Istanbul_ The Collected Traveler_ An Inspired Companion Guide - Barrie Kerper [123]
Still, as a monument to one man, the mosque succeeds admirably. It is bracketed by four impressive minarets which symbolize that Suleiman was the fourth Ottoman Sultan to rule in Istanbul. Their combined balconies symbolize that Suleiman was the tenth Ottoman dynast.
The mosque is entered via the courtyard, which, with its monumental western facade, is appreciably broader than it is deep. And the customary octagonal ablution fountain is here replaced by a delicate rectangular marble one. The first thing to strike the visitor upon entering the mosque itself is the wonderful lighting of the interior. The majority of the original stained glass windows survive. The glass was reputedly made by Sarhosh Ibrahim, whose sobriquet, Sarhosh, means the drunk. His personal excesses seem not to have dulled his creative energies.
The light serves to accent the astonishing range of marble veneers and stones used in the making of the mosque. And the calligraphic text adorning the mihrab and drum of the dome are justly praised.
All these details are set against a soaring interior over 140 feet high. The columns supporting the north and south tympanums are only two in number. They are exceedingly slender and somewhat withdrawn and as a result the interior can be seen from nearly any point. All but the western buttresses have been relegated to the outside, unencumbering the interior still more. In fact, the external buttresses have been elaborated into two-tiered arcades which mask their true function.
The garden behind the mosque contains the tombs of Suleiman and his Queen, Haseki Hurrem, and their children Mustafa and Mihramah. The Iznik tiling in the tombs of Suleiman and his Queen is lavish and should not be missed. Apply to the caretaker, whose hut stands in the corner of the garden, if you want to see it. All the buildings within the immediate view of the mosque are part of the foundation. Consisting of schools, kitchens, and hospitals, many of them still operate, although not in their intended capacities. What was originally a kitchen (imaret) on the extreme west of the terrace is now a museum of pottery, glass, carpets, metalwork, and jewelry. What was once a school across the broad western avenue now functions as a maternity hospital and the schools farther to the east now house a manuscript collection in excess of 32,000 pieces.
The man who wrought this magnificence was not a Turk, but a Christian youth taken from his native Greece in 1511 at the age of twenty-one. At forty-six Sinin became the chief royal architect and throughout his ninety-seven years erected mosques, baths, schools, kitchens, markets, and tombs. His works in Istanbul alone total forty-one. For his contribution to the perpetuation of Suleiman’s memory he was accorded the unparalleled honor of a burial within the mosque grounds.
From Sinan’s tomb the road descends very sharply, skirting the terrace on which the Suleimaniye is built. The first major turn to the left leads to Uzun Charshi Caddesi, which reaches almost to the Golden Horn but ends suddenly in front of Rustem Pasha Mosque. To the right, at a distance of perhaps two hundred yards, is a two-storied brick and mortar building. This is the Spice Bazaar. Also known as the Egyptian Bazaar, it is one of the busiest markets in the city.
It is part of the Yeni Valide Mosque, the penultimate of the imperial mosques. The Yeni Valide belongs to the final and by no means finest flowering of Ottoman architecture. But seen from the stern of one of the Bosporus ferries or from the Galata side of the Golden Horn, it is stunning. The mosque was commissioned in 1597 for the Queen Mother, but work was abandoned in 1603 and not resumed until after the structure was damaged by fire in 1660.
Like the Blue Mosque, the Valide