took possession of Constantinople, and began to change its character
from a European to an Asiatic city, by introducing the edifices and
usages of the East. It was afterwards re-edified by his successors,
and its parts distinguished by Eski and Yeni, the Old and the New
Bazaar. They now consist of long avenues covered over with lofty
arches of brick, lighted by apertures in the roof, and branching off
in various directions. The ceilings of the vaults, and other parts
of the walls, are painted with various flowers and devices. On each
side of the passage are counters, or stalls, ranged along, leaving
a wide way between. On the counter of each stall the merchant sits,
generally smoking a chibouque, or narghillai, with his crossed legs
drawn under him. If he be distinguished by a calpac, or inverted cone,
upon his head, or a large snow-white turban, he is either an Armenian
or a Turk; so he quietly abides his time, and suffers you to pass with
imperturbable gravity, seldom condescending to ask your custom. If he
wear a cross-barred handkerchief, twisted round the crown of a hat, or
a coarse muslin wound about a red fez, he is either a Jew or a Greek,
and is as importunate with you to buy as a salesman in Monmouth-street.
Behind him, his larger wares are ranged against the walls, and his
smaller in clumsy glass-cases beside him on the counter, where all
articles are confounded in a heap. In his rear is generally a low door,
opening into a small room in the thickness of the walls, where his
unexposed goods are stored.
These edifices, filled with light and inflammable goods, are liable to
danger from the constant fires which occur at Constantinople, though
they are in some measure protected by their construction, and the
thickness of the walls. When fires have penetrated, they have been
attended with the most awful consequences. It has happened that both
ends of the covered way have been blazing at once, and all egress
prevented to the crowd within, and hundreds have miserably perished,
either consumed or suffocated in these vaults of fire. In order to
guard against this, no smoking, or light of any kind, is allowed:
notwithstanding this, the inveterate propensity of the Turk is not to
be controlled, and, relying on his unalterable destiny, he is often
seen with the glowing bowl of his pipe thrust among the inflammable
materials of his counter. Every evening at sunset, the bazaar is closed
with iron gates, and the merchants having locked up their wares behind
certain partitions drawn before them, are seen wending their way in
groups to the several quarters of the city in which each class is
located−-the Jew to Galata, the Greek to the Fanar, the Armenian to
Ypsomathia, and the Turk to various quarters.
Under cover at all times, and protected from wind, rain, and sun, this
bazaar is the resort of crowds every day and all day long. In the heats
of summer it is particularly agreeable. People escape from the burning
atmosphere, and an exposed unsheltered street, to this retreat. It
then resembles a subterranean city, crowded with a busy population of
many thousand persons, bustling, buying, and selling in the cool and
dim twilight. But the fair sex form by far the majority. It seems a
privileged place, where the ordinary distinction of sect or caste is
laid aside, and the Turk, Frank, and Raya, all mix and chat and bargain
together without restraint; and it seems the only place where the pride
and taciturnity of the Osmanli is laid aside. At the entrance are
crowds of poor Jews, who proffer their services to conduct you to what
you want, and carry home what you purchase.
The first attraction is generally a perfume-stall. Here attar of roses,
essence of lemon, extract of jasmine, pastiles of odoriferous gums,
which, when ignited, fill the air with their aromatic scent, are
presented to your choice. The last are particularly recommended, as
used by the ladies of the seraglio, who burn them in their pipe-bowls.
But of all the singular perfumes presented to you, are rats’-tails. An
animal of this species is endued with musky secretions, and its tail
yields a strong scent, which it retains for an indefinite term. All
these and many more odoriferous delicacies, which a Turk prizes, are
presented to you; and to induce you to buy, your hands, lips, hair,
whiskers, and cravat, are bedewed with them all, and you go forth
redolent with animal and vegetable odours. The next attraction is the
shoe-bazaar. Here the varied display of _imeh_ and _papoosh_, boots
and slippers, is very dazzling: a Turk never wears a boot without a
slipper. The first are red or yellow morocco, without soles, but sewed
below into a pointed bag, into which the foot is first forced; and
then, with the boot, into the slipper. The gait of both men and women,
thus encumbered, is singularly awkward and helpless. The feet scrape
the ground, and the sole of the slipper, which scarcely adheres to the
point of the toe, is dragged along, continually flapping against the
heel. These characteristic parts of Oriental dress are the particular
objects of Frank purchasers. The slippers are made of all materials,
and braided with all kinds of embroidery in gold and silver, and often
ornamented with pearls and precious stones. In this department are
found drinking-cups of untanned leather, and mirrors with morocco
frames.
