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By Johan Ishak
THE BLUE MOSQUE is a reference being made by many around me ever since my childhood. My father, a retired landscape architect and town planner, often cited those two words many times especially when he was managing the city planning for Shah Alam as the Director of Town Planning for the State of Selangor. I can still remember his telephone conversation that sounded something like this, "Tuanku Sultan (the late Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah) wants to emulate the Blue Mosque of Istanbul here in Shah Alam. Please make it happen." Then he hung up the antique green marble rotary telephone.
I asked him, "What is the Blue Mosque?"
He said, "It is the most beautiful mosque in the world. Its real name is the Sultan Ahmet Mosque."
I asked again, "Is it painted in blue?"
He said, "No, no, ha ha ha, .... it is made of blue mountain rocks. However, even though the rocks are called blue mountain rocks, they are still grey. The mountain looks blue from afar, hence the 'blue mountain' rocks. But many people refer it as the Blue Mosque because the tiles inside on the walls and domes as well as the glasses for the windows are mostly in blue. One day you must go and see it. And when you do, pray on its carpet, because when that day comes, you will remember this conversation we had."
"Ok Bapak. But, where is Istanbul?"
"Ahah! it is in Turkey."
Today you can see the great blue mosque of Shah Alam called Masjid Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah that was inspired by the Istanbul Blue Mosque. Whoever it was on the other side of the phone with my father did his or her job well.
Also, today (literally), three and a half decades later, here I am, with my wife, walking the streets of Istanbul, the busiest city on this land the Turkish call Turkiye, for our very first time. A fantastic country known as the first site of human civilisation namely Mesopotamia that is/was nourished by the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers. This was the time when Prophet Ibrahim a.s. (Abraham) lived.
As we enjoyed our trip around Turkey, I made some mental notes of what I can retell to others who have never been to Turkey. Here are some of them:
1. Turkey is half Europe and half Asia. Istanbul is right in the middle of that boundary that is devided by the waterway that connects the Black Sea to Aegean Sea, north of the Mediterranean Sea. The Asian part of Turkey probably accounts for 90% of the country. It is what used to be known as Anatolia in the old days (Asia Minor). This meeting point between Asia and Europe makes perfect sense to be the big bang of human civilisation, i.e. Mesopotamia.
2. Turkey has the most magnificent ancient huge majestic rocky buildings for worshippers. The famous Blue Mosque, as mentioned earlier, is all what Bapak had described. I went in and sat on its carpet to pray and miraculously, I remembered my conversation with Bapak. The second building worth mentioning is the Ayasofya, the pink museum that used to be a mosque and also a church before that. Today you can see its inner walls of dome foundation bearing the Arabic characters for the words Allah s.w.t, Muhammad s.a.w., Abu Bakar As-Siddiq, Umar al-Khattab, Usman Affan, Ali Abi Thalib, Hassan Ali and Hussein Ali. In addition, there is also a painting of Maryam a.s. (Virgin Mary) carrying a baby, Isa a.s. (Jesus) on its inner walls of the dome. There are many more great buildings in Turkey but the additional ones worth visiting are Galata Tower, Topkapi Palace and Dolmabahce Palace.
3. Turkey has the most awkward looking naturally formed rocks. From Istanbul, we flew to Cappadocia, or, in the native tongue, Kapadokya, to see these rocks. This is right smack in the middle of the Anatolia bearing the climate of a desert - very cold at night and very hot during day time (in September). Anyways, those rocks, they are beyond my imagination of what rocks can look like. The locals say they look like chimneys. Some of my Facebook friends left comments on the uploaded photos saying they (the rocks) look like mushrooms. For me, hmmm..... , they actually look like penis, circumcised ones. The scenery becomes more interesting when many hot air balloons fly above those rocks at sunrise, daily.
4. Turkey has a very rich cultural aesthetic craft heritage that had survived thousands of years. Their carpets are so colourful yet luxurious almost making you feel like in a Sultan's harem. The mosaic colourful glass lamps have an effect of bringing you back in time during the era of the great Ottoman Empire. The little mystical blue ornament they call the Evil Eye simply reminds you of the historic events involving the surrounding empires such as Greek, Troy and Sparta.
5. Finally, the food. The Food! The food is full of wealth. The everflowing fresh orange and pomegranate juices. The freshly baked Turkish bread simply closes your eyes when eaten with kebabs (locally spelled as kebaps), yogurt and humus. The sweet desserts full of pistachios (eg. Baklavas) almost make you ask the question, "How would the Turks survive if they ran out of pistachios?" In short, you would simply rate them all as four stars and above.
So, there you go. My thoughts on Turkey. I hope others will get the chance to go to Turkey especially Istanbul. And if you happen to visit the Blue Mosque, sit on its soft carpet and pray. I am sure you will remember reading this account of my awesome time in Turkey.
* kopihangtuah
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