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The Chora

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Turkish ( Türkçe [ˈtyɾctʃe] , Türk dili ; also known as Türkiye Türkçesi 'Turkish of Turkey' ) is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages , with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languages of Cyprus . Significant smaller groups of Turkish speakers also exist in Germany , Austria , Bulgaria , North Macedonia , Greece , other parts of Europe , the South Caucasus , and some parts of Central Asia , Iraq , and Syria . Turkish is the 18th most spoken language in the world.

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111-512: The Chora Church or Kariye Mosque ( Turkish : Kariye Camii ) is a former church, now converted to a mosque (for the second time), in the Edirnekapı neighborhood of Fatih district, Istanbul , Turkey . It is mainly famous for its outstanding Late Byzantine mosaics and frescos . The building is an example of Byzantine architecture . In the 16th century, during the Ottoman era, it

222-547: A curtain covering Aisha’s store-room was raised by the blowing wind, uncovering her dolls. Among them, the Prophet saw a horse with two wings made of rags and asked his wife what was on the horse. Aisha responded that it was two wings. He asked: A horse with two wings? Aisha then asked if the Prophet had not heard that Solomon had horses with wings. The Hadith reports that the Prophet laughed heartily where his molar teeth were seen. A'isha reported: The Prophet’s wife describes owning

333-422: A curtain with bird portraits. The Prophet asked for the curtain to be changed, for when he entered the room it brought to him pleasures of worldly life. Aisha describes also having worn sheets with silk badges, which the Prophet did not command to be torn. Narrated Aisha : The wife of the Prophet purchased a cushion with pictures of animals on it for the Prophet to sit on and recline on. The Prophet disapproved of

444-475: A form of consonant mutation whereby a voiced obstruent, such as /b d dʒ ɡ/ , is devoiced to [p t tʃ k] at the end of a word or before a consonant, but retains its voicing before a vowel. In loan words, the voiced equivalent of /k/ is /g/; in native words, it is /ğ/. This is analogous to languages such as German and Russian , but in the case of Turkish it only applies, as the above examples demonstrate, to stops and affricates, not to fricatives. The spelling

555-501: A house with Masriuq which had portrayals of Mary. Masriuq had heard Abdullah b, Mas'ud stating that the Prophet had said the most grievously tormented people on the Day of Resurrection would be the painters of pictures. After this message was read before Nasr b. 'Ali al-Jahdhami and other narrators, the last one being Ibn Sa'id b Abl at Hasan, one person asked for a religious verdict for one like himself who paints pictures. Ibn 'Abbas narrated to

666-579: A large collection of loanwords from Arabic and Persian . Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry , was heavily influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters and a great quantity of imported words. The literary and official language during the Ottoman Empire period ( c.  1299 –1922) is termed Ottoman Turkish , which was a mixture of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic that differed considerably and

777-652: A layer of plaster. This and frequent earthquakes in the region have taken their toll on the artwork. In 1945, the building was designated a museum by the Turkish government. In 1948, the American scholars Thomas Whittemore and Paul A. Underwood, from the Byzantine Institute of America and the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, sponsored a restoration program. From that time on,

888-469: A leading intellectual, voicing his concern that Turkish language has "already started to take over the national and natural dialects of Azerbaijan". However, the presence of Turkish as foreign language is not as high as Russian. In Uzbekistan, the second most populated Turkic country, a new TV channel Foreign Languages TV was established in 2022. This channel has been broadcasting Turkish lessons along with English, French, German and Russian lessons. Turkish

999-529: A legend that arose in later times in the Byzantine empire. The Quran , the Islamic holy book , does not prohibit the depiction of human figures; it merely condemns idolatry . Interdictions of figurative representation are present in the hadith, among a dozen of the hadith recorded during the latter part of the period when they were being written down. Because these hadith are tied to particular events in

1110-468: A measure against idolatry, particularly against the statues worshipped by pagans . In several hadith Muhammad encountered pictures of animate objects or dolls and expressed his disapproval, sometimes commenting on the punishment in hellfire awaiting those who created the objects. All hadith presented in this section are Sunni, not Shia. Narrated Aisha: Upon the Prophet’s arrival from a military expedition,

1221-480: A mosque. In August 2020, its status changed to a mosque. The move to convert Chora Church into a mosque was condemned by the Greek Foreign Ministry and by Greek Orthodox and Protestant Christians. This caused a sharp rebuke by Turkey. On Friday 30 October 2020, Muslim prayers were held for the first time after 72 years. The building was opened for Muslim worship on 6 May 2024. The Chora Church

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1332-529: A multitude of Turkish companies and authorities investing there, while the influence of Turkey in the country is very high. The rising presence of this very similar language in Azerbaijan and the fact that many children use Turkish words instead of Azerbaijani words due to satellite TV has caused concern that the distinctive features of the language will be eroded. Many bookstores sell books in Turkish language along Azerbaijani language ones, with Agalar Mahmadov,

1443-538: A museum. The neighborhood is situated in the western part of the municipality of Fatih district. The Chora Church was originally built in the early 4th century as part of a monastery complex outside the city walls of Constantinople erected by Constantine the Great , to the south of the Golden Horn . However, when Theodosius II built his formidable land walls in 413–414, the church became incorporated within

