The Ark

After the conquest of Constantinople by Mehmet II in 1453, the great city on the Bosphorus would become host to grand mosques and one of the finest examples of Ottoman civil architecture, Topkapi Palace, the Imperial residence for more than 4 centuries. Dr. Susan Aykut takes us on a "historical tour" of these historic monuments and the personalities who built them.

Transcript

This transcript was typed from a recording of the program. The ABC cannot guarantee its complete accuracy because of the possibility of mishearing and occasional difficulty in identifying speakers.

Rachael Kohn: In the year 330 AD, Constantinople was the most powerful city in the Roman Empire.

Hello, this is The Ark, and I'm Rachael Kohn.

Named for Constantine the Great, who made Christianity the official religion of the Empire, the city would house numerous churches, including the biggest church in the world, Sancta Sophia, built by Emperor Justinian in the 6th century. Many of these churches, including Sancta Sophia would become mosques when the Ottoman Empire seized the capital on May 29th, 1453. On this 550th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople and the building of Istanbul, Susan Aykut of the University of Melbourne tells the stories behind the mosques of the city, and about Mehmet II the man who conquered Constantinople.

Susan Aykut: Mehmet was an interesting man. He's like a lot of extraordinary military geniuses like Alexander the Great and Napoleon, very young at the time of the conquest; in fact he was only 21.

He was a man of great determination and he had an awful lot to prove, because he in fact had taken the Sultanate for the third time just prior to capturing the city. He'd become the Sultan when his father abdicated to retire to a more quiet life and then the government had actually called his father back when there was trouble with the Hungarians, and he then abdicated again and then he was called back again to settle some problems with Albanians I think. So by the time Mehmet was really the Sultan, and his father had died at this point, so he was not going to be contested, he actually had a lot to prove to himself and to the governing bureaucracy that he inherited.

Rachael Kohn: When he conquered Constantinople, wasn't he supposed to have discovered the tomb of Eyup el Ansari.

Susan Aykut: That's one of the great stories attached to the conquest, and it's a very interesting tale. In fact there's evidence to suggest that there was a tomb already marked, or the spot was already marked and the Byzantines had actually had some respect for this particular place, but certainly in lots of Ottoman stories or legends, it's after the conquest of the city that Eyup's tomb is discovered, and the importance of course about Eyup is that he was a friend and the standard bearer of the prophet Muhammad and he went to Constantinople in what was the first Muslim attempt to seize the city.

When they discovered his mosque, if they in fact did discover it after the conquest, or when they relocated it as conquerors of the city, it's become a very notable sight in the Islamic world, it's probably the fourth most important pilgrimage site for Sunni Muslims after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.

Rachael Kohn: Gosh, so it isn't surprising that it's on that site that the first mosque was built after the fall of Constantinople.

Susan Aykut: That's right. It was built about five years after the conquest, before Mehmet II built his own mosque complex. The first mosque probably in the city as such, was probably Aya Sophia, or Hagia Sophia as it was known, that was the first port of call that Mehmet made after conquering the city. He came in and went straight to Aya Sophia, and legend has it that he stopped at the portals of what was then a cathedral of course, picked up a handful of dirt, ran it through his turban as a sign of respect and humility to God that allowed him this victory, and then went in and emptied everybody out who was there looting or for whatever purpose, and actually then prayed. So that became a mosque then, but the first one that was really built to mark the Ottoman conquest was probably Eyup.

Rachael Kohn: And I understand that around that mosque, there is also a cemetery; what's the importance of that cemetery?

Susan Aykut: You know, when we're talking about the mosque, it's less the mosque that's significant as the place itself, as we've already discussed, because of Eyup's burial there. The mosque that stands there today is not the original, that was actually wiped out in an earthquake, and the one that's there now was finished in about 1800, and it's not a particularly notable architectural achievement in that. But of course every Ottoman Sultan actually was girded there, it's like a coronation spot. So it actually gave legitimacy to the Ottoman Sultanate.

