Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City (53 page)

Following the alley that leads round behind the medrese, we pass a little square and find ourselves at the top of a steep hill leading down to the Marmara, of which one has an extensive view. Below on the left the great new building of the Istanbul Hospital – the usual block of concrete and glass – makes a curious contrast with the ancient cobbled streets and the decrepit but picturesque wooden houses among which we have been wandering.

SANCAKTAR MESC
İ
D
İ

At the top of the hill we turn right into Sancaktar Tekke Soka
ğ
ı
, which leads after several zigzags to an octagonal Byzantine building called Sancaktar Mescidi. This has been identified, on
very
slender evidence, as one of the buildings of the Monastery of Gastria. The legend is that this monastery was founded in the fourth century by St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, and that it derives its name of Gastria, which means vases, from the vases of flowers she brought back from Calvary where she had luckily discovered the True Cross! This story has been refuted by the French scholar Janin, who shows that there is no trace of the existence of the monastery before the ninth century. The present little building has the form of an octagon on the exterior with a projecting apse at the east end; within, it has the form of a domed cross. It is thought that it was once a funerary chapel; it has been dated variously from the eleventh to the fourteenth century. The building was for long an abandoned ruin, but it has now been restored and is once again serving as a mosque.

Leaving Sancaktar Mescidi, we walk straight ahead for a few paces to the next intersection and then turn right on Marmara Caddesi. This brings us back to Koca Mustafa Pa
ş
a Caddesi, where we turn left and stroll through the pleasant district of Samatya.

RAMAZAN EFEND
İ
CAM
İ
İ

Continuing along the avenue, we take the second right onto Ramazan Efendi Caddesi, where a short way along on the right we come to a small but charming mosque with a pretty garden courtyard in front. The official name of the mosque is Hoca Hüsrev Camii, for the court official who originally founded it, but it is more usually called Ramazan Efendi Camii, after the first
ş
eyh of the dervish tekke which was part of the original foundation. The building is by Sinan, and a long inscription over the inner door by his friend the poet Mustafa Sa’i, gives the date as A.H. 994 (A.D. 1586); thus, this is undoubtedly the last mosque built by the great architect, completed in his 97th year. It is a building of the simplest type: a small rectangular room with a wooden roof and porch. It is thought that it was originally covered with a wooden dome and that it had a porch with three domed bays supported by four marble columns; the present wooden porch and flat wooden ceiling are botched restorations after an earthquake. The minaret is an elegant structure both in proportion and in detail, while the small
ş
ad
ı
rvan in the courtyard is exquisitely carved. But the great fame of the mosque comes from the magnificent panels of faience with which it is adorned. These are from the Iznik kilns at the height of their artistic production and are thus some of the finest tiles in existence: the borders of “tomato-red” or Armenian bole are especially celebrated.

After leaving the mosque we return to Koca Mustafa Pa
ş
a Caddesi and continue on in the same direction as before. A short distance along, the avenue forks to the right, and we soon come to a picturesque square shaded with trees and lined with teahouses and cafés. On the left side of the square is the entrance to the mosque complex of Koca Mustafa Pa
ş
a, after whom the avenue and the surrounding neighbourhood are named.

The central building of this picturesque complex is Koca Mustafa Pa
ş
a Camii, anciently a church known as St. Andrew in Krisei. The identification and history of the church are very obscure and much disputed. One may summarize the discussions of the learned in a series of subjunctive statements: that Koca Mustafa Pa
ş
a Camii may have been one of the churches in the region dedicated to a St. Andrew; that if it is, it is probably that dedicated by the Princess Theodora Raoulina about 1264 to St. Andrew of Crete; that the present building was fairly certainly of the ambulatory type; that it may have been built on the foundations of an earlier church dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle; and that it certainly re-used sixth-century materials, especially capitals. The mosque has been reoriented by 90° so that the mihrab and mimber are under the semidome against the south wall; the entrance is in the north wall, in front of which a modern porch has been added. One enters through a door at the west end of the north aisle and should proceed at once to the central bay of the narthex. This bay has a small dome supported by columns with beautiful sixth-century capitals of the pseudo-Ionic type. From here one enters through the central portal into a sort of inner narthex, or aisle, separated from the church by two verd antique columns; this aisle is regrettably obstructed by a large wooden gallery. But from this point the whole church is visible; it now has a trefoil shape but was probably originally ambulatory; that is, there would have been a triple arcade supported by two columns to north and south, like the one which still exists on the west. To the east the conch of the apse is preceded by a deep barrel vault; to north and south open out the two later Ottoman semidomes. Even in its greatly altered form it is an extremely attractive building.

The dependencies of the mosque include a medrese, a tekke, a mektep and two türbes; what survives of these are of a much later date than the conversion of the church into a mosque. The mosque is one of the most popular religious shrines in the city, for in one of the türbes is buried the famous folk-saint Sümbül (Hyacinth) Efendi. Sümbül Efendi was the first
ş
eyh of the dervish tekke which was established here in the sixteenth century, and since then he has been prayed to by the common people of Istanbul for help in solving their problems. In the other türbe beside that of Sümbül Efendi is buried his daughter Rahine, who is generally prayed to by young women looking for a suitable husband. The ancient plane tree tottering above her türbe is said to possess talismanic powers.

