Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City by John Freely, Hilary Sumner-Boyd Read Free Book Online Page A

five or ten ships of the Infidels with whom they engage in battle in the presence of the Emperor. Thus the show of a fight is represented with the roaring of cannons, the smoke covering the sky. At last, the Moslems becoming victors, they board the enemy ships, take booty and chase the fine Frank boys, carrying them off from the old bearded Infidels, whom they put in chains, upset the crosses of their flags, dragging them astern of their ships, crying out the universal Moslem shout, Allah!, Allah!”
    Besides the respectable tradesmen, artisans and craftsmen of the city, the procession included less savoury groups such as, according to Evliya, “the corporation of thieves and footpads who might be here mentioned as a very numerous one and who have an eye to our purses. But far be they from us. These thieves pay tribute to the two chief officers of the police and get their subsistence by cheating foreigners.”
    The last guild in the procession was that of the tavern keepers. Evliya tells us that there were “one thousand such places of misrule, kept by Greeks, Armenians and Jews. In the procession wine is not produced openly, but the inn-keepers pass all in disguise and clad in armour. The boys of the taverns, all shameless drunkards, and all the partisans of wine pass, singing songs, tumbling down and rising again.” The last of all to pass were the Jewish tavern keepers, “all masked and wearing the most precious dresses... bedecked with jewels, carrying in their hands crystal and porcelain cups, out of which they pour sherbet instead of wine for the spectators.”
    Evliya then ends his account by stating: “Nowhere else has such a procession been seen or shall be seen. It could only be carried into effect by the imperial orders of Sultan Murat IV. Such is the crowd and population of that great capital, Constantinople, which may God guard from all celestial and earthly mischief and let her be inhabited till the end of the world.” But the last procession of the guilds passed by more than two centuries ago, and the Alay Kö ş kü now looks down upon a drab and colourless avenue. Nevertheless, the guilds and professions which Evliya so vividly described are still to be seen in the various quarters of the town, looking and behaving much as they did when they passed the Alay Kö ş kü in the reign of Murat IV.
    ZEYNEP SULTAN CAM İİ
    Following the Saray wall to the right of the Alay Kö ş kü we soon come to So ğ uk Çe ş me Kap ı s ı , the Gate of the Cold Fountain, which leads to the public gardens of Topkap ı Saray ı and to the Archaeological Museum. After passing the gate, we continue to follow Alemdar Caddesi, which now bends to the right, leaving the Saray walls. Just around the bend, on the right side of the avenue, we come upon a small baroque mosque, Zeynep Sultan Camii. This mosque was erected in 1769 by the Princess Zeynep, daughter of Ahmet III, and is a rather pleasant and original example of Turkish baroque. In form it is merely a small square room covered by a dome, with a square projecting apse to the east and a porch with five bays to the west. The mosque looks rather like a Byzantine church, partly from being built in courses of stone and brick, but more so because of its very Byzantine dome, for the cornice of the dome undulates to follow the extrados of the round-arched windows, a pretty arrangement generally used in Byzantine churches but hardly ever in Turkish mosques. The little sibyan mektebi at the corner just beyond the mosque is part of the foundation and appears to be still in use as a primary school. The elaborate rococo sebil outside the gate to the mosque garden does not belong to Zeynep’s foundation, but was built by Abdül Hamit I in 1778 as part of the külliye which we passed earlier. The sebil was moved here some years ago when the street past Abdül Hamit’s türbe was widened.
    TOWARDS HAGH İ A SOPH İ A
    Just beyond Zeynep Sultan Camii and on the same side of the avenue