Istanbul Diary - Indian saffron and the evil eye

Spot the manjal in the front row.  Indian saffron?!  Then there was garam masala and Hindistan nutmeg.  When the shopkeeper tried to sell me some spices, I very gleefully replied that we were from Hindistan and so did not need any of this, since we got more and better there!!

Misir Camii or Egyptian spice bazaarThe Egyptian Spice bazaar is one of those exotic and aromatic places on the waterfront where you go for spices, dried fruits and other local trinkets.  Completely enjoyable, just wandering the alleys, if you dont mind the constant selling.

Of course, the other completely touristy market is the Grand Bazaar, through which we walked,  a couple of evenings.  There are no fixed prices, and you can drive a bargain, if you know how to.  Unfortunately, I do not have these skills and make timid efforts at price reduction which are firmly resisted by the shopkeepers!

As we walked through the alleys, we saw remnants of old decorations on the arches.  The aspect that struck me, going from Indian bazaars and markets, is how clean the alleys were, as also the fact that there was discipline among the shopkeepers not to occupy the common areas, and leave space for visitors.

Nazar boncuk everywhere!

Any visitor to Istanbul will surely carry memories of the "nazar boncuk", those pleasing blue and white "eyes" we saw on key chains, trinkets, tiles, bracelets, buses, buildings and hotels.  The markets and souvenir shops are full of them.

I guess they are to ward off the evil eye.

Istanbul Diary - Day 4: The Great Palace Mosaic

Remember the bird on a mosaic?  Well, we saw that at the innocuously named Tile Museum.  We thought this was a museum of the Iznik tiles of Istanbul, but no, this was a museum of the mosaics that tiled the great byzantine palace floor!

This museum, tucked away next to the Sultanahmet mosque, below the Arasta bazaar, for some reason is not given that much importance in Istanbul, though it has these mosaics which date back to the time of Justinian, when the Byzantine emperor had a huge palace complex, which stretched from the area between the Hippodrome and the Aya Sofia, all the way to the coast.

According the the boards at the museum, only an eighth of the original mosaic has survived, and this is about 250sqm!  The mosaics are not religious, but depict hunting scenes, village life and also have decorative borders.

There was a lot of realism and cheer in most of the scenes, but somehow I did not like the children's eyes in these mosaics.  They for some reason looked kind of evil and misshapen  to me.  What do you think of the mosaic on the right?  Its supposed to be a child.

The wild-life is very diverse.  Tigers, lions, leopards, elephants, bears, boar, gazelle and monkeys.  In the first picture, above the dragon are a pair of leopards eating a stag.  There were also hunters stalking a tiger.  All very realistic.  I wondered where the Romans had seen the big cats, and then remembered the Coliseum and the-thrown-to-the-lions business.

Did lions and tigers roam the plains of Europe?  Or were these from their exploits in Africa?  I must read about this.

Then there were all the mythical creatures, griffins and chimaeras, and the wine god Dionysos, all combining to make a fantastic collection.

The mosaics are faded and there are several parts missing, but its not hard to imagine how the whole floor must have looked, with Toga-clad Romans striding across it!  There were Corinthian columns surrounding the large courtyard in the palace of Justinian.

Historically, the current Sultanahmet disrict was the Byzantine palace district, from the time Constantine set up the empire's eastern capital here.  His Palatium Magnum in Constantinople supposedly rivalled the Palatine hills of Rome.  

These mosaics were lost in the ruins, after the destructions of the Fourth Crusade until excavations in 1935 revealed the floor.  With the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque and other buildings now standing in the district, excavations are difficult.  

However, one more lot of excavations are in progress on a 7,000 sqm plot, approximately north of Aya Sofiya.  Byzantine period bath ruins and other such stuff are being ucovered and restored, and is supposed to be open to the public by end 2008.

Istanbul Diary - Of polite crows and impertinent gulls

Surprise, surprise, the crows in Istanbul, were really polite and well-behaved birds.  They let out a quiet caw here and there, stayed in the trees, and seemed all in all rather unobtrusive, unlike their Indian counterparts who are so in-your-face.

Istanbulli crows are actually the Hooded Crow or Corvus cornix, and the Indian one is Corvus splendens.  They look quite different too, dont they?

So, instead of pesky crows they have belligerent gulls, which I thought were Cape Gulls.  But then I referred them to Charlie from 10000birds.com and he opined that they are Yellow-legged gulls.  His detailed comment are posted in "comments" below.  They were everywhere.  Outside the breakfast room windows, wheeling over the old town, along the waterfront and atop the mosques.  Their cry was loud and raucous, and rather demanding, and I think they had gotten quite used to being fed by fishermen and the small eateries.

