Adnan Rashid – Historic Trkiye- Fateh Mosque and Ayup Sultan
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Okay. Bismillah, Bismillah Rahmanir Raheem. Here we are
in Turkey. We were in Spain,
a couple of days ago. We did vlogging
from Spain. We went to Cartoba. We went
to Seville. We went to,
Granada,
magnificent Alhambra.
Now we are in a very special place.
We call it
Istanbul
or previously known as Constantinople,
the city of Constantine.
And we're gonna show you something very special.
Let's go inshallah. I'm with the group. It's
a separate different group from the one we
had
in Spain.
Brothers and sisters have joined us from all
around the world to visit
historic sites
in
Turkey.
So we we will be visiting in the
coming days.
Iznik, which was ancient Nicaea, also called Nikia.
And there we will look at some ancient
sites going back to the Roman period and
then the Christian period
and the Ottoman period. Then we will make
our way to where
Sultan
or Gazi or Togru is buried.
And then from there, we will go to
Bursa.
Once upon a time, the Ottoman capital
in this territory where 6 sultans are buried.
And then finally, we will come back to
Istanbul
where we will look at the historic sites,
say Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and Topkapi Palace,
and other historic places. Right now in front
of us,
we see a very famous place,
very important place historically,
as I will explain inshallah.
This is
Fati mosque,
named after
Sultan Mohammed al Fati,
the conqueror of
Constantinople
in the year 1453.
He took this city
from the Romans.
So we will stand here, do a very
quick introduction
before we move on.
So Sultan Mohammed al Fatih
stands as a towering figure
in Ottoman history.
He is basically, you can say, he represents
the peak of the Ottoman Empire.
Okay. The Ottoman Empire officially
started
about 12 99 CE. This is the date
scholars give to the beginning
of the Ottoman Empire as a dynasty in
northwestern
Anatolia.
Okay?
And we will explain the history in a
bit more detail as we go along. Okay?
How did the Turks come into Anatolia?
Where did they come from? Why did why
did they come in the first place?
Who was here before they came?
Where did they go? All these questions are
very important. This was basically Greek territory.
This was Greek speaking world,
all of Anatolia. Anatolia
is also called Asia Minor
because
the land mass is quite huge. It's it's
it's it's very, very
big,
chunk of land. This is why it's called
Asia Minor, smaller Asia.
So
this land starts on
Constantinople
going all the way to the borders of
Syria. Okay?
So it's a huge chunk of land. This
was Greek territory and the also there were
Armenians here.
In the, on on the eastern side. We
had Armenians there on that side. Okay? So
this territory was Greek. And then the Turks
came in and they took this territory. We'll
talk more about that later. Coming back to
Sultan Mohammed Al Fatih, I want you to
remember the names of individuals
and dates. Where did the Turks came from?
Very good question. They actually came from where
did the Turks come from? That's the question.
They came from Central Asia.
All of them, all the Turkish people or
people who are called Turkic,
they,
they came from Central Asia. And, of course,
they came from different clans,
different,
branches
of,
the, the the the same body of people.
They were the same people originally once upon
a time. And then there were there there
there were diverse tribes and,
branches that spread out. Moguls,
Seljuks, and all. Mughals, Seljuks,
Safavids, Ottomans, they all originate from Central Asia.
They are Turkic people. Okay?
And,
this is why a lot of the things
that Turks or Turkish empires,
different Turkish empires are doing,
went back to the traditions they brought with
them from Central Asia. But we will talk
about that in a bit more detail. So
I want you to remember dates and personalities.
This is Sultan Mohammed Al Fatiha.
The date you have to remember
with regards to him
is the year
1453.
Remember that date. This is a very important
date. Just like when we started in Spain,
we wanted everyone to remember 2 dates. And
what what are those two dates? Who remembers?
711. 711?
14/92.
14/92. Thank you. Masha'Allah, you remember.
7 11 to 14/92.
Why? Because this is the entire length of
Muslim rule in Al Andalus in Spain.
So 14/53
is the year when the Ottomans finally
take
the
metropolis
or the giant city called
Constantinople,
which was
absolutely important
for a number of reasons.
Taking of Constantinople
represented
defeat of Christendom.
Okay?
The rise of a new power in Asia
Minor called the Ottomans. Now they have superiority
over all other little dynasties and principalities in
Asia Minor.
