Mosque guide hits bookstores

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The guide to Istanbul’s two great mosques, Sultanahmet and Süleymaniye, is available at bookstores.

Two of Istanbul’s great mosques, Süleymaniye (1550-7) and Sultanahmet (1609-16, better known today as the Blue Mosque), are the subject of a newly published guide. Attracting floods of visitors and worshippers alike, the two historical edifices are architectural marvels of the Ottoman Empire. These mosques, both bearing the names and housing the mausoleums of the sultans who built them – Süleyman and Ahmed I – are supreme examples of Ottoman architecture, each richly adorned with stone carving, tiling and calligraphy. Each was built with an adjacent complex (külliye) that contained the finest schools of the time as well as hospitals, shops, soup kitchens and public baths.

This illustrated guide in English includes an in-depth study of the architecture, situating the mosques within the wider context of the Ottoman political and artistic milieu of their time, and examining the religious, social and educational activity that revolved around each complex. Its authors, Dr. Tarkan Okçuoğlu and Dr. Vefa Çobanoğlu, are professors of art history at Istanbul University.

Scala Yayıncılık published “Sultanahmet and Süleymaniye,” which is available at major bookstores.