1554-415: A negative suffix -me to the verb (the suffix comes after the stem but before the tense): Necla okula gitmedi ('Necla did not go to school'). In the case of a verbal sentence, an interrogative clitic mi is added after the verb and stands alone, for example Necla okula gitti mi? ('Did Necla go to school?'). In the case of a nominal sentence, then mi comes after the predicate but before

1665-484: A police shootout in August 1965 after he led an assault on one of the new television stations. Depending on which segment of Islamic societies are referred to, the application of aniconism is characterized by noteworthy differences. Factors are the epoch considered, the country, the religious orientation, the political intent, the popular beliefs, the private benefit or the dichotomy between reality and discourse. Today,

1776-527: A religious midlife crisis. The avoidance of idolatry is the main concern of the restrictions on images, and as a result, the traditional form for the religious cult image, the free-standing sculpture, is extremely rare, though examples of freestanding human sculpture do occur in Umayyad Syria and in Seljuk Iran. The Pisa Griffin , of a mythical beast and designed to spout water for a fountain,

1887-613: A strong T–V distinction which distinguishes varying levels of politeness, social distance , age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a single person out of respect. Turkish is a member of the Oghuz group of the Turkic family. Other members include Azerbaijani , spoken in Azerbaijan and north-west Iran , Gagauz of Gagauzia , Qashqai of south Iran and

1998-512: A variety of decorative figural designs. There were episodes of iconoclastic destruction of figurative art, such as the temporary decree by the Umayyad caliph Yazid II in 721 CE ordering the destruction of all representational images in his realm. A number of historians have seen an Islamic influence on the Byzantine iconoclastic movement of the 8th century, though others regard this is as

2109-654: A vast geographical region stretching from Siberia all the way to Europe and the Mediterranean . The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks , in particular, brought their language, Oghuz —the direct ancestor of today's Turkish language—into Anatolia during the 11th century. Also during the 11th century, an early linguist of the Turkic languages, Mahmud al-Kashgari from the Kara-Khanid Khanate , published

2220-407: A verb in the form of the copula ol or y (variants of "be"). Examples of both are given below: The two groups of sentences have different ways of forming negation. A nominal sentence can be negated with the addition of the word değil . For example, the sentence above would become Necla öğretmen değil ('Necla is not a teacher'). However, the verbal sentence requires the addition of

2331-553: Is amply described, particularly in the traditions on his life and deeds recorded in the biographies known as Sirah Rasul Allah . Of no less interest is the validity of sightings of holy personages made during dreams. Titus Burckhardt sums up the role of aniconism in Islamic aesthetics as follows: The absence of icons in Islam has not merely a negative but a positive role. By excluding all anthropomorphic images, at least within

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2442-531: Is based on the dialect of Istanbul . This Istanbul Turkish ( İstanbul Türkçesi ) constitutes the model of written and spoken Turkish, as recommended by Ziya Gökalp , Ömer Seyfettin and others. Dialectal variation persists, in spite of the levelling influence of the standard used in mass media and in the Turkish education system since the 1930s. Academic researchers from Turkey often refer to Turkish dialects as ağız or şive , leading to an ambiguity with

2553-433: Is common among fundamentalist Sunni sects such as Salafis and Wahhabis (which are also often iconoclastic ), and less prevalent among liberal movements within Islam . Shia and mystical orders also have less stringent views on aniconism. On the individual level, whether or not specific Muslims believe in aniconism will depend on how hadiths related to the topic are interpreted. Aniconism in Islam not only deals with

2664-503: Is even more variable and there are many examples of figural representation in secular art throughout history. Generally speaking, aniconism in Islamic societies is restricted in modern times to specific religious contexts. In the past, it was enforced only in some times and places. The representation of living beings in Islamic art is not just a modern phenomenon and examples are found from the earliest periods of Islamic history. Frescos and reliefs of humans and animals adorned palaces of

2775-406: Is not as large as some of the other surviving Byzantine churches of Istanbul (it covers 742.5 m²) but it is unique among them, because of its almost completely still extant internal decoration. The building is divided into three main areas: the entrance hall or narthex , the main body of the church or naos (nave), and the side chapel or parecclesion . The building has six domes : two above

2886-468: Is now used to mean " script " in computer science . Some examples of modern Turkish words and the old loanwords are: Turkish is natively spoken by the Turkish people in Turkey and by the Turkish diaspora in some 30 other countries. The Turkish language is mutually intelligible with Azerbaijani . In particular, Turkish-speaking minorities exist in countries that formerly (in whole or part) belonged to

2997-457: Is often seen with elaborate frames of Ottoman illumination . Examples of Islamic calligraphy using this technique include the name of Muhammad, the Hilya (a tablet that embodies the description of Muhammad’s physical appearance), multiple names of God in Islam, and the tughra (a calligraphic version of the name of an Ottoman sultan ). During its early days, aniconism in Islam was intended as

3108-404: Is sometimes shown with a fiery halo hiding his face, head, or whole body, and from about 1500 is often shown with a veiled face. Members of his immediate family and other prophets may be treated in the same way. At the material level, prophets in manuscripts can have their face covered by a veil or all humans have a stroke drawn over their neck, symbolizing the severing of the soul, and clarifying