Ottomans were not the only Turkic,
Beylik or
the only Turkic dynasty here in Asia Minor.
There were plenty of them. There were many.
And how they came about, we'll talk about
that later again
Okay. When we discuss this a bit, in
a bit more detail starting from Iznik and
when we go on to Zugot and Bursa,
we will talk more about the origins of
the Ottomans
Okay. So it's coming. So bear with me.
Why are we starting here? Because this is
the peak. This is right in the middle.
Just like when we start from Spain,
we start from Seville. We don't go to
Cordoba. We don't go to Granada. Because Cordoba
represents
the beginning. Granada represents the end of the
Muslim rule. We start in Seville
right in the middle when there were 2
revivals with the, Almohads and Al Murabitun. Al
Murabitun first and then Al Muwahidun.
Right? Here, this is the peak. 1453 is
when the Ottomans have reached their pinnacle.
They are now a a military power that
the whole world
is
is,
is aware of.
That the Ottomans are now on the global
scene. From a very small dynasty in northwestern
Anatolia, they have become a global power now
because they hold one of the most important
global capitals in the world.
And why are we here
at this spot?
This is
the spot where Sultan
built the Masjid.
Okay?
And this is one of the 7 hills,
right,
of Constantinople.
This is one of the 7 hills,
okay,
of Constantinople. This is one of the high
plains.
Okay. So, obviously, it's a very important place.
It was already important before Sultan Mohammed Fatih,
Mohammed al Fatih chose to build this masjid.
And later on, when he died in,
in 14/81,
he was buried right next to the masjid.
We will see it. We will see his
tomb as well. Now why did he choose
this spot?
Highest?
Okay. Highest.
Maybe it was highest. Any any more guesses?
A dream.
A dream. Okay. Possibly.
Anything else?
Okay. Let me give you the shock now.
The shock or the surprise, I promise you
guys.
This is where
one of the holiest
sites stood
for Christendom,
for the Romans,
especially those Romans who became Christian.
Okay?
On this very spot stood a church called
the church of holy apostles.
Yes.
Okay. And it doesn't stop there. Wait. It
doesn't stop there.
Inside this church, this church was more important
than Hagia Sophia
because the church at this spot was built
by Constantine himself.
And to make it important, Constantine
actually,
brought relics from the Middle East, from Palestine,
attributed to
the disciples of Jesus Christ.
Okay?
This is why this church was called the
Church of Holy Apostles because Holy Apostles are
who? The disciples
of Jesus.
Right? So he had brought,
relics,
objects
attributed to. When I say attributed, I'm very
careful about this because we can never know
whether those relics were actually original because they
were flying around throughout the Christian world. Right?
And,
everyone believed that everything is real, unfortunately.
So Constantine brought these relics to this place
to make it more important.
So every single Roman emperor since Constantine
was being crowned here.
This is where they they would be made
emperors officially. Right?
And when they died,
this is where they would be buried.
Now hold your
breath. Guess who's buried there?
Start
noting the names.
On this very spot, on this hill, under
that Masjid,
Constantine.
Constantius.
Justinian.
Justinian is later. I mean, even before Justin.
Basically, Theodosius.
Okay? Even Julian who was an apostate is
buried here. Right? He wasn't a Christian. He
was he's buried here. Right?
And
there is a whole list of Roman emperors.
Some of the most Roman, important Roman emperors
in history. Constantine, one of them. Then we
have Theodosius,
another one, very important,
Roman emperor. Then we have Justinian the great
who revived the Roman empire in the 6th
century. Right? And then most importantly,
the the the one of the most important
figures in the history of Islam. Who did
the prophet communicate with? Which Roman emperor?
Heraclius is buried here. That's the same Heraclius
that Absolutely. Heraclius. The same Heraclius Abu Sufyan
had a dialogue
with, which is narrated in Sahil Bukhari. Heraclius.
In Arabic, Heraclius
in,
English or,
Latin.
They are buried here. And the list goes
on. They were being buried here
very very late. Later Roman emperors also. Because
this spot never lost its importance.
So, basically, when Sultan Fatih took Constantinople,
the important this site was still very important
for Christendom. Right? And for the Romans.
But it was neglected.
They couldn't take care of it, especially after
the the 4th crusade in 1204
already mentioned.
The crusaders came in to Constantinople,
and they took the city of Constantinople in
1204 CE from the Romans
temporarily for about 50 years. Okay? And when
they took it, they ruled it by their
own laws, Latin laws.
