Istanbul through my eyes

tulips

2008-05-22T15:19:00.001-07:00

Fatih Mosque

2007-12-27T15:54:00.000-08:00

A story is like a water
that you heat for your bath.

It takes messages between the fire
and your skin. It lets them meet,
and it cleans you!

Hz. Mevlana

with peace

2007-12-24T15:54:00.000-08:00

Red School and Mevlevi Mosque (Mesnevihane)

Come, come whatever you are,
it doesn't matter Whether you are an
infidel, an idolater or a fire-worshiper,
Come, our convent is not a place of despair. Come, even if you violated your swear A hundred times,
come again.

Hz. Mevlana (Mevlana Jalauddin Rumi)

lights from Fatih Mosque

2007-12-23T15:53:00.000-08:00

Look! This Is Love

Oh, if a tree could wander and move with foot and wings!
It would not suffer the axe blows and not the pain of saws!
For would the sun not wander away in every night ?
How could at ev?ry morning the world be lighted up?
And if the ocean?s water would not rise to the sky,
How would the plants be quickened by streams and gentle rain?
The drop that left its homeland, the sea, and then returned ?
It found an oyster waiting and grew into a pearl.
Did Yusaf not leave his father, in grief and tears and despair?
Did he not, by such a journey, gain kingdom and fortune wide?
Did not the Prophet travel to far Medina, friend?
And there he found a new kingdom and ruled a hundred lands.
You lack a foot to travel?
Then journey into yourself!
And like a mine of rubies
receive the sunbeams? print!
Out of yourself ? such a journey
will lead you to your self,

It leads to transformation of dust into pure gold!

Hz. Mevlana
Mevlana Jalauddin Rumi

Sultanahmet Mosque

2007-12-20T15:52:00.000-08:00

Valide Sultan Mosque

2007-12-15T15:50:00.000-08:00

Haydarpasa in purple

2007-12-13T15:50:00.000-08:00

Haydarpasa railway station and small fisher boats in Kadikoy side

Lovers
O lovers, lovers it is time
to set out from the world.
I hear a drum in my soul's ear
coming from the depths of the stars.

Our camel driver is at work;
the caravan is being readied.
He asks that we forgive him
for the disturbance he has caused us,
He asks why we travellers are asleep.

Everywhere the murmur of departure;
the stars, like candles
thrust at us from behind blue veils,
and as if to make the invisible plain,
a wondrous people have come forth.

Hz. Mevlana
Mevlana Jalauddin Rumi

Karakoy port

2007-12-12T15:47:00.000-08:00

Old stype patisserie

2007-12-10T15:46:00.000-08:00

Old fabric patisserie from Balat market. You can find traditional candies, pancakes and bus tickets :)

The Doors

I want peace of mind
I want peace
I want tranquility
May the doors open

Togetherness
Happiness
Fraternity
I want to be whole
May the doors open

I want peace of mind
I want peace
I want tranquility
May the doors open

Wholeness
Togetherness
Happiness
May the doors open

The doors
The doors
The doors
May the doors open

from the album "Variations" by Ayşe Tütüncü

Karakoy sea side and boats

2007-12-08T15:45:00.000-08:00

Eminonu, Galata Bridge and colorful boats ... taken from Karakoy with Pentax K10D

Like This

If anyone asks you
how the perfect satisfaction
of all our sexual wanting
will look, lift your face
and say,
Like this.

When someone mentions the gracefulness
of the nightsky, climb up on the roof
and dance and say,
Like this.

If anyone wants to know what "spirit" is,
or what "God’s fragrance" means,
lean your head toward him or her.
Keep your face there close.
Like this.

When someone quotes the old poetic image
about clouds gradually uncovering the moon,
slowly loosen knot by knot the strings
of your robe.
Like this.

If anyone wonders how Jesus raised the dead,
don’t try to explain the miracle.
Kiss me on the lips.
Like this. Like this.

When someone asks what it means
to "die for love," point
here.
If someone asks how tall I am, frown
and measure with your fingers the space
between the creases on your forehead.
This tall.
The soul sometimes leaves the body, the returns.
When someone doesn’t believe that,
walk back into my house.
Like this.