3219-559: Is the finest example of the Palaeologian Renaissance . The artists remain unknown. A renowned classical scholar as well as statesman, Theodore donated his personal library to the Chora monastery, too. In 1328, Theodore was sent into exile by the usurper Andronicus III Palaeologus . However, he was allowed to return to the city two years later, and lived out the last two years of his life as a monk in his Chora Church. In

3330-533: Is the largest example, at three feet tall in bronze, and probably only survives because it was taken as booty by the city of Pisa in the Middle Ages . Like the famous lions supporting a fountain in the Alhambra , it probably came from Al-Andalus . The griffin and lions cannot easily be regarded as potential idols, given their submissive position (and the lack of religions worshipping lions or griffins), and

3441-696: Is the official language of Turkey and is one of the official languages of Cyprus . Turkish has official status in 38 municipalities in Kosovo , including Mamusha, , two in the Republic of North Macedonia and in Kirkuk Governorate in Iraq. Cyprus has requested the European Union to add Turkish as an official language, as it is one of the two official languages of the country. In Turkey,

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3552-642: Is usually made to match the sound. However, in a few cases, such as ad 'name' (dative ada ), the underlying form is retained in the spelling (cf. at 'horse', dative ata ). Other exceptions are od 'fire' vs. ot 'herb', sac 'sheet metal', saç 'hair'. Most loanwords, such as kitap above, are spelled as pronounced, but a few such as hac 'hajj', şad 'happy', and yad 'strange' or 'stranger' also show their underlying forms. Native nouns of two or more syllables that end in /k/ in dictionary form are nearly all /ğ/ in underlying form. However, most verbs and monosyllabic nouns are underlyingly /k/. The vowels of

3663-431: Is usually referred to as yumuşak g ("soft g"), written ⟨ğ⟩ in Turkish orthography , represents a vowel sequence or a rather weak bilabial approximant between rounded vowels, a weak palatal approximant between unrounded front vowels, and a vowel sequence elsewhere. It never occurs at the beginning of a word or a syllable, but always follows a vowel. When word-final or preceding another consonant, it lengthens

3774-713: The Aegean region, with its usage extending to Antalya . The nomadic Yörüks of the Mediterranean Region of Turkey also have their own dialect of Turkish. This group is not to be confused with the Yuruk nomads of Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey, who speak Balkan Gagauz Turkish . The Meskhetian Turks who live in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia as well as in several Central Asian countries, also speak an Eastern Anatolian dialect of Turkish, originating in

3885-480: The Day of Judgment . Muslims have interpreted these prohibitions in different ways in different times and places. Religious Islamic art has been typically characterized by the absence of figures and extensive use of calligraphic , geometric and abstract floral patterns. However, representations of Muhammad (in some cases, with his face concealed) and other religious figures are found in some manuscripts from lands to

3996-690: The Egyptian countryside, it is fashionable to celebrate and advertise the returning of pilgrims from Mecca on the walls of their houses. The Taliban movement in Afghanistan banned photography and destroyed non-Muslim artifacts, especially carvings and statues such as the Buddhas of Bamiyan , generally tolerated by other Muslims, on the grounds that the artifacts are idolatrous or shirk . However, sometimes those who profess aniconism will practice figurative representation (cf. portraits of Talibans from

4107-616: The Kandahar photographic studios during their imposed ban on photography ). For Shia communities, portraits of the major figures of Shiite history are important elements of religious devotion. In Iran, portraits of Muhammad and of Ali , printed on pieces of cloth or woven into carpets, are called temsal ("likenesses") and can be bought around shrines and in the streets, to be hung in homes or carried with oneself. In Pakistan , India and Bangladesh portraits of Ali can be found on notoriously ornate trucks, buses and rickshaws. Contrary to

4218-623: The Laz language ). Kastamonu is spoken in Kastamonu and its surrounding areas. Karamanli Turkish is spoken in Greece, where it is called Kαραμανλήδικα . It is the literary standard for the Karamanlides . At least one source claims Turkish consonants are laryngeally-specified three-way fortis-lenis (aspirated/neutral/voiced) like Armenian, although only syllable-finally. The phoneme that

4329-512: The Mughal tradition began in the late 15th century, although in both Mughal India and Ottoman Turkey portraits of the ruler then became very popular in court circles. Islamic calligraphy has also displayed figurative themes. Examples of this are anthropomorphic and zoomorphic calligrams . Islamic calligraphy forms evolved, especially in the Ottoman period, to fulfill a function similar to figurative art. When on paper, Islamic calligraphy

4440-773: The Ottoman Empire , such as Iraq, Bulgaria, Cyprus , Greece (primarily in Western Thrace ), the Republic of North Macedonia , Romania, and Serbia. More than two million Turkish speakers live in Germany; and there are significant Turkish-speaking communities in the United States, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Due to the cultural assimilation of Turkish immigrants in host countries, not all ethnic members of

4551-532: The Persian miniature and other traditions such as the Ottoman miniature and Mughal painting . The Persian miniature tradition began when Persian courts were dominated by Sunnis, but continued after the Shia Safavid dynasty took power. The Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp I of Persia began his reign as a keen patron and amateur artist himself, but turned against painting and other forbidden activities after

