairs in the Gallery. The columns are magnificent, carved from marble, and supporting a u-shaped first floor gallery that itself can obviously hold thousands. It is filled, just filled, with light—Byzantine architecture made some amazing innovations in this regard. But then you realize that this is simply what was left following two ruinous sackings—by the fourth Crusaders in 1204, and by the Conqueror’s troops in 1453. Some of the Sofia’s treasures can still be seen in Venice, interestingly enough.

    Dome, Hagia Sofia

    Dome, Hagia Sofia

    It was an inspiring visit. I felt sort of the way I felt after my first visit to The Baptistry in Florence—here was a building that not only encapsulated an age—the entire history of Byzantium—but it also provided a foundation for much of what followed. It’s a trip everyone should make. It’s not until you’re here, really, that you start to appreciate what the Byzantines did—they kept it all going when Rome collapsed and was overrun by Vandals, and when what eventually became Europe disappeared into several centuries of fear, suppression and constant warfare. For several centuries this was the Roman empire, extended—except run by Greeks. The Turks didn’t get here until the 15th century, an Islamic tribe coming out of the steppes.

    Mosaics, Hagia Sofia

    Mosaics, Hagia Sofia

    It’s theoretically a secular culture now—this is Attaturk’s legacy. But it doesn’t feel that way. Orhan Pamuk’sIstanbul, which is basically an autobiography, reminds us that this is a city of ruins of many different civilizations and periods, and it still has that flavour of mixed failed empires, from which a new one has yet to take shape. But the ingredients are all here.

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    Traveling to Istanbul (I)

  • Nicaea council church back to being a mosque

    Nicaea council church back to being a mosque

    TURKEY

    Erdogan’s religious acrobatics: Nicaea council church back to being a mosque

    by NAT da Polis

    TURCHIA f 1111 ErdoganThe church of Aghia Sophia in Nicaea (Izmit), in which the 787 Council was held, was used as a museum. A controversial decision by the Directorate General of Religious Affairs transforms it into a Muslim place of worship. Erdogan’ contents Islamic sectors of society.

    Istanbul (AsiaNews) – The specter of Aghia Sophia continues to plague the Islamic world of Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey. Not the most famous symbol of the church of Constantinople, but another church, Aghia Sophia in Nicaea (now Izmit), which predates the Constantinople church, having been built in the fourth century. It passed into history in 787 AD, when it was the last church to host a united Christendom drawn to discuss the iconoclastic question, in a truly ecumenical synod, before the fatal schism of 1024.

    This Christian church, the Aghia Sophia in Nicaea (Izmit), was transformed into a mosque in 1331 by Orhan Gazi who led the Ottomans and which was later made a museum in 1920, has returned once again to being a mosque.

    All that was needed was a directive from the Directorate General for Religious Affairs led by Mehmet Gormez, appointed by Erdogan instead of Ali Bardakoglu, the man behind the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey, since retired. The move has elicited several considerations in Turkey and abroad in a period in which much importance and emphasis is placed on religious freedom. It is also noted that this decision by the Directorate for Religious Affairs, made in accordance with the Directorate General of Religious Foundations, to which the church of Aghia Sophia in Izmit belongs, is in complete contrast with the decisions of the Ministry of Culture in Ankara, which granted permission for religious celebrations in Christian monuments that have since been transformed into museums.

    The President of the Republic of Germany, Christian Wulf, in his recent visit to Turkey, made the request for permission for a mass to be celebrated at the Church of St. Paul in Tarsus, a request that was granted by the Turkish authorities . The same Patriarch Bartholomew I, 26 December 2000 celebrated a liturgy in the church of Aghia Sophia in Izmit on the anniversary of the second millennium of the birth of our Lord, as the church of Aghia Sophia in Izmit was counted, according to the Directive of the Ministry of Culture in Ankara, among those Christians monuments turned into museums.

