Gül Camii (Gül Mosque, Hagia Theodosia or Christos Euergetes)

Gül Camii (Gül Mosque, Hagia Theodosia or Christos Euergetes)

Gül Mosque (Turkish: Gül Camii, meaning: “The Mosque of the Rose” in English) is a former Eastern Orthodox church in Istanbul, Turkey converted into a mosque by the Ottomans.

Location
The building is located in Istanbul, in the district of Fatih, in the neighborhood of Ayakapı (“Gate of the Saint”), along Vakif Mektebi Sokak. It lies at the end of the valley which divides the fourth and the fifth hills of Constantinople, and from its imposing position it overlooks the Golden Horn.

 

Golden Horn view from Balat, Balat sırtlarından Haliç manzarası

Identification
It is one of the most important religious Byzantine buildings of Constantinople still extant, but its dedication and the date of its construction, which for long time appeared certain, are now disputed by scholars. It is either identified with the church belonging to the nunnery of Saint Theodosia (Greek: Μονή τής Άγιας Θεοδοσίας εν τοις Δεξιοκράτους, Monē tis Hagias Theodosias en tois Dexiokratous) or with that of the monastery of Christ the Benefactor (Greek: Μονή του Χριστού του Ευεργέτου, Monē tou Christou tou Euergetou).

Together with Eski Imaret and Vefa Kilise Mosques, it is one of the most important cross-in-square churches in Istanbul.

Problem of the dedication
The building, since Stephan Gerlach visited it in the late 15th century, has always been identified with the church of Hagia Theodosia en tois Dexiokratous. At the beginning of last century, Jules Pargoire identified the building as the church of Hagia Euphēmia en tō Petriō, built during the reign of Basil I (867-886), and brilliantly explained the change in its dedication. The German archaeologist Hartmut Schäfer, after studies performed in the 1960s on the dating of the basement, estimated the date of construction of the edifice between the end of the eleventh and the first half of 12th century, placing it in the Komnenian age, and identifying it hypothetically as the church of the monastery of Christos Euergetēs. He excludes the possibility that the Gül Mosque is the building where the body of Hagia Theodosia was brought after the end of the Iconoclasm period. On the other hand, he does not exclude the possibility that the building could have been dedicated to Hagia Theodosia in a later period.

Gül Mosque

Gül Camii

Byzantine style walls of Gül Mosque

Gül Camii

little girl on Gül Camii’s street

Gül Mosque and Küçük Mustafa Paşa Bath view from Balat streets

walls of Gül Mosque

Gül Camii street

Golden Horn view from Balat, Balat sırtlarından Haliç manzarası

 

History, Byzantine period

The southwest gallery with the wooden Sultan lodge.On January 19, 729, at the very beginning of the iconoclastic persecutions, Emperor Leo III the Isaurian ordered the removal of an image of Christ which stood over the Chalkē, the main gate of the Great Palace of Constantinople. While an officer was executing the order, a group of women gathered to prevent the operation, and one of them, a nun named Theodosia, let him fall from the ladder. The man died, and Theodosia was captured and executed.

After the end of the Iconoclasm, Theodosia was recognized as a martyr and saint, and her body was kept and worshiped in the church of Hagia Euphemia en tō Petriō, in the quarter named Dexiokratiana, after the houses owned here by one Dexiokrates. The church and adjoining monastery were erected by Emperor Basil I at the end of the ninth century. The monastery hosted his four daughters, who were all buried in the church. Hagia Euphemia lay near the Monastery of Christos Euergetēs, whose foundation date is unknown. It is only known that it was restored by protosebastos John Komnenos, son of Andronikos I Komnenos and brother of co-emperor John, who died fighting in the battle of Myriokephalon in 1176. On April 12, 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, the Latin fleet gathered in front of the monastery of the Euergetes before attacking the city. During the Latin Empire, the navy had its anchorage in front of the monastery, and the naval port was kept there by Michael VIII Palaiologos also after the restoration of the Byzantine Empire. Many sacred relics kept in the church were looted by the Crusaders and many still exist in churches throughout western Europe.

The worship of Theodosia grew with the time until, after the 11th century, the church was named after her. Since the original feast day of Hagia Euphemia occurred on the 30th of May, and that of another Hagia Theodosia, Hagia Theodosia of Tyros occurred on the 29th of May, finally this day became the feast day of Hagia Theodosia hē Konstantinoupolitissa (“Saint Theodosia from Constantinople”).