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4662-539: The Trabzon region of northeastern Turkey follows the reduced vowel harmony of Old Anatolian Turkish , with the additional complication of two missing vowels (ü and ı), thus there is no palatal harmony . It is likely that elün meant "your hand" in Old Anatolian. While the 2nd person singular possessive would vary between back and front vowel, -ün or -un, as in elün for "your hand" and kitabun for "your book",

4773-478: The Turkmen of Turkmenistan . Historically the Turkic family was seen as a branch of the larger Altaic family, including Japanese , Korean , Mongolian and Tungusic , with various other language families proposed for inclusion by linguists. Altaic theory has fallen out of favour since the 1960s, and a majority of linguists now consider Turkic languages to be unrelated to any other language family, though

4884-526: The Umayyad era, as on the famous Mshatta Facade now in Berlin . The ‘Abbasid Palaces at Samarra also contained figurative imagery. Ceramics, metalware, and objects in ivory, rock crystal, and other media also bore figural imagery in the medieval era. Figurative miniatures in books occur later in most Islamic countries but somewhat less in Arabic-speaking areas. The human figure is central to

4995-481: The esonarthex , one above the parecclesion and three above the naos . The main, west door of the Chora Church opens into the narthex . It divides north–south into the outer, or exonarthex and the inner, or esonarthex . The exonarthex (or outer narthex ) is the first part of the church that one enters. It is a transverse corridor, 4 m wide and 23 m long, which is partially open on its eastern length into

5106-503: The 17th century, but were always rare in the Arabic-speaking world. Such paintings are also mainly found in private palaces; examples in public buildings are rare though not unknown, in Iran there are even some in mosques. Eschewing figural representation, ornamentation in Islamic sacred architecture relies chiefly on arabesque and geometrical patterns. Early examples of non-figural representation in Islamic sacred architecture are found in

5217-519: The Altaic hypothesis still has a small degree of support from individual linguists. The nineteenth-century Ural-Altaic theory, which grouped Turkish with Finnish , Hungarian and Altaic languages, is considered even less plausible in light of Altaic's rejection. The theory was based mostly on the fact these languages share three features: agglutination , vowel harmony and lack of grammatical gender. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are

5328-734: The Holy Redeemer in the Fields" would be a more natural rendering of the name in English. The last part of the Greek name, Chora , referring to its location originally outside of the walls, became the shortened name of the church. The name must have carried symbolic meaning, as the mosaics in the narthex describe Christ as the Land of the Living ( ἡ Χώρα τῶν ζώντων , hē Chōra tōn zōntōn ) and Mary,

5439-458: The Kaaba with idols in it and ordered they be removed. Pictures of Abraham and Ishmael holding arrows of divination were carried out and the Prophet stated, “May Allah ruin the infidels for the false portrayal of the acts of Abraham and Ishmael. The Hadith reports that the Prophet said "Allahu Akbar" inside all directions of the Kaaba and left without prayer therein. Muslim b. Subaih reported being in

5550-527: The Latin alphabet for speakers of eastern dialects. Some immigrants to Turkey from Rumelia speak Rumelian Turkish , which includes the distinct dialects of Ludogorie , Dinler, and Adakale, which show the influence of the theorized Balkan sprachbund . Kıbrıs Türkçesi is the name for Cypriot Turkish and is spoken by the Turkish Cypriots . Edirne is the dialect of Edirne . Ege is spoken in

5661-567: The Latin script, encoded for many of the dialectal variations between Turkish dialects, the modern Latin script fails to do this. Examples of this are the presence of the nasal velar sound [ŋ] in certain eastern dialects of Turkish which was represented by the Ottoman letter /ڭ/ but that was merged into /n/ in the Latin script. Additionally are letters such as /خ/, /ق/, /غ/ which make the sounds [ɣ], [q], and [x], respectively in certain eastern dialects but that are merged into [g], [k], and [h] in western dialects and are therefore defectively represented in

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5772-540: The Prophet became ill, amongst his wives there was talk of a church in Ethiopia with descriptions of its beauty and pictures it contained. The Hadith reports the Prophet saying the creators are the worst creatures in the sight of Allah for they are the people who, upon the death of a pious man amongst them, make a place of worship at his grave and create pictures in it. Muhammad made it very clear that angels do not like pictures. Narrated Abu Talha : The Prophet said that

5883-584: The Republic of Turkey, the Perso-Arabic script -based Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with the Latin script -based Turkish alphabet . Some distinctive characteristics of the Turkish language are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination . The basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb . Turkish has no noun classes or grammatical gender . The language makes usage of honorifics and has

5994-617: The SOV structure has diminished relevance and may vary. The SOV structure may thus be considered a "pragmatic word order" of language, one that does not rely on word order for grammatical purposes. Consider the following simple sentence which demonstrates that the focus in Turkish is on the element that immediately precedes the verb: Ahmet Ahmet yumurta-yı Aniconism in Islam In some forms of Islamic art , aniconism (the avoidance of images of sentient beings ) stems in part from

6105-712: The Sunni tradition, a photographic picture of the deceased can be placed on the Shiite tombs. A curiosity in Iran is an Orientalist photography supposed to represent Muhammad as a young boy. The Grand Ayatollah Sistani of Najaf in Iraq has given a fatwā declaring the depiction of Muhammad, the prophets and other holy characters, permissible if it is made with the utmost respect. Medieval Muslim artists found various ways to represent especially sensitive figures such as Muhammad. He

