Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor: Series One and Series Two in one VolumeWalsh, R. (Robert)
History
Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor: Series One and Series Two in one Volume
Walsh, R. (Robert)
Istanbul (Turkey) -- History; Istanbul (Turkey) -- Pictorial works
The illustration presents all the objects of interest peculiar to the
place. In the foreground is a caravan crossing an antique bridge,
thrown over one of the snow-dissolved currents which intersect the
plain. On one side buffaloes are dragging the ponderous arrhuba; on the
other, they are grazing on the low pastures, or cooling themselves in
the water. The horse, in Turkey, is never degraded to a servile use:
the drudgery of labour is thrown upon the buffalo. It is a singular
species of ox, of immense strength, but of a structure so coarse and
rude, that it seems “as if Nature’s journeymen had made it, and that
not well.” Its ponderous body, its clumsy limbs, its flatted horns,
and lustreless eyes, like dull glass, give it a singular appearance of
obstinacy and stupidity; but it drags the greatest burdens, through
places impassable to other animals, with irresistible force. On the
left is the city of Brusa, with its minarets, domes, and regal tombs;
and in the background are the rugged ridges of Olympus, with its snows,
forests, and precipices.
[Illustration: T. Allom. W. J. Cooke.
EMIR SULTAN, BRUSA.
ASIA MINOR.]
When the conqueror of Constantinople recrossed into Asia, and was
preparing to attack his enemies, the sultan of Caramania, the shah of
Persia, and the sultan of Egypt, who had conspired against him, he was
overtaken by death near Brusa, and was brought to be buried, not in
his new conquest in Europe, but in the ancient capital of his race. A
magnificent mosque was erected at Emir Sultan, and his body deposited
in a mausoleum beside it. This is represented in the background of the
illustration. The time is that of the Ezan, when the muezzin invites
the people to pray, represented by the human figures in the galleries
of the minarets. When the prophet fled to Medina, he did not neglect
the five periods of daily prayer: his followers wished that all the
faithful should offer up theirs to Allah at the same moment, and that
it should be publicly announced; but the manner of the announcement
was a subject of controversy. Flags, bells, trumpets, and fires, were
already used by various sects, but they were all exceptionable: the
first, as not comporting with the grave sanctity of devotion−-the
second, as a Christian practice, and to be abhorred−-the third, as a
Jewish profanation−-and the last, as a symbol of idolatrous worship.
In this indecision they separated; but during the night one of the
party had a vision of a celestial being, clothed in green, who ascended
to the top of the house, and called the people to prayer. This was
communicated to the Prophet, who adopted the human voice as his signal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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