A Day Off with Mohammad (1)

I am late but I see him near the mosque.

"Jazz!" he greets me. He thinks this is my name, I don't bother correcting him because I rather like it. We lean over and touch our cheeks, first the left, then the right.

Before we enter we take off our shoes. Guys like Mohammad can step up to the entrance, flip their shoes off and pass through the heavy green tarp in one fluid motion. I tie my shoes too tight, bend down to untie them, and nearly tumble down the steps taking them off. I clumsily enter the mosque, first struck by the cool air and quiet echoes in all wide-open religious sanctuaries. I can feel my feet being chilled through the holes in my socks, but the soft carpet that covers every inch of marble flooring is soft. We put our shoes on wooden shelves where prayer beads are strewn about on top. In fact, there are beads everywhere, 33 beads each. We walk around the mosque orbiting the marble fountain in the center, far below the glass dome, the central one of 20 altogether.

Mohammad tells me a story about the construction of the mosque which I'm sure I misunderstand. The shah ordered an architect to build 20 mosques around Turkey. The architect brought the shah to Ulu Camii upon completion of his task. The shah said it's very grand but where are the other mosques? The architect said, here. The shah confused, asked, where? The architect pointed to the 20 domes and counted "1,2,3..."

Each dome is trimmed with a unique pattern. On the walls are some signs in Arabic that, depending on what angle you stand, alternate between 3 words. The sign is folded up in such a way that standing from the right it might say "Mohammad", from the center "Allah", etc. The interior is being restored and the echoes of lumber rattle through the open air. This doesn't interrupt men praying to the walls, bowing, on their knees, kowtowing or standing. Some read from the Koran, fathers bring their sons to teach them mosque etiquette. Visitors, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, come here and students on field trips take photos with their cellphones. A group of women stand in the middle discussing matters. To pray, they go to the areas designated in the back corner. Mohammad tells me this prevents the men from admiring them as they pray.