Wish upon a tile

The Blue Mosque across the square made me cry it is so beautiful. Yet it is built of the rubble of the trashed Hippodrome: recycled, rehoned, repointed.  Old stuff that is gorgeous.  

Sultan Ahmed 1 was only nineteen when he dared to build this mosque which is named after him.  This seems to be the thing many of the sultans did back then: build a mosque as a memorial to their reign; one reason there are so many of them all over the place.    

It was a time, in the early 1600s when the empire had not been doing so well: battles were lost; booty was poor, and the coffers of the empire were heavily depleted.  

So the Hippodrome, crumbling around the edges given its ancient years, had to go.  All the old stables, stadiums, kiosks, loos and galleries of the nobles that surrounded the aged chariot track became layers of slender domes and graceful columns that sit face to face with the blocky Hagia Sophia.  It took 10,000 workers only 6 years to build.

And rising gently out of the earth the Blue Mosque is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.  I rate it up there with my favourites: the Alhambra and the Sagrada Familia.  

Perfectly proportioned and graceful 

Inside the walls are panels of blue - a rich turquoise blue: tiles specially commissioned from the town of Iznik.  Softly flowing flower patterns in the main: roses, tulips and lilies on white: exquisite workmanship.  With a little red splashed around, occasionally, for variation.  

Iznik tile panels

People came from all over the world to stare in wonder at this building.  Many sought to export such tiles for their own dreams and domains.   

Flowing patterns and calligraphy 

But Sultan Ahmed 1 wished his mosque to be special, so special that it might never be repeated elsewhere; so he took the unprecedented step of banning Iznik tiles from export.  

Imagine preparing so many tiles for laying

That worked.  

No one else could have the tiles, but, it also meant that it took no time at all for the tile business in Iznik to fail completely.

Devoted followers on the lovely carpet

So, his wish was easily granted: never again would any other building be able to use such beautiful tiles.  

oooOOOooo