But by far the most attractive display is the pipe department, and
the variety of chiboques. It is here the fancy of a Turk luxuriates,
and loves to exhibit itself with a dexterity shown in nothing
else. The implement consists of three separate parts−-tube, bowl,
and mouth-piece--in each of which there is an endless variety of
shape, size, and material. The most favourite wood for the first is
cherry-tree brought from Trebisond, rose-wood and jasmine, sometimes
extending to the length of ten or twelve feet. When you choose your
rod, the artist pierces it with the aid of his toe, a member he uses
with more skill than his finger. The bowl is a red earth, found and
manufactured at Burgaz, highly gilt and polished. The mouth-piece is
generally amber, imported by Armenians from the Baltic. This is prized
above all materials, not only for its beauty, but for its qualities.
It is supposed to be unsusceptible of the contagion of the plague;
and when that disease is raging, and every man shrinks from contact
with his neighbour, the amber chiboque passes from mouth to mouth
without any apprehension of pestilent saliva. A pipe is sometimes
ornamented with precious stones, and, with the tobacco-bag glittering
with spangles, varies in price from 10 to 1000 piastres, according to
the workmanship. Besides these and other articles peculiarly Turkish,
clothing, stuffs, carpets, shawls, &c. are displayed, and among them
the highly-prized manufactures of Manchester.
[Illutration: T. Allom. S Lacey.
THE ATMEIDAN, OR HIPPODROME; AND MOSQUE OF ACHMET.
WITH THE COLUMN OF CONSTANTINE AND EGYPTIAN OBELISK.]
The word _meidan_ signifies “a place,” and corresponds with the sense
in which we use the latter term in our towns. There are many so
called in Constantinople, but the most distinguished is the Atmeidan,
or “Place of the Horse.” It was, under the Greek empire, called
_Hippodrome_, which implies a horse-course. The Turks applied it to
the same purpose, and translated the Greek appellation into their own
language. It is described in the most gorgeous manner by the writers of
the lower empire, as ornamented with marble colonnades, and surrounded
by seats like an amphitheatre, where the courses were observed by the
spectators. These things have disappeared under the Turks, and it is
now a naked oblong area, with a very ruinous and neglected aspect. It
has, however, still its attractions. It is almost the only open and
airy public space within the walls of the city, and it is the only spot
where the very few ornaments of this great capital, now extant, are to
be seen in their original site and form.
The present area is an irregular quadrangle, about 260 yards long,
and 150 wide. It is bounded on one side by the mosque of Sultan
Achmet, from which it is separated only by an open screen, and from
it this beautiful edifice, with its six elegant minarets, appears to
the greatest advantage. On the others, by large but mean edifices,
one of which is the menagerie of the Turkish empire. Among the gifts
expected from the pasha of a distant province, are specimens of its
wild animals; and lions, tigers, and other beasts are here enclosed
and exhibited, as formerly in the tower of London. Among the animals
here in the time of Busbequius, was an extraordinary elephant, which,
he affirmed, “could dance and play ball.” They are not confined to
cages, but allowed to walk about in large caverns, where the solitary
magnificence of the animal would be strikingly exhibited, were it not
that the foul odour exhaled from putrid offals, on which they feed,
repels a stranger with insuperable disgust.
Down the centre are seen the splendid remains of the Greek empire.