The cemetery around it, I mean again it's very interesting, because generally the cemeteries in Istanbul are beautiful places to go. I mean cemeteries are always wonderful places to visit I think wherever you go, and Istanbul cemeteries in particular are superb because there's been a lot of money spent in Eyup in recent years. Generally the other big cemeteries in Istanbul are on the Asian side, where in fact many Turks have preferred to be buried, like their ancestors, on the Asian continent. So Uskudar, for instance, has fabulously big cemeteries there. So Eyup is significant on the European side as a place of burial because of Eyup himself being there, and yes, other dignitaries and important people of state were buried there with the connection of Eyup.

Rachael Kohn: I understand that there's actually a footprint of the prophet Muhammad on display in one of its showcases; is it real or symbolic?

Susan Aykut: In Topkapi Palace there's a hair of the prophet as well. And there's several hairs located throughout the Islamic world. I guess it's very difficult to know what is real or what is not real, but for the believers of a faith, I suppose the fact that they think it is, and give it that sort of reverence is important.

Rachael Kohn: Susan, Istanbul is most identified with Suleyman the Magnificent. Tell us about his mosque.

Susan Aykut: The Suleymaniye, which is built on the fourth hill in Istanbul, is a beautiful edifice, that was built by Sinan, who is probably the most revered of Ottoman architects, in fact he's the acclaimed architect for bringing Ottoman architecture to its apogee I suppose, in the classical period. This mosque was built in a relatively short time, It had materials brought from all over the empire. This mosque probably is set up to vie with Aya Sophia in architectural terms.

Sinan spent most of his life trying to achieve a superior dome to Aya Sophia. The complex, as are all mosque complexes in the city, or in the imperial complexes in particular, are like a little city in themselves, they're like a civic centre, you have a mosque and you have a Turkish bath, you have religious schools, you'll have hospitals often, you will have soup kitchens. So there's an enormous number of buildings that surround the mosque complex. Generally mosques were built as was the Suleymaniye, by money that came from conquests, in fact Rhodes is one place funds were used from there to build the Suleymaniye. And often those areas that were conquered by various Sultans were then used for the upkeep of mosques as well. This was because it was supposed to give them more sanctity in the eyes of God. They were built from booty, basically.

Rachael Kohn: And what does it look like inside? One can imagine tiles, calligraphy.

Susan Aykut: The beauty of this particular mosque for me is its simplicity. It's not so much the tiles, this is where I think the Blue Mosque that we might talk about too, is really quite famous because that in fact has a tiled interior. The Suleymaniye, it's just this soaring space, it's this dome that seems to hover, obviously the domes are representative of heaven, and what Sinan has done in this, is to basically have this infinite space that doesn't have a lot of decorative treatment to detract you from this sense of wonder when you walk inside. But I must say of course there are decorative treatments in the paintwork or in the scrolling etc. that's on the domes etc.

Rachael Kohn: It's quite interesting that Suleyman of course was known for his building projects, and of course he built the walls around Jerusalem. He wasn't averse to using existing columns and parts of Byzantine palaces in his own designs, or indeed in his own buildings.

Susan Aykut: No, that's fairly common the Byzantines did that as well. I think all conquering powers took whatever they wanted for their own monuments, but Suleyman probably went to greater lengths, partly because he had the bigger empire, when it was all said and done, so he probably had more places to plunder, in that respect. When Sinan finished building the Suleymaniye he said 'I have built for thee, O Emperor, a mosque which will remain on the face of the earth till the day of judgement.' It was such a huge building undertaking that an Ottoman chronicler who records this says that the workmen penetrated so far into the earth that the sound of their pickaxes was heard by the bull that bears up the world at the bottom of the earth. Which I think is very poetic and beautiful.

Rachael Kohn: Indeed. Well facing Sancta Sophia is the Blue Mosque, which you've already mentioned, and it's regarded as one of the most majestic monuments of Istanbul. What makes it distinctive, apart from the colour?

Susan Aykut: One of the interesting things about the Blue Mosque is probably the number of minarets this mosque has. There are six minarets and generally there was a rule, which was never kept by the Ottomans I might add, but that any mosque that was built outside of Mecca should not have more than one minaret. None go as far as having the six, so this makes it quite unique in that respect. A lot of Ottoman mosques, particularly those built by the Sultans, have four, like Aya Sophia in fact was given four minarets after it was converted into a mosque, as does Suleymaniye. There were problems periodically with the Ottoman clergy, who actually saw this as fairly sacrilegious.

