(day 4) Mihrimah Mosque (Mihrimah Sultan Camii)

So I'm doing these blog entries kind of out of chronological order, but post-dating them to be in the correct order. Kind of odd, I know, but there's no way I write fast and well enough to keep up with the pace of what I'm seeing. So I'm just picking my favorite things and writing about them first, but hopefully even after I get home I'll be able to get to the rest because I really want to document everything I saw.

********************************************************************************

After a long visit to the Chora Museum, Ali suggested that we see the Mihrimah Mosque. I didn't know much about the mosque, hadn't even dog-eared it on my travel map, but since it was nearby I figured sure why not.

A bit of history.

Mihrimah was the daughter of Suleiman (Suleyman) I, most commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent. He had the longest-lasting reign over the Ottoman Empire, almost 50 years from 1520-66. His accomplishments extended to every aspect of ruling, including military conquests, instituting long-standing law reforms, and contributing as a patron to art and culture. Suleiman's ascension to the head of the Ottoman Empire heralded in a Golden Age for his people.

Suleiman had only 8 children total; 7 sons, and only 1 daughter, Mihrimah, a girl of purported beauty, born on March 21st, the day of the summer solstice, when day and night are equal. The name Mihrimah actually means sun-and-moon, as a nod to this noteworthy birthday. As a favorite daughter of the sultan, she commanded a surprising and unprecedented amount of political power as a woman, and throughout her lifetime made many contributions to the arts.

Of course, as daughter to the sultan she was not allowed to choose who she married, and was married off to Rustem Pasha, one of the sultan's grand viziers.

But of course, there's an interesting story here, which is the part I really want to tell. Mihrimah actually had two mosques built in her name, this one that I came to see, and another one in Uskudar (on the Asian side of the city) that is also known as the Iskele Mosque. Both were designed and built by her father's architect, the famed Mimar Sinan, the genius mastermind behind most of the empire's most famous buildings. Sinan is said to have loved Mihrimah, and although he could not marry her, he expressed his love by designing and then building this Mihrimah Mosque out of his own pocket, without palace approval. This mosque is unusual for a larger mosque in that it has only one minaret, representing Mihrimah as the one daughter of Sultan Suleiman. The other Iskele Mosque, however, has two minarets.

It's said that there is a significance to Mimar's placement of these mosques, as well as the number of minarets chosen. Legend has it that at sunset on Mihrimah's birthday, the summer solstice, you will notice that as the sun sets behind the only minaret of the mosque in Edirnekapi, the moon rises between the two minarets of the mosque in Üsküdar.

Ali told me that story and I thought it was quite nice. I love easter eggs.

I also really, really liked this mosque. To be perfectly honest, as grand and awesome as many of the mosques are, I cannot for the life of me tell them apart. I can kind of categorize them by number of minarets, but really, all look same. Inside and outside. Domes, minarets on outside, inside looks like someone vomited out a mess of geometric tiles. There's beauty in the detail but at first glance it's like oh, great, another mosque..........

This one is different though.

White walls, row upon row of beautiful stained glass windows that allow light to pour in and flood the room. A huge, sturdy but delicate chandelier dominates the room.

That's Ali sitting on the floor. Shoes off at the door, and I had to cover my head with a scarf and wear a long skirt wrap to cover my indecent legs, God forbid I have limbs.

There is much less ornamentation here than in other mosques, no tiles that I could see, and the artistic flourishes were tasteful and thoughtfully placed (in my opinion).

It really did look like a mosque designed for a woman. I don't know if that was the intention (I guess it was?) but it was very beautiful and delicate looking, and the unadorned white walls made it feel very pure and chaste. If I didn't know better I would guess that this is the castle Princess Peach is actually in.

I think this mosque also speaks more to my sensitivities because of the stained glass, which I really love, though it's much more of a Western design element. I asked Ali if stained glass was common in mosques, since I see it every now and then, here and there in Topkapi Palace, etc. He said no it is not common, but since Istanbul was at a crossroad of trade and very open-minded to new ideas, it adopted many different foreign notions.

The mihrab is the niche in the wall on the left side of the staircase, which indicates the direction of Mecca.

The staircase and platform is called the minbar. This is where the imam (priest) stands to give the Friday sermon (Jum'ah).

View of the dome.