Penny Magazine

No. 229 - THE PENNY MAGAZINE - Oct. 31, 1835

INTERIOR VIEW IN THE GRAND MOSQUE OF SULTAN ACHMET, AT CONSTANTINOPLE.

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IN an early Number of our Magazine (No. 25) we gave a bird's-eye view and a brief external description of this magnificent Mohammedan temple, which stands on one side of the ancient square of the Hippodrome. It was built by the victorious Sultan Achmet I., by whose name it generally goes;--but it is also called Alti-Minarely, or the Mosque of Six Minarets, being the only one in the Turkish capital that has so many of those light and lofty towers. Until of late years, it was difficult for a Christian to obtain admission within these temples at Constantinople, and to that effect is was necessary to get a special firman form the Porte, which document did not always save those who used it from being insulted or assaulted by a fanatic mob. Now, however, Sultan Mahmoud's reforms, and defeat, and humiliation, have disarmed the people of their animosity and fierceness, and Christian travellers go in and come out of their mosques with little or no difficulty. The interior of most of these sacred edifices is now almost as well know as their exterior. In all the imperial mosques, which, including Santa Sofia, are fourteen in number, the expanse and elevation are grand and imposing, but nothing can well surpass the extreme simplicity of their interior features and details. In some of them, as Santa Sofia and the Alti-Minarely, the columns are carved, and the arches, cupolas, and walls ornamented with low reliefs or mosaic-work; but these, with some scrolls and fretted work round the numerous windows, constitute nearly all the inner decorations, and there are scarcely any accessories or furniture, or articles of any kind, to break the great void, or injure the simplicity of the plan. The religion of Mahomet, like that of Moses, prohibits the representation, in sculpture or in painting, of any living thing *, there are therefore no statues and no pictures. The organ, which swells so solemnly through Christian cathedrals to the delight of the ear, though its huge form is sometimes so placed as to cut up the interior view to the annoyance of the eye, is unknown to the Turks, who only make a religious use of music in the halls of their dancing dervishes. They have no stalls, no large canopied pulpits, galleries, pews, benches, chairs, or stools. The three principal objects in all Turkish mosques are the following, and they are small in dimensions, and by no means made prominent:--

The mihrab, improperly called by travellers "the altar," for it is nothing but a hollow place or niche, from six to eight feet high, made in the wall at the end of the mosque to point out the direction of the holy city of Mecca, to which the faithful must turn when the pray.
The mahfil-muezzin, a small, slightly elevated platform, to the left of the mihrab, where the muezzins are stationed during divine service.
The kursy, a kind of open pulpit to the right of the mihrab, only raised six or eight feet from the floor, in which the sheik preacher (who very seldom preaches) takes his stand.

In addition to these, the imperial mosques, like that of Sultan Achmet, have a minber, and a mahfil-padishahy. The first is a kind of miniature pavilion, which, in some of the larger mosques, looks like a pigeon-house: it is always at some distance to the left of the mihrab, and is elevated on a steep and narrow flight of steps. According to the letter of the book of law, there ought never to be more than twenty-three steps to this flight. The minber is reserved for the khatib, or chief of the mosque, who on certain days recites from it at full length a profession of faith, and a denunciation of all religions save that of Mahomet. When the Turks were a conquering people, and converted the churches they took from the Christians into mosques, on the day they were opened, and when the sounds of "Allah il Allah!" were heard for the first time from the church-tower, the khatib ascended the steps leaning on a sword;--he held the sabre, as the instrument of victory and conversion, while he recited his profession, then waved it in the air, and then descended leaning upon it, as he had done on ascending the steps.

The mahfil padishahy * is a chamber or recess, closed in front with gilded lattice-work, in which the sultan and his courtiers sit concealed during the time of prayers. This recess, which does not in any way project from the walls of the mosque, is at a considerable elevation, and generally on the side of the temple opposite to the khatib's chair. It is more like the grated galleries in the Catholic churches, to which nunneries are attached, than to anything else, but is smaller than they generally are.

Inscriptions in large Arabic characters, and tablets bearing the names of Allah, Mahomet, the four first caliphs, and Hassan and Hussein, the children of Aly, occur here and there on the walls of the mosque, but are too plain and mean to be counted as decorations. At a distance the inscriptions look like mere scrawls done in black paint, and the tablets, which are surrounded by plain black wooden frames, are seldom more than two or three feet square. Some of the tablets are done in blue and gold letters, and contain short passages from the Koran. Lamps, which are sometimes of silver, (and in Achmet's Mosque they are, or were, of gold, and set with precious stones,) are suspended in different parts of the interior, but these are few and far between, and much too small to produce any effect in those vast spaces. The Turks also hang up in their mosques, and grand tombs or mausoleums, a number of large ostrich-eggs,--a curious custom which we have never seen explained. In some instances we have seen a few small coloured glass lamps, like those used in our illuminations or at Vauxhall, hung up in these temples.