Hagia Theodosia became one among the most venerated saints in Constantinople, being invoked particularly by the infirm. The fame of the saint was increased by the recovery of a deaf-mute in 1306. The church is often mentioned by the Russian pilgrims who visited the city in the fourteenth and early fifteenth century, but sometimes it is confounded with Christ Euergetēs, which, as already said, stood near it. Twice a week a procession took place in the nearby roads. In that occasion the relics hosted in the church were carried along, followed by a great crowd of sick people praying for their recovery.

The church is mentioned for the last time on May 28, 1453. On that day, which was the eve both of the Saint’s feast and also of the end of the Byzantine Empire, the Emperor Constantine XI with the Patriarch went to pray into the church, which was adorned with garlands of roses. Afterward Constantine left for the last struggle. Many people remained all the night in the church, praying for the salvation of the city. On the morning the Ottoman troops, after entering the city, reached the building, still adorned with flowers, and captured all the people gathered inside, considering them as prisoners of war. The relics were thrown away and the body of the Saint was cast to the dogs

Ottoman period

Gül Mosque on a Miniature of Nusret Çolpan.After the Ottoman conquest, the basement of the edifice, which in the meantime had fallen to ruin, was used as naval dockyard. Close to the building, Seyhülislam Molla Hüsrev Mehmet Effendi (died 1480) established a vakıf (foundation) and erected a small mosque (Küçük Mustafa Paşa Mescidi) and a bath (Küçük Mustafa Paşa Hamamı), which still exists.

Some years later (in 1490), the ruined church was repaired and converted into a mosque. A minaret was erected between 1566 and 1574, under Selim II, by Hassam Pasha, a supplier of the Ottoman navy. Afterwards the mosque was often named after him. Between 1573 and 1578, during his sojourn in Istanbul, the German preacher Stephan Gerlach visited the mosque, identifying it with the church of Hagia Theodosia. During that century the mosque saw the predication of the local holy man Gül Baba, which was allegedly buried in the building. It is also possible that the mosque was named after him.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the edifice was heavily damaged in its upper parts by earthquakes, until Sultan Murat IV restored it, rebuilding the dome with the pendentives, almost the whole west side, the vaults at the southwest and northwest corners, and the minaret.

The building escaped the great fire which ravaged the quarter in 1782, and was restored again by Sultan Mahmud II (1808-1839), who added the wooden Sultan’s lodge.

Exterior
The building lies on a high vaulted basement, which was used also during the Byzantine period only for secular purposes. The masonry of the basement has been built adopting the technique of the “recessed brick”, typical of the Byzantine architecture of the middle period. In this technique, alternate courses of bricks are mounted behind the line of the wall, and are plunged in a mortar bed. Due to that, the thickness of the mortar layers is about three times greater than that of the brick layers.

The building has a cross-in-square plan, which is oriented northwest – southeast. It is 26 meters long and 20 meters wide, and is surmounted by five domes, one above the central nave and four smaller placed on the four corners. The central dome, which has a low external drum and has no windows, is Ottoman, as are the broad pointed arches which carry it.

The original dome, akin to that of Kalenderhane Mosque, should have been carried by a tall drum pierced by windows. The exterior of the building is quite imposing. On the southeastern façade, the central apse, with seven sides, and the lateral ones, with three sides, project boldly outside. The central apse appears to be a later Byzantine reconstruction, since it lacks the four tiers of five niches, which feature ornamental brickwork and adorn the lateral ones. Above the niches runs a cornice.

The style of the side apses resembles strongly that of those of Pantokrator Church, and is a further element in favour of a late dating of the building.

source : wikipedia

Istanbul City Walls (Edirnekapı region)

Istanbul City Walls

The triangular promontory on which old Istanbul is located is surrounded by city walls. The 22 km long walls date back to the 5th century, the Roman era. The original city of Byzantium expanded toward the west and new city walls were erected four times, each time enlarging the city further.

The peninsula was easily defensible. The terrain to the west is quite flat in the direction of the Balkans, but the gigantic walls ensured protection on the landside.

The shores of the Golden Horn and the Marmara were also defended by a single, but sturdy wall.Nothing has survived from the walls built around the acropolis of Byzantium, the second wall built by Septimius Severus in the 3rd century or the third wall built in 320 by Constantine the Great.

