Day 12: Art, Architecture and Artisanal Traditions Across Time

We started the day with a walk to a local carpet (rug) seller off the bazaar who is very good and successful.  He gave us a special lesson on how to purchase carpets.  He said the most important things are material and color.  In Turkey the tradition is wool.  The best is probably 100%, but there are some that are good that are blends.  He made a comment about knots that was too inappropriate to quote here, but basically knots don't matter that much.  It is about the pile of the wool and the closeness of the weave.  When you rub your hand hard, it should not burn but still feel soft.  A good rug should also not burn.  Some sellers will put a lighter up to them and prove it to you.  The dyes are also important and should look natural.  He showed us some gorgeous rugs with amazing, natural colors.  He had two rugs from the 18th century, as he also collects antiques.

This man is also the owner of the Kybele Hotel in Sultanhamet, the neighborhood we are in in Istanbul.

His shop upstairs

The carpets here are "bad" examples of carpets, because they are poorer quality. We all got to try to pick out the good ones by feeling and checking them out.

Next, we finally went inside the Hagia Sophia.  This building was constructed in the 6th Century!  It is so phenomenal.

There is a small inscription of the Quran on this somewhere that is hard to notice, but it takes a Biblical verse about Jesus Christ being the light of the world and replaces it with a Quranic verse that basically says something very similar in meaning.  See my comments below about the slow Islamization of this church.

I cannot say enough about the magnitude of this building.  It is truly breathtaking and seems to defy what was possible at the time.  One of the most interesting things that we learned today was so important.  The Islamization of the Hagia Sophia was actually very slow.  The perception is that Muslims came in and turned it over to a Mosque, but it was very gradual and was always seen as a spiritual place.  This is very simplified, but it would be worth checking out further if you are interested.  One of our professors is actually spending a great deal of her research on this now, and it is fascinating.  

Looking out of the window of Hagia Sophia to the Blue Mosque

This is said to be the signature of Justinian (Byzantine emperor during time of the building of the Hagia Sophia).

It is said that this is where the emperor would sit and that the stones have significance as coming from different places where Jesus or the disciples were, but I need to verify this.  It was so much to take in today.

Next we went to an old madrasa (school attached to a mosque) which Sinan designed.  Now it is a craftsman school in the old arts.  They are on summer holiday, but there was one man who showed us marbling.  It was really incredible.  You can see the process below.

Hard to believe that was all done in about 5 minutes with some paints and water.

The mosque by the Grand Bazaar was so full on Friday (an especially holy day of the week), so people were praying outside.

Outside the Grand Bazaar

At the bookseller's market.  Most of these are collegiate books, as Istanbul University is around the corner, but there are many others as well, thousands.  If they weren't mostly in Turkish, I would have been stuck there for hours possibly.

Tonight was optional movie night.  We watched some clips with some horrible stereotyping from such films as Star Wars and then the 1453 Turkish film about the conquering of Constantinople.  I was too weary to finish.