The Mosques of Constantinople.
Sojourn at Constantinople--Semi-European Character of the City--The
Mosque--Procuring a Firman--The Seraglio--The Library--The Ancient
Throne-Room--Admittance to St. Sophia--Magnificence of the Interior--The
Marvellous Dome--The Mosque of Sultan Achmed--The Sulemanye--Great
Conflagrations--Political Meaning of the Fires--Turkish Progress--Decay
of the Ottoman Power.
"Is that indeed Sophia's far-famed dome,
Where first the Faith was led in triumph home,
Like some high bride, with banner and bright sign,
And melody, and flowers?" Audrey de Vere.
Constantinople, _Tuesday, August_ 8, 1852.
The length of my stay in Constantinople has enabled me to visit many
interesting spots in its vicinity, as well as to familiarize myself with
the peculiar features of the great capital. I have seen the beautiful
Bosphorus from steamers and caïques; ridden up the valley of Buyukdere,
and through the chestnut woods of Belgrade; bathed in the Black Sea, under
the lee of the Symplegades, where the marble altar to Apollo still invites
an oblation from passing mariners; walked over the flowery meadows beside
the "Heavenly Waters of Asia;" galloped around the ivy-grown walls where
Dandolo and Mahomet II. conquered, and the last of the Palæologi fell; and
dreamed away many an afternoon-hour under the funereal cypresses of Pera,
and beside the Delphian tripod in the Hippodrome. The historic interest
of these spots is familiar to all, nor; with one exception, have their
natural beauties been exaggerated by travellers. This exception is the
village of Belgrade, over which Mary Montague went into raptures, and set
the fashion for tourists ever since. I must confess to having been wofully
disappointed. The village is a miserable cluster of rickety houses, on an
open piece of barren land, surrounded by the forests, or rather thickets,
which keep alive the springs that supply Constantinople with water. We
reached there with appetites sharpened by our morning's ride, expecting to
find at least a vender of _kibabs_ (bits of fried meat) in so renowned a
place; but the only things to be had were raw salt mackerel, and bread
which belonged to the primitive geological formation.
The general features of Constantinople and the Bosphorus are so well
known, that I am spared the dangerous task of painting scenes which have
been colored by abler pencils. Von Hammer, Lamartine, Willis, Miss Pardoe,
Albert Smith, and thou, most inimitable Thackeray! have made Pera and
Scutari, the Bazaars and Baths, the Seraglio and the Golden Horn, as
familiar to our ears as Cornhill and Wall street. Besides, Constantinople
is not the true Orient, which is to be found rather in Cairo, in Aleppo,
and brightest and most vital, in Damascus. Here, we tread European soil;
the Franks are fast crowding out the followers of the Prophet, and
Stamboul itself, were its mosques and Seraglio removed, would differ
little in outward appearance from a third-rate Italian town. The Sultan
lives in a palace with a Grecian portico; the pointed Saracenic arch, the
arabesque sculptures, the latticed balconies, give place to clumsy
imitations of Palladio, and every fire that sweeps away a recollection of
the palmy times of Ottoman rule, sweeps it away forever.
But the Mosque--that blossom of Oriental architecture, with its crowning
domes, like the inverted bells of the lotus, and its reed-like minarets,
its fountains and marble courts--can only perish with the faith it
typifies. I, for one, rejoice that, so long as the religion of Islam
exists (and yet, may its time be short!), no Christian model can shape its
houses of worship. The minaret must still lift its airy tower for the
muezzin; the dome must rise like a gilded heaven above the prayers of the
Faithful, with its starry lamps and emblazoned phrases; the fountain must
continue to pour its waters of purification. A reformation of the Moslem
faith is impossible. When it begins to give way, the whole fabric must
fall. Its ceremonies, as well as its creed, rest entirely on the
recognition of Mahomet as the Prophet of God. However the Turks may change
in other respects, in all that concerns their religion they must continue
the same.
Until within a few years, a visit to the mosques, especially the more
sacred ones of St. Sophia and Sultan Achmed, was attended with much
difficulty. Miss Pardoe, according to her own account, risked her life in
order to see the interior of St. Sophia, which she effected in the
disguise of a Turkish Effendi. I accomplished the same thing, a few days
since, but without recourse to any such romantic expedient. Mr. Brown, the
interpreter of the Legation, procured a firman from the Grand Vizier, on
behalf of the officers of the San Jacinto, and kindly invited me, with
several other American and English travellers, to join the party. During
the month of Ramazan, no firmans are given, and as at this time there are
few travellers in Constantinople, we should otherwise have been subjected
to a heavy expense. The cost of a firman, including backsheesh to the
priests and doorkeepers, is 700 piastres (about $33).