The land walls start from the seashore and, after crossing hills and valleys, join the sea wall on the banks of the Golden Horn.Inscriptions from different eras indicate the restorations in the walls. The land walls are 6,492 m long from Golden Horn to MarmaraSea. Behind the moat and the first row of walls and battlements rise the higher main wall with 96 towers.Most of the original gates have survived to our day. As a result ‘of the restoration and renovation work that began in the 1980’s and is still continuing, the vicinity of the walls has been improved and the some areas turned into public parks.

Edirnekapı streets and walls, Surlardan Edirnekapı Saklı mahalle görünümü

Edirnekapı from walls

Golden Horn scene from walls, Surlardan Haliç manzarası

walls

tourists are trying to visit higher parts of walls

istanbul city walls edirnekapi 64

part of Tekfur Palace, Tekfur Sarayı ‘nın bir bölümü

part of Tekfur Palace, Tekfur Sarayı ‘nın bir bölümü

Eğrikapı door of walls

Chora Church, Kariye Museum (Kariye Müzesi)

Chora Church, Kariye Museum

The Chora Museum (Turkish Kariye Müzesi, Kariye Camii, or Kariye Kilisesi — the Chora Museum, Mosque or Church) is considered to be one of the most beautiful examples of a Byzantine church. The church is situated in the western, Edirnekapı district of Istanbul. In the 16th century, the church was converted into a mosque by the Ottoman rulers, and it became a secularised museum in 1948. The interior of the building is covered with fine mosaics and frescoes.

 

Kariye museum

Chora Church

Kariye müzesi

Chora church

Kariye

Chora church

1

Kariye müzesi

Chora church

Chora Church, Kariye Müzesi, Kariye museum

Kariye from thomb’s door

Kariye museum

History of Chora Church
The Chora Church was originally built outside the walls of Constantinople, to the south of the Golden Horn. Literally translated, the church’s full name was the Church of the Holy Saviour in the Country: although “The Church of the Holy Redeemer in the Fields” would be a more natural rendering of the name in English. (Greek ἡ Ἐκκλησία του Ἅγιου Σωτῆρος ἐν τῃ Χώρᾳ, hē Ekklēsia tou Hagiou Sōtēros en tē Chōra). The last part of that name, Chora, referring to its location originally outside of the walls, became the shortened name of the church. The original church on this site was built in the early 5th century, and stood outside of the 4th century walls of Constantine the Great. However, when Theodosius II built his formidable land walls in 413–414, the church became incorporated within the city’s defences, but retained the name Chora. The name must have carried symbolic meaning, as the mosaics in the narthex describe Christ as the Land of the Living (ἡ Χώρα των ζώντων, hē Chōra tōn zōntōn) and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as the Container of the Uncontainable (ἡ Χώρα του Ἀχώρητου, hē Chōra tou Achōrētou).

The majority of the fabric of the current building dates from 1077–1081, when Maria Dukaina, the mother-in-law of Alexius I Comnenus, rebuilt the Chora Church as an inscribed cross or quincunx: a popular architectural style of the time. Early in the 12th century, the church suffered a partial collapse, perhaps due to an earthquake. The church was rebuilt by Isaac Comnenus, Alexius’s third son. However, it was only after the third phase of building, two centuries after, that the church as it stands today was completed. The powerful Byzantine statesman Theodore Metochites endowed the church with much of its fine mosaics and frescos. Theodore’s impressive decoration of the interior was carried out between 1315 and 1321. The mosaic-work is the finest example of the Palaeologian Renaissance. The artists remain unknown. In 1328, Theodore was sent into exile by the usurper Andronicus III Palaeologus. However, he was allowed to return to the city two years later, and lived out the last two years of his life as a monk in his Chora Church.

During the last siege of Constantinople in 1453, the Icon of the Theotokos Hodegetria, considered the protector of the City, was brought to Chora in order to assist the defenders against the assault of the Ottomans.

Around fifty years after the fall of the city to the Ottomans, Atık Ali Paşa, the Grand Vizier of Sultan Bayezid II, ordered the Chora Church to be converted into a mosque — Kariye Camii. Due to the prohibition against iconic images in Islam, the mosaics and frescoes were covered behind a layer of plaster. This and frequent earthquakes in the region have taken their toll on the artwork.

In 1948, Thomas Whittemore and Paul A. Underwood, from the Byzantine Institute of America and the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, sponsored a programme of restoration. From that time on, the building ceased to be a functioning mosque. In 1958, it was opened to the public as a museum — Kariye Müzesi.

