Istanbul

Even looking out the window at Istanbul Modern...the modern art museum...there is Haghia Sophia...the Church of Divine Wisdom...for over 1000 years the largest church in the world...



Built by the Emperor Justinian (well by his workers and slaves) and consecrated in 537. When Mehmet "the conquerer" took the city in 1453, he did converted it into a mosque. And it subsequently became the model for all subsequent mosques...including the Suilyemaniye which I posted about yesterday.

I got to the grounds early in the morning and, having bought a three day
"museum pass", was able to get inside before the arrival of hordes of tourists (often being ushered in groups of 20 or more). So I was able to spend time in the dark quiet of its side galleries.











The building is now officially a museum which has allowed the government to sanction the restoration of some of its mosaics which had been whitewashed over as Islam does not sanction depictions of humans in mosques (and, sometimes, not anywhere).

These mosaics, some of which depict the emporer and his wife as supplicants but also reinforcing their positions as avatars of Christ on the earth. It is one of those examples of how religion can be used to justify the powers of political rulers. Such as the empress Zoe, the halo surrounding her head given her spiritual as well as temporal authority.





Divine Wisdom I guess must be different from regular wisdom...though I am not sure how to tell the difference. I am not sure that either had much impact on many of my tourist friends who seemed to be spending a lot of time taking selfies in this once holy setting.




Perhaps they did not sense that the eyes of Divine Wisdom were yet holding them in its gaze.

Location:Haghia Sophia

Sulyeman the Magnificant

On that first morning in Istanbul, I walked down the twisting streets of Beyoglu to Galata (once called Pera when it was held as a colony by Genoa in the 1400s) and there was the old heart of the old city across estuary known as the Golden Horn.





The dominant building was a tremendous mosque...though there were numerous mosques along with Hagia Sophia across the hills on the other side of the water. What struck me was how the bridge supports for the subway line that crosses the water at this point mirrored the mosque's minarets. I thought they complimented one another.

I wandered up the hill toward the mosque through streets of hundreds of small shops just beginning to open. The mosque was open for prayers but not for tourists until later in the morning...so I walked around the grounds for a while. Then found a tea shop and had breakfast...luckily they print menus with pictures so I could just point out what looked good. It all looks good here...the food is spicy, complex and always good.








The interior of the mosque is filled with light, covered by a huge dome and system of half domes whose complexity I could not understand. What holds it up? The builder, Sinan, is reputed to be the greatest Ottoman architect. the mosque was built in 1557, around the time that Suleyman was laying siege to Vienna (he did not take it...if he had Vienna would be filled with mosques instead of churches). Ahhh, history, architecture, geography...they all come together in monuments like this.


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Location:Kahya Bey Sokağı,Kalyoncu Kulluğu,Turkey

First impressions

I arrived late on a Thursday afternoon...a flight from Denver to Washington to Brussels to Zurich to Istanbul...well it was several flights I guess...and, by the way, Zurich was the most elegant airport, including the men's bathroom urinals, that I have used to date...and, after dinner at a tiny, neighborhood cafe, I crashed and slept. Early next morning, I came to Istiklal, a major street, deserted...I noted the lack of sidewalks and thought that it must be a dangerous place once traffic got moving. I took a picture to remind myself of where my side street was when I returned in the afternoon.




Ahhh...what did I know? Nada. Turns out by the afternoon, Istiklal is the major pedestrian open street mall in Beyogul, my Istanbul neighborhood, and the street had become jammed with people as it is every afternoon.




So not only could I not orient myself but I had no idea where my side street was. People just kept coming and coming. All kinds of people. I had the feeling that everyone in the world who was not in Times Square at that moment must be walking down Istiklal (which means "independence" in Turkish.

I finally found the side street by writing down my address on a pad and showing it to people in the approximate area. A very old city, the side street names change every few blocks and it needed a local's interpretation to get me home.

The sense of being a total novice was reinforced later that evening when I asked Mark, the guy in whose apartment I am staying, where were any liquor stores. I said I hadn't seen any. He said "There are a couple just up the street, one of the left and the other on the right." "Geez," I replied, "I really did not see them." "They are there," he said. He paused. And added, "The word for liquor is 'tekel.'" "Oh," I said, realizing the reason I did not see those two stores was I could not read the signs outside. Duh!


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Location:Istanbul