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Can a mosque be sexy? Yes.
The Sultanahmet Camii or "Blue Mosque" in Istanbul.
Posted by Alex Tabarrok on August 1, 2007 at 07:07 AM in Travels | Permalink
Comments
Dude, that started out as a church, aka The Hagia Sophia.
Posted by: Chris Smith at Aug 1, 2007 7:30:05 AM
The Hagia Sophia is a separate building. They are on the same avenue, Sultanahmet. Hagia Sophia still stands with the same name. It was built in 537 by a Byzantine Emperor. The Blue Mosque was built in 1616 by the Ottomans.
Posted by: Kerim Can at Aug 1, 2007 7:40:53 AM
I keep saying it... Alex's posts are more and more Tyler'esque!
Posted by: at Aug 1, 2007 8:50:16 AM
And it really is a rare sight. I am only sorry that I couldn't take a better look at it, while I was in Istanbul, but that's the problem when you only pass through a city and suddenly realize it is more interesting and fascinating than you first thought.
I wonder if one should change one's schedule to accommodate for such spontaneous emotional twitches?
Posted by: Max at Aug 1, 2007 8:52:47 AM
I prefer the Yeni Cami myself.
Posted by: jb at Aug 1, 2007 9:07:12 AM
Kerim is right Hagia Sophia is s different building; BTW Hagia Sophia is
also truly magnificent, but not from the outside, despite the fact that
it is poorly maintained (at least it was when I was there).
The dome in Hagia Sophia is remarkable in that
it is high and large, and what makes it most remarkable is that it is
unsupported by interior columns.
Posted by: indiana jim at Aug 1, 2007 9:17:15 AM
Unfortunately Hagia Sofia that was build as an Christian Temple has been left to disintegrate and is not allowed to be restored by Turkish Authorities...
Posted by: at Aug 1, 2007 9:34:47 AM
I know the story is about the Hagia Sofia - but I can picture Alex, after posting the above picture:
"Tyler, I have surpassed thee !"
Posted by: Affe at Aug 1, 2007 9:40:25 AM
The most unique feature of the blue mosque, unviewable in that photo, is its 6 minarets. Most have 2, though 4 isn't uncommon.
When in Istanbul, I was told that the number of minarets signals the importance of the mosque in the Islamic world community. I'm not entirely convinced that's true though...any Islamic scholars?
Posted by: fustercluck at Aug 1, 2007 10:03:05 AM
That's wild!
Posted by: fustercluck at Aug 1, 2007 10:33:52 AM
Am I the only one appalled by the disrespectful title of this post?
The photograph is indeed beautiful, but surely there is a less offensive way to describe it.
Posted by: Mary at Aug 1, 2007 10:52:19 AM
The anonymous poster at 9:34 is clearly trying to hide his slanderous identity.
The Hagia Sophia is regarded by Turks as a national treasure. It has been preserved, repaired, and restored many times--by Sultan Abdulmecid in the 19th Century; via Ataturk's policy to create a museum out of a mosque and hire an American firm to restore it; and as recently as 2004 when a 12 year restoration program was completed. I visited the museum when the scaffolding was still up pre-2004, and again last year when it had been removed and the Christian mosaics shined alongside the Muslim inscriptions.
As for Indiana Jim's remarks, I think his statement regarding interior columns is misleading, at best. The Hagia Sophia's dome is supported by pendentives flowing down to interior walls that have the effect of making the Byzantine structure feel heavy and bulky inside. By the standards of Roman architecture of the day, it was a spectacular result, but the Blue Mosque, built over 1000 years later, provides a wide, sweeping, unobstructed view from one end of the structure to the other.
Posted by: M. Hodak at Aug 1, 2007 11:37:12 AM
Wow. You have guts. "Mosque" and "sexy" in the same sentence could be grounds for muslims blowing themselves up.
Posted by: rick at Aug 1, 2007 11:49:41 AM
Hodak is on the money: the Hagia Sophia has been restored numerous times under both Ottoman and Turkish governments. Without the 19th century strengthening of the dome, the building wouldn't even be standing.
fustercluck: I was told (and have read, in Kinross's Ottoman history IIRC) that Sultan Ahmet was criticized for building six minarets, which had previously only been done in Mecca. It was viewed as both excessively opulent and an affront by some religious authorities.
Posted by: Petrarca at Aug 1, 2007 12:15:24 PM
I'd like to clarify that The Blue Mosque is seperate completely than Aya
Sophia. They are two seperate buildings. Moreover, I don't think sexy is
a proper description for a mosque or for any religious building.
Posted by: Bahira Elkilany at Aug 1, 2007 12:30:48 PM
Mary and Rick mostly beat me to it -- a fatwa should issue shortly.
Posted by: Anderson at Aug 1, 2007 12:31:06 PM
I'd like to clarify that The Blue Mosque is seperate completely than Aya
Sophia. They are two seperate buildings. Moreover, I don't think sexy is
a proper description for a mosque or for any religious building.
Posted by: Bahira Elkilany at Aug 1, 2007 12:32:27 PM
Nice photography Alex (assuming you took the picture)!
Posted by: Matthew C. at Aug 1, 2007 12:33:21 PM
Moreover, I don't think sexy is a proper description for a mosque or for any religious building.
We cross-commented, Bahira; but *any* religious building? There are surely a few temples in India that would challenge your generalization.
Posted by: Anderson at Aug 1, 2007 12:39:00 PM
Anderson, I take it you are referring to these, which I had the great pleasure of seeing in person in Khajuraho.
Posted by: fustercluck at Aug 1, 2007 12:58:34 PM
There must be something that Alex is doing and Tyler is not that allows Tyler to post exponentially more than Alex - what is it?
Posted by: Melvin at Aug 1, 2007 1:06:40 PM
I'm glad to hear that something has been done to restore Aya Sophia; it has been over 15 years since I saw it. Even when I saw it (unrestored) it was magnificent; to my eye there was nothing "bulky" or "heavy" about it whatsoever, and the presence of God seemed palpable.
I believe Aya Sophia was converted into a Mosque at one point, so the "restorations" that did this were, by definition, for that purpose.
Without a doubt it is one of Turkey's treasures.
Posted by: indiana jim at Aug 1, 2007 1:55:28 PM
Although I am unsure of Alex's intentions, I do not see that "sexy" is necessarily inappropriate. An alternate meaning is "glamorous". With this meaning, the title of the post has a certain amount of irony; consider the juxtaposition of a glamorous place of worship with a religion that, for instance, covers its women in burkas.
The use of "sexy" in non-sexual statements is, in my expereience, much more common in the UK than it is here.
Posted by: Save the English Language at Aug 1, 2007 3:44:42 PM
Indeed, Hagia Sophia was restored after it was violently converted to a mosque – following the Armenian and Greek genocides in the areas. By that time it was used as a stable for the horses, as a public urination place and for decades it was left to rot. Recently, it became a mosque again.
Posted by: Niko at Aug 1, 2007 3:44:53 PM
More recently, it became a museum.
Posted by: fustercluck at Aug 1, 2007 3:59:01 PM
