Blue Mosque in Istanbul

Blue Mosque in Istanbul (Sultanahmet Mosque)

The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, or Sultan Ahmet Mosque, is the city’s most significant religious structure. The massive temple with 5 main and 8 auxiliary round domes and 6 sharp needles of minarets got its name because of the inner lining of ceramic tiles with deep blue patterns. The Blue Mosque, built in the early XVII century, is still in operation. Silver-gray complex on the shore of the Bosphorus, surrounded by gardens, can accommodate up to 10,000 worshippers at a time. Tourists, subject to certain rules, are also allowed there at strictly designated times.

Video: Blue Mosque in Istanbul

• History of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul
• Features of the architecture
• Structure of the Blue Mosque
• Minarets of the Blue Mosque
• Interior of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul
• Facing Ceramics
• Tourist Information
• Opening hours
• Rules of behavior in the mosque
• How to get there

History of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul

In the early 17th century, the Turks engaged in a fifteen-year war with Persia, in which the Ottoman Empire suffered a crushing defeat, losing the newly captured Transcaucasian lands by 1618. Things were no better in the western territories: in 1606, the authorities concluded the Peace of Zitvatorok with the Austrians, a sign of the sultan’s apparent decline in authority.

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To distract the people from gossiping about foreign policy failures and restore the monarch’s greatness, in 1609 it was decided to build a giant mosque that would put to shame the creations of Sultan Ahmet’s predecessors. The effect was just the opposite: the Muslim clergy was outraged because all the construction costs were paid for by the budget, while all previous mosques had been built with spoils of war. The Sultan was not deterred by the murmurings of his subjects, and the Blue Mosque was completed by 1616, laid opposite the Basilica of St. Sophia, the main mosque of the city at the time. A year after the completion of the main work of his life, Ahmet died, almost simultaneously with the architect. The hapless sultan was buried right in the temple.

In the future, the Blue Mosque not only served as the main Muslim temple of Istanbul, but also became an arena for internal and external political events. For example, in 1826, the Grand Vizier commanded the suppression of the Janissary uprising from the building’s southeastern chambers, which were reserved for royalty. In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI came here. For the second time in the history of Catholicism, the pontiff visited the mosque to pray. As is customary, he took off his shoes and meditated for two minutes next to the mufti of Istanbul and the imam of the Blue Mosque.

Features of the architecture

The Blue Mosque is considered the last masterpiece of classical Ottoman architecture. The author of the project was Sedefkar Mehmed Agha, an Albanian by birth, a student of Mimar Sinan, the greatest Turkish architect, creator of Roksolana’s baths, her mausoleum and Suleymaniye Mosque. The Blue Mosque in Istanbul was a worthy conclusion to the career of the not-young architect. The main task set before him by the Sultan, required to create a harmonious religious building, surpassing the existing ones in size and wealth.

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The architect achieved his goal: the massiveness of the squat domes stepping on each other is softened by the tips of minarets pointing upwards. Blue Mosque reaches 73 meters in length and 65 meters in height, the height of the dome outside – 43 meters, from the inside – 23.5 meters. The project was clearly influenced by Aya Sofia and Islamic architecture, in particular the Suleymaniye Mosque, built half a century earlier during the time of Suleiman the Magnificent. The stone for the construction of the temple: marble, porphyry and granite were brought from all over Turkey.

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Structure of the Blue Mosque

The southern part of the building rests on the foundations of the Great, or Holy Palace, which was the residence of Byzantine emperors for 8 centuries. The ensemble was destroyed after the capture of Constantinople, but the significance of the site remains. The Muslim complex includes a large prayer hall in the form of a simple rectangle under a dome and a courtyard open to the northwest. A stone wall with windows surrounds the courtyard and the building on all sides except the qibla, which points in the direction of Mecca. There are 3 exits leading to Sultanahmet Square, the former Byzantine hippodrome. Another 3 exits are located at the northeast wall. The northernmost one leads to the madrasa and mausoleum, the others to the public park on the site of the burned down Ottoman university. From the terrace of the qibla there is a passage to the market square; its outer part is used for parking. Two rows of windows, rectangular at the bottom and curved at the top, face the courtyard. The main entrance is illuminated by a portico dome.

Minarets of the Blue Mosque

The architect boldly replicated the number of minarets in Mecca, the main sanctuary of the Muslim world. This caused quite a scandal, and to resolve the conflict in Mecca quickly built a seventh minaret, and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul remained with six. Four of them stand at the corners of the main building, with two more at the beginning of the courtyard. Five times a day the muezzin ascends to the minaret balcony to announce the starting time of prayer. In addition to the mosque, worshippers camp out in the evening in the nearby park, from where the floodlit mosque is clearly visible.

The interior of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul

The prayer hall is lit through the upper windows, and there are 28 of them in the dome and 14 each in the half-domes, and by powerful chandeliers. The lamps bore unusual evidence of the fight against cobwebs – ostrich eggs. The fact is that, according to legend, the spider saved Muhammad by closing the entrance to the cave with a spider’s web when the prophet at the beginning of his career had to flee Mecca and hide from his pursuers. Consequently, killing spiders is a sin, while at the same time spider webs do not decorate the mosque either. This contradiction was solved by ostrich eggs, which smell unpleasant for spiders, but humans do not smell it. The stock of “aroma” from one egg is enough for a hundred years.

The walls and dome of the Blue Mosque are painted with inscriptions from the Koran, originally made by calligrapher Seyyed Qasim Ghubari and his students. Subsequently, the letters have faded and have been restored several times. The carpets on the floors are modern, while the ancient ones have long been trampled by thousands of believers. The marble mihrab, a niche in the wall oriented towards Mecca, is surrounded by many windows, the walls adjacent to it are lined with tiles. To the right of the mihrab during Friday or holiday sermons, an imam stands behind the pulpit. The acoustics in the hall is such that even if the planned 10,000 people come to the prayer, they will easily hear every word.

Facing ceramics

Tile from Turkish Iznik was used for wall cladding. It was produced from the late 15th to the early 17th century. The initial samples were created under Chinese influence with a predominance of cobalt blue color, later it was diluted with emerald green and red. In total, there are about 40 mosques in Istanbul with such cladding, but the Blue Mosque project is the most ambitious. The builders needed more than 20000 light blue tiles only for the lower tier. At the gallery level the main motif of hand-painted flowers, fruits and cypresses became the main motif, below more traditional plant ornaments were used. The royal lodge had expensive jade and gilded tiles.

Sultan Ahmet’s parsimony was an indirect cause of the decline of Iznik pottery production. At the beginning of construction, he announced a fixed price for tiles, but over a decade the cost of production rose, so craftsmen were forced to economize on quality to avoid working at a loss to themselves.

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Tourist information

On the side of the former Basilica of Hagia Sophia, an information point has been opened on the grounds of the Muslim school, which tells about the history of Islam and the Blue Mosque.