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Each one of the niche, pulpit and royal gallery of the
Sultanahmet Mosque is also a masterpiece. Its niche
whose inside is covered with tiles with flowery motifs is
ornamented with small columns made of marble over
which are the cypress-tree motifs. The pulpit that has
geometrical fittings and is embossed has golden gilding.
The royal gallery is a masterpiece with its tiles with
golden gildings, door with mother-of-pearl inlays and
fine wall engravings. The inner courtyard of the mosque
that was paved with marble is surrounded by a colon nade
covered by 30 dome seated of 26 columns. In the middle
of the courtyard, there is the fountain for ritual abluti-
ons with six columns. The columns of the fountain were
ornamented with verbena and tulip motifs. The beauty
of the glass green tiles over the windows of the royal gal-
lery is being enhanced by a verse inscribed with golden
gilding in the cursive style of Arabic calligraphy on them.
This inscription was never met at anywhere else. It is the
only mosque with six minarets. The four of the minarets
have three balconies each and two have two balconies
each. Before the construction of this mosque, since the
only masque with six minarets was the masque of Mecca,
in order to keep its honor, of the mosque of mecca a se-
venth minaret was added to it.
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SULTANAHMET MOSQUE
Ahmet Khan I who is the 14th Sultan of the Ottoman
Empire, acceded to the throne at the age of 14 and reigned
for 14 years had the Sultanahmet Mosque built facing Saint
Sophia in the quarter called by his name. Sultanahmet
Mosque is a masterpiece built with the understanding of
Architect Sinan in the 17th century. Architect Mehmet Aga,
after he was admitted to the sedefkarllk (inlaying of
mother-of-pearl) and architecture department of the
palace in 1569-1570, he found himself in a new world and
he worked as an apprentice and thereafter, a master-buil-
der under the supervisión of Great Architect Sinan Agha for
just 21 years. After Great Sinan`s death, he became the
Chief Architect. Having become the Chief Architect, his first
work was the reparation of the Kaaba and installation of its
famous golden gutters.
Location and construction of the mosque: The Princess
Ay~e Palace that was located in the southern direction of
the Horse Square (hippodrome) was close to the Topkapi
Palace. This place was facing the sea, its area was very wide
and its surroundings were not much inhabited; and the
Sultan was convinced. He sent thirty thousand gold coins of
standard fineness to the said Princess, and she immediately
transferred her realty in the Land Registry to the Sultan wil-
lingly. When it was the turn of the excavation of the founda-
tion of the mosque, a great ceremony in the Ottoman way
was organized for this purpose. The date was October 1609.
The senior officials of the state assembled at the land clea-
red by demolitions. Sultan Ahmet Khan hit the pickaxe aga-
inst the ground for the first time.
This pickaxe is in the Topkapi Museum today. When the ex-
cavation of the foundation started, first Sultan Ahmet Khan
carried earth in the fringe of his robe and had prayed, " My
Lord God, this is the service of your servant ... " Innumerab-
le sheep were sacrificed at the ceremony place and the
poor people were given a feast on that Thursday. Favors
were bestowed and gifts were given. The mosque was
completed in June 1616 Thus the construction had lasted
for 7 years, 5 months and 6 days. The opening of the
mosque to worship had been majestic. All the poor people
other than the master workmen and workmen were given a
feast and alms. All the people were made contended; it was
like a festival. Coral rosaries were made gifts to the congre-
gation with the first ritual prayers performed in the
mosque. The officials were distributing these rosaries lea-
ving them on the knees of the people who sat for the pra-
yers. When the corals finished, the "kelembek" rosaries
were distributed. It is known that this "kelembek" is made
from the sandalwood-tree with a pungent and beautiful
smell that is found at the Indian Ocean.
Description of the mosque: The plan of the worship area
that is bounded by the walls of the mosque is a rectangle in
form that is close to a square. Its dimensions are
53.50x49.47m. The inside part of the Sultanahmet Mosque
has a plan of a clover with four leaves. Galleries were built
at four sides at the outside of the southern part in order to
eliminate the monotony. For this reason, the southern wall
is opposed to the others. It has no recesses contrarily to the
counterweight that remains entirely at the outside.
The "eksedra"s ("eksedra": the small curved meeting place
where there is a preacher`s pulpit in the ancient architectu-
re) those are three in number at each of the other sides are
only two in number at the southern side, because the one in
middle was compulsorily removed. The four elephant feet
are very effective. Though they are very large, their marble
portals have many convex profiles. At the upper part, there
is a band with inscriptions that separates the lower part
from the part whose foot is ornamented. Its dimensions
spoil the proportions of the dome, because the dome has
relatively modest measures with its height of 43 metears
and a diameter of 23,5 meters. These measures show the
ability of Mehmet Agha as an engineer. The inside of the
mosque acquired a very spacious environment by means of
the 260 window that was placed very skillfully. Due to the
placement of the windows, the grand dome looks as if it
were suspended in the air. The windows were covered with
stained glass ornamented with flower motifs at the begin-
ning; that is, there were no plain window glass and this
color glass engraving was at the uppermost quality. All fore-
ign tourists who visited the mosque noticed this feature and
were impressed by this invention of riot of colors and the
perfection of applying it. The tiles used in the wall cover of
the Sultanahmet mosque were arranged as panels consisting
of the square flagstones or large design compositions cons-
tituted with the composition of the different pieces. The
colors and arrangements used display differences with res-
pect to the date of manufacture of the ti les and the work-
shops where they were manufactured. A rich visual diversity
is noticed with respect to the periods in the products of
iznik and Kütahya workshops by the end of the 16th century
and at the beginning of the 17th century. White was used in
the square pieces, the branches of vine, globe artichokes,
plums, pomegranate flowers, carnation, mint, medallion-li-
ke flower groups, violets, verbena, hyacinth and jasmines,
hanging bunches of grapes engraved on the rectangular
border tiles navy blue in color were used, shades of the
colors such as turquoise, gray, brown, red, coral, navy blue,
blue, purple, black, green were used. According lo the re-
cords related to the mosque, 21043 tiles were used.
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