When lovers moan,
they’re telling our story.
Like this.

I am a sky where spirits live.
Stare into this deepening blue,
while the breeze says a secret.
Like this.

When someone asks what there is to do,
light the candle in his hand.
Like this.

How did Joseph’s scent come to Jacob?
Huuuuu.
How did Jacob’s sight return?
Huuuu.
A little wind cleans the eyes.
Like this.

When Shams comes back from Tabriz,
he’ll put just his head around the edge
of the door to surprise us
Like this.

From ‘The Essential Rumi’, Translations
by Coleman Barks with John Moyne

Karakoy streets

2007-12-06T15:44:00.000-08:00

Let go of your worries
and be completely clear-hearted,
like the face of a mirror
that contains no images.
If you want a clear mirror,
behold yourself
and see the shameless truth,
which the mirror reflects.
If metal can be polished
to a mirror-like finish,
what polishing might the mirror
of the heart require?
Between the mirror and the heart
is this single difference:
the heart conceals secrets,
while the mirror does not.

Hz. Mevlana

The Divani Shamsi Tabriz, XIII

Fatih houses

2007-12-03T15:39:00.000-08:00

Cukurbostan mosque and school

2007-12-02T15:41:00.000-08:00

A moment of happiness

A moment of happiness
you and I sitting on the verandah,
apparently two, but one in soul, you and I.

We feel the flowing water of life here,
you and I, with the garden's beauty
and the birds singing.

The stars will be watching us,
and we will show them
what it is to be a thin crescent moon.

You and I unselfed, will be together,
indifferent to idle speculation, you and I.

The parrots of heaven will be cracking sugar as we laugh together, you and I.

In one form upon this earth,
and in another form in a timeless sweet land.

Hz. Mevlana

Kulliyat-e Shams, 2114

Fatih streets

2007-12-02T15:38:00.000-08:00

fethiye museum

2007-12-01T16:21:00.000-08:00

taken by Pentax K10D, at Istanbul

with love and light

2007-12-01T16:18:00.001-08:00

It's not time to make a change,
Just relax, take it easy.
You're still young, that's your fault,
There's so much you have to know.
Find a girl, settle down,
If you want you can marry.
Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy.

I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy,
To be calm when you've found something going on.
But take your time, think a lot,
Why, think of everything you've got.
For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.

Cat Stevens , Father and Son

An ordinary Nevizade night

2007-12-01T16:17:00.001-08:00

raki, talk and Beyoglu. It was an ordinary Nevizade night.

Nevizade street is in the Beyoglu. There are several restaurants. Long years only raki drinking is enable in this street. Now, you can find beer and wine .

I like raki.

it was the hot night. Like an Ceza (the most famous rap star of Turkey) ’s song

“
this night is very hot
I ‘ll be fire
the end of night will be boom
“

Nevizade restaurants

2007-12-01T16:16:00.001-08:00

we're drinking raki, away from home :)

dancer is on the table, musicians play songs.

Historical Eminonu fisher

2007-12-01T16:15:00.001-08:00

When you come to Istanbul, you have to eat fish on Historical Eminonu Fisher "Meşhur Tarihi Eminönü Balıkçısı"
There are only fish, bread, onion and some greens
No seat
No serviceman

zeyrek mosque

2007-12-01T16:13:00.000-08:00

taken by Pentax K10D, at Istanbul

Notes from Archnet

ArchNet is an exciting project being developed at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning in close cooperation with, and with the full support of The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture is a private, non-denominational, international development agency with programmes dedicated to the improvement of built environments in societies where Muslims have a significant presence.

http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=7175

The Zeyrek Church Mosque, formerly the Church of the Monastery of Pantocractor, was built by Byzantine Emperor John II Comnenus (1118-1143) and his wife, Empress Irene. Built on the forth hill of the city overlooking the Golden Horn, the famous Middle Byzantine foundation had a triple-church, a hostel, a hospital, a hospice for the elderly, a medical school and a library. Copies of the Typikon, or the monastery calendar describing services and ceremonies, provide details of the monastery's social and religious functions. The imperial founders endowed the monastery with numerous properties, including other monasteries in the Marmara region, Thrace, Macedonia, Western Anatolia and the Aegean Islands. Only the church, used as a mosque since the Ottoman conquest, and the cisterns of the monastery have remained.