We now retrace our steps for a short way back along Koca Mustafa Pa
ş
a Caddesi and then take the first right after the fork in the road. This street, Mudafaai Milliye Caddesi, takes us down the slope of the Seventh Hill towards the Marmara shore. About 250 metres along we turn left on Marmara Caddesi, a wide and pleasant avenue that runs along the heights parallel to the sea. As we begin walking along this avenue we see on our right the large Armenian church of Surp Kevork (St. George), called in Turkish Sulu Manastir, built in the precincts of the ancient Byzantine monastery of St. Mary Peribleptos. Of the latter nothing but substructures remain. It was founded in the eleventh century by Romanus III Argyros and has remained a Christian church ever since. The tradition heretofore generally accepted is that the church remained in the hands of the Greeks until 1643, when it was given to the Armenians by Sultan Ibrahim under the influence of a favourite Armenian concubine. (This lady’s name was
Ş
eker Parça, or Piece of Sugar; she is said to have weighed more than 300 pounds.) This story, however, appears to be fictitious, for we read in the recently published work of the Armenian traveller Simeon of Zamosc in Poland, who visited the city in 1608, that it was already at that date in the hands of the Armenians and was the cathedral church of the Armenian Patriarch.

Apparently Surp Kevork had been the Armenian cathedral church since 1461, when Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror recognized the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul. The first Armenian Patriarch was Bishop Hovakim of Bursa. The Patriarchate remained in Samatya until 1641, when it was moved to its present location in Kumkap
ı
. The Patriarchal church in Kumkap
ı
, Surp Astvadzadzin, was originally built in 1645, but the building which we see there today dates only from 1913.

A
Ğ
A HAMAMI

Once past the church we turn right and take the road which leads down towards the sea. As we do so we are confronted almost immediately with an interesting view of a vast double hamam. It is astonishing how many domes of all sizes and arranged apparently at random these hamams have, and it is not often that one can get a good view of them from above. This one is called A
ğ
a Hamam
ı
and is a work of Sinan. It is unfortunately disaffected and ruinous, used for commercial purposes. The workshop is installed in what was once the hararet of the bath, a typical cruciform room with cubicles in the corners.

After passing the hamam we turn right on Samatya Caddesi, which skirts the foot of the Seventh Hill not far from the sea. As we walk along we soon pass on our left the courtyard wall of a very venerable Greek church, St. George of the Cypresses. This church was originally founded in the ninth century and has remained in the hands of the Greeks ever since. The present building, however, dates only from 1830.

MARTYRIUM OF SS. KARPOS AND PAPYLOS

A little farther along the avenue on the right side we see on the height above the tall tower of the modern Greek church of St. Menas. The church itself is of no interest, but beneath it, though in no way structurally connected with it, are some very important and ancient substructures. They are entered from Samatya Caddesi and are presently used as a workshop. These substructures, discovered only in 1935, have been identified as the crypt of the Martryium of SS. Karpos and Papylos, who perished in the Decian persecutions in 250–1. The crypt is a large circular domed chamber which reminds one of the beehive tombs at Mycenae, only constructed not of stone but of brick, in the excellent technique of the fourth or fifth century A.D. At the east is a deep apse, while completely round the chamber runs a vaulted passage, also of brick. (This passage can be entered through a door in the teahouse just beyond the workshop.) Since this appears to be one of the oldest surviving places of Christian worship in the city and since it is unique in form, it is much to be hoped that it will be rescued from its base uses, and thoroughly investigated and restored.

Some 500 metres farther along the avenue we see on the left a modern Greek church, that of SS. Constantine and Helena. This church has only very recently been rebuilt, but its foundation goes back at least as far as 1563, the date of the earliest recorded reference to it.

CHURCH OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST OF STUDIUS

We turn left at the second street beyond SS. Constantine and Helen and come to the walled courtyard of a very ancient and interesting Byzantine church. This is the church of St. John the Baptist of Studius, known in Turkish as Imrahor Camii. It was founded by a Roman named Studius in 450, and is thus the oldest surviving church in the city. In form it is a pure basilica with a single apse at the east end; it is preceded by a narthex and an atrium. The narthex is divided into three bays, of which the wider central one has a very beautiful portal consisting of four columns
in antis
, with magnificent Corinthian capitals sup porting an elaborate entablature with richly sculptured architrave, frieze and cornice. Two of the marble door-frames still stand between the columns. From the narthex five doors lead into the church, which is divided, in the traditional basilican style, into a nave and side aisles by two rows of seven columns. Six of those on the north side still stand; they are of verd antique, with capitals and entablature as in the narthex. The nave ends in a single semicircular apse where once rose the tiers of seats for the clergy and in front of them the altar. Above the aisles and narthex ran galleries, the columns of which supported a trussed timber roof. The interior was revetted with marble and the upper parts decorated with mosaics. The floor was also of mosaic or
opus sectile
, and of this some portions may still be seen, although they are fast disappearing.

Nothing now remains of the monastery of the church, the Studion, once the most famous and powerful institution of its kind in the Byzantine Empire. This monastery first came into prominence in the year 799, when the great abbot Theodore assumed direction of its affairs. Inspired by Theodore’s spiritual and intellectual leadership, the Studion became a centre for the first renaissance of Byzantine culture in the ninth century. Many monks of the Studion won renown as composers of sacred hymns, painters of icons, and illuminators of manuscripts. The Studion was particularly noted for its scholarship and was active in the preservation and copying of ancient manuscripts. The Emperor Isaac I Comnenus, who had studied there as a youth, referred to it as “that glorious and illustrious school of virtue.” The Studion continued as one of the spiritual and intellectual centres of the Empire right up to the time of the Conquest. During the first half of the fifteenth century the University of Constantinople was located at the Studion, and during that period some of the greatest scholars in the history of Byzantium taught and studied there. The Studion survived the fall of Byzantium and continued to function for nearly half a century after the Conquest, having celebrated its millennium in 1450. But then at the close of the fifteenth century the church of St. John was converted into a mosque and the few monks who were still resident were forced to seek shelter elsewhere. What was left of the monastery in modern times was utterly destroyed in the earthquake of 1894 and now not a trace remains.