We crossed the Golden Horn in caïques, and first visited the gardens and
palaces on Seraglio Point. The Sultan at present resides in his summer
palace of Beshiktashe, on the Bosphorus, and only occupies the Serai
Bornou, as it is called, during the winter months. The Seraglio covers the
extremity of the promontory on which Constantinople is built, and is
nearly three miles in circuit. The scattered buildings erected by
different Sultans form in themselves a small city, whose domes and pointed
turrets rise from amid groves of cypress and pine. The sea-wall is lined
with kiosks, from whose cushioned windows there are the loveliest views of
the European and Asian shores. The newer portion of the palace, where the
Sultan now receives the ambassadors of foreign nations, shows the
influence of European taste in its plan and decorations. It is by no means
remarkable for splendor, and suffers by contrast with many of the private
houses in Damascus and Aleppo. The building is of wood, the walls
ornamented with detestable frescoes by modern Greek artists, and except a
small but splendid collection of arms, and some wonderful specimens of
Arabic chirography, there is nothing to interest the visitor.
In ascending to the ancient Seraglio, which was founded by Mahomet II., on
the site of the palace of the Palæologi, we passed the Column of
Theodosius, a plain Corinthian shaft, about fifty feet high. The Seraglio
is now occupied entirely by the servants and guards, and the greater part
of it shows a neglect amounting almost to dilapidation. The Saracenic
corridors surrounding its courts are supported by pillars of marble,
granite, and porphyry, the spoils of the Christian capital. We were
allowed to walk about at leisure, and inspect the different compartments,
except the library, which unfortunately was locked. This library was for a
long time supposed to contain many lost treasures of ancient
literature--among other things, the missing books of Livy--but the recent
researches of Logothetos, the Prince of Samos, prove that there is little
of value, among its manuscripts. Before the door hangs a wooden globe,
which is supposed to be efficacious in neutralizing the influence of the
Evil Eye. There are many ancient altars and fragments of pillars scattered
about the courts, and the Turks have even commenced making a collection of
antiquities, which, with the exception of two immense sarcophagi of red
porphyry, contains nothing of value. They show, however, one of the brazen
heads of the Delphian tripod in the Hippodrome, which, they say, Mahomet
the Conqueror struck off with a single blow of his sword, on entering
Constantinople.
The most interesting portion of the Seraglio is the ancient throne-room,
now no longer used, but still guarded by a company of white eunuchs. The
throne is an immense, heavy bedstead, the posts of which are thickly
incrusted with rubies, turquoises, emeralds, and sapphires. There is a
funnel-shaped chimney-piece in the room, a master-work of Benevenuto
Cellini. There, half a century ago, the foreign ambassadors were
presented, after having been bathed, fed, and clothed with a rich mantle
in the outer apartments. They were ushered into the imperial presence,
supported by a Turkish official on either side, in order that they might
show no signs of breaking down under the load of awe and reverence they
were supposed to feel. In the outer Court, adjoining the Sublime Porte, is
the Chapel of the Empress Irene, now converted into an armory, which, for
its size, is the most tasteful and picturesque collection of weapons I
have ever seen. It is especially rich in Saracenic armor, and contains
many superb casques of inlaid gold. In a large glass case in the chancel,
one sees the keys of some thirty or forty cities, with the date of their
capture. It is not likely that another will ever be added to the list.
We now passed out through the Sublime Porte, and directed our steps to the
famous _Aya Sophia_--the temple dedicated by Justinian to the Divine
Wisdom. The repairs made to the outer walls by the Turks, and the addition
of the four minarets, have entirely changed the character of the building,
without injuring its effect. As a Christian Church, it must have been less
imposing than in its present form. A priest met us at the entrance, and
after reading the firman with a very discontented face, informed us that
we could not enter until the mid-day prayers were concluded. After taking
off our shoes, however, we were allowed to ascend to the galleries, whence
we looked down on the bowing worshippers. Here the majesty of the renowned
edifice, despoiled as it now is, bursts at once upon the eye. The
wonderful flat dome, glittering with its golden mosaics, and the sacred
phrase from the Koran: "_God is the Light of the Heavens and the Earth_,"
swims in the air, one hundred and eighty feet above the marble pavement.