The church consists of three joint churches built successively in the 12th century. The church to the south was built first and dedicated to Christ the Pantocrator, or "He who reigns over all, the Almighty"; hence the name of the monastery. A smaller church, built ten meters north of the earlier structure was consecrated to Panagia Eleousa or Merciful Mary. The two churches were subsequently united with a funerary chapel fitted in between, honoring St. Michael the Archangel. Converted to a mosque after temporary use as a madrasa after the Ottoman takeover, the church was named "Zeyrek" after Molla Zeyrek Mehmed Efendi, a resident of the neighborhood who taught at the madrasa. The mosque, repaired after a fire in mid 18th century, fell into disrepair by the 1950s. The library of the monastery burnt in 1934.

Archaeological studies by the Byzantine Institute of America in the mid 1950s have revealed floor mosaics of the period. The central church was re-opened for Islamic prayer during this time and the Directorate of Religious Endowments restored the northern church in 1966. The current restoration work, begun in 1997 by Professors Robert Ousterhout, Zeynep Ahunbay and Metin Ahunbay, is funded by the Kress Foundation/World Monuments Fund, University of Illinois Research Fund, Istanbul Technical University and Dumbarton Oaks Project Grants. The Zeyrek Church Mosque was included in the annual list of the World Monuments Watch "100 Most Endangered Sites" in 2002.

The triple-church is entered from the west, through the outer narthex of the southern church, which opens into an inner narthex that spans the entire length of the church and gives access into the three naves. The outer narthex, composed of five cross-vaulted bays, has ablution spigots at its north end. Five brick archways, with a rose marble frame set inside each arch, lead into the inner narthex. The central archway between the narthexes is distinguished with its taller frame crowned by a triple arch, across from the entry into the southern church, embellished similarly with marble frames. The inner narthex also has an upper level. Unlike the dim atmosphere of the lower level, the upper level is brightly lit with clerestory windows and windows pierced into the central bay's dome.

The southern church, oldest among the three, has a cross-dome plan. It consists of a domed nave at the center, flanked by vaulted aisles on three sides, and a deep apsidal sanctuary to the east. The aisles and sanctuary, in other words, form the four arms of the Greek cross in plan. The aisles here are separated from the nave with four columns symmetrically placed around the nave, which support the weight of the roof along with piers embedded in side walls. The side aisles terminate in narrow miniature chapels with apses, linked with the central sanctuary. The space is lit with sixteen windows on the dome, windows inside the four barrel-vaults, and sanctuary windows placed at two levels. The southern church also has windows to the upper level of the inner narthex, which projects into the space with an ornate bay window. The capitals of the four central columns, the bay window, the mihrab and painted decoration of the interior date from renovations performed at the height of Ottoman baroque. The fine mosaic floor of the southern church, discovered underneath its wooden floor by the Byzantine Institute, provides clues to the original decoration of the interior. Archaeological studies by the Institute have recovered fragments of colored glass, believed to belong to original windows. The marble revetments of the sanctuary have remained intact, while marble parts of the iconostas were used in the minbar.
A wall, placed midway between the southern and northern churches, partitions the inner narthex into two sections. The funerary chapel joining the two churches is entered from either section, as well as from the individual churches, although the connecting archways are boarded up. Narrow and deep, the funeral chapel consists of a nave, covered by two oval domes, and a semi-domed apsidal sanctuary. It is dimly lit with windows on its two domes. The crypt underneath the chapel was used for years as the burial ground of the Palaeologan family, including the imperial founders Comnenus I and Irene. Also used as a mosque, the chapel has a mihrab, a minbar and a preacher's lodge today. The church to the north, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is smaller than but identical to the southern church. It also lacks an exterior narthex, but has a separate side entrance in addition to two doors on the inner narthex and archways that link it to the funerary chapel to its south. The northern church and its narthex were restored by the Ministry of Religious Endowments in 1966-67.
On the exterior, the ensemble is animated by the undulating cornice line, which follows the profile of the barrel vaults. Beside the outer narthex, capped at a lower level with a sloping roof, the three churches have a continuous roof cover from which the five domes rise to varying heights reflective of their size and importance. A minaret, added during the conversion, is located at the northwest corner of the exterior narthex, to the right of the main entrance. The stone foundations remain to the south, where a building as large as the northern church was attached to the narthexes. A wooden takiyya (tekke), built on these foundations during Ottoman times, is seen in older photographs along with housing that was built along the southern wall of the churches.

