Istanbul: Ölümüne kankayız!

[brotherj]

Last night, I dreamt I was in Constantinople. From the slender spires surrounding me, the soulful strains of Allah's praise spilled out across the city. They bounced off the marble edifices of pashas' palaces, reverberated down labyrinthine lanes bustling with the most robust rug and spice markets in the world, rolled over the cool gardens of the

Comments

the Hagia Sophia

[allthesidesofme]

Hey Joel, I really really want to know if you've visited the Hagia Sophia yet. I studied it in art history class (a little anyway considering I missed about 50% of the actual classes). I'm sure even if you haven't visited it that you're aware that the minarets were added almost a thousand years after the original church was constructed and all the original Christian mosaics were replaced by Islamic decorations. A tribute to the fact that though it was built during Justinian's reign at the height of the Byzantine empire it was captured by Turks who understandably did not appreciate the fact that this marvel of architecture was dedicated to Christ, and so converted into mosque.
By the way if you haven't yet figured out who is writing this terribly boring lecture I will have to add another entry to the list of things I hate about you. :) Your life is far from meaningless.

[maflapjack]

It's tough being a reasonably well-educated romantic, but at least it's entertaining for lookers-on ... or readers-of, I suppose.

I enjoyed spluttering indignantly along with you, but a few months ago - having no known vested interest in Turkey (you being the vested interest) - I had no idea that Turkey had anything to do with all that Byzantine/Ottoman stuff.

For that matter, I wasn't aware that Guadeloupe was a French colony, either, until you landed there...