Zach Blogs: Mosques & Minarets Istanbul

Welcome, Guest blogger Zach!  Zach is studying ancient world history and is wrapping up a unit on Mohammed and the Muslim faith.  Here's some of what he learned from studying and from our summer trip to Istanbul.

When did the Muslim religion start and how?  It was started around the 600s by Muhammed, the prophet when the Angel Gabriel spoke to him and gave him directions of how to live out your faith.  Later these visions were written in the Koran.
   
What are the 5 pillars of faith?  The five pillars are the duties every Muslim should do. Giving to the poor; prayer 5 times a day; faith: believe that Allah is the one true god; fasting during the month of Ramadan--even kids aged 10 and up; and you must try to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in your lifetime. 

The Mihrab (which is like an altar) always points in the direction of Mecca.  

This mihrab is located in the ancient Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

 What did the people wear? The women covered every spot of their skin except for their eyes.  What are some of the mosque rules?  When in the mosque you must cover every skin part (even the tourists) but your face.  Worshippers must wash their hands and feet, take off their shoes before they enter and face Mecca when they pray.

The Blue Mosque has thousands of blue tiles inside and has 6 minarets.  This highly unusual --the Sultan Ahmed told the builder he wanted gold minarets, but the builder planned 6 minarets because the word for gold and the number "6" are nearly the same  ("altin").  It was built in the early 1600s.

What did the art look like inside the Hagia Sophia? There are geometric patterns & flowers, but they don't use living beings in their paintings.  

This is different from the Christian art.

Muslim art inside the Hagia Sophia when it became a mosque in 1495 CE.

Christian art from the time when the Hagia Sophia was a Catholic Church from 537 CE-1400 CE.

Describe the city sounds near the mosque:  There was a lot of traffic noise and honking cars, mixed up with calls to worship that go off at 5am and continue all day.  The calls, blasted from the minarets, were like something I can't figure out how to write!

Blue Mosque in Istanbul