Dünden Bugüne Istanbul Ansiklopedisi. 1993. Istanbul: Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfi, vol. 7, 555-557 and vol.6, 218.

Ahunbay, Metin and Zeynep Ahunbay. 2001. "Restoration Work at the Zeyrek Camii, 1997-1998." Byzantine Constantinople: Monuments, Topography, and Everyday Life (ed. N. Necipoglu). Brill: Leiden, Boston, 117-32.

Mathews, Thomas. 1976. The Byzantine Churches of Istanbul: A Photographic Survey. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 71-102.

Müller-Wiener, Wolfgang. 2001. [Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls.Turkish]. Istanbul'un Tarihsel Topografyasi: 17. yüzyil baslarina kadar Byzantion-Konstantinopolis-Istanbul. (translated by Ülker Sayin). Istanbul: Yapi Kredi Yayinlari.

Ousterhout, Robert, Zeynep Ahunbay and Metin Ahunbay. 2000. Study and restoration of the Zeyrek Camii in Istanbul: First report 1997-1998. Dumberton Oaks Papers 54, 265-270. http://www.doaks.org/DOP54/DP54ch15.pdf>. [Accessed May 31, 2006]

a street from Suleymaniye

2007-12-01T16:10:00.001-08:00

Suleymaniye Mosque and Suleymaniye district are the important areas.

This is the Kirazli Mescid Street.

Yellow tracks in Eminonu square

2007-12-01T16:08:00.000-08:00

a mosque from Golden Horn

2007-12-01T16:07:00.000-08:00

Mevlevi Dervish Mosque (in turkish : Mevlevi Tekkesi Camii ) is in Golden Horn Sea Side. It's in the restoration project now.

taken with pentax K10D

Looking For Your Face

From the beginning of my life
I have been looking for your face
but today I have seen it.

Today I have seen
the charm, the beauty,
the unfathomable grace
of the face
that I was looking for.

Today I have found you
and those that laughed
and scorned me yesterday
are sorry that they were not looking
as I did.

I am bewildered by the magnificence
of your beauty
and wish to see you with a hundred eyes.

My heart has burned with passion
and has searched forever
for this wondrous beauty
that I now behold.

I am ashamed
to call this love human
and afraid of God
to call it divine.

Your fragrant breath
like the morning breeze
has come to the stillness of the garden
You have breathed new life into me
I have become your sunshine
and also your shadow.

My soul is screaming in ecstasy
Every fiber of my being
is in love with you

Your effulgence
has lit a fire in my heart
and you have made radiant
for me
the earth and sky.

My arrow of love
has arrived at the target
I am in the house of mercy
and my heart
is a place of prayer.

Hz. Mevlana
(Mevlana Jalauddin Rumi)

gateway in Suleymaniye

2007-12-01T16:04:00.001-08:00

trip in Golden Horn

2007-12-01T16:03:00.000-08:00

a small boat with some passengers

Like This
If anyone asks you
how the perfect satisfaction
of all our sexual wanting
will look, lift your face
and say,

Like this.

When someone mentions the gracefulness
of the nightsky, climb up on the roof
and dance and say,

Like this.

If anyone wants to know what "spirit" is,
or what "God’s fragrance" means,
lean your head toward him or her.
Keep your face there close.

Like this.

When someone quotes the old poetic image
about clouds gradually uncovering the moon,
slowly loosen knot by knot the strings
of your robe.