I think the one above is an immature - not full grown - and has a different colouration, from the adult, seen below.

The parks were filled with pigeons and common starlings, both of which were fed with stale bread - of which there is a lot I can tell you, the city lives on bread - by the locals and children.

 

I liked these starlings, related to the mynahs, very pretty birds, and they were all rather busy as you can see, hopping around in the parks and picking up their pieces of bread or worms or whatever.  

The pigeons were as daft as our local ones.  We had an amusing time one morning, sitting in the park and looking at a mixed flock of pigeons, starlings and sparrows, as the locals threw bread. The pigeons looked around with this duh look on their faces, and the starlings and sparrows were away with the booty before they even moved!  It was like watching a basketball match (oh sorry, game), between Michael Jordan's Space Jam Team and the alien Monstars!

The Bosphorus had large flocks of these birds skimming over its waters, and I never did figure out what they were.  Charlie identifies them as Yelkouan Shearwaters, a near threatened species now.

..... And then there was this lovely mosaic.  What is it - an egret?

More on these mosaics, in the next instalment!

Istanbul Diary - Day 3: The Aya Sofia - more layers than Shrek!

What else can you say about a building that has been built, re-built, destroyed, re-built again, vandalised, usurped, modified, strengthened and restored?

That's more facelifts than Michael Jackson and more layers than Shrek definitely.  (I still remember with amusement Donkey, mocking Shrek's onion-like layers)

I was not the most keen of history students by any stretch of imagination - I still have not come across a child who likes history - and I have to confess that before our Istanbul trip, I had just a vague and foggy notion about Hagia Sophia.  Isn't it some church built in Constantinople, was the extent of my history and art awareness.  And if I had not visited, that was where it would've probably stayed.  Travel does open my eyes, definitely.

So, here's Aya Sofia for dummies:

• Also known as Hagia Sophia - Sophia meaning Holy Wisdom
• Originally built in the 4th century as a wooden structure by Constantius.  Burnt down in 404 AD
• Rebuilt  in 415.  Burnt again in 532, in the aftermath of the Nika Revolt.
• Justinian puts down the revolt and immediately orders rebuilding of this church.  Hires Messrs Anthemius & Isidorus.  The former an architect and the latter a mathematician.
• Five years, and it is ready.  The Roman/Byzantine empire has seen nothing like it.
• A huge dome on a square base was being tried for the first time.  Dome on cylinder had been done, but not dome on square.  Thus, is the pendentive system born, with a series of arches to support the dome.
• But the dome was too heavy, and the outward thrust on the supporting walls too much, so it had to be buttressed and supported.  I think maintaining it proved quite the white elephant for the Romans/Byzantines.
• More restorations in the 10th century
• Vandalisation by the iconoclasts (7th/8th century) and the Fourth Crusaders, 1204 (imagine that!). 
• 1453 - Ottomans conquer Constantinople.  Hagia Sophia becomes a mosque.  Islamic elements added, Christain mosaics whitewashed.  But Sinan, the architect was instrumental in restoring the crumbling building.
• 1935 - Ataturk converts it into a museum.  Restoration started by the Fosetti brothers, continues on.

And here I was in 2008, rather sceptical of what all the hoo-ha about the building was.  Well look at it.  Doesn't it look like some overgrown, rustic village barn from outside?  
Stones from the original 4th century church

But when I entered, I involuntarily gasped. The space and the light and the sophistication of the finish has to be experienced.

Even my hard-to-surprise twelve-year old son was a bit awestruck (albeit temporarily) by it all.

The aisle around the central nave with mosaiced ceilings, from the time of JustinianThe central nave was filled with tourists all looking around in wonderment and there was a buzz in the air, but it still had this feeling of space and immensity to it.  These lovely marbled pillars (look at the intricate carvings of the capital) surrounded the hall, in the lower storey, and lined the upper gallery as well.

And then you craned your neck upwards to the central dome, which is now painted over with Islamic designs.  There are a row of windows all around the base of the dome, and it filters the light in, removing the heaviness of the dome.

My mind boggled at the level of sophistication in the architectural design of this ancient building.  




Doors of history


The middle door, with an emperor prostrating in front of Jesus, while the Virgin mary and gabriel are enclosed in bubbles. You see, its not our video cameramen who thought of this effect, its been there from antiquity, well almost!



The door on the far right looks like it was taken off some pagan temple and dumped here.

