The Blue Mosque is also gone by the name Sultan Ahmed, is a beautiful historic mosque located in Istanbul, Turkey. It remains a functioning mosque to date while being one of the biggest and the most amazing tourists spot attracting large numbers of tourist visitors. This mosque was constructed between the year 1609 and 1616 during the period of ruler Ahmed I. This mosque contains Ahmed’s tomb, a madrasah, and a hospice. Hand-painted blue tiles in this mosque make the mosque’s interior walls stand out, and when the night falls the mosque is bathed in blue as lights frame the mosque’s five main domes, six minarets, and eight secondary domes. This mosque is located near the Hagia Sophia, another popular tourist site in Istanbul.
The Blue Mosque has one main dome that is the biggest, six minarets, and eight secondary domes. The design is the completion of two centuries of Ottoman mosque development. It assimilates some Byzantine Christian elements which were taken from the neighboring Hagia Sophia including traditional Islamic architecture and is also considered to be the last great mosque from the classical period. Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa was the architect who designed this mosque aiming for overwhelming size, majesty, and splendor.
Interior of Blue Mosque:
This mosque has an amazing interior. The mosque is lined with more than 20,000 handmade İznik style ceramic tiles in more than fifty tulip designs, at its lower levels, and every pier. The lower level tiles are designed traditionally, while at gallery level or eye level the designs become extravagant and ornate with the portrayal of flowers, fruit, and cypresses. These beautiful tiles were made under the supervision of the Iznik master.
The upper levels of the interior are painted with blue paint. There are more than 200 stained glass windows made with intricate designs that allow natural sunlight and today these windows are assisted by stunning chandeliers. On these chandeliers, ostrich eggs are found that were put there to avoid cobwebs inside the mosque by spiders. The decorations also include verses from the Qur’an, many of which were made by the greatest calligrapher. The floors of the blue mosque are covered with carpets, which are regularly replaced. Each semi-dome has 14 windows and the central dome has 28 windows.
The most important detail in the interior of the mosque is the mihrab, which is made from exquisitely carved and sculptured marble, with a double engraved panel above it. The adjacent walls are covered in ceramic tiles. To the right of the mihrab is the handsomely decorated pulpit, where the imam stands.
Exterior:
The exterior of this mosque is as amazing as its interior. The exterior of the spacious mosque was built in the same manner as the exterior of the Süleymaniye Mosque, except the turrets on the corner domes were added to it. The court is almost as large as the mosque itself and is encircled by an extended vaulted arcade. It has lavation facilities on both sides. There is a hexagonal fountain in the center of the courtyard. There is a narrow gateway to the courtyard that stands out architecturally from the arcade. Its semi-dome has a fine structure, crowned by a small ribbed dome.
The heavy iron chain was there hanging in the upper part of the court entrance on the western side, where only the sultan was allowed to enter the court of the mosque. The chain was put there so that the sultan had to lower his head every time he entered the court to avoid any sort of attack. This was a symbolic gesture, to ensure the humility of the ruler in the face of the divine.
Minarets of Blue Mosque:
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque or the Blue mosque is the first one of the two mosques in Turkey that has six minarets, the second one was the Sabancı Mosque in Adana. When people got to know about the number of minarets after the mosque was built, the Sultan was criticized for being pretentious, since this was the same minarets number as at the mosque of the Ka’aba in Mecca. He then found the solution to this problem by ordering a seventh minaret to be built at the Mecca mosque. As the sun sets and the mosque is brightened by colored floodlights.
Four of these minarets stand at the corners of the Blue Mosque. Each of these fluted, pencil-shaped minarets has three balconies that are called Şerefe with stalactite corbels, while the other two at the end of the court only have two balconies. Where the muezzin or prayer caller had to climb a narrow spiral staircase five times a day for the call to prayer. In today’s time, a public announcement system is being used for the purpose, and the azaan can be heard across the old part of the city.