Like this.

If anyone wonders how Jesus raised the dead,
don’t try to explain the miracle.
Kiss me on the lips.

Like this. Like this.

When someone asks what it means
to "die for love," point
here.

If someone asks how tall I am, frown
and measure with your fingers the space
between the creases on your forehead.

This tall.

The soul sometimes leaves the body, the returns.
When someone doesn’t believe that,
walk back into my house.

Like this.

When lovers moan,
they’re telling our story.

Like this.

I am a sky where spirits live.
Stare into this deepening blue,
while the breeze says a secret.

Like this.

When someone asks what there is to do,
light the candle in his hand.

Like this.

How did Joseph’s scent come to Jacob?

Huuuuu.

How did Jacob’s sight return?

Huuuu.

A little wind cleans the eyes.

Like this.

When Shams comes back from Tabriz,
he’ll put just his head around the edge
of the door to surprise us

Like this.

Hz. Mevlana

From ‘The Essential Rumi’, Translations
by Coleman Barks with John Moyne

together and happy

2007-12-01T15:49:00.001-08:00

Mevlevi mosque (Mesnevihane) and red school

Who Wants To Come With Us?

At every instant and from every side, resounds the call of Love:
We are going to sky, who wants to come with us?
We have gone to heaven, we have been the friends of the angels,
And now we will go back there, for there is our country.
We are higher than heaven, more noble than the angels:
Why not go beyond them? Our goal is the Supreme Majesty.
What has the fine pearl to do with the world of dust?
Why have you come down here? Take your baggage back. What is this place?
Luck is with us, to us is the sacrifice!...
Like the birds of the sea, men come from the ocean--the ocean of the soul.
Like the birds of the sea, men come from the ocean--the ocean of the soul.
How could this bird, born from that sea, make his dwelling here?
No, we are the pearls from the bosom of the sea, it is there that we dwell:
Otherwise how could the wave succeed to the wave that comes from the soul?
The wave named 'Am I not your Lord' has come, it has broken the vessel of the body;
And when the vessel is broken, the vision comes back, and the union with Him.
Hz. Mevlana
Mevlana Jalauddin Rumi

Karakoy sea side

2007-12-01T15:40:00.000-08:00

Eminonu view from Karakoy sea side

Invitation

Galloping from Far Asia and jutting out
into the Mediterranean like a mare's head
this country is ours.

Wrists in blood, teeth clenched, feet bare
and this soil spreading like a silk carpet,
this hell, this paradise is ours.

Shut the gates of plutocracy, don't let them open again,
annihilate man's servitude to man,
this invitation is ours..

To live like a tree single and at liberty
and brotherly like the trees of a forest,
this yearning is ours.

Nazım Hikmet

translation by Fuat Engin

Galata streets

2007-12-01T15:37:00.000-08:00

Love is reckless; not reason.
Reason seeks a profit.
Love comes on strong,
consuming herself, unabashed.

Yet, in the midst of suffering,
Love proceeds like a millstone,
hard surfaced and straightforward.

Having died of self-interest,
she risks everything and asks for nothing.
Love gambles away every gift God bestows.

Without cause God gave us Being;
without cause, give it back again.

Hz. Mevlana

Mathnawi VI

old man in Fatih Mosque

2007-11-30T16:05:00.000-08:00

Old man is looking to the past

Only Breath

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim,
not Hindu, Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion or cultural system.

I am not from the East or the West,
not out of the ocean
or up from the ground,
not natural or etheral,
not composed of elements at all.

I do not exist,
am not an entity in this world
or the next,
did not decend from Adam or Eve
or any origin story.

My place is placeless,
a trace of the traceless.

Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved,
have seen the two worlds as one
and that one call to and know,
first, last, outer, inner,
only that breath breathing human being.

from The Essential Rumi translations by Coleman Barks

Hz. Mevlana (Mevlana Jalauddin Rumi)

visitors from Sultanahmet Mosque

2007-11-29T15:51:00.000-08:00

zeyrek streets

2007-11-25T16:09:00.000-08:00

pando

2007-11-23T16:19:00.000-08:00

taken by Pentax K10D, at Istanbul

different colors from Golden Horn

2007-11-21T16:06:00.000-08:00

Classical view for Golden Horn
Miracle Istanbul, blue, holly spaces and life
You 'll find all colors in Istanbul.

taken with Pentax K10D, 18-55 mm

red school

2007-11-19T16:10:00.000-08:00

In Golden Horn streets, you can see interesting building of Private Fener
College (red school)

(In Turkish : Özel Fener Rum Lisesi, Kirmizi Mektep )

Balat, Istanbul

Taken by Pentax K10D, 18 mm

Cagaolglu

2007-11-19T04:01:00.003-08:00

walking in the Golden Horn

2007-11-19T04:01:00.001-08:00

tea break

2007-11-19T04:00:00.003-08:00

Tea break in my grand aunt's home.

Haydarpasa

2007-11-19T04:00:00.001-08:00

Haydarpasa railway station and small fisher boats in Kadikoy side

Lovers
O lovers, lovers it is time
to set out from the world.
I hear a drum in my soul's ear
coming from the depths of the stars.

Our camel driver is at work;
the caravan is being readied.
He asks that we forgive him
for the disturbance he has caused us,
He asks why we travellers are asleep.

Everywhere the murmur of departure;
the stars, like candles
thrust at us from behind blue veils,
and as if to make the invisible plain,
a wondrous people have come forth.

Hz. Mevlana
Mevlana Jalauddin Rumi

a child in Karakoy

2007-11-19T03:59:00.001-08:00

Persembe Pazari streets and a child worker

Topkapi Palace

2007-11-19T03:58:00.002-08:00

Topkapi Palace has very large garden. This checkpoint and soldiers are in the Sultanahmet border.

Obelisk from Sultanahmet streets

2007-11-19T03:58:00.001-08:00

Sultanahmet streets and Walled Obelisk (Dikilitas in turkish)

Sultanahmet Square known as Hippodrome of Constantinople. There are famous monuments in Sultanahmet Square.

Obelisk

Walled Obelisk

Serpentine Column

German Fountain

with peace

2007-11-19T03:57:00.001-08:00

Red School and Mevlevi Mosque (Mesnevihane)

Come, come whatever you are,
it doesn't matter Whether you are an
infidel, an idolater or a fire-worshiper,
Come, our convent is not a place of despair. Come, even if you violated your swear A hundred times,
come again.

Hz. Mevlana (Mevlana Jalauddin Rumi)

from Fatih Mosque

2007-11-19T03:56:00.001-08:00

A story is like a water
that you heat for your bath.

It takes messages between the fire
and your skin. It lets them meet,
and it cleans you!

Hz. Mevlana

visitors from Yavuz Sultan Selim Mosque

2007-11-19T03:43:00.001-08:00

together and happy

2007-11-19T03:42:00.001-08:00

Mevlevi mosque (Mesnevihane) and red school

Who Wants To Come With Us?

At every instant and from every side, resounds the call of Love:
We are going to sky, who wants to come with us?
We have gone to heaven, we have been the friends of the angels,
And now we will go back there, for there is our country.
We are higher than heaven, more noble than the angels:
Why not go beyond them? Our goal is the Supreme Majesty.
What has the fine pearl to do with the world of dust?
Why have you come down here? Take your baggage back. What is this place?
Luck is with us, to us is the sacrifice!...
Like the birds of the sea, men come from the ocean--the ocean of the soul.
Like the birds of the sea, men come from the ocean--the ocean of the soul.
How could this bird, born from that sea, make his dwelling here?
No, we are the pearls from the bosom of the sea, it is there that we dwell:
Otherwise how could the wave succeed to the wave that comes from the soul?
The wave named 'Am I not your Lord' has come, it has broken the vessel of the body;
And when the vessel is broken, the vision comes back, and the union with Him.
Hz. Mevlana
Mevlana Jalauddin Rumi

Valide Sultan Mosque

2007-11-19T03:41:00.000-08:00

older tastes

2007-11-19T03:37:00.000-08:00

Old fabric patisserie from Balat market. You can find traditional candies, pancakes and bus tickets :)