6216-514: The TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka , "political party"—also failed to meet with popular approval ( fırka has been replaced by the French loanword parti ). Some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings; for example betik (originally meaning "book")

6327-539: The Turkish language are, in their alphabetical order, ⟨a⟩ , ⟨e⟩ , ⟨ı⟩ , ⟨i⟩ , ⟨o⟩ , ⟨ö⟩ , ⟨u⟩ , ⟨ü⟩ . The Turkish vowel system can be considered as being three-dimensional, where vowels are characterised by how and where they are articulated focusing on three key features: front and back , rounded and unrounded and vowel height . Vowels are classified [±back], [±round] and [±high]. The only diphthongs in

6438-664: The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus and the Dome of the Rock. The murals of the Dome of the Rock use crowns and jewels to symbolize earthly rulership and "otherworldly" plants as an invocation of the Quranic description of heaven. Similarly, the murals in the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, which depict an idyllic cityscape are also meant to be an evocation of paradise without figural representation. The issue of aniconism has posed problems in

6549-493: The adoption of the new Turkish alphabet in 1928, shaped the modern Turkish language spoken today. The TDK became an independent body in 1951, with the lifting of the requirement that it should be presided over by the Minister of Education. This status continued until August 1983, when it was again made into a governmental body in the constitution of 1982 , following the military coup d'état of 1980 . Modern standard Turkish

6660-484: The areas of Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin and sharing similarities with Azerbaijani , the language of Azerbaijan. The Central Anatolia Region speaks Orta Anadolu . Karadeniz , spoken in the Eastern Black Sea Region and represented primarily by the Trabzon dialect, exhibits substratum influence from Greek in phonology and syntax ; it is also known as Laz dialect (not to be confused with

6771-545: The building ceased to be a functioning mosque. In 1958, it was opened to the public as a museum, Kariye Müzesi . In 2005, the Association of Permanent Foundations and Service to Historical Artifacts and Environment filed a lawsuit to challenge the status of the Chora Church as a museum. In November 2019, the Turkish Council of State , Turkey's highest administrative court, ordered that it was to be reconverted to

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6882-454: The central figures at roughly the same size as the attendants and servants who are usually also shown, thus deflecting potential accusations of idolatry. The books illustrated were most often the classics of Persian poetry and historical chronicles . The hadith show some concessions for context, as with the dolls, and condemn most strongly the makers rather than the owners of images. A long tradition of prefaces to muraqqas sought to justify

6993-431: The church (7.7 m in diameter) is above the centre of the naos. Two smaller domes flank the modest apse : the northern dome is over the prothesis , which is linked by short passage to the bema ; the southern dome is over the diaconicon , which is reached via the parecclesion. Only three mosaics survive in the Chora's naos: To the right of the esonarthex, doors open into the side chapel, or parecclesion . The parecclesion

7104-462: The city's defences, but retained the name Chora (for the presumed symbolism of the name see below ). The majority of the fabric of the current building dates from 1077–1081, when Maria Doukaina , the mother-in-law of Alexius I Comnenus , rebuilt the Chora Church as an inscribed cross or quincunx : a popular architectural style of the time. Early in the 12th century, the church suffered a partial collapse, perhaps due to an earthquake . The church

7215-782: The concept of an aniconic Islam coexists with a daily life for Muslims awash with images. TV stations and newspapers (which do present still and moving representations of living beings) have an exceptional impact on public opinion, sometimes, as in the case of Al Jazeera , with a global reach, beyond the Arabic speaking and Muslim audience. Portraits of secular and religious leaders are omnipresent on banknotes and coins, in streets and offices (e.g. presidents like Nasser and Mubarak , Arafat , al-Assad , kings like House of Saud or Hezbollah 's Nasrallah and Ayatollah Khomeini ). Anthropomorphic statues in public places are to be found in most Muslim countries ( Saddam Hussein 's are infamous ), as well as art schools training sculptors and painters. In

7326-405: The creation of images without getting involved in discussions of the specific texts, using arguments such as comparing God to an artist. Miniature painting was mostly patronized by the court circle and is a private form of art; the owner chooses whom to show a book or muraqqa (album). But wall-paintings with large figures were found in early Islam, and in Safavid and later Persia, especially from

7437-411: The defenders against the assault of the Ottomans . Around fifty years after the fall of the city to the Ottomans , Hadım Ali Pasha , the Grand Vizier of Sultan Bayezid II , ordered the Chora Church to be converted into a mosque — Kariye Camii . The word Kariye derived from the Greek name Chora. Due to the prohibition against iconic images in Islam , the mosaics and frescoes were covered behind

7548-506: The diaspora speak the language with native fluency. In 2005, 93% of the population of Turkey were native speakers of Turkish, about 67 million at the time, with Kurdish languages making up most of the remainder. Azerbaijani language , official in Azerbaijan, is mutually intelligible with Turkish and speakers of both languages can understand them without noticeable difficulty, especially when discussion comes on ordinary, daily language. Turkey has very good relations with Azerbaijan, with

