October 7, 2000

Yildiz Park

Roshan and I went to Yildiz Park this morning. It turns out that Yildiz park is actually where most of the Yildiz Palace sights are. There is a chalet with the typical palace furnishings : Bohemian chandeliers, painted ceilings and marbled walls. There is one room that I found really striking. It is the "Mother of Pearl" Room. The rest of the place is in the typical European style but this room uses wood in Middle Eastern geometric designs, inlaid with Mother of Pearl. It was used as a dining room but also used for religious ceremonies.

The park was a pleasant surprise. It is a large forested area, complete with scampering squirrels and birds (we even saw a parrot!). There is a very good chance that many of the red squirrels are decendants of the squirrels my friend Besra released there a couple years ago.

There are a couple mansions which are now restaurants. The air is fresh and smells lovely. Best of all, I was able to get the rose stems I needed to make my Ebru brushes from the tall climbing roses.

It is such a nice place to walk and it isn't far from Taksim at all.

On Wednesday, I became a Moslem at the Iranian Shiite Mosque in Cagolu. It was a fairly burocratic ceremony. Basically, there was a bit of paperwork, then the Sheik explained ther rules of Islam to me (Roshan translated). The rules included doing everything my husband says and not drinking Raki (he said Raki, not alcohol). Ironically enough, in Turkey, many moslems say they can drink Raki because the Koran says wine is forbidden and doesn't say anything about Raki. Maybe that is the undiscussed differences between the Suni and Shiite beliefs. After hearing the rules I had to repeat the vow that makes a person into a moslem. It was long and in Arabic. No one explained what it meant. I tried to be serious but of course I ended up laughing by the end of it because I've never spoken any Arabic before and I sounded so funny, with my tongue tripping over these words that are so important to the Islamic religion and whose meaning I had no clue about. Roshan and I "Kabul Ediyorum"ed again and the Sheik said a long prayer. Then we were officailly married (again).

Nov. 19, 2000

The Süleymaniye

My class was cancelled this morning which made me a happy camper. Roshan and I had breakfast and then Roshan went to work on a school project. I decided to finally see the Sulleymaniye Mosque.

On the way, I visited the Prince's Mosque (Seyzade) near the aqueduct. Wandering the back streets brought me to another section of the aqueduct I hadn't known about and a byzantine church (Akatolepos Monastary) which is now the Kalenderhane Mosque. The call to prayer started as I walked by it so I didn't go in and instead walked to Süleymaniye where I could walk around the grounds. Süleyman's Tomb was absolutely beautiful. There were multicoloured stained glass windows, tiles and marbled panels. The tombs were huge and crowned with large stuffed turbans. It made me imagine that the Sultan and his family burried inside them were giants. I wonder what they are burried with or if it is all just empty space or solid stone around a silk wrapped skeleton. I took a leisurely walk. The grounds are beautiful. (Minaret) Then I waited in the "tourist" courtyard for the prayers to finish. A sign said the mosque would be open in 20 minutes. An hour passed. I attempted to draw the tiles and stone work (and failed) and eventually dozed off in the sun, leaning against a stone column.

Finally, people inside began to leave. Maybe there was a special event that day. A row of men stood at the front of the mosque and the other men walked down the row enthusiastically talking and kissing each other's cheeks. Children ran around the mosque. One girl was pretending she was a horse and leaping over the shoe racks. As her scarf flew off she held it behind her so it streamed out like a horses tail.

In spite of the mosque's grandeur, there is something homey about it. Maybe it is the bright electric chandeliers (where a Christian Cathedral has mostly candles), or the carpeted floors where everyone pads about in their socks (as opposed to the cold stone of a cathedral).

The people who had been praying slowly filed out of the church and onto several tour busses.I walked out and found a bus to Taksim.