Bursa and Ottoman Beginnings

Our third day of touring was light and started with a considerable trip from Istanbul to Bursa that included a couple shuttles via van and bus on opposite ends of a smooth ferry ride across the seascape.  Once in Bursa, the itinerary was short, only including trips to the Ulu Mosque, Orhan Mosque and Koza Han.  As each was next to each other (and close to the hotel), walking was light and the day short.

Bosphorus & Sea of Marmara
Below: The Bosphorus Bridge, connecting East and West

Below: The Old City, highlighted by Haghia Sophia and the Blue Mosque

Starting at the southern end of the Bosphorus and continuing southeast, we didn’t navigate the channel most of our 90-minute ferry ride from Istanbul to Bursa.  Moreover, looking north past its Bosphorus Bridge revealed little, as fog and a winding canal limited any views of the 30 km-long channel.  Still, I was reminded of that wretchedly funny scene in From Russia, with Love where Bond only wanted an innocuous place to collect information on an encrypting machine but found one that instead only helped charm the pants off of the interloper from whom he sought it.  The Sea of Marmara was calm and devoid of scenery, making most of the journey a pleasure to nap through.

Ulu Mosque (Grand Mosque)

 Below: The three-tiered fountain residing under the middle of twenty domes

Built between 1396 and 1399, this mosque housed a three-tiered ablution fountain underneath its grand central dome.  In stark contrast to the mosque's faded red carpeting, the interior’s eggshell-colored walls provided an appropriate canvas for its grand black calligraphy and silver linings.  My favorite was a tuğra of Selim II imprinted atop one of the exits.  A truly grand structure, this mosque is the biggest in the city and about ten times larger than the second-largest mosque we visited.

Orhan Gazi Mosque

 Below: The carpet pattern was the first of a theme of red throughout all mosques

Built in 1339, just 13 years after the Ottoman conquest of Bursa, this is the city’s oldest imperial mosque.  Situated no more than 300 meters from the Grand Mosque, this cathedral was commemorated after Orhan Gazi, son of Osman, and conqueror of Bursa.  Built in the Seljuk tradition and early Ottoman “T”-style, this mosque was quaint, its interior more white than the Ulu Mosque and its carpeting a richer red adorned with rows of mihrab imprints.

Koza Han (Silk Market)

The silk market was the first day’s last destination.  Built by Beyazit II in 1491, it has been central to the city’s silk trade since.  Today, a small mosque sits in the market’s central courtyard, surrounded by numerous shops selling the city’s most impressive product: silk.

At the end of a day spent traveling, the mountain town of Bursa offered little calm after sunset.  The neighboring Grand Mosque called for prayer late into the evening and early again the next morning; loud yet peaceful, the moazine’s melodic tone was more pleasant than Morocco’s, though I couldn’t say how or why.  The city’s sports fans provided more noise, as they celebrated a soccer victory with car horns ablaze late into the evening.  As a provincial capital and commercial center, Bursa is undoubtedly livelier than it was during the Ottoman occupation in 1326.

The second day in Bursa only lasted six hours but felt like twice that much given the number of sites visited and amount of pouty Moroccan faces in the crowd.  Regardless of the latter, the former were excellent and easily enjoyed.  Most enjoyable this day – aside from the cool weather – was that we visited the tombs of the first six Ottoman sultans, making it easier to remember them (inchallah) for the future.  I also found it interesting that despite the capital moving from Bursa to Edirne in the 1430s by Murat II, he chose to be buried here as well.

Tophane: Orhan I and Osman I Mausoleum (Sultan Orhan I and Sultan Osman I)
Below: Sultan Osman Gazi I, the "founding father" of the Ottoman Dynasty

Below: Sultan Osman Gazi I, son of Orhan and Conqueror of Bursa

Tophane is Bursa’s oldest district and appropriately home to the mausoleums of the first two Ottoman sultans.  Sitting next to each other, the mausoleums were built on a Byzantine church; in Orhan’s suite, remnants of the church’s Greek tiles remain.  Today, the visible tombs are from 1868, as an earthquake damaged the originals in 1855.  Three peculiarities can be found here.  First, Orhan’s tomb is bigger than his father’s, which I found interesting but appropriate as he conquered Bursa; however, his father was the dynasty’s patriarch and could justifiably have the large sarcophagus. 

Second, the garden work was exceptional, with bush’s trimmed to display the names of each sultan.  Third, a memorial to Bursa’s fallen during the Turkish war for independence following World War I stood in the memorial.  It is easy to suggest that the designers of this memorial picked this site to piggy-back on the founders of the Ottoman dynasty in order to create a magnitude of importance upon the war, however, this may not have been their intention at all.

Hüdavendigar Mosque Complex (Sultan Murat I)
Below: The Sultan's Tomb

The last stop of the day was to Sultan Murat’s mosque complex near the trouble-making puppet museum.  An unusual mosque as its medrasa is located above it, the Hüdavendigar is so named for the “Creator of the Universe,” Murat I, who was the third Ottoman sultan and died at the Battle of Kosovo in 1381.  


Containing his tomb, this mosque differed little with the complexes that preceded it.  Red carpet, white walls and gray trim surrounded a beautiful mihrab.  Murat’s tomb was cased in black with silver and gold railings underneath a pristine white turban capped with what appeared to be a green fesi.  Flanked again by his sons not named Beyazit I, this fitting mausoleum sat next to an equally impressive view of Bursa.