The Byzantines, the Romans, or Greek,
they chose Greek language to,
you know,
do what whatever business they were doing. Lat,
the crusaders were Latin, so they brought their
own system. So the crusaders
sacked the church,
and
they desecrated the tombs of the Roman emperors.
Of Christians are they, and what kind of
Christians are these?
The Byzantines were obviously they're following they were
following a different version, orthodox. Greek? Greek orthodox
version of Christianity, and the Latins were Catholics.
They were represented by the pope papacy. So
the crusaders came in, and they sacked the
site, and they opened the tombs of the
Roman emperors looking for gold and relics and
all those things.
There are reports that when they found Heracles'
tomb and they opened it, they took his
crown made of gold, which was put with
him inside the tomb. And they said his
hair his hair was still on the crown
when they took the the crown. So the
crusaders desecrated the tomb,
tombs of all those Roman emperors, and this
place was then neglected. And then it fell
into more,
despair, and it was it was falling,
for falling apart. And when Sultan Mohammed al
Fatih took Constantinople, it was already in ruins.
Right? So
I don't know whether he actually knew the
importance
of this place.
Clearly, he knew that there was an important
church once that stood here, but I don't
know if he had this idea, this history
at his disposal that all the major Roman
emperors are buried. So he put a mosque,
a masjid right on top of them, as
you can see. And then he himself chose
to be buried. As if Allah is making
a point through this. That this is a
Muslim Sultan who has taken this, and he's
above all these Roman emperors. He's buried on
top of them.
How things change? So this is a very
important place. Not many people actually realize the
importance of this place. So when you walk
inside the masjid, remember that you might be
walking on top of Heraclius,
Constantine, Julian, and all those emperors buried underneath.
Okay? They could be anywhere here because this
whole hill was covered by this church of
holy apostles. Okay? This was more important than
Hagia Sophia. Hagia Sophia became important
because later on, the the gigantic
size and the importance given to it by
the Roman emperor. But even then, look at
this. Who built Hagia Sophia?
Justinian.
Emperor Justinian. It was completed in 537
CE.
Right? But where did he choose to be
buried?
Yeah.
Why not Hagia Sophia? Because this was more
important. This is the church of all the
apostles.
And now it is a masjid, and sultan
Muhammad al Fatih is buried on top of
all those women and Roman emperors.
And what happened to that relics? And what
happened to the relics? They were Oh, they're
gone. They're long gone. Crusaders destroyed everything. Crusaders
came and they desecrated the whole place,
because the Romans, the Byzantines,
they had respect for these Roman emperors because
they were all Christian. They were all Christian.
Right? They're Heraclius and Justinian, they were Christians,
and they did a lot for Christianity. Crusaders
considered them to be a bunch of heretics
and and what so they're like, who cares?
Open the tomb and take all the gold
and the swords or whatever is buried with
them. So in 1204, they sacked this place.
They messed up the city of Constantinople. You
said who do I respect for who? Chris
the Christians
who were living here. That's why they didn't
desecrate.
Right? Crusaders did it because they didn't really
believe in the same version of Christianity. So
let's keep keep moving inshallah.
This was a very brief summary of the
historic importance
of this spot. I believe this is one
of the most important places
in Constantinople,
in Istanbul because of the historic
nature
of the people who were buried here.
And, you know, we read so much about
Constantine and Justinian
and Heraclius so much. We know so much
about them, but we don't know where they
buried. No one knows. But this is where
this is where they were actually buried. And
this is very much downplayed for some reason.
Very much downplayed. This is not common knowledge.
Even amongst scholars, this is hardly known.
And I even bumped into these facts by
chance by accident because I was looking into
something, and I found that they are actually
buried at this place. So, brother Mohammed, we're
going, to the masjid or
I'm only 1. You want to share? Did
you want to say some words if you
maybe just
few sentences? Yeah. Go ahead. Okay, guys. This
is another thing which is the importance of
you. Of course. Yeah. I'm Mohammed. I'm the
local guide,
with you. So another thing, as you know,
the Hagia Sophia was a petrochate,
right, of the
Eastern Orthodox Christians.
So
when the crusades came in I mean, sorry
for that. When Mohammed al Fatih conquered the
place
and changed the Hagia Sophia into a mosque,
so they had to move the petrichate another
place. And that was the first spot
after they got the Hagia Sophia. And then
Mohammed al Fatih
actually took this place
and wanted to build the mosque and also,
you know,
tomb. So they also moved to the Char
Shamba area.
