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From Middletown to the Middle East

~ Reflections on travel and teaching

From Middletown to the Middle East

Tag Archives: Christianity

Competing and interacting civilizations in Edirne

17 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by tgilheany in NEH Seminar

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Christianity, Edirne, Islam, Mosque architecture, Ottoman architecture

Visiting the three great mosques of Edirne gives one a history of Ottoman architecture in the 15th and 16th centuries. As time passes the expanse of the central dome grows, and simultaneously the simplicity of the wall decorations increases. Thus in the Old mosque in Edirne, like in the Ulu mosque in Bursa, there are the huge names of God and his followers on the walls.

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There is less of that in the Three Balconies mosque. When we get to the Suleyman Mosque, there is a grand central dome, resting on massive pillars far on the circumference, while allowing a great deal of light from the sides. Sinan, the famous architect of many 16th century Ottoman buildings, thought this was his greatest building.

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Edirne has much to love beyond its remarkable mosques. Beautiful Ottoman bridges, an elegant caravansary, and a lovely walking area downtown. Edirne is now right on the border – signs point to Bulgaria and Greece, each just a few kilometers away. Even in historical times, however, Edirne faced Christian Europe – it was the jumping off point for any offensive (and later defensive) actions in the Balkans.

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Indeed, considering both Edirne’s military and architectural legacy shows just how involved with Christendom the Ottoman Empire was in these centuries. Sinan was quite consciously seeking to create a monument as grand as the Aya Sofia. Several sultans were crowned in the mosque when they were ruling from Edirne. This is unusual in Islam they probably got the idea from Byzantine crowning rites in churches.Once the Empire conquered the Balkans and before it expanded to take the Arab lands, the Ottoman Empire was a Christian-majority empire!

20130717-132728.jpgSuleyman Mosque in Edirne at night

41.006858 28.973703

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Sabeel ecumenical prayer service

08 Saturday Oct 2011

Posted by tgilheany in Uncategorized

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Christianity, liberation theology, Sabeel

St. Stephen's Basilica

Palestinian Christian congregants

In Jerusalem, I am surrounded by visibly religious people every day, frequently visit some of the more important religious sites for three religions, and speak with people about how they or their schools teach about religion.

Perhaps surprisingly, however, yesterday evening was the first religious service I’ve attended since I’ve arrived. Sabeel, an ecumenical liberation theology center working for justice, peace and reconciliation in Palestine – Israel, held a prayer service at the incredibly beautiful St. Stephen’s Monastery on Nablus Road. The service was co-celebrated by about seven priests and ministers of different Christian sects – Anglican (Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek) Catholic (Patriarch Michael Sabbah and another), definitely Greek Orthodox, and several others as well. Much of the congregation was older women. It turns out, parenthetically, that Palestinian Christian older women dress almost exactly like older women in Greece, Italy, France, etc. – there must be a secret rulebook out there. “Christian? Female? Over 60? Live near the Mediterranean? Here’s the uniform.” In attendance were also also some young international activist types and a few older British or American couples, along with several French speaking Catholic nuns. The service, including a fairly long sermon, was in Arabic of course. I wish I could have understood the sermon, by Patriarch Sabbah, because I heard “Fatah” “Hamas” and “Palestinian” and “Israeli” a lot. Reading some about the Patriarch’s views, I suspect I get the overall thrust of his message (two-state solution, etc.) but I’d like to have heard the specifics.

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