(Post #2 on my World Heritage blog is about the famous Blue Mosque of Istanbul, Turkey. Know about its unintended rivalry with the Great Mosque of Mecca, and how Ottoman Sultan resolved the problem…..)
The Blue Mosque or the Sultanahmet Mosque is an important attraction of Istanbul, Turkey, the city where Europe meets Asia and Christianity meets Islam.
Built between 1609 and 1617, The ‘Blue Mosque’ looks grey from outside, but gets its name from more than 20,000 breathtaking blue Iznik tiles that decorate the interior of the structure.
This mosque was built by Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I. He wasn’t very successful in warfare, so he came up with the idea to build a huge mosque surpassing the size and beauty of historic Hagia Sophia of Istanbul to leave his mark.
Designed by Sedefkar Mehmed Aga, Sultanahmet Mosque combines the best of two architectural styles – it is a mixture of traditional Islamic architecture and Byzantine (Eastern Roman) elements, taken from the Hagia Sophia church turned mosque.
When completed, The Blue Mosque was the only mosque in Istanbul that had six minarets. This provoked hostility in the Islamic world, as Sultan’s mosque then equaled the number of minarets of Great Mosque of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. This angered the clerics, who did not want any other mosque to surpass the glory of the holy mosque in Mecca.
The Sultan however overcame the problem by paying for the seventh minaret to be built at the Mecca Mosque.
(Next Post : The Flea Market of Lille, France)
World Heritage 