The first is the granite obelisk, still in high preservation, brought
from the Thebaïd to Rome, and from thence to ornament the new city
of Constantine. It is supported on brazen globes, resting on a
sculptured pedestal bearing an inscription implying that it was erected
by Theodosius. On one face is sculptured the machines by which the
obelisk was raised to its present site, and is a curious display of the
mechanical powers at that time in use. A singular circumstance occurred
at its erection, which has since that time furnished an extraordinary
auxiliary to mechanical powers. When the ponderous block was raised
as high as the combination of cords and pulleys could draw it, it was
found to want one inch of elevation to place it on the pedestal. The
emperor and all the spectators supposed the labour and expense lost,
and the case hopeless; when the ingenious artist who had undertaken to
raise it, caused water to be thrown upon the cords by which the obelisk
was suspended: an immediate contraction of the fibres took place, the
cords shortened, and the immense weight was quietly raised to its place
without any other mechanical Contrivance. Another is that called the
Colossus: it was once covered with dense brass plates; and a Greek
couplet on the pedestal, described what it formerly was, and the reason
of its name−-
“A brazen wonder of colossal size,
Which Rhodes could boast−-lo! here is seen to rise.”
But the Turks have belied the inscription. They have carefully picked
off the brass plates for their trifling value, and left nothing but an
unsightly shaft of masonry and mortar in which they were embedded. But
the most valuable remnant of antiquity existing here, or perhaps in any
other country, is a colossal brazen twisted serpent, which once had a
triple head, from whence issued wine, water, and milk. It had formed
a shrine at Delphi, on which were placed the golden tripod and patera
presented to the god of the temple by the Greeks, to commemorate the
victories in the Persian war, and was removed to Constantinople as one
of the most valuable remains of ancient art and historic recollection.
It was so highly prized, that the Turks considered it as the talisman
that protected the Greek empire; and when Mohammed entered the devoted
capital in triumph, he struck off one of the heads with his battle-axe,
to destroy, as it were, the delusion. It is now a truncated stump,
and constantly battered with stones by the Turks, as if their ancient
superstition and prejudice yet existed.
The illustration represents the present state of the Hippodrome,
and gives an idea of its ancient use. The Turks have no trials of
equestrian skill like those of the Greeks; but here they usually
exercise their horses, and throw the _djerid_, a wooden pointless
spear, which they cast to a distance, and catch as it recoils from
the ground, with considerable dexterity. On one side is the palace of
Ibrahim Pasha, now the head-quarters of the cavalry staff, who are seen
among the equestrians.
[Illustration: Drawn by Leitch. Engraved by J. Sands.
THE MOSQUE OF SANTA SOPHIA AND FOUNTAIN OF THE SERAGLIO.]
When Constantine dedicated his great city to Christ, he thought it
right to erect in it a suitable edifice for Christian worship, on a
scale of magnificence commensurate with his capital; he therefore
built one of the first public temples, to the new faith, that had
been permitted since the destruction of Christian churches and the
extirpation of their congregations by the decree of Diocletian, and
he dedicated it to the Ἁγία σοφία, “the Holy and Eternal Wisdom of
God,” as manifested in his blessed Son. During the discordant schisms
which unhappily rent the Christian church, this splendid structure
was reduced to a state of ruin, and it was reserved for the emperor
Justinian to re-edify it. He had the old foundations cleared away, and
purchased, at a considerable expense, a larger area on which to erect
it. To obtain funds for the purpose, he suspended the pensions he had
granted to learned men, and melted down the silver statue of Theodosius
the Great, which weighed 7400 lb. Ten thousand men were employed, whose
exertions were stimulated by encouragements and rewards. The emperor
himself appeared among them, and paid them every night, in pieces of
silver, for the work they had executed during the day. He was seen
divested of his imperial robes, in a simple tunic of linen, examining
their progress, and applauding and conferring gifts on the most expert
and industrious artisans. In five years and eleven months, the vast
building was completed; and when he had thus accomplished his splendid
undertaking, he exclaimed with exultation, “I have conquered thee, O
Solomon.” The city was at that time so subject to earthquakes, that
private houses were generally constructed of wood, to obviate their
destructive effects. This magnificent work had scarcely been completed,
when it was shattered by one of those rude and frequent shocks; but
the indefatigable emperor again repaired the shaken ruins. From some
unknown physical cause, the violent concussions ceased to shake the
place, so that slight and scarcely perceptible shocks occur only at
intervals of many years; and the church of Santa Sophia is now as it
was left by the last re-edification of Justinian.