And from Char Shamba area, that was the
old Sultan Salim, Salim the first, who actually
wanted to build a new complex in there.
So they had to move it to the
Balat in 16/17.
So it's still in ballot right now. What
what is it that they
What what is it that they move? The
patriachate It's patriachate. What what is that?
Patriach. Patriot. Yeah. You know, the the patriarchs
were moved, because it was it was a
patriarchal.
That's what you mean. Right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
So,
this is what they moved. Main church? Yeah.
Yeah. The body, you mean? No. No. No.
No. The body's not moved. Yeah. The seat
of the patriarch. Oh, the The the patriarch
the patriarch of the city of Constantinople
was was would be based,
here. Right? And then it was moved later
on somewhere else by Sultan al Kante. This
is what Saddam Hussein. Yeah. Okay. So still,
he's still right there.
And
the Patrick is a Greek guy who born
in a island in Istanbul.
So the Patrick is still the Orthodox, Christian
Patrick still there. Yeah. And giving the speeches.
Yeah. It's like the orthodox pope. Yeah. Patriarch.
Okay? Yep.
So they were patriarchs of every single major
city,
like the the bishops. You can call them
the bishops, the cardinals,
the Catholic,
equivalent. So here in Greek orthodox, they would
have the patriarchs.
Okay?
So just like when Omar Ibn Khattab
when he came to take the city of
Jerusalem, who was dealing with him, who was
talking to him was patriarch Sophronius,
the bishop of the city. Right? So we
had different patriarchs here.
So they were based here, and then they
were moved they were moved elsewhere when Sultan
Mohammed Al Fatih took this spot. Okay. Let's
go. Let's go. Are we going inside the
jammy? Yeah. Okay. So we can go inside,
have a look. So let's say we should
have,
how many minutes in there? About 10 minutes?
Oh, okay. Well, we we are quite free
with time, so no problem.
And then once we are finished with the
the jamid, the masjid, then we'll come out
again, and we will go around and we'll
look at the tomb of Sultan Mohammed al
Fatih, which is right next door.
And his name is there and all,
the things, the hadith about Constantinople, the conquest
of Constantinople
is written on top of his tomb. So
you will see all that
So we're gonna go inside
the masjid.
Okay. Bismillahir
Rahmanir Rahim.
So this
is Jameh
al Fatih or al Fatih Jameh.
Okay?
This is Fatih mosque. As you can see,
it's magnificent.
It's quite normal in size and magnitude for
Istanbul.
In Istanbul, you have so many magnificent mosques
that every mosque looks the same, but they
all have unique features. This one has its
own independent unique features. Unfortunately, the original building
that was built in the 14 seventies fell
due to an earthquake in the 18th century,
and they had to rebuild
the whole thing or part of it,
but the foundation is the same. So as
I was talking about it earlier, this is
where all the Roman emperors
are.
Okay? So they are under this ground.
I'm very sure they are because this is
where the Church of Holy Apostles stood, and
this is where they were buried. So
they are within this compound. All those major
Roman emperors, and they were obviously spread out
when they were buried. So there's a long
list of them. And, inshallah, I can, take
out that list later on and,
read the list. Does anyone have Internet?
Yeah. Can you check very quick? The Roman
empress buried at the church of hope holy
apostles.
Roman empress buried at the church of holy
apostles. So I can quickly read the list
for our online audience as well.
Now I want to mention very quickly, this
is very important,
that we are doing these tours to educate
Muslims around the world about
the the history of Ottoman Turkey and Islamic
Spain and Morocco. So we are doing these
tours every few weeks. And if you want
to join one of these tours, brothers and
sisters,
check out halalgateaways.com.
Go on the website and check out the
future dates. I myself,
going to be,
joining these
tours
and
will be,
presenting history. So among those buried in the
church
of holy apostles,
okay,
is the Church of the Holy Apostles.
People who are buried here are Constantine the
first,
Constantius the second,
Julian,
Jovian,
Valentinian,
Theodosius,
Marcian.
Okay?
Ariane,
Anastasius,
Justinian,
Ino Anastasia,
Heraclius,
Eudokia,
Fausta,
Anastasia,
Anastasius,
Eudokia, Irene of Athens, Leo,
the 6th. Okay. Eudokia, Ingerina,
Nikephoros,
the second,
Constantine,
the 8th.