Yildirim Beyazit Mosque (Sultan Beyazit I)

Known as “Yildirim” after Beyazit’s moniker, “Thunderbolt,” this complex was built in 1389 as a mosque complex / Sufi lodge.  Like the Ulu Mosque, its interior held eggshell-colored walls with black and gold calligraphy and faded red carpentry.  Mounted atop the city, this mosque offered good views of the city beneath large çinar trees.  Beyazit, who met a fate worse than death following his defeat in Ankara to Tamerlane in 1402, was appropriately adorned with a beautiful black tomb, lined with forest green rails and flanked by two of his sons.  Though I sometimes scoff at how Tamerlane encaged him and essentially put him on display for eight months following his defeat, the fourth Ottoman sultan deserved better and has found it in Bursa.

Green Mosque & Tomb (Sultan Mehmet I)

Mehmet I commissioned Bursa’s most famous monument in 1412.  Built in the Tabrizi style from modern-day Iran, the tiling for the prayer hall of the Green Mosque was carried out by Ali Ibn Ilyas Ali, who studied in Samarkand.  It was the first time tiles were extensively used in an Ottoman mosque. 

Predominantly turquoise, both the mosque and tomb are the city’s most prominent landmarks and offer outstanding views of the city.  Aside from the tile use (particularly near the entrance), the most striking feature in the mosque was the mihrab, which was lit in an orange hue that contrasted greatly with the pale carpeting and bluish-gold framing.  Inside the mausoleum, the fifth Ottoman sultan's tomb was one of the most intricately-designed with blue tile and gold Qur’anic script.

Muradiye Mosque Complex (Sultan Murat II)

Murat II, the sixth Ottoman sultan and father of Mehmet the Conqueror, built this mosque complex in the early 15^th Century.  Today, it is home to the most buried Ottoman royalty anywhere in Turkey behind the Eyüp Sultan Mosque complex in Istanbul.  The number of mausoleums easily surpassed all other complexes in Bursa combined, and Murat’s dirt-filled tomb was the simplest of all sultans, displaying his strong Sufi tendencies.  

Dating between 1424 and 1426, the construction of the mosque left a standard “T”-shaped structure that now has red carpeting similar to the design pattern in Orhan’s mosque.  The mihrab is a cool tan and gray pattern that offers a subtle focal point between the green- and blue-trimmed white walls.

Emir Sultan Mosque

The second stop for the day was to the Emir Sultan Mosque, dedicated in the memory of Muhammed Şemseddin, who lived between 1368 and 1429, attained the position of Grand Vizier and married into the royal family.  Interesting here was not the structure (it was similar to all of the other complexes) but his tomb; it was much more extravagant then some of the sultans and on par with even Mehmet II’s mausoleum in Istanbul.  Though no more impressive than the others, the mosque’s white interior was unique – lined with gray trim, smaller calligraphy and lighter carpeting.

Bursa Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art
Below: A Flag-Head from one of the city's Sufi Orders

 Below: A set of Coins from the Ataturk Era, part of one of the more impressive coin displays dating from pre-Islamic times (500 AD) to 1923

Housed in a former medrasa, this museum housed exhibits between the 12^th and 20^th Centuries that included decorated Qur’ans, dervish robes and glassware.  My favorites were the coin and flag-head displays.  The former was a great display spanning pre-Islamic times to Ataturk; within each of the five display boxes, at least one coin represented every decade of the period, showing its dynasty, sultan, time period and location of manufacturing.  I’ve not seen a finer collection of coins for a region anywhere. 

The Second display showed the flag-heads of Sufi orders throughout Turkey.  Though the flag-heads were nice, their most interesting aspect was that they existed at all.  Up until Dr. Ross describing that each order had its own standard, I never gave it a thought, so it was definitely something learnt in the day.

Uluumay Jewelry Museum

An unexpected stop on the tour to the Uluumay museum, a privately-owned affair, offering an eclectic look at the jewelry and dress of the different cultures of the Balkans and Central Asia.  Found within a converted medrasa, the six display rooms were well-done, featuring motion sensors that automatically turned on the lights and began spinning each of its six-to-eight mannequins in order to see all sides of their attire.  The jewelry room smelled sweet but contained a mixed ensemble of artifacts that appeared neither elegant nor valuable (at least to my very non-appreciative eye).

Karagöz Museum

 Below: Some of the Shadow Puppet Characters

The second-to-last stop of the day was to the Karagoz Museum, a landmark dedicated to the shadow-puppet theater made popular by two mischievous 14^th-Century characters, Karagöz and Hacivat, who were executed for distracting their fellow workers while building the Orhan Gazi Mosque.  With at least two floors and two rooms apiece, this museum paid a hefty tribute to Turkey’s theater.  The two visited rooms displayed the different popular characters as well as some of the more famous puppeteers.  I still don’t know if shadow puppets are more of a Turkish or Bursa tradition, but the stop added a unique spirit to the city almost akin to Brussels’ comic character.

Mevlevi Lodge

The last official event in Bursa was a visit to the recently opened Mevlevi lodge for a recitation by the revived brotherhood.  Including a description of Sufism as well as a brief history of the lodge and a dance recital from five of the brothers ranging in age from about ten years to forty years old, the trip was a good change of pace from the day's mosques and tombs.  As my butt fell asleep from sitting on the thinly-carpeted hardwood floor, I was impressed not only with the dervishes' ability to continuously spin, but to do so with such grace.