7659-540: The east of Anatolia , such as Persia and India . Other forms of figurative arts existed since the formative stage of Islam. These pictures were meant to illustrate the story and not to infringe on the Islamic prohibition of idolatry, but many Muslims regard such images as forbidden. In secular art of the Muslim world, representations of human and animal forms historically flourished in nearly all Islamic cultures, although, partly because of opposing religious sentiments, figures in paintings were often stylized, giving rise to

7770-433: The end of the house. Ali followed the Prophet to ask what had turned him back. The Prophet stated that it is unfitting for him or any Prophet to enter a home decorated [with figural imagery]. Narrated 'Aisha: Upon the arrival of the Prophet from a journey, he saw and tore a curtain with pictures his wife had placed over the door of a chamber. The Prophet disapproved of the making of such pictures, saying those who try to make

7881-417: The entrances into the naos and the pareclession, and they continue the emphasis on imagery of the Virgin and Christ seen elsewhere in these mosaics. The mosaics in the first three bays of the inner narthex give an account of the life of the Virgin , and those of her parents. Some of them are as follows: The central doors of the esonarthex lead into the main body of the church, the naos . The largest dome in

7992-427: The fact that it is not something alive and imbued with a soul that is depicted: a purposeful flaw to make what is depicted impossible to live in reality (as merely impossible in reality is still often frowned upon or banned, such as representations of comic book characters or unicorns, although exceptions do exist). Few portraits were attempted, and the ability to create recognizable portraits was rare in Islamic art until

8103-574: The first comprehensive Turkic language dictionary and map of the geographical distribution of Turkic speakers in the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk ( ديوان لغات الترك ). Following the adoption of Islam around the year 950 by the Kara-Khanid Khanate and the Seljuq Turks , who are both regarded as the ethnic and cultural ancestors of the Ottomans , the administrative language of these states acquired

8214-412: The formal style of Ottoman Turkish that had been common at the time amongst statesmen and the educated strata of society in the setting of formal speeches and documents. After the language reform, the Turkish education system discontinued the teaching of literary form of Ottoman Turkish and the speaking and writing ability of society atrophied to the point that, in later years, Turkish society would perceive

8325-494: The foundation of the modern state of Turkey and the script reform , the Turkish Language Association (TDK) was established in 1932 under the patronage of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , with the aim of conducting research on Turkish. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a language reform to replace loanwords of Arabic and Persian origin with Turkish equivalents. By banning

8436-637: The hadith. Subsequently, geometrical ornamentation became a sophisticated art form in Islam. Narrated Said bin Abu Al-Hasan: Said bin Abu Al-Hasan narrates a conversation between a panicked man who makes his living by making pictures with Ibn 'Abbas. Ibn 'Abbas relays the message heard from the Prophet that whoever makes a picture will be endlessly punished by Allah until he is able to put life into it - though he declared that would never be possible. The Hadith reports Ibn 'Abbas further advised

8547-608: The invisible presence of God. Thus Islamic art creates a void; it eliminates in fact all the turmoil and passionate suggestions of the world, and in their stead creates an order that expresses equilibrium, serenity and peace. In practice, the core of normative religion in Islam is consistently aniconic. Spaces such as the mosque and objects like the Quran are devoid of figurative images. Other spheres of religion, for example mysticism, popular piety, or private devotion exhibit significant variability in this regard. Aniconism in secular contexts

8658-473: The lack of ü vowel in the Trabzon dialect means -un would be used in both of these cases — elun and kitabun . With the exceptions stated below, Turkish words are oxytone (accented on the last syllable). Turkish has two groups of sentences: verbal and nominal sentences. In the case of a verbal sentence, the predicate is a finite verb, while the predicate in nominal sentence will have either no overt verb or

8769-466: The language are found in loanwords and may be categorised as falling diphthongs usually analyzed as a sequence of /j/ and a vowel. The principle of vowel harmony, which permeates Turkish word-formation and suffixation, is due to the natural human tendency towards economy of muscular effort. This principle is expressed in Turkish through three rules: The second and third rules minimize muscular effort during speech. More specifically, they are related to

8880-515: The language on the inscriptions was the Old Turkic language written using the Old Turkic alphabet , which has also been referred to as "Turkic runes" or "runiform" due to a superficial similarity to the Germanic runic alphabets . With the Turkic expansion during Early Middle Ages ( c.  6th –11th centuries), peoples speaking Turkic languages spread across Central Asia , covering

8991-648: The late 13th and early 14th centuries, the monastery was home to the scholar Maximus Planudes , who was responsible for the restoration and reintroduction of Ptolemy 's Geography to the Byzantines and, ultimately, to Renaissance Italy . During the last siege of Constantinople in 1453, the Icon of the Theotokos Hodegetria , considered the protector of the City, was brought to Chora in order to assist

9102-429: The life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad , they need to be interpreted in order to be applied in any general manner. Sunni exegetes of tafsir , from the 9th century onward, increasingly saw in them categorical prohibitions against producing and using any representation of living beings. There are variations between religious maḏāhib (schools) and marked differences between different branches of Islam . Aniconism

