While Mohammed the Conqueror was residing as Viceroy at Edreneh (Adrianople), there was a great earthquake at Islámból, which made the northern side of Ayá Sófiyah bend, and threatened its ruin. The infidels were much alarmed; but Prince Mohammed, in a friendly manner, sent the old architect, ’Alí Nejjár, who had built the great mosques at Brúsah and Edreneh for Yildirim Báyazíd, and was then living, to the Greek king, in order to repair Ayá Sófiyah. It was he who erected for the support of the building four strong buttresses, every one of which is like the barrier of Yájúj (Gog). The architect having made a staircase of two hundred steps in the buttress on the right side of Ayá Sófiyah, among the shops of the turban-makers (sárikchí), the king asked for what purpose this staircase was intended? The architect answered, “For going out upon the leads in case of need?” When the work was completed the king bestowed rich presents on the architect, who returning to Edreneh, said to Sultán Mohammed, “I have secured the cupola of Ayá Sófiyah, O emperor, by four mighty buttresses; to repair it depended on me, to conquer it depends on thee. I have also laid the foundation of a mináreh for thee, where I offered up my prayers.” On that very foundation, three years afterwards, by the will of God, Sultán Mohammed built a most beautiful six-sided mináreh. Sultán Selím II. afterwards, in the year——, added another at the corner opposite to the gate of the Imperial palace (Bábi humáyún, the Sublime Porte), which is more ornamented, but a little lower than that of Mohammed the Conqueror. Sultán Murád III. built subsequently two other minárehs on the north and west side, each with only one gallery.
The ensigns (’alems, i.e. the crescents) on the top of these four minárehs are each of twenty cubits, and richly gilt; but that on the great dome is fifty cubits long, and the gilding of it required fifty thousand pieces of gold coin. It is visible at the distance of two farasangs by land, and a hundred miles off by sea. Murád III. also brought from the island of Mermereh (Marmora) two princely basons of white marble, each of them resembling the cupola of a bath, and so large that neither Jemshíd nor Dárá ever possessed such an one. Each of them can contain a thousand kílehs. They stand inside of the mosque, one on the right hand and the other on the left, full of living water, for all the congregation to perform their ablutions and quench their thirst. The same Sultán caused the walls of the mosque to be cleaned and smoothed; he encreased the number of the lamps, and built four raised stone platforms (mahfil) for the readers of the Korán, and a lofty pulpit on a slender column for the muëzzins. Sultán Murád IV. the conqueror of Baghdád, raised upon four marble columns a throne (kursì) of one piece of marble, for the preacher (vá’iz), and appointed eight sheïkhs as preachers of the mosque: the Efendís Kází-zadeh, Uskudárlí Mahmúd, Ibráhím sheïkh to Jerráh Páshá, Sivásí, Kudsí, Terjimán Sheïkhí ’Omar, and the great sheïkh, Emír Ishtíbí, who was so learned and skilful in answering questions and solving difficulties respecting the law, God be praised! We had the happiness and advantage of enjoying the exalted society of all these doctors and hearing their instructions. Sultán Ahmed I. built, on the left of the mihráb, a private recess (maksúrah) for the exclusive use of the emperor. In short this mosque, which has no equal on earth, can only be compared to the tabernacle of the seventh heaven, and its dome to the cupola of the ninth. All those who see it, remain lost in astonishment on contemplating its beauties; it is the place where heavenly inspiration descends into the minds of the devout, and which gives a foretaste even here below of the garden of Eden (‘Aden). Sultán Murád IV., who took great delight in this incomparable mosque, erected a wooden enclosure in it within the southern door, and when he went to prayers on Fridays, caused cages, containing a great number of singing-birds, and particularly nightingales, to be hung up there, so that their sweet notes, mingled with the tones of the muëzzins’ voices, filled the mosque with a harmony approaching to that of Paradise. Every night (in the month of Ramazàn) the two thousand lamps lighted there, and the lanterns, containing wax-tapers perfumed with camphor, pour forth streams of light upon light; and in the centre of the dome a circle of lamps represents in letters, as finely formed as those of Yákút Musta’simí, that text of the Scripture, “God is the light of the heavens and the earth.” There are also, on the four sides of the mosque, some thousands of texts in beautiful characters; and there, likewise, by command of Sultan Murád IV., the celebrated writer Etmekjí-zádeh Chelebí wrote the names of the Most High, of the prophet Mohammed and his four companions, in Kara Hisárí hand, so large that each elif measures ten arshíns (10 ells = 23¼ feet), and the rest of the letters are formed in the same proportion. Ayá Sófiyah is the Ka’beh of all Fakírs, and there is no larger mosque in Islámból. It possesses all the spiritual advantages to be obtained in any other, whether it be El Aksà at Kuds (Jerusalem), or the mosque of the Ommaviyyeh (Ommiades), at Shám (Damuscus), or that of El Ez-her at Misr (Cairo). It is always full of holy men, who pass the day there in fasting and the night in prayer. Seventy lectures (on theology) well pleasing to God are delivered there daily, so that to the student it is a mine of knowledge, and it never fails to be frequented by multitudes every day.
The Servants (Khuddám) of the Mosque.
They are the Imáms (reciters of the Form of Prayer); the Khatíbs (reciters of the Khotbah, bidding-prayer on Friday); Sheïkhs (preachers); Devrkhán (Scripture readers); Ders-’ámils (lecturers); Talabah (students); Muëzzins (cryers, who call to prayers from the Minárehs); Ejzá kháns (lesson readers); Na’t kháns (reciters of the praises of the prophet and his associates); Bevvábs (door-keepers); and Káyims (sextons): in all full two thousand servants, for the revenues of the mosque settled upon it by pious bequests (evkáf) are very large.
Stations and Places in this Mosque visited as peculiarly fitted for Devotion.
First. Ayá Sófiyah is, in itself, peculiarly the house of God.
Second. The station (Makám) of Moslemah, in a place called U’ch Búják (the three corners), where he, who was commander of the forces in the Khalifate of Mo’áviyyeh, is said to have offered up prayer.
Third. The station of Iyyúb Ansárí, who, after the peace made in the year of the Hijrah 52, entered Ayá Sófiyah and performed a service of two inflections on the spot called Makámi Iyyúb Sultán, south of the Sweating Column. There is now a Mihráb there much frequented at all the five services.
Fourth. The station of ’Omar Ibn ’Abdo-l-’aziz, who being commander at the peace in the year of the Hijrah 97, offered up prayers on the west side of Ayá Sófiyah, at the foot of the green Mihráb. This place goes now by his name.
Fifth. The station of Hárúnu-r-rashíd, who, at his coming a second time to Kostantaniyyeh, in the year of the Hijrah 58, having crucified King Yaghfúr in the belfry of Ayá Sófiyah, offered up prayers within the mosque in the kiblah of the prophet Solomon, on the south-east side, within the gate of the Defunct (Meyyit-kapú-sí).