When the Turks entered the city, they rushed to this building, to
massacre or make slaves of all who took refuge there; they then
proceeded to demolish it, as the most eminent place of infidel
worship. In this critical moment, the sultan entered, and arrested the
destruction just as it had commenced. He announced, that he gave to his
soldiers the plunder of spoil and captives, but the public edifices
he reserved to himself. He at once conceived the idea of converting
this magnificent Christian church into a Mohammedan mosque; and as he
had transferred the government of the Osmanli to the most splendid
capital, so the worship of Islam should be celebrated in the most
splendid edifice in the world. In order to accommodate the interior to
the new rites, the effigies and pictures which covered the walls were
erased, and all trace of such representations was effaced by a simple
and uniform colouring: the arms of the cross were, with little violence
of alteration, bent up into the form of a crescent; and, to silence
the sound of a bell, so revolting to the followers of the Prophet, he
caused a minaret to be erected at an angle, to invite the faithful to
prayer by the sound of the human voice; and having thus purified it
from what he supposed to be superstitious and idolatrous emblems, he
sat down cross-legged in the sanctuary, and caused himself to be shaved
there. He then ordered the Koran to be read in place of the Bible,
offered up his prayers, and finally suspended the curtain that had once
closed the door of the temple at Mecca. He made no further alteration
in the Christian church, and it remains as it was left by Justinian,
unchanged for 1300 years, the most perfect and splendid monument of the
arts of the Lower Empire.
The general model of a Christian church was that of a cross; the stem
represented by the nave, the cross by the transepts, and the upper
part by the choir: but from the inequality of the parts, the western
churches laboured under a disproportion from which the eastern were
exempt. The arms of the Greek cross are all of equal length, and
Santa Sophia is built on its model; it has therefore a symmetry which
the Latin churches have not, though founded on the same symbol. The
ground-plan is that of a cross enclosed in a square whose sides measure
243 feet, but, including the portico, its length is 269. Over the
centre of the cross rises the dome. This dome is called “aërial,”
because it is so constructed that its height is only one-sixth of its
diameter, and its curve so flat that its convexity seems to correspond
with that of the sky, and be a portion only of the great firmament, let
down, and suspended, as the Greeks say, by a chain. To effect this,
it is built of materials of the least possible gravity, pumice-stone,
specifically lighter than the water on which it floats, and bricks from
Rhodes five times less weighty than those of ordinary burnt clay. The
vast dome, thus reduced in weight, is further secured by the pillars
on which it rests. These are ponderous piles of freestone, made of
blocks hewn into cubes and triangles, united by huge cramps of iron.
It is partly by this judicious distribution of its materials, that the
vast edifice has stood so long unshaken by those shocks of earthquakes,
which have prostrated so many other edifices in the same period.
The mosque is entered by a portico twelve yards in breadth; this
communicates with another by nine gates with marble arches, closed by
valves of rich bronze cast in high relief: this opens into another
parallel to it. These vestibules formed what is called the narthex,
or pronaos, of the Greek Christian church. Here stood the font where
catechumens were baptized, and penitents were placed before they
presumed, or were deemed worthy to enter the naos, or body, of the
sacred edifice. From hence they passed into the interior by five doors
of plain bronze.
The first object that strikes, on entering the body of the edifice,
is the vast aërial dome, rising to the height of 180 feet above the
flooring, reposing on four massive arches, forming the segments of
semi-domes, and supported by others still less. The dome is perforated
by twenty-six windows, and a multitude of others appear in the
perspective. On each side are colonnades supporting galleries, one
of which was reserved for the emperor, and called the Gallery of
Constantine. Round the base of the dome runs another gallery, at a
great elevation. It is splendidly illuminated during the evenings of
the Ramazan and other Turkish festivals, and produces a magnificent
effect. Different parts of the edifice are supported by 104 pillars,
amongst which are eight of porphyry removed by Constantine from the
temple of the Sun at Rome, and six of green jasper from the temple of
Diana at Ephesus. The sun was the tutelary deity of the emperor while
he continued a heathen; when he adopted a better, he removed those
ornaments of the temples both of Apollo and Diana, to enrich the temple
of Christ. The walls and domes are encrusted with mosaic, which forms
various figures and devices. They have been nearly obliterated by the
Turks. There yet remain, however, great winged seraphims in the four
angles under the central dome, whose faces are mutilated because they
represented the human countenance. The rest are covered over with
Arabic inscriptions from the Koran, and among them the 104 attributes
of Allah, which every Turk is bound to repeat over in his daily
prayers. The mosaic of the dome is constantly falling from its cement,
and is found to consist of small cubes about the size of playing-dice,
of various-coloured glass, which the imaums collect and sell to Franks,
who have them formed and set in crosses, and thus commemorate that
faith for which the mosque was originally built.
