"The Blue Mosque" among other things.

These two pictures are from the back of the MV Explorer as we re-fuled at gibralter. That island is of course, the rock of gibralter. Where something liek 22 unique types of monkeys can be found, some to be found nowhere else on earth. "The more you know."

I am slowly descoving how much I love games... and how bad of a looser I am. This is my new favorite. "Weiqi" as its called in China, or more commonly "Go". I have been playing this habitually on the ship since Egypt, and will continue to do so for many years.

Laundry day on the ship. They charge 5$ per bag, so Tucker and I take it personally to get every pice of clothing we own... into one bag a piece. Anything is possible.

and these... are the white streets of Dubrovnik

Back to Istanbul...


As a part of the “Istanbul City Orientation” program on the first day in Istanbul, our group also toured the Sultan Ahmed Mosque or the Blue Mosque of Istanbul. I followed the now familiar actions of taking off my shoes and bagging them up and then padding my feet on the gigantic carpets inside the mosque. Although we had to stand behind a rail in the back I viewed many people laying out flat and going through various Muslim prayers, practicing “Salah”. Above them hung hundreds of small electric lights inside of glasses, the cords from which strung all the way to the dome supports. Artistic Islamic script encircled many of the doorways and arches, and even more lights formed circular metal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. I remember thinking that even in Asia I had never stepped into a place that felt more foreign to me than this one.
For a brief history, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque was completed in 1616 after being commissioned by Ahmed I. It is named the blue mosque because of the blue tile that adorns it, and the mosque itself was designed by Sedefhar Mehmet Aga a student of the famed Sinan architect. It was modeled after and inspired by Hagia Sophia and sits across from it. This was Ahmed I’s first mosque, built to praise god, and work on it would not stop completely until after his death and into the reign of the next Sultan.
The religion of Islam believes in one god and reads from the holy text called the Qur’an which god revealed to the profit Mohammad. Christianity and Judaism are believed to be offshoots of Islam and to have altered in meaning through time to become different in meaning from Islam.
The practice of Islam relies on five main pillars. The first of these five pillars is called the “Shahadah” and contains the “Tawhid” “which declares that there is no god but God, and that Muhammad is God's messenger”. The “Shahadah” could be seen as the mantra of Islam and exists in prayer form. It is the first thing which must be done to become a person of Muslim faith. The second pillar is called “Salah”. “Salah” is done five times a day and consists of ritual prayer which is supposed to reconnect your mind with god. My group had to wait outside of the Blue Mosque while the call to prayer, or adhan, was underway. The broadcasting of Qur’an versus all around Istanbul was testament to the strictness and wide spread acceptance of Islam in Turkey. The third pillar is the giving of alms and is called “Zakat”. “Zakat” is like unto the paying of tithing in Christianity. Forth is “Sawm” “or fasting during the month of Ramadan”. During this month eating is prohibited from day light to day break and is intended, like the “Salah”, to bring a person closer to god. I remember seeing tax drivers in India during Ramadan, pull over after the sun had gone down to eat a super they had tucked away in their trunk. The fifth, and most famous, pillar is the Hajj. This pillar is a pilgrimage. At some point in a Muslims life he or she desires to pilgrimage to Mecca and there perform ritual acts.
Sometimes a sixth pillar is added to the practice of Islam which is that of Jihad, meaning struggle. This sixth pillar gets allot of press, and as I have found out carries very little of the connotations given to it by westerners. Jihad can mean a struggle against “a visible enemy, the devil, and aspects of one's own self” or used alone can have military connotations. Most of the time Jihad is used as a metaphor meant to struggle against your own self improvement.
Notably missing among these pillars of faith is the mention of conversion. Even the sixth pillar of struggle does not mention conversion. While in Istanbul I asked a few people, namely the owner of a hookah bar I frequented, what it took to become one of Muslim faith. He told me that one must approach a person of Islamic faith and himself desire to become Muslim, and that it is a rare occurrence and somewhat difficult to do. The first thing somebody must do to become Muslim is complete the “Tawhid” and show dedication with the “Salah”. This response was new and refreshing to me, myself coming from the mass missionary exporting state of Utah
Islam is thought to be the original faith, that of Jesus as well. After the beginning of Islam with Mohamed the faith spread throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. Most notable in Islamic empire is the Ottoman Empire which at one time dominated areas of the Mediterranean Sea and separated Europe from the Indian Ocean.
The Blue Mosque had a profound effect on me… Until this trip I knew almost nothing of Islam aside from the word Jihad and the notion of a call to prayer. I can blame growing up in Utah; I can underscore a gigantic absence of Islam from my entire high school experience. Standing inside Istanbul’s Blue Mosque and soaking in “a whole new world” around me I couldn’t help but wonder why I knew nothing about the world of Islam, Why I had never taken a private interest in finding out about it. I realized that much of the world was never discussed in my high school setting. The Blue Mosque inspired me, as the teacher I hope someday to be, to find some way to actually reform US education. It is wrong to let something as beautiful as the Blue Mosque or Hagia Sophia go unmentioned in a high school setting let alone the amazing civilizations and theologies which created them. No wonder the American public allowed Bush to attack Iraq with only mild street protest, I’m not sure a good number of Americans know anything at all about Islam, let alone its differences and similtarities from Christianity. The Blue Mosque reminded me, that as a citizen inside of the monster empire the United States has become, I need and should violently demand a worldly education. The Blue Mosque was a reminder of all the beauty in the world, and the importance of things bigger than myself.







Here are some more random pictures from around the world