This bronze door dates back to the second century BC

Christian Mosaics

To get a larger view, click on the pictures

All of these seem to have been added in the 9th-10th centuries.  When you look at them with the naked eye, they just look like paintings, but when you see them with a binoculars, since they are up and away on the ceilings, you realise they are mosaics, small 1cm bits of marble arranged to form these giant portraits.

The original 5th and 6th century mosaics were more decorative than figurative it appears.  there were also a pantheon of saints and angels lining the upper walls of the nave, but these were destroyed by the iconoclasts, in the 7th-8th century, and these Jesus ones were added with each emperor.

Jesus, Mary and John the Baptist - wonder why poor Joseph hasn't got a look-see anywhere.  Must read up on this.  John is pleading with Jesus, something to do with Judgement Day, and the bottom half is all damaged

So, here's Jesus with Constantine and wife Zoe. The interesting thing is that the heads have been scratched out and redone. Empress Zoe seems to have had an interesting life. I read somewhere about a previous husband Romanos III

This Mary and Jesus is 9th century and was done after the iconoclasts had come and gone.  (I also learned about the iconoclasts - who decided that the commoners were getting too fond of their miracle-makers and saints, and decided to get rid of all the icons.  Obviously the IPL bosses dont figure in this bunch, since they went about creating icons, all of whom failed miserably.)

My son pointed out the gold dots on the shoulders and forehead, which along with Jesus in the lap makes a cross.  Any significance?

Mary and Jesus are flanked by Constantine offering the city of Constantinople, and Justinian offering Hagia Sophia

The Ottomans make their mark

Buttresses were added to keep the walls from falling out As also these large dramatic leather pendants - 7.5m in dia
The Mihrab replaced the altar
 A mimbar was erected



Calligraphy on the dome, and the Sultan's special seat
 And the minarets, at different points in time.  Supposedly the minarets are of different dimensions because the architect Sinan used them as counterweights, to keep the Aya Sofia from crumbling, and different weights were needed at the different points.

Ingenious, to say the least.

Istanbul Diary - Day 2: SULTANAHMET CAMİ ::

:: SULTANAHMET CAMİ ::

Continued from here

The six minarets of the Sultanahmet mosque are a trademark - I believe it was the only one with so many. And after this was built, the priest were annoyed that it had the same number as the Mecca one, so the Sultan went and put an extra minaret at Mecca, which now has seven minarets.

So, the fourteenth Sultan Ahmet I built this mosque, and relatively speaking for Istanbul, its very new - opened in 1617 - almost modern one would think!

The whole area around the mosque now is Sultanahmet, as is the tram stop. Walk in a little closer, and the view below is in front of you - and we are able to only capture the 4 minarets, with the 3 balconies. The outer 2 have only 2 balconies.

There is a lovely garden all around, and you will find children playing there at all times of the day.
Looks lovely in the evening light as well, which was when we visited it.
And we gasped, because the inside is rather different from the plain and simple outside! I loved the domes and the windows which let in so much light. If you read the expert writing about this mosque, they say that the paint is of poor quality, and the tiles are second-grade, etc etc, (and after seeing the Rustem Pasha mosque, I did see their point), but for a first time visitor, its all quite grand.
And the stained glass windows came from Venice. Actually, the Sultan seems to have rubbed several people the wrong way while building this mosque. The clergy were miffed about the six minarets. The ulema were also annoyed that he used treasury funds for its building (rather than war booty, which seems to have been the general practice at that time.) But what was he to do, he hadn't won any wars, and he was looking for a way to appease the Gods. He had lost Georgia and Azerbaijan to Persia, and Austria had stopped paying their annual tribute, so a sultan has to do something grand isnt it to get his PR ratings up.
More red mosque according to me, than blue mosque, which is what its called.
I quite liked these grand pillars. But the critics refer to them as elephant columns and they are criticised for being too "fat" and taking away from the beauty of the dome. Maybe architect Mehmet Pasha was scared the roof would fall down, otherwise.!

And the carpets, in this and the other mosques we saw, amazing! Plush, thick and soft. Not ragged, worn-out, smelly affairs that one would expect in a well-used public place.

The Aya Sofia seen from the entrance of the mosque, and from which it borrowed and tried to outdo. The mosque is built on the site of the Great Palace of the Byzantines.



If you walk past this side of the mosque and come to the Arasta Bazaar, there is a bit of the Great Palace floor that has been restored, and it is quite something else.
I always wonder why kings, sultans or other people in power have to destroy what a rival does, in order to establish themselves? Wouldn't it have been good if Sultan Ahmet I had built his mosque somewhere else and we also had the Great Palace for posterity?
Anyway, this is the last of the old-style classical mosques to be built in the region.