9213-544: The like of Allah's creations will receive the severest punishment on the Day of Resurrection. To show the superiority of the monotheist faith, Muhammad smashed the idols at the Kaaba . He also removed paintings that were blasphemous to Islam , while protecting others (the images of Mary and Jesus) inside the building. The hadith below emphasizes that aniconism depends not only on what , but also on how things are depicted. Narrated Ibn Abbas : The Prophet refused to enter

9324-525: The linguistic concept of accent , which is also covered with these words. Several universities, as well as a dedicated work-group of the Turkish Language Association, carry out projects investigating Turkish dialects. As of 2002 work continued on the compilation and publication of their research as a comprehensive dialect- atlas of the Turkish language. Although the Ottoman alphabet, being slightly more phonetically ambiguous than

9435-472: The making of such pictures, saying the makers would be punished on the Day of Resurrection when God would ask them to bring their creations to life. The Hadith also reports that the Prophet said that the angels would not enter a house where there are pictures. Narrated Ali ibn Abu Talib: Safinah AbuAbdurRahman, Ali ibn Abu Talib, and Fatimah invited the Prophet to eat with them. Upon the Prophet’s arrival, he turned away after seeing figural curtains hanging at

9546-419: The material image, but touches upon mental representations as well. It is a problematic issue, discussed by early theologians , as to how to describe God , Muhammad and other prophets, and, indeed, if it is permissible at all to do so. God is usually represented by immaterial attributes, such as "holy" or "merciful", commonly known from his " Ninety-nine beautiful names ". Muhammad's physical appearance, however,

9657-468: The modern world, especially as technologies like television developed in the 20th century. For many years, Wahhabi clerics opposed the establishment of a television service in Saudi Arabia , as they believed it immoral to produce images of humans. The introduction of television in 1965 offended some Saudis, and one of King Faisal 's nephews, Prince Khalid ibn Musa'id ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, was killed in

9768-591: The mother of Jesus , as the Container of the Uncontainable ( ἡ Χώρα τοῦ Ἀχωρήτου , hē Chōra tou Achōrētou ). Turkish language To the west, the influence of Ottoman Turkish —the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire —spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded. In 1928, as one of Atatürk's reforms in the early years of

9879-413: The naos, while another door at the southern end of the esonarthex opens into the rectangular antechamber of the parecclesion. At its northern end, a door from the esonarthex leads into a broad west–east corridor that runs along the northern side of the naos and into the prothesis . The esonarthex has two "pumpkin" domes. The smaller is above the entrance to the northern corridor; the larger is midway between

9990-655: The panicked man to make pictures of trees and any other inanimate objects.|Muhammad al-Bukhari| Sahih al-Bukhari Aisha describes the Prophet tearing a curtain with portraits on it as soon as he saw it. The Hadith reports that the Prophet said the most grievous torment from the Hand of Allah on the Day of Resurrection would be for those who imitate (Allah) in the act of His creation. The torn pieces were made into cushions. Muhammad also warned his followers of dying amongst people that built places of worship at graves and placed pictures in it (i.e. Christians ). Narrated 'Aisha: When

10101-410: The parallel esonarthex. The southern end of the exonarthex opens out through the esonarthex forming a western antechamber to the parecclesion . The mosaics that decorate the exonarthex include: The esonarthex (or inner narthex) is similar to the exonarthex, running parallel to it. Like the exonarthex, the esonarthex is 4 m wide, but it is slightly shorter, 18 m long. Its central, eastern door opens into

10212-462: The person the Prophet’s sayings in which all painters who make pictures would be punished in the fire of Hell and the soul will be breathed in every picture prepared by him. Only pictures of paintings of trees and lifeless things should be allowed. Although pagans in Muhammad's times also worshiped trees and stones, Muhammad opposed only images of animated beings — humans and animals, as reported by

10323-489: The personal ending, so for example Necla, siz öğretmen misiniz ? ('Necla, are you [formal, plural] a teacher?'). Word order in simple Turkish sentences is generally subject–object–verb , as in Korean and Latin , but unlike English, for verbal sentences and subject-predicate for nominal sentences. However, as Turkish possesses a case-marking system, and most grammatical relations are shown using morphological markers, often

10434-435: The phenomenon of labial assimilation: if the lips are rounded (a process that requires muscular effort) for the first vowel they may stay rounded for subsequent vowels. If they are unrounded for the first vowel, the speaker does not make the additional muscular effort to round them subsequently. Grammatical affixes have "a chameleon-like quality", and obey one of the following patterns of vowel harmony: Practically,

10545-638: The preceding vowel. In native Turkic words, the sounds [c] , [ɟ] , and [l] are mainly in complementary distribution with [k] , [ɡ] , and [ɫ] ; the former set occurs adjacent to front vowels and the latter adjacent to back vowels. The distribution of these phonemes is often unpredictable, however, in foreign borrowings and proper nouns. In such words, [c] , [ɟ] , and [l] often occur with back vowels: some examples are given below. However, there are minimal pairs that distinguish between these sounds, such as kar [kɑɾ] "snow" vs kâr [cɑɾ] "profit". Turkish orthography reflects final-obstruent devoicing ,

10656-440: The principles of i-type vowel harmony in practice: Türkiye' dir ("it is Turkey"), kapı dır ("it is the door"), but gün dür ("it is the day"), palto dur ("it is the coat"). These are four word-classes that are exceptions to the rules of vowel harmony: The road sign in the photograph above illustrates several of these features: The rules of vowel harmony may vary by regional dialect. The dialect of Turkish spoken in

