The Bosphorus straights revisited. My intention in the postings from here on out is to retrace our pilgrimage steps so that the blog will eventually read in the chonological sequence in which it was experienced. The original postings were done “live” so to speak, with the result that they read from the most recent to the less recent, or in reverse historical order. This is the nature of a blog. So each section of our trip will now be covered twice. Here, back at the Bosphorus straits we see another Queen Mother Mosque with Ritz Carlton skyscraper to its right. This Queen Mum’s motto must have been “less is best” considering the enormous size of some of the other Queen Mother Mosque’s on the Bosphorus.

Sorry I don’t know what this is. Some huge palace perhaps built by one of the Sultans. It would certainly be a wonderful place to entertain visiting royalty in the heydays of the Ottoman empire.

The first depiction of Hagia Sophia that caught my attention was a cartoon of Prince Valiant drawn by Hal Foster. Hal spent lots of time detailing each of his strips, and this one showed Constantinople as seen from the sea. The great basilica of Hagia Sophia dominated the entire old city, much as the Eiffel Tower has dominated Paris since 1889. Except Hagia Sophia goes back to 537. So it was with great interest that I got to view this great basilica from the sea. It’s a shame no one has had the guts to take down those minarets since the church was changed from a mosque to a museum.

You can see I clearly enjoyed our ride down the Bosphorus. It was a Friday when we rented this boat. Friday is the Moslem holy day. The Jews worship on Saturday, Christians on Sunday and Moslems on Friday. So one of the added pleasures of this trip was hearing the prayer calls sound from each of the minarets as the One O’Clock chant rang out for midday prayer. As soon as one died out, the call from another minaret would begin. It was a distinct reminder that this “Mayday” was a holy day despite the rioting of workers in parts of the city that surrounded us.

The Blue Mosque

Hagia Sophia ceased being used as a Mosque in the 1920s when Ataturk separated the church from the state.

Not to be outdone by this loss of Istanbul’s most famous landmark, the Moslems built their own mosque directly behind Hagia Sophia. The Blue Mosque is seen here through the gates that lead into Hagia Sophia. This new mosque was built to be “bigger and better” than the landmark architecture in whose shadow she stands.

It was a Friday when we visited the Blue Mosque, so the lanterns and candles were lit in preparation for the noon day service. Here we learned that the mosque and the synagogue have similar features. The men worship in the main part of the church, with women separated in sections that adjoin the main congregation.

In this view of the interior you can see where it gets the name the “Blue Mosque.” In addition to lots of blue glass in the windows, there is a predominance of blue mosaic tiles in the walls and ceilings. You may also note than despite the iconoclastic bent of the Muslim religion, the artists certainly found creative ways of decorating their church structures.

We ran into this street vendor outside the Chora church later that day. He was selling these traditional Turkish hats, and although we declined to buy one of his hats, he was very gracious to pose for our pictures. These are good people. They are kind and respectful. Due to its huge population, Istanbul is in some ways like New York. But there is little similarity between New Yorkers and the Turks who crowd the streets of Istanbul.

This is the Chora Church, or in correct political speak, the Chora Museum. You see, in 1934, Turkey's first president, Kemal Ataturk, secularized Hagia Sophia, which was being used as a mosque, turning it into a museum. ''This should be a monument for all civilization," he declared, much to the chagrin of his country’s Muslim Imams. By the same token, the Chora Church also became a museum.

How the mosaics of Chora survived the iconoclasm of the Moslem occupation, I frankly don’t know. I’m sure it must have been explained to us, but I was so thrilled to see some Christian images in this country that I missed the point on how they managed to survive. The mosaics of Chora are impressive. On the arched ceilings of the foyer or narthex of the church are depictions of various scenes in Our Lady’s life, some from scripture, others from tradition.

The annunciation takes place while Mary is drawing water from the well. The dormition of Mary is an Oriental feast devoted to Mary’s “falling asleep” which is a euphemism for her death. When Rome issued its decree on Mary’s assumption, the papal speech writers were careful to word it in such a way as not to offend the Eastern churches: “When the time came for her to pass from this earth,” is a clever way of not saying whether she died or not.

The interesting feature of this mosaic is the figure of Mary’s risen son holding his mother as an infant at her death bed.

The central nave of the church is more Spartan with two single mosaics flanking the sanctuary: John the Evangelist to the left and Our Lady to the right.

The side altars, however are full of paintings. These may be the three great Cappadocian fathers: Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory Naziensen, and Basil. Cappadocia was one of the places we did not visit on our pilgrimage. I would have enjoyed finding anything there relating to Gregory Naziensen who in my opinion is one of the greatest of the church fathers.

The two saints who flank the entrance into the main nave of the church are Peter and Paul. Saint Peter can always be recognized because he’s the one holding the keys. Paul’s receding hairline indicates an older man, the prominent forehead a man of intelligence, and then there’s those teaching fingers.

The risen Lord is depicted in a traditional pose called “the harrowing of hell” where he grabs Adam with his right hand and Eve with his left to lift them up to heaven as Jesus rises from the place of the dead. Our first parents had to wait for Jesus to redeem them from their sins before they could enter heaven.