The Doors

I want peace of mind
I want peace
I want tranquility
May the doors open

Togetherness
Happiness
Fraternity
I want to be whole
May the doors open

I want peace of mind
I want peace
I want tranquility
May the doors open

Wholeness
Togetherness
Happiness
May the doors open

The doors
The doors
The doors
May the doors open

from the album "Variations" by Ayşe Tütüncü

zeyrek mosque

2007-11-17T16:20:00.000-08:00

taken by Pentax K10D, at Istanbul
Zeyrek Mosque
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeyrek_Mosque

(full name in Turkish: Molla Zeyrek Camii), is a mosque in Istanbul, made of two former Eastern Orthodox churches. It represents the most typical example of architecture of the Byzantine middle period in Constantinople and is - after Hagia Sophia - the second largest religious edifice built by the Byzantines still extant in Istanbul.

Location

The complex is placed in the district of Fatih, in a popular neighborhood which got its name (Zeyrek) from the Mosque, and less than one km to the southeast of Eski Imaret Mosque. It is pictoresque but (as in 2007) decayed and dangerous in the night hours.

History

Between 1118 and 1124 Byzantine Empress Eirene Komnena built on this site a friary dedicated to Christ Pantokrator.[1] The monastery comprised a main church, also dedicated to the Pantokrator, a library and a Hospital.[2]

After the death of his wife, shortly after 1124, Emperor John II Komnenos built to the north of the first another church dedicated to the Theotokos Eleousa ("the merciful"), and finally (the terminus ante quem is 1136 [3]) connected the two shrines with a chapel (dedicated to Saint Michael [4]), which became the imperial mausoleum (heroon) of the dinasties of the Komnenos and the Palaiologos.[1] Besides many Byzantine dignitaries, Emperor John II and his wife Eirene, Empress Bertha of Sulzbach (also known as Eirene, and wife of Manuel I Komnenos), and Emperor John V Palaiologos were buried here.[2]

During the latin domination after the fourth crusade, the complex was the see of the venetian clergy, and here was hosted the Icon of the Theotokos Hodegetria. [5] The monastery was also used as imperial palace by the last Latin Emperor, Baldwin. After the palaiologan restoration the monastery was used again by orthodox monks. The most famous among them was Gennadius II Scholarius, which left the Pantokrator to become the first Patriarch of Constantinople after the Conquest of the city. [6]

Shortly after the Fall of Constantinople the building was converted into a mosque. The Ottomans named it after Molla Zeyrek, a scholar who was teaching in the nearby Medrese. [7] The Medrese occupied the rooms of the monastery, but these rooms vanished later. [2]

Up to some years ago the edifice was in a desolate state, so that it was added to the UNESCO Watchlist of the endangered monuments. During the last years it underwent extensive (albeit still unfinished) restoration, financed by the Koç Holding.

Today Zeyrek Mosque is - after Hagia Sophia - the second largest extant religious edifice built by the Byzantines in Istanbul.

To the East lies the Ottoman Konak (Zeyrek Hane), which has also been restored and is now opened as a restaurant and tea garden.

Description
The apsis of the Imperial Chapel (in background), built with the technique of the recessed brick
The apsis of the Imperial Chapel (in background), built with the technique of the recessed brick

The masonry has been partly built adopting the technique of the recessed brick, typical of the Byzantine architecture of the middle period [8]. In this technique, alternate courses of bricks are mounted behind the line of the wall, and are plunged in a mortar's bed. Due to that, the thickness of the mortar layers is about three times greater than that of the bricks layers. [9]

The south and the north church are both cross domed with polygonal apses having seven sides, and not five as was typical in the Byzantine architecture of the previous century. The apses have also triple lancet windows flanked by niches [1].

The southern church is the largest. To the East it has an esonarthex, which later was extended up to the imperial chapel. The church is surmounted by two domes, one over the naos and the other over the matroneum (a separate upper gallery for women) of the narthex. The decoration of this church, which was very rich, disappeared almost completely, except for some fragment of marble in the presbyterium and, above all, a beautiful floor in opus sectile made with colored marbles worked in cloisonné technique, where human and animal figures are represented [10]. Moreover, fragments of colored glass suggest that the windows of this church were once covered with windowpanes bearing figures of Saints [11].