On the eastern and western sides, it rests on two half domes; which again
rise from or rest upon a group of three small half-domes, so that the
entire roof of the mosque, unsupported by a pillar, seems to have been
dropped from above on the walls, rather than to have been built up from
them. Around the edifice run an upper and a lower gallery, which alone
preserve the peculiarities of the Byzantine style. These galleries are
supported by the most precious columns which ancient art could afford:
among them eight shafts of green marble, from the Temple of Diana, at
Ephesus; eight of porphyry, from the Temple of the Sun, at Baalbek;
besides Egyptian granite from the shrines of Isis and Osiris, and
Pentelican marble from the sanctuary of Pallas Athena. Almost the whole of
the interior has been covered with gilding, but time has softened its
brilliancy, and the rich, subdued gleam of the walls is in perfect harmony
with the varied coloring of the ancient marbles.
Under the dome, four Christian seraphim, executed in mosaic, have been
allowed to remain, but the names of the four archangels of the Moslem
faith are inscribed underneath. The bronze doors are still the same, the
Turks having taken great pains to obliterate the crosses with which they
were adorned. Around the centre of the dome, as on that of Sultan Achmed,
may be read, in golden letters, and in all the intricacy of Arabic
penmanship, the beautiful verse:--"God is the Light of the Heavens and the
Earth. His wisdom is a light on the wall, in which burns a lamp covered
with glass. The glass shines like a star, the lamp is lit with the oil of
a blessed tree. No Eastern, no Western oil, it shines for whoever wills."
After the prayers were over, and we had descended to the floor of the
mosque, I spent the rest of my time under the dome, fascinated by its
marvellous lightness and beauty. The worshippers present looked at us with
curiosity, but without ill-will; and before we left, one of the priests
came slyly with some fragments of the ancient gilded mosaic, which, he was
heathen enough to sell, and we to buy.
From St. Sophia we went to Sultan Achmed, which faces the Hippodrome, and
is one of the stateliest piles of Constantinople. It is avowedly an
imitation of St. Sophia, and the Turks consider it a more wonderful work,
because the dome is seven feet higher. It has six minarets, exceeding in
this respect all the mosques of Asia. The dome rests on four immense
pillars, the bulk of which quite oppresses the light galleries running
around the walls. This, and the uniform white color of the interior,
impairs the effect which its bold style and imposing dimensions would
otherwise produce. The outside view, with the group of domes swelling
grandly above the rows of broad-armed sycamores, is much more
satisfactory. In the tomb of Sultan Achmed, in one corner of the court, we
saw his coffin, turban, sword, and jewelled harness. I had just been
reading old Sandys' account of his visit to Constantinople, in 1610,
during this Sultan's reign, and could only think of him as Sandys
represents him, in the title-page to his book, as a fat man, with bloated
cheeks, in a long gown and big turban, and the words underneath:--
"_Achmed, sive Tyrannus._"
The other noted mosques of Constantinople are the _Yeni Djami,_ or Mosque
of the Sultana Valide, on the shore of the Golden Horn, at the end of the
bridge to Galata; that of Sultan Bajazet; of Mahomet II., the Conqueror,
and of his son, Suleyman the Magnificent, whose superb mosque well
deserves this title. I regret exceedingly that our time did not allow us
to view the interior, for outwardly it not only surpasses St. Sophia, and
all other mosques in the city, but is undoubtedly one of the purest
specimens of Oriental architecture extant. It stands on a broad terrace,
on one of the seven hills of Stamboul, and its exquisitely proportioned
domes and minarets shine as if crystalized in the blue of the air. It is a
type of Oriental, as the Parthenon is of Grecian, and the Cologne
Cathedral of Gothic art. As I saw it the other night, lit by the flames of
a conflagration, standing out red and clear against the darkness, I felt
inclined to place it on a level with either of those renowned structures.
It is a product of the rich fancy of the East, splendidly ornate, and not
without a high degree of symmetry--yet here the symmetry is that of
ornament alone, and not the pure, absolute proportion of forms, which we
find in Grecian Art. It requires a certain degree of enthusiasm--nay, a
slight inebriation of the imaginative faculties--in order to feel the
sentiment of this Oriental Architecture. If I rightly express all that it
says to me, I touch the verge of rapsody. The East, in almost all its
aspects, is so essentially poetic, that a true picture of it must be
poetic in spirit, if not in form.
