First turkish word of the day: Cami -> Turkish for Mosque. C is pronounced as J in turkish, as it's pronounced as "Jami". Before I came to Turkey, I never knew that Turkey was such an important centre for the formation of the Christian faith. Muslim of course... since it was a muslim country, but according to historical sources, Islam is the youngest religion in Turkey. Christianity has been very evident in Turkey as far back as the Roman empire, so throughout the journey, we got to learn interesting bits of Christianity and its roots in Turkey. Hopefully I'll be able to remember most of it. But anyhow, we left Istanbul via a cruise along the Bosphorous and we got to see the various palaces and houses along the Asian and European continent, including the bridges that connect Asia and Europe together.
Up to WWI, the Ottomans have control over the Bosphorous, but after WW1 and the realization of the strategic importance of the Bosphorous, today it is classified as international waters. It is a very difficult body of water to navigate because of the double currents from the Black and Mamara sea. Many years back, there was a collision between a Greek and Romanian oil tanker on the Bosphorous which caused a lot of damage to Istanbul and it took over 10 years for the Bosphorous to be cleaned. I guess that problem with having the Bosphorous classified as International waters is that Turkey cannot really control the amount of ships crossing the Bosphorous but if anything happens they suffer the most. Anyhow, the cruise was beautiful...and it was over too soon.
Outer walls of the city built by the Ottoman empire to beseige the city. What is amazing is that the Ottomans took only 3 months to build these walls.
So in this post, I am going to talk about 3 mosques which I visited, the Blue Mosque (Instanbul), the Grand Mosque and the Green Mosque (Bursa). Why these 3? Because of its different architectures. However, before that on our way to Bursa, we stopped at the town of Nicea. This town has a very small St Sophia church which looks like a run down building from the outside but it is very important because this is where the Church leaders met in the days of the Roman empire and this church was where the decision was made to have the 4 main gospels (Mark, Matthew, John, Luke) in the bible (back then there were 27 gospels altogether). This is also the place where the Nicene creed was form, and it takes it name from the town where it was formed (Nicea).
This started out as a church but was later converted to a mosque. So when you going to these converted mosques, you will always notice that the muslim "altar" is at an angle of the building and not in the centre like the Christian altar. This is because Muslims pray towards Mecca, unlike the Christian religion.
The Grand Mosque:
Points to note when entering a Mosque, you have to wear cover your legs and your shoulders. Girls have to wear a headscarf and you have to take off your shoes before you enter.
Differences between Islam and Christianity. In Islam, not images of idols are allowed, so decoration of mosques are usually done using calligraphy. The calligraphy of Allah is very similar to the shape of a tulip. As such, the tulip is the national flower of Turkey. Contrary to common knowledge that tulips are from the Netherlands, they are actually orginally from Turkey. It was the Dutch ambassador who brought them back from Turkey and began capitalizing on them that most people think that tulips are from the Netherlands, but not true!!
The definitive feature of the Grand Mosque is its 20 Domes. The Ottoman sultan Bayezid 1 built it as an honor to Allah after his Nicopolis victory. Originally he promised to build 20 mosques if he won, but he ended up building 1 mosque with 20 domes instead. In a mosque, men and women have separate praying areas and it is customary to wash one's hands and feet before going into the mosque. So outside any mosque you can always find these washing areas.
Calligraphy in the form of a dagger.
Green Mosque is called the green mosque because of it's green tiles which were produced in the town of Isnik. Isnik is very famous for producing high quality tiles. The popular blue mosque in Istanbul is called so because of its blue Isnik tiles. To give you an idea on how priceless these tiles are, a few years back, someone conspired with an employee in the Blue Mosque to steal these Isnik tiles. These stolen tiles resurfaced in a private auction later and were sold for 25,000 each.
An interesting feature of the green mosque's architecture is that it comprises of 4 domes, in the shape of the cross. This is because when the builders first wanted to build a mosque, they looked to the available religious buildings then for inspiration i.e churches.
