We meet in Istanbul, part 2: Istanbul's religious heritage

As I told you in my last post, Istanbul occupies a special position astride two continents. Throughout its history, it has been a place where people of different faiths have come together. Under the Byzantines, Istanbul (then known as Constantinople) was the center of Orthodox Christianity. Once the Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt and Syria, Istanbul became the center of Sunni Islam as well. As befits a city with such important religious heritage, Istanbul has lots of impressive religious buildings that you can visit as a tourist.

In the year AD 532, an earthquake destroyed the main church in the center of Constantinople. The Byzantine emperor at that time, Justinian I, decided to replace the church with a massive basilica that would be grander than any other religious building in the world. Justinian hired two architects, Isidorus of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, to design the new basilica. Isidorus and Anthemius came up with a design for a basilica known as Hagia Sophia, which means "Holy Wisdom" in Greek. To build it, they imported different kinds of stone from all over the eastern Mediterranean. Many people did not think that the walls could support the huge dome that Isidorus and Anthemius designed, but they did. The basilica was dedicated in AD 537 with a huge ceremony in which it was recognized as the most magnificent church in the Christian world.

In 1453, when the Ottomans captured Constantinople and moved their capital there, they decided to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque. They kept Isidorus and Anthemius' great dome, but they had to make some smaller architectural changes in order to convert the Christian basilica into a proper place for Islamic worship. One of the biggest changes the Ottomans made, which you can see in the photograph below, was to build minarets at each of the four corners of the basilica.

Bobbe and I pose in front of Hagia Sophia.

You may know that Muslims always pray by facing in the direction of Mecca, a holy city in Saudi Arabia. The direction that you have to pray is known as the qibla. From Istanbul, Mecca is located mostly to the south and a little bit to the east. The original plan for the basilica, however, oriented it on a standard north-south axis. The Ottomans solved this problem by installing a mihrab, which is a niche indicating the direction toward Mecca. You can see from this picture that the mihrab is off-center: it points south-southeast in the part of the basilica that originally pointed south.

The mihrab is off-center because Hagia Sophia was originally built as a basilica, not a mosque.

I pose in front of the mihrab.

The next problem that the Ottomans encountered with their plan to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque was the fact that every square-inch of the interior was covered with beautiful mosaics. A mosaic is a design made up of thousands of tiny colored stones. The mosaics in Hagia Sophia depicted typical Christian scenes, including Jesus and Mary. In contrast to Christian art, Islamic art does not allow pictures of people -- only abstract designs. The Ottomans had to cover the Christian mosaics with plaster. To decorate the mosque, they then put up lots of beautiful calligraphy. Today, the plaster has been taken off and the mosaics have been restored, but the calligraphy remains. The new space is not really a basilica or a mosque -- it is both at the same time.

In this picture, you can see both the Islamic calligraphy and the restored Christian mosaics.

Bobbe and I pose inside Hagia Sophia.

Directly across the street from Hagia Sophia is a huge mosque built by the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque was completed in 1616. Because it was built especially to be a mosque, it is oriented toward Mecca and it does not have mosaics representing people. Instead, its mosaics are abstract. Because so many of these mosaics were made with blue tile, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque is popularly known as the Blue Mosque.

Bobbe poses in front of the Blue Mosque.

Outside the Blue Mosque, there used to be a special entrance to the courtyard with a giant chain. Only the Ottoman sultan was allowed to enter the courtyard by riding a horse, but he had to duck his head to get under the chain. Bowing in this way symbolized the subservience of the sultan to God. The Ottoman sultans often came to worship on Fridays in the Blue Mosque. Today, unlike Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque is still used as a working mosque.

Bobbe looks around inside the Blue Mosque.

I stand under the tiled dome of the Blue Mosque.

Bobbe and my trip to the Blue Mosque concluded her Mediterranean adventure. I hope that you enjoyed reading about the many places she visited. By going to Italy, Greece, and Turkey, she got to see buildings and monuments from several important ancient civilizations. She also blogged for us about Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim religious buildings and traditions. What a wonderful trip she had!

--Benny