Constantinople has been terribly ravaged by fires, no less than fifteen
having occurred during the past two weeks. Almost every night the sky has
been reddened by burning houses, and the minarets of the seven hills
lighted with an illumination brighter than that of the Bairam. All the
space from the Hippodrome to the Sea of Marmora has been swept away; the
lard, honey, and oil magazines on the Golden Horn, with the bazaars
adjoining; several large blocks on the hill of Galata, with the College of
the Dancing Dervishes; a part of Scutari, and the College of the Howling
Dervishes, all have disappeared; and to-day, the ruins of 3,700 houses,
which were destroyed last night, stand smoking in the Greek quarter,
behind the aqueduct of Valens. The entire amount of buildings consumed in
these two weeks is estimated at between _five and six thousand_! The fire
on the hill of Galata threatened to destroy a great part of the suburb of
Pera. It came, sweeping over the brow of the hill, towards my hotel,
turning the tall cypresses in the burial ground into shafts of angry
flame, and eating away the crackling dwellings of hordes of hapless Turks.
I was in bed; from a sudden attack of fever, but seeing the other guests
packing up their effects and preparing to leave, I was obliged to do the
same; and this, in my weak state, brought on such a perspiration that the
ailment left me, The officers of the United States steamer _San Jacinto_,
and the French frigate _Charlemagne_, came to the rescue with their men
and fire-engines, and the flames were finally quelled. The proceedings of
the Americans, who cut holes in the roofs and played through them upon the
fires within, were watched by the Turks with stupid amazement.
"Máshallah!" said a fat Bimbashi, as he stood sweltering in the heat; "The
Franks are a wonderful people."
To those initiated into the mysteries of Turkish politics, these fires are
more than accidental; they have a most weighty significance. They indicate
either a general discontent with the existing state of affairs, or else a
powerful plot against the Sultan and his Ministry. Setting fire to houses
is, in fact, the Turkish method of holding an "indignation meeting," and
from the rate with which they are increasing, the political crisis must be
near at hand. The Sultan, with his usual kindness of heart, has sent large
quantities of tents and other supplies to the guiltless sufferers; but no
amount of kindness can soften the rancor of these Turkish intrigues.
Reschid Pasha, the present Grand Vizier, and the leader of the party of
Progress, is the person against whom this storm of opposition is now
gathering.
In spite of all efforts, the Ottoman Power is rapidly wasting away. The
life of the Orient is nerveless and effete; the native strength of the
race has died out, and all attempts to resuscitate it by the adoption of
European institutions produce mere galvanic spasms, which leave it more
exhausted than before. The rosy-colored accounts we have had of Turkish
Progress are for the most part mere delusions. The Sultan is a
well-meaning but weak man, and tyrannical through his very weakness. Had
he strength enough to break through the meshes of falsehood and venality
which are woven so close about him, he might accomplish some solid good.
But Turkish rule, from his ministers down to the lowest _cadi_, is a
monstrous system of deceit and corruption. These people have not the most
remote conception of the true aims of government; they only seek to enrich
themselves and their parasites, at the expense of the people and the
national treasury. When we add to this the conscript system, which is
draining the provinces of their best Moslem subjects, to the advantage of
the Christians and Jews, and the blindness of the Revenue Laws, which
impose on domestic manufactures double the duty levied on foreign
products, it will easily be foreseen that the next half-century, or less,
will completely drain the Turkish Empire of its last lingering energies.
Already, in effect, Turkey exists only through the jealousy of the
European nations. The treaty of Unkiar-iskelessi, in 1833, threw her into
the hands of Russia, although the influence of England has of late years
reigned almost exclusively in her councils. These are the two powers who
are lowering at each other with sleepless eyes, in the Dardanelles and the
Bosphorus. The people, and most probably the government, is strongly
preposessed in favor of the English; but the Russian Bear has a heavy paw,
and when he puts it into the scale, all other weights kick the beam. It
will be a long and wary struggle, and no man can prophecy the result. The
Turks are a people easy to govern, were even the imperfect laws, now in
existence, fairly administered. They would thrive and improve under a
better state of things; but I cannot avoid the conviction that the
regeneration of the East will never be effected at their hands.