Day #3: Istanbul- Islam and Memory

Being asked to blog the “Istanbul: Islam and Memory” day of this excursion as the only Muslim student in the course, I knew I had to go into the day with a very sharp mind, ready to make comparisons from the religion and culture I grew up in, and the Ottomans representation of the same religion and different culture. Which I have to say came with a few challenges. I selfishly joined this course to be able to understand my history more, not only as an Arab but as a part of a larger community, bigger than what I came to expect in my hometown in Jordan. I needed to see what were the ways other people understood Islam and the culture with my own eyes so that I could continue being an international scholar and lover of global history. I felt the need to join this course so that I could have a further understanding of myself and my religion through the greats who took pride and glory in sharing their personal beliefs for the better of their empire. However today did not answer what I was looking for directly, but I started to further question the class and political differences and discrepancies that led to the narratives pushed by the great Ottoman Empire and Muslim Sultans of their time.

In today's class, we were lucky enough to visit the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) in Istanbul. The fun fact of that day that I enjoyed was finding out that the Blue Mosque gets its name not from its shiny blue exterior, but because of the color that comes through the stained glass during the first prayer of the day that aligns with sunrise (Fajir Prayer). A bright blue light that shines through the entire mosque. The mosque as a whole was jaw-droppingly impressive and an undeniably remarkable architectural achievement of its time. Its four tall marble pillars called “Elephant Feet” that helped with the stability of the very large dome and semi-domes that unite the Muslim people under one roof were nothing to scoff at. The beautiful calligraphy of scriptures from the Holy Qur’an graced the halls of this palace, alongside (restored) patterned tiles, from the Iznek village, that went up two stories and are continued by different painted patterns and symbols repeating represent the infinite divineness of the God we worship. However, was it the point of all of this? Muslims don’t believe that extravagance is what will help you in the afterlife, yes building a place of worship is an incredibly important and noble thing to do for your religion, but this level of extravagance had more intentions than what first comes to mind. Because the Hagia Sophia was built by the Byzantines as a church, converting it into a mosque by the Ottomans was not enough to show their strength. Learning that the Blue Mosque was intentionally built across the Hagia Sophia to show the capability of the Ottomans' grandeur,  resources, and ability to build something just as great, if not better than the Byzantines was unexpected, and did not seem like the religious meaning behind the symbols in the mosque had the same value anymore. This is why you can imagine why I was thrown into more of a loop when we saw many stolen holy relics in the Turkish and Islamic Art Museum for the Ottomans to prove their devotion to the religion.

What was once a gifted palace from Suleiman the Magnificent to his son-in-law now stands before us as the Turkish and Islamic Art Museum for us to dissect and believe that the history of the Ottoman Empire, Türkiye, and Islam seamlessly go together. That is not necessarily the case, however. The very reason why I joined the course was because I knew that a religion and a religion’s history cannot and should not be restrained to one place. The clear message of the museum was that when one should think of Islam, one should think of Türkiye, and when one should think of Türkiye, one should think of Islam; together and hand-in-hand. But that’s not the case, why would the current Turkish regime want people to see the two histories as one, and Türkiye being an extension of the greatness of the Ottoman Empire, but also wanting to disassociate from the Ottoman Empire at the same time when the republic was originally formed because of its final years being disastrous for the empire and collapsing in the First World War? How could these two very contradicting messages be put out by the republic while also trying to be seen as a European nation at the same time? I believe that these questions will be answered later on in the course with more readings and historic sights that we will see but for the moment I’ll be looking for my own answers. 

It was also very interesting seeing stolen holy relics from (now modern) Syria and holy Mecca (e.i: The Kabbah Belt & original scripture of the genealogy of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH), and the purpose being the Muslim Ottoman sultans stealing these relics was to prove to the Muslim world that they have just as much political and religious validity as other religiously significant sights and nations. I can only wonder what the perception of the time was by the Muslims of Mecca after being stolen from and then being told by the same thieves that they hold just as much say if not more in the rule of the Muslim world.

To conclude, my selfish expectations I mentioned earlier for this course have not been met but surpassed. I now have a further and deeper understanding of what is considered “Islamic history” and “regional history”. Culture and people are forever evolving and changing and growing, the intentions for these intentional changes may not be clear at first, but with the lessons we are learning here, we can unveil what was hiding underneath was often declared to be a whole-hearted effort for the benefit of the people, but to turn out to be more selfish and strategic move in this game of conquest and wealth accumulation.