Passing under the great dome, and opposite the vestibule, is the
semi-dome which forms the termination of the temple. Here was the high
altar of the Christian church; behind it, the sanctuary, separated by
a screen from the body of the edifice. This sacred place is now the
Mehrabé, where the Koran is deposited. The ground-plan annexed to the
map will convey a better idea of these localities than any description.
The exterior of this interesting edifice is singularly heavy, and, as
a celebrated French traveller says, _furieusement lourde en dehors_.
It exhibits an irregular mass of cupolas, half-domes, shelving roofs,
and stunted minarets; one of which, more mean than the rest, is the
identical one erected by Mahomet to convert the church into a mosque.
Even the great dome, so celebrated for its architectural beauty, and
which the Turks have never yet been able to imitate, looks low and
flat when viewed on the outside, and produces nothing of that “aërial”
effect, in comparison to its internal structure. The edifice has at
length begun to exhibit symptoms of decay. About six years ago, after
a continued storm of wind and rain, one of the smaller domes fell into
the church. On clearing away the surface of rubbish, the flooring was
found covered over with glittering cubes which had formed the ceiling,
and, in such abundance, that every one was supplied with as much as he
chose to take for a trifling gratuity.
The Turks regard this mosque with a veneration and jealousy greater
than any other. It is not always difficult to obtain admission to
the rest, and generally the area in which they are placed is a
thoroughfare, through which a Frank may pass unmolested, but the foot
of an infidel is never suffered to desecrate, a second time, the
precincts of this converted temple: if he attempt to approach, he is
always driven back with abuse. The only occasion when permission is
given to see it, is when an ambassador arrives, or is about to leave
Constantinople. As a special favour, a firman is granted to him and a
certain number of his suite, who are then, only, permitted to enter
without molestation. But even this is not always a protection against
the fanaticism of individuals. Secretaries to embassies, accompanied by
their ladies, have been insulted and assaulted with the sultan’s firman
in their hands.
[Ilustration: T. Allom. G. Presbury.
EYOUB SULTAN,--FOUNTAIN AND STREET OF TOMBS.]
The Turks recognize three persons distinguished by the name of Eyoub,
or Job, and confound them together, with little regard to time
or place. One was the patriarch of Uz, whose character resembles
that given in our Bible, with some variations. The Koran and its
commentators say, that his wife so overcame his patience, that he
beat her with a palm branch; but, in recompense, when he was restored
to health, she was restored to youth and beauty: and further, that
Allah gave back his property in a summary manner, by raining down on
his threshing-floor gold and silver, from two clouds sent for that
purpose. Another was one of the captains of Alexander the Great,
and also one of Solomon’s household. He was called Chederles, and
his achievements resemble those of our St. George and the Dragon,
as they are represented in the Christian churches of the East. Him
they call Eyoub, or _Job infari_. The third, and him to whom the
mosque is dedicated, is Abu Eyoub. When the Prophet was in peril, he
was succoured by certain persons from Medina, who were there called
Ansars, or “Auxiliaries.” One of them was named Job, or Eyoub, who
became afterwards the personal companion of the Prophet. When it was
determined to destroy the Christian capital of the Romans in Europe,
a plenary indulgence of sins was promised to all the faithful who
should proceed to accomplish that object, and the Ansar Eyoub set
an example by enrolling himself in the Saracen army, which set out
for that purpose in the year 672. He fell, with many thousands of
his countrymen, before the walls of Constantinople, and received a
magnificent funeral. His memory was had in veneration by the majority
of his people, but the particular spot where his body was laid had
unfortunately been forgotten, nor was it till after the lapse of 750
years that it was discovered. It was revealed by a vision, and, to
identify the sacred spot for all posterity, a mosque was erected over
it by Mahomet II., in which every succeeding monarch was to receive his
inauguration.