Blue Mosque: Very big place and very crowded with tourists. It is very distinguishable with its 6 minerets. The architecture of the Blue Mosque is based from the architecture of Hagia Sophia (Saint Sophia) as the Ottomans were very impressed by it when they first came to Istanbul. So it has a big main dome in the centre which is different from the Grand Mosque and the Green Mosque.
Wash areas for muslims before they enter
The second storey area in this picture was reserved for the royal family when they came to the mosque to pray.
When I was in Turkey I also got to see the performance of the Whirling Dervishes in Cappadocia. The Whirling Dervishes were a branch of the Islam faith and is known for its Sema ceremony whereby its followers whirl around as part of their worship. The ritual whirling of the dervishes is an act of love and a drama of faith. It possesses a highly structured form within which the gentle turns become increasingly dynamic as the individual dervishes strive to achieve a state of trans. While it started off as a religion, today it is known as a cultural sect in Turkey. This has got to do with Turkey's first PM when he established the secular state of Turkey in 1923. Will try to update on this history later. I have a vague notion of how it happened, but want to make sure I have it correct before I write about it here...
This was definitely an interesting performance and not something which I was expecting. Was quite amusing to me when I saw many tourists start nodding off and falling asleep during the ritual as the music and singing is so rhythmic that it really tends to lure people into a deep sleep...
Update: I should also add that we visited Mary's House in Turkey. Historians and Archaeologists 90% or so believe that the Virgin Mary spent the last years of her life in this house. Apparently, a few years back, there was a big bush fire that destroyed much of the trees in that area, but stopping just a few metres shy of Mary's house.... so the divine nature of god? Up to you to decide! Anyhow, mom and dad were really excited on seeing this house. The best part is that mom couldn't remember anything she had seen in the house. It was all a blur for her. I had to keep asking her questions like "Did you see the items left behind by the popes when they said mass outside the house?" Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict have said mass by the virgin mary house, and each time, they have left something behind to remember the event. I can't remember exactly, but I think JP II left behind his rosary.
Waiting to go inside the house of Mary
Lighting a candle..
Parts from the Koran mentioning virgin mary
There is a wall below the house hung full of paper. It represents all the wishes made by people who have visited the house. Our whole family wrote something down and hung it on the wall. There is also a nearby spring which people believe is holy water, but (caution: we don't know whether the water is safe to drink, but most people we saw that day took a sip of it)
Up to WWI, the Ottomans have control over the Bosphorous, but after WW1 and the realization of the strategic importance of the Bosphorous, today it is classified as international waters. It is a very difficult body of water to navigate because of the double currents from the Black and Mamara sea. Many years back, there was a collision between a Greek and Romanian oil tanker on the Bosphorous which caused a lot of damage to Istanbul and it took over 10 years for the Bosphorous to be cleaned. I guess that problem with having the Bosphorous classified as International waters is that Turkey cannot really control the amount of ships crossing the Bosphorous but if anything happens they suffer the most. Anyhow, the cruise was beautiful...and it was over too soon.
Outer walls of the city built by the Ottoman empire to beseige the city. What is amazing is that the Ottomans took only 3 months to build these walls.
So in this post, I am going to talk about 3 mosques which I visited, the Blue Mosque (Instanbul), the Grand Mosque and the Green Mosque (Bursa). Why these 3? Because of its different architectures. However, before that on our way to Bursa, we stopped at the town of Nicea. This town has a very small St Sophia church which looks like a run down building from the outside but it is very important because this is where the Church leaders met in the days of the Roman empire and this church was where the decision was made to have the 4 main gospels (Mark, Matthew, John, Luke) in the bible (back then there were 27 gospels altogether). This is also the place where the Nicene creed was form, and it takes it name from the town where it was formed (Nicea).
This started out as a church but was later converted to a mosque. So when you going to these converted mosques, you will always notice that the muslim "altar" is at an angle of the building and not in the centre like the Christian altar. This is because Muslims pray towards Mecca, unlike the Christian religion.
