Ottoman hand carved ceiling made my day!

Yesterday was the beginning of Eid Al-Adha (Kurban Bayramı in Turkish or The day of Sacrifice), so we went to a well known Turkish mosque early in the morning in to make a special prayer for the feast.

Aziziye Mosque, which was built in Turkish neighbourhood, Stoke Newington, was filled by only the Turkish Muslims because the directorate of religious affairs in Turkey fell apart from rest of the world. Arabs and the other Muslim countries think that the feast starts today.

Turkish scholars began to calculate the significant religious day by using astronomical science based on lunar calendar. But the Arab scholars still insist on using their eyes to make sure the date of the religious days by looking at shape of the moon. 

(Some of the readers could ask what the feast day is, actually It was answered by Ottoman History Podcast very briefly; Eid Al-Adha or Kurban Bayramı is a feast day for Muslims involving the sacrifice of an animal such as a sheep or cow as part of commemoration of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Ismail. But sacrifice can also be performed as a general blessing for a momentous event for example when buying a car or a new apartment, or after surviving an accident, or opening a new shop. According to Mircea Eliade sacrifice symbolizes renovation of time with replication of the myth of Creation, a transformation of the profane space and time into the sacred, a hierophany wherein the religious mind can connect its temporality with an eternal mode of existence.)

When we got out of the mosque, I saw some guys selling baklava, Turkish traditional dessert. It is distributed freely in the mosques during the feast in Istanbul, however Turkish Londoners get money for it. Literally, it is a cultural erosion.  In front of the main gate, under the drizzling, we congratulated each other and went to TURKYAR (Turkish Student Welfare Charity), a kind of new home for me. Then we prepared a breakfast for all of us and enjoyed it all together. (Unfortunately I washed the dishes)


I continued the day with a small journey to Regent Street. In between London’s Savile Row and Regent Street, there is an interesting Starbucks, historic one.  Newly renovated this Starbucks has a wonderful mahogany hand-carved ceiling that came from a Damascus bath house or coffee house in 1903.

 The building used as a carpet store in the past, and clearly in the middle of the ceiling there is the sultan’s signature. (In that time, Damascus was a city of the Ottoman Empire and it was very normal to see sultan’s signature on the buildings, symbolizes his power and genorisity. I assume signature belongs to Abdulhamid II, one of the most powerful Sultans in the Ottoman history)

I came here by coincidence, because my friend Shane and I lost in the long corridors of the Bond Street. So finally we decided to get in there and take a rest. I’m glad to see the footprints of my ancestors in London. It makes me happy because we’ve created beautiful artworks in the past, and was able to spread out them like this ceiling.

 At the end of the day, I took some pictures from Bond Street, just because there were classy Christmas decorations all over the building. I don’t remember the name of the building but it was nice.