Okay. Zeo,
porphyrygentia
genita. Porphyrygentia.
Sorry. I can't pronounce that name.
Okay. And Theodora. So as as late as
1056,
the last Theodora
was buried in 1056.
So you can imagine
from the year 3 37
all the way up to 1056,
Roman emperors and Roman empresses,
are being buried here. Okay?
There are many famous names here who were
actually dealing with the ambassadors. Nikki Forrest is
one of them. Okay. Yeah. Sorry?
Kalbar.
Ibn Qasir, he narrates
this,
anecdote
that,
the empress Irene
was paying taxes to the Abbasids.
Right?
And,
when she was ousted,
by Nikki Foros, he refused to pay taxes
to the Abbasids. He said this was a
woman. She was weak. She's paying taxes to
these guys, these bullies. I'm not gonna pay
taxes.
So Harun al Rashid, at the time, he
wrote a letter
to Nikephoros, the emperor, the Roman emperor at
the time, and
he writes and the words are,
harun al Rashid, ela kalberom
from
the leader of the believers,
Harun al Rashid, to the dog of Rome,
basically. This is how he was addressing him,
and he told him that if you don't
start to pay your taxes, the army will
start here and end there with you. And
he still refused. And then the long story,
Harun al Rashid invaded,
and then Nikki Forrest,
surrendered
and agreed to pay taxes. But when Harun
al Rashid turned around, he refused again. Then
Harun al Rashid came back. He attacked the
city, the Roman territory again and took few
more cities. And then Nikephoros again surrendered, and
he said, please, enough is enough. We will
pay taxes. So this is how important some
of these figures are historically. They are directly
linked to the history of Islam. Heraclius onwards,
pretty much all Roman emperors were dealing with
first the Umayyads and the Abbasids,
and later on the Seljuks.
It is the Seljuks who took this territory
from the Roman emperors. Okay? Romanos
was the Roman emperor. In 10/71, there was
a very famous battle called the battle of
Manzikert. As a result of this battle, the
Turks came in, and we will talk more
about it when we are in Sogut and
Bursa.
So for now, inshallah, enjoy yourself, look around,
and, explore. And then once once we are
done, we will make our way to the
cover
of Sultan Mohammed Al Fati, inshallah.
Okay, everyone.
We are now
outside
the the Masjid compound, and we are making
our way to
the Muslim
cemetery.
Okay?
And right next to the Masjid, you can
see outside the Masjid, Sultan al Sateh is
buried
in this
very compound, in this very
room or mausoleum,
you can call it.
And
one of the greatest sultans to have ruled
the Ottoman Empire, one of the most powerful
ones, one of the most dynamic ones,
young Sultan, he was in his early twenties
when he took the city of Constantinople.
This was absolutely mind blowing, phenomenal.
How can such a young man lead such
a huge army and do something his predecessors
could not do for the previous
150
years? This was absolutely phenomenal.
Okay? So,
many sultans before him attempted,
but he had his mind bent on
taking
Constantinople
from
Christendom
and make it a Muslim capital.
And later on, Napoleon Bonaparte
was to remark that if
I had Constantinople
as my capital, I would rule the world
from it. So we're gonna go inside.
Yeah.
This is
the very
cover of Sultan Mohammed Al Fatih.
Mohammed the great also called
and you have verses of the Quran all
over
his,
tomb. There is that hadith.
And here
we have
the name of the sultan very beautifully
inscribed on this cloth in silver wires.
This is his name there.
And this is one of the things we
want to highlight that nowadays, many,
Turkish
brothers and sisters, they use the word to
refer to him.
And the actual name is Muhammad,
which is written on the very cover there
of the sultan.
It says a sultan Muhammad
Khan bin a sultan al Ghazi,
Ghazi Murad Khan.
So
Sultan Mohammed al Fatih was the son of
the great Ghazi
warrior, Sultan Murad the second, who fought the
Crusaders. His history is also very dynamic, absolutely
mind blowing.
And he was a very pious man.
Maybe it was his barakah, his prayers
that gave his son the honor
to take the city of Constantinople.
And, obviously, the credit goes to the father
as well for raising such a strong son,
Allahu Akbar. And Sultan Murad,
the second, he, basically wanted to worship Allah
and seclude himself from the affairs of Duniya.
He fought against the