Interior of Chora Church
The Chora Church is not as large as some of the other Byzantine churches of Istanbul (it covers 742.5 m²), but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in the beauty of its interior. The building divides into three main areas: the entrance hall or narthex, the main body of the church or naos, and the side chapel or parecclesion. The building has six domes: two in the esonarthex, one in the parecclesion and three in the naos.

waiting for play

old thomb’s door

a thomb's door, Fatih, İstanbul, pentax k10d

a thomb

Acemoglu mosque

Acemoglu Mosque, Acemoğlu camii şerifi, Fatih İstanbul, pentax k10d

According to the  wall document,  construction was completed on 1674. In 1974 was restorated again by assc. of Fatih district.

Bozdoğan su kemerleri , Valens Aqueduct

the crossroad of Aksaray, Fatih, Şehzadebaşı and Unkapanı, Bozdoğan Kemeri, Bozdogan Valens, istanbul, pentax k10d

Aqueduct of Valens

The Bozdoðan Kemeri (Bosphorus Aqueduct), a great water bridge of some 86 arches spanning one of the city’s busiest highways and normally identified as the Aqueduct of Valens

Hz. Cabir mosque

Hz. Cabir mosque

Dulgerzade Mosque

cat on the window

a gateway for mosque

Fatih streets

Daily slide from Fatih streets. A grocery, balls on the shelf and young boys …

Cukurbostan mosque and school

Yavuz Sultan Mosque and visitors

The Yavuz Selim Mosque is the second oldest existent imperial mosque in Istanbul. It was completed in 1522, although an inscription in Arabic over the entrance portal indicates that it may have been in use a couple of years earlier. The architect is unknown. Numerous attempts have been made to associate the structure with the famous imperial architect Mimar Sinan, but there is no supporting documentary evidence, and the date of the mosque is too old. However, one of the turbe in the garden of the mosque is a work of Sinan

Yavuz Sultan Mosque

a story from Masnavi Book-I .  Original translation is from Sacred Texts

The Prince and the Handmaid.