Rachael Kohn: What's the purpose of the minaret, apart from the muezzin calling out the prayer?

Susan Aykut: Well that's its significant purpose of course, is purely for the call to prayer.

Rachael Kohn: Did they think that there we going to be six at the same time?

Susan Aykut: Six calls to prayer do you mean?

Rachael Kohn: Yes.

Susan Aykut: Well I suppose that's probably what they did think. Do you know, I've never actually thought about that. Generally they only use the one minaret as far as I understand, goodness you'd think I'd remember, I've slept in many pensions back in the days when it was not a fashionable place to stay, and in rather smart boutique hotels in recent years, that I would have actually noticed how many they actually use, because it's wonderfulž it's something that I remembered when I was first in the Middle East as a 21-year-old, and I think the first time I heard the cal to prayer that I can recall clearly in my mind was actually in Iraq, funnily enough, and at some, what I thought ungodly hour in the morning, and I found it very disturbing, but it's become one of the most moving sounds I think I ever hear, is that call to prayer.

Rachael Kohn: Well Susan, you've mentioned that the great church, the great cathedral that Constantine built, Sancta Sophia was turned into a mosque; how many churches were similarly converted to Muslim use?

Susan Aykut: Well the vast, well, when I say the vast majority, an awful lot of them were, but there were an awful lot that remained with the religious denomination that they were built in. So notable mosques or churches I should say, were turned into mosques, like Aya Sophia, they're very symbolic of the rule of the city and the imperial rule of the city.

Then there were a number of churches that remained in use for the Greek population that remained in the city. Mehmet had a very interesting policy after the conquest, partly pragmatic, in that he transferred populations from around the Ottoman state into the city to repopulate it. So Jews were brought in, for instance, from other parts of the empire, Greeks were encouraged to stay and other Greeks to either return to the city or come for their first time. So there was an extraordinary religious tolerance in the city, which meant that a lot of the religious institutions remained as they always had been.

Rachael Kohn: Susan, for anyone going to Turkey, Topkapi Palace is undoubtedly at the top of the list of sites to visit. How long was it the imperial residence?

Susan Aykut: Well it wasn't the first imperial residence built in the city. It had been the site, or the former site of the sacred palace of the Byzantines, but that was in complete ruin when Mehmet took the city, so in fact he built another palace which is near the spot where the Istanbul University is today, not far from the Suleymaniye.

So in about the 1560s he built what was the first sections of the Topkapi Palace, basically the first three courts, and then over time, I mean this is like a little city, the Topkapi Palace, and it has been added to many times over the years to satisfy various Sultans who were in residence. And it remains the imperial residence till the mid-19th century when for anyone who has been to Istanbul, you'll have seen all these extraordinary baroque palaces along the Bosphorous, so there was this huge building program that was undertaken in the 19th century with a fairly Western influence.

So the Dolmabahce Palace became the new imperial residence in the mid 19th century and the Topkapi Palace remained empty from that point on, as far as an imperial residence. But did house a lot of the treasures, which is why ultimately since the Turkish Republic formed, it has become a museum of some of the best treasures of Turkey. It's one of my favourite places to visit.

Rachael Kohn: University of Melbourne lecturer in Art History, Susan Aykut.

Next week at this time, join me for the world's expert on the Lost Tribes of Israel, the most travelled tale of the Bible. That's next week on The Ark, with me, Rachael Kohn.

THEME

Guests

Dr Susan Aykut
is a lecturer in the Deaprtment of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology at the University of Melbourne. She is also a presenter at Project 1453 in Melbounre. On the 29 May 1453 the Fall of Constantinople / Rise of Istanbul brought to a close the 1,123 year history of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. Project 1453 brings together a series of lectures, presentations, displays and innovative performances exploring the rich cultural, historical, political, religious, artistic, military and social legacies of these two extraordinary empires and their faiths, Christianity and Islam.

Further Information

Project 1453
http://www.oeac.org.au/1453/index_2.html