The imperial chapel is covered by barrel vaults and is surmounted by two domes too.

The north church has only one dome, and is notable for its frieze, carved with a dog's tooth and triangle motif running along the eaves line.

As a whole, this complex represents the most typical example of architecture of the Byzantine middle period in Constantinople [1].

Notes

1. ^ a b c d Krautheimer, 409
2. ^ a b c Gülersoy, 213
3. ^ In that year was published the Typikon, which still survives. This document gives us a vivid portrait of the organization of the monastery and of the ceremonies which were celebrated in the church. Mathews, 71
4. ^ Mathews, 71
5. ^ Van Millingen
6. ^ Van Millingen
7. ^ However, due to its importance in the Byzantine history, Zeyrek was one among the few buildings of Istanbul whose ancient denomination was never forgotten. Among other, the church of Pantokrator is remembered by Pierre Gilles in his classical work about Constantinople, written in the sixteenth century.
8. ^ Krautheimer, 400. Other examples of edifices of Constantinople where this technique was used are the mosques of Zeyrek and Eski Imaret
9. ^ The oldest building still extant in Istanbul where this technique can still be seen is the mosque of Eski Imaret, which lies less than one km to the northwest of Zeyrek
10. ^ It is now hidden under the carpet of the Mosque, but can be shown upon request
11. ^ Krautheimer, 410

References

* Van Millingen, Alexander (1912). Byzantine Churches of Constantinople. London: MacMillan & Co.

* Mathews, Thomas F. (1976). The Byzantine Churches of Istanbul: A Photographic Survey. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-01210-2.

* Gülersoy, Celik (1976). A guide to Istanbul. Istanbul: Kitapligi. OCLC 3849706.

* Krautheimer, Richard (1986). Architettura paleocristiana e bizantina. Turin: Einaudi. ISBN 88-06-59261-0.

Kadikoy port

2007-11-15T16:17:00.000-08:00

We are going to Beyoglu. Beyoglu is the center of night life in Istanbul. We’ll drink raki and more

Nevizade night

2007-11-13T16:14:00.000-08:00

Beyoglu, Nevizade street

rush hours of an Istanbul night :)

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You

Throw my ticket out the window,
Throw my suitcase out there, too,
Throw my troubles out the door,
I don't need them any more
'Cause tonight I'll be staying here with you.

I should have left this town this morning
But it was more than I could do.
Oh, your love comes on so strong
And I've waited all day long
For tonight when I'll be staying here with you.

Is it really any wonder
The love that a stranger might receive.
You cast your spell and I went under,
I find it so difficult to leave.

I can hear that whistle blowin',
I see that stationmaster, too,
If there's a poor boy on the street,
Then let him have my seat
'Cause tonight I'll be staying here with you.

Throw my ticket out the window,
Throw my suitcase out there, too,
Throw my troubles out the door,
I don't need them any more
'Cause tonight I'll be staying here with you.
Bob Dylan

visit to parents

2007-11-11T16:18:00.000-08:00

We 've visited our parents.

You see my uncle. He is formerly soccer, famous filatelist, collectioner

He lives in Istanbul since 1920 ...

golden horn scene

2007-11-09T16:20:00.000-08:00

taken by Pentax K10D, at Istanbul

Europe shopping mall

2007-11-07T16:19:00.000-08:00

Europe Shopping Mall (in Turkish : Avrupa Pasajı) has got two door

Galatasaray door : through formerly England consulate and Galatasaray High School (Galatasaray Lisesi)

Beyoglu Fish Market door (Beyoglu Balik Pazari)

taken with Pentax K10-D

visitors from Yavuz Sultan Selim Mosque

2007-11-05T15:48:00.000-08:00

window imperial

2007-11-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

I've seen it Topkapi Palace's garden

red school and Balat streets

2007-11-01T15:56:00.000-07:00