The Grand Mosque:
Points to note when entering a Mosque, you have to wear cover your legs and your shoulders. Girls have to wear a headscarf and you have to take off your shoes before you enter.
Differences between Islam and Christianity. In Islam, not images of idols are allowed, so decoration of mosques are usually done using calligraphy. The calligraphy of Allah is very similar to the shape of a tulip. As such, the tulip is the national flower of Turkey. Contrary to common knowledge that tulips are from the Netherlands, they are actually orginally from Turkey. It was the Dutch ambassador who brought them back from Turkey and began capitalizing on them that most people think that tulips are from the Netherlands, but not true!!
The definitive feature of the Grand Mosque is its 20 Domes. The Ottoman sultan Bayezid 1 built it as an honor to Allah after his Nicopolis victory. Originally he promised to build 20 mosques if he won, but he ended up building 1 mosque with 20 domes instead. In a mosque, men and women have separate praying areas and it is customary to wash one's hands and feet before going into the mosque. So outside any mosque you can always find these washing areas.
Calligraphy in the form of a dagger.
Green Mosque is called the green mosque because of it's green tiles which were produced in the town of Isnik. Isnik is very famous for producing high quality tiles. The popular blue mosque in Istanbul is called so because of its blue Isnik tiles. To give you an idea on how priceless these tiles are, a few years back, someone conspired with an employee in the Blue Mosque to steal these Isnik tiles. These stolen tiles resurfaced in a private auction later and were sold for 25,000 each.
An interesting feature of the green mosque's architecture is that it comprises of 4 domes, in the shape of the cross. This is because when the builders first wanted to build a mosque, they looked to the available religious buildings then for inspiration i.e churches.
Blue Mosque: Very big place and very crowded with tourists. It is very distinguishable with its 6 minerets. The architecture of the Blue Mosque is based from the architecture of Hagia Sophia (Saint Sophia) as the Ottomans were very impressed by it when they first came to Istanbul. So it has a big main dome in the centre which is different from the Grand Mosque and the Green Mosque.
Wash areas for muslims before they enter
The second storey area in this picture was reserved for the royal family when they came to the mosque to pray.
When I was in Turkey I also got to see the performance of the Whirling Dervishes in Cappadocia. The Whirling Dervishes were a branch of the Islam faith and is known for its Sema ceremony whereby its followers whirl around as part of their worship. The ritual whirling of the dervishes is an act of love and a drama of faith. It possesses a highly structured form within which the gentle turns become increasingly dynamic as the individual dervishes strive to achieve a state of trans. While it started off as a religion, today it is known as a cultural sect in Turkey. This has got to do with Turkey's first PM when he established the secular state of Turkey in 1923. Will try to update on this history later. I have a vague notion of how it happened, but want to make sure I have it correct before I write about it here...
This was definitely an interesting performance and not something which I was expecting. Was quite amusing to me when I saw many tourists start nodding off and falling asleep during the ritual as the music and singing is so rhythmic that it really tends to lure people into a deep sleep...
Update: I should also add that we visited Mary's House in Turkey. Historians and Archaeologists 90% or so believe that the Virgin Mary spent the last years of her life in this house. Apparently, a few years back, there was a big bush fire that destroyed much of the trees in that area, but stopping just a few metres shy of Mary's house.... so the divine nature of god? Up to you to decide! Anyhow, mom and dad were really excited on seeing this house. The best part is that mom couldn't remember anything she had seen in the house. It was all a blur for her. I had to keep asking her questions like "Did you see the items left behind by the popes when they said mass outside the house?" Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict have said mass by the virgin mary house, and each time, they have left something behind to remember the event. I can't remember exactly, but I think JP II left behind his rosary.
Waiting to go inside the house of Mary
Lighting a candle..
Parts from the Koran mentioning virgin mary
There is a wall below the house hung full of paper. It represents all the wishes made by people who have visited the house. Our whole family wrote something down and hung it on the wall. There is also a nearby spring which people believe is holy water, but (caution: we don't know whether the water is safe to drink, but most people we saw that day took a sip of it)