The great floor of the mosque is generally covered with Egyptian matting of an excellent quality, being even, firm, and compact, and altogether different from our straw-mats. Until lately, the Turks wore soft morocco boots without any sole, and over these strong papoushes, or soled slippers, which alone receive the dirt of the streets, and which they took off not only at the entrance of the mosque, but at the threshold of every private apartment they entered. The matting was thus not liable to be dirtied, and though some of the minor ones were neglected, particularly in the provinces, the chief mosques of Constantinople were kept most scrupulously clean and neat in every part. The interiors of the mosques of sultan Achmet, the Suley-manieh, the Valide-Sultana, and the Eyoub, used to be remarkable for their almost spotless purity. Now that Sultan Mahmoud has put a large portion of his subjects into shoes and boots like our own, which are not so easy to take off as the Turkish papoushes, it will be rather more difficult to preserve the matting, on which they all kneel or prostrate themselves in their worship, free from mud and dust. But a more serious mischief is likely to arise to the mosques from the sultan's often-threatened seizure of the property attached to them, and which is in many cases very considerable. Santa Sofia is always considered as the chief temple, but it is to the mosque of Sultan Achmet that the Grand Seignor repairs in state at the Bairam, the Courban-Bairam, and the Mevloud *, the only three great festivals acknowledged in the religious code of the Turks.

On those days the vast space, of which only a section is represented in our engraving, was filled and crowded by the sultan's numerous court, by muftis, oulemas, pashas, beys, and other dignitaries of the empire, all followed by their grown-up sons, and a host of splendidly-attired domestics or dependants. The flowing and richly-coloured robes, the bright turbans and haughty caouks, the majestic beards, the daggers glittering with diamonds, the aspiring plumes of feathers with aigrettes of brilliants, and other gorgeous articles of costume and appointment, being condensed and enclosed as in a frame-work, within those plain but majestic walls, used to produce a picture that we have heard described as truly wonderful; and when that splendid mass, in the performance of their religious ceremonies, knelt, or threw themselves prostrate, or raised themselves and clasped their hands on their bosoms, as though the bodies of thousands had been moved by one will--one soul, the effect must have been electrifying.

We have used the past tense; for the splendour of these celebrations, and of everything connected with the Turkish empire, has been passing rapidly away; and the almost total change of costume which Mahmoud has obliged his subjects to adopt must deprive the scene of its most striking and picturesque features.

Seven years ago, though not allowed to enter the temple, we saw the sultan's procession on the Courban-Bairam go from the Seraglio gate to the Hippodrome, and the mosque of Achmet; and though we are not very fond of shows and spectacles, and the exhibition was even then far inferior to what it had been in former years, we could not help being forcibly struck by it. On a fine clear summer-morning, shortly after sunrise, the sultan, with an almost countless retinue, all dressed in their most splendid oriental costumes, and mounted on beautiful horses, richly caparisoned, issued from the Seraglio gate, in a waving, chequered, brightly-coloured line, that looked like some capricious rainbow. Each personage in the procession had several servants in rich dresses walking by the head or on the flanks of his horse, and the officers and attendants of the palace divided into many classes or troops, each of which was distinguished by a peculiar uniform, were distributed along the line. One part of the cortege consisted of a number of Arabian steeds--the finest horses of the sultan's stud,--which were led in hand, and carried burnished shields and other pieces of ancient or eastern armour tastefully arranged on their backs and shoulders. A good part of this armour is said to have been taken in war by the Turks from the Greek emperors. The procession marched slowly through the streets, where all was dead silence on the part of the thousands of human beings assembled there, and not a voice or whisper was heard until the sultan rode into the great square of the Hippodrome, when the Muezzins from the lofty minarets of the mosque sent forth their shrill but melodious cry--"Allah, il Allah! There is no god but God, and Mahomet is his prophet!" When they came in front of the temple, the Grand Seignor, his ministers, sword-bearer, courtiers, pashas, and the rest, all dismounted, and while some of the attendants remained outside in charge of the horses, others in their proper places joined the brilliant array that gradually disappeared under the arched gateways and in the interior of the mosque of Sultan Achmet.