10767-399: The prohibition of idolatry and in part from the belief that the creation of living forms is God 's prerogative. The Quran itself does not prohibit visual representation of any living being. The hadith collection of Sahih Bukhari explicitly prohibits the making of images of living beings, challenging painters to "breathe life" into their images and threatening them with punishment on

10878-543: The regulatory body for Turkish is the Turkish Language Association ( Türk Dil Kurumu or TDK), which was founded in 1932 under the name Türk Dili Tetkik Cemiyeti ("Society for Research on the Turkish Language"). The Turkish Language Association was influenced by the ideology of linguistic purism : indeed one of its primary tasks was the replacement of loanwords and of foreign grammatical constructions with equivalents of Turkish origin. These changes, together with

10989-467: The religious realm, Islamic art aids man to be entirely himself. Instead of projecting his soul outside himself, he can remain in his ontological centre where he is both the viceregent ( khalîfa ) and slave ( 'abd ) of God. Islamic art as a whole aims at creating an ambience which helps man to realize his primordial dignity; it therefore avoids everything that could be an 'idol', even in a relative and provisional manner. Nothing must stand between man and

11100-428: The results of the language reform. Owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the older terms of Arabic or Persian origin, the younger generations favor new expressions. It is considered particularly ironic that Atatürk himself, in his lengthy speech to the new Parliament in 1927, used

11211-438: The same is true of small decorative figures in relief on objects in metalwork, or figures painted on Islamic pottery , both of which are relatively common. In particular hunting scenes of humans and animals were popular, and presumably regarded as clearly having no religious function. The figures in miniatures were, until the late 16th century, always numerous in each image, small (typically only an inch or two high), and showing

11322-696: The space's use as a funerary chapel. Within the Christian worldview, God raises the dead at the end of time, hence the significance of the Anastasis and Last Judgement scenes painted prominently on the ceiling. The image of the Anastasis is particularly renowned, appearing in many art history survey books as a key examplar of late Byzantine art. Along the walls of the Chora's parecclesion are arcosolia , arched recesses for tombs, likely intended for Theodore Metochites and his family. Also at this level are depictions of soldier saints, who wield swords as if protecting

11433-454: The speech to be so alien to listeners that it had to be "translated" three times into modern Turkish: first in 1963, again in 1986, and most recently in 1995. The past few decades have seen the continuing work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language, mostly from English. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance. However,

11544-568: The three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia . Erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan , these date back to the Second Turkic Khaganate (dated 682–744 CE). After the discovery and excavation of these monuments and associated stone slabs by Russian archaeologists in the wider area surrounding the Orkhon Valley between 1889 and 1893, it became established that

11655-589: The tombs they accompany. The original, 4th-century monastery containing the church was outside Constantinople 's city walls. Literally translated, the church's full name was the Church of the Holy Saviour in the Country ( Greek : ἡ Ἐκκλησία τοῦ Ἁγίου Σωτῆρος ἐν τῇ Χώρᾳ , hē Ekklēsia tou Hagiou Sōtēros en tēi Chōrāi ). It is therefore sometimes incorrectly referred to as "Saint Saviour". However, "The Church of

11766-432: The twofold pattern (also referred to as the e-type vowel harmony) means that in the environment where the vowel in the word stem is formed in the front of the mouth, the suffix will take the e-form, while if it is formed in the back it will take the a-form. The fourfold pattern (also called the i-type) accounts for rounding as well as for front/back. The following examples, based on the copula -dir ("[it] is"), illustrate

11877-410: The usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred foreign words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, it also opted for reviving Old Turkish words which had not been used for centuries. In 1935, the TDK published a bilingual Ottoman-Turkish /Pure Turkish dictionary that documents

11988-414: Was converted into a mosque; it became a museum in 1945, and was turned back into a mosque in 2020 by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan . The interior of the building is covered with some of the finest surviving Byzantine Christian mosaics and frescoes , which were left in plain sight during Muslim worship throughout much of the Ottoman era. They were restored after the building was secularized and turned into

12099-483: Was largely unintelligible to the period's everyday Turkish. The everyday Turkish, known as kaba Türkçe or "vulgar Turkish", spoken by the less-educated lower and also rural members of society, contained a higher percentage of native vocabulary and served as basis for the modern Turkish language. While visiting the region between Adıyaman and Adana , Evliya Çelebi recorded the "Turkman language" and compared it with his own Turkish: Reforms Kemalism After

12210-412: Was rebuilt by Isaac Comnenus , Alexius's third son. However, it was only after the third phase of building, two centuries after, that the church as it stands today was completed. The powerful Byzantine statesman Theodore Metochites endowed the church with many of its fine mosaics and frescoes . Theodore's impressive decoration of the interior was carried out between circa 1310 and 1317. The mosaic-work

12321-413: Was used as a mortuary chapel for family burials and memorials. The second largest dome (4.5 m diameter) in the church graces the centre of the roof of the parecclesion. A small passageway links the parecclesion directly into the naos, and off this passage can be found a small oratory and a storeroom. The parecclesion is covered in frescoes that emphasize the theological message of salvation, in keeping with

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