    Erdogan’s decision is puzzling, but also brings to light lurking divisions within Turkish society. In recent times, especially after the 2007 elections, Erdogan’s policy has been characterized by an opening towards non-Muslim religious minorities,. Thanks to these re-openings, religious communities have begun to breathe once again. In is enough to mention the recent decree that provides for the restitution of property illegally confiscated in the past, from the religious foundations, and the grant of permission to celebrate religious functions in Christian monuments that have since become museums. The most symbolic outcome was the celebration of the Mass officiated by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in 2010 in the historic Monastery of Our Lady of Sumela on the Black Sea, the first after 80 years.

    These initiatives by Erdogan have never been welcomed by his Islamic-nationalist followers, who are not only present in Bahceli’s nationalist MHP party (which achieved about 14% in the last election), but they are also lurking in the ruling AKP party, under the wing of the Vice President Bulent Arinc, perhaps the most prominent politician in the Islamic conformist current within the ruling party. Arinc said during the inauguration the day before yesterday: “With this act we have regained the favor of our ancestors. The church of Aghia Sophia in Izmit is the result of conquest and as such, as it was used then, is right. A church can be transformed into a mosque. Both are places of prayer to God”. Bulent Arinc concluded, “How many mosques have been transformed into our churches?”.

    There have however, been sstrong negative reactions within the Turkish intellectual world among which that of Professor. Selcuk Mulayim of Marmara University, who said that the church of Aghia Sophia in Izmit has played an important role in Christian history and as such should be considered as with the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople: a museum.

    Istanbul’s comment diplomatic circles mummer that Erdogan, making a symbolic and instrumental use of the name of Aghia Sofia, has tried to satisfy certain sectors of his party, and not only. Consenting to the transformation of the church of Aghia Sophia in Nicaea (Izmit) into a mosque, he has calculated that certain “targeted” concessions will lengthen his stay in power.

    via TURKEY Erdogan’s religious acrobatics: Nicaea council church back to being a mosque – Asia News.

  • Turkish opposition leader: Aya Sofia must regain status of mosque

    Turkish opposition leader: Aya Sofia must regain status of mosque

    YalcinTopcuAzerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 28 / Trend R.Hafizoglu /

    Conditions created by the authorities for religious minorities, should also be created for the Muslims, and Aya Sofia (also Haghia Sophia) must regain the status of mosque, Turkish Grand Unity Party Chairman Yalcin Topcu said.

    “The authorities must protect the rights of Muslims, constituting 99 percent of the total population of Turkey. They must restore the status of mosque to Aya Sofia, as they opened Sumela and Akdamar churches for praying,” Topcu told Trend.

    Turkish media reported that the Sumela church, which is considered sacred by the orthodox Christians of the country, was opened for religious ceremonies for the first time in 90 years. The Turkish Christians and about 1,500 pilgrims from Greece and Russia took part in the opening of the monastery of the 16th century.

    The Sabah newspaper reported that the country allowed to conduct religious ceremonies in the Akdamar church in the Van city.

    Turkey, which has a thousand-year history of statehood, is forced to defend the rights of religious minorities, Topcu said.

    “I regard restoration of the historic churches Sumela and others as right step, but, on the other hand, the country should allow to pray in Aya Sofia, the opening of which the Turkish Muslims has been waiting for 76 years,” Topcu said.

    Following the conquest of Constantinople in the middle of the 15th century, Sultan Mehmet II renamed the city’s largest temple – the church of Sacred Sophia in Aya Sofia and the first Friday prayer was performed here. In 1934, the mosque of Aya Sofia was deprived of its religious status and turned into a museum.

    The authorities and relevant agencies were demanded to restore the status of mosque to Aya Sofia, Topcu said.

    “I believe the Muslims of the country have the right to make festive prayer in the Aya Sofia mosque at least once a year (during Ramadan and Gurban Holiday),” Topcu said.

    https://en.trend.az/news/politics/foreign/1741894.html, 28 Aug 2010