A prince, while engaged on a hunting excursion, espied a fair maiden, and by promises of gold induced her to accompany him. After a time she fell sick, and the prince had her tended by divers physicians. As, however, they all omitted to say, “God willing,1 we will cure her,” their treatment was of no avail. So the prince offered prayer, and in answer thereto a physician was sent from heaven. He at once condemned his predecessors’ view of the case, and by a very skilful diagnosis, discovered that the real cause of the maiden’s illness was her love for a certain goldsmith of Samarcand. In accordance with the physician’s advice, the prince sent to Samarcand and fetched the goldsmith, and married him to the lovesick maiden, and for six months the pair lived together in the utmost harmony and happiness. At the end of that period the physician, by divine command, gave the goldsmith a poisonous draught, which caused his strength and beauty to decay, and he then lost favour with the maiden, and she was reunited to the king. This Divine command was precisely similar to God’s command to Abraham to slay his son Ishmael, and to the act of the angel in slaying the servant of Moses,2 and is therefore beyond human criticism.
Description of Love.
A true lover is proved such by his pain of heart;
No sickness is there like sickness of heart.
The lover’s ailment is different from all ailments;
Love is the astrolabe of God’s mysteries.
A lover may hanker after this love or that love,
But at the last he is drawn to the KING of love.
However much we describe and explain love,
When we fall in love we are ashamed of our words.
Explanation by the tongue makes most things clear,
But love unexplained is clearer.
When pen hasted to write,
On reaching the subject of love it split in twain.
When the discourse touched on the matter of love,
Pen was broken and paper torn.
In explaining it Reason sticks fast, as an ass in mire;
Naught but Love itself can explain love and lovers!
None but the sun can display the sun,
If you would see it displayed, turn not away from it.
Shadows, indeed, may indicate the sun’s presence,
But only the sun displays the light of life.
Shadows induce slumber, like evening talks,
But when the sun arises the “moon is split asunder.” 3
In the world there is naught so wondrous as the sun,
But the Sun of the soul sets not and has no yesterday.
Though the material sun is unique and single,
We can conceive similar suns like to it.
But the Sun of the soul, beyond this firmament,
No like thereof is seen in concrete or abstract.4
Where is there room in conception for His essence,
So that similitudes of HIM should be conceivable?
Shamsu-’d-Din of Tabriz importunes Jalalu-’d-Din
to compose the Masnavi.
The sun (Shams) of Tabriz is a perfect light,
A sun, yea, one of the beams of God!
When the praise was heard of the “Sun of Tabriz,”
The sun of the fourth heaven bowed its head.
Now that I have mentioned his name, it is but right
To set forth some indications of his beneficence.
That precious Soul caught my skirt,
Smelling the perfume of the garment of Yusuf;
And said, “For the sake of our ancient friendship,
Tell forth a hint of those sweet states of ecstasy,
That earth and heaven may be rejoiced,
And also Reason and Spirit, a hundredfold.”
I said, “O thou who art far from ‘ The Friend,’
Like a sick man who has strayed from his physician,
Importune me not, for I am beside myself;
My understanding is gone, I cannot sing praises.
Whatsoever one says, whose reason is thus astray,
Let him not boast; his efforts are useless.
Whatever he says is not to the point,
And is clearly inapt and wide of the mark.
What can I say when not a nerve of mine is sensible?
Can I explain ‘The Friend’ to one to whom He is no Friend?
Verily my singing His praise were dispraise,
For ‘twould prove me existent, and existence is error.5
Can I describe my separation and my bleeding heart?
Nay, put off this matter till another season.”
He said, ” Feed me, for I am an hungered,
And at once, for ‘the time is a sharp sword.’
O comrade, the Sufi is ‘the son of time present.’ 6
It is not the rule of his canon to say, ‘To-morrow.’
Can it be that thou art not a true Sufi?
Ready money is lost by giving credit.”
I said, “‘Tis best to veil the secrets of ‘The Friend.’
So give good heed to the morals of these stories.
That is better than that the secrets of ‘The Friend’
Should be noised abroad in the talk of strangers.”
He said, “Without veil or covering or deception,
Speak out, and vex me not, O man of many words!
Strip off the veil and speak out, for do not I
Enter under the same coverlet as the Beloved?”
I said, “If the Beloved were exposed to outward view,
Neither wouldst thou endure, nor embrace, nor form.
Press thy suit, yet with moderation;
A blade of grass cannot, pierce a mountain.
If the sun that illumines the world
Were to draw nigher, the world would be consumed.7
Close thy mouth and shut the eyes of this matter,
That, the world’s life be not made a bleeding heart.
No longer seek this peril, this bloodshed;
Hereafter impose silence on the ‘Sun of Tabriz.’”
He said, “Thy words are endless. Now tell forth
All thy story from its beginning.”
NOTES:
1. As enjoined in Koran xviii. 23. One cannot converse with a strict Mosalman for five minutes without hearing the formula, “In sha Allah Ta’alla,” or D. V.
2. Koran xviii. 73.
3. Koran liv. I.
4. There is a tradition, “I know my Lord by my Lord.”
5. See Gulshan i Raz, I. 400. In the state of union self remains not.
6. The Sufi is the “son of the time present,” because he is an Energumen, or passive instrument moved by the divine impulse of the moment. “The time present is a sharp sword,” because the divine impulse of the moment dominates the Energumen, and executes its decrees sharply. See Sohravardi quoted in Notices et Extraits des MSS., xii. 371 note.
7. “When its Lord appears in glory to the Mount of existence, Existence is laid low, like the dust of the road.” Gulshan i Raz, I. 195.

Yavuz Sultan Mosque

Old seller man

He was working in Fatih Mosque’s garden.

Old Man

Old man look at my life,
I’m a lot like you were.
Old man look at my life,
I’m a lot like you were.

Old man look at my life,
Twenty four
and there’s so much more
Live alone in a paradise
That makes me think of two.

Love lost, such a cost,
Give me things
that don’t get lost.
Like a coin that won’t get tossed
Rolling home to you.

Old man take a look at my life
I’m a lot like you
I need someone to love me
the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes
and you can tell that’s true.

Lullabies, look in your eyes,
Run around the same old town.
Doesn’t mean that much to me
To mean that much to you.

I’ve been first and last
Look at how the time goes past.
But I’m all alone at last.
Rolling home to you.

Old man take a look at my life
I’m a lot like you
I need someone to love me
the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes
and you can tell that’s true.

Old man look at my life,
I’m a lot like you were.
Old man look at my life,
I’m a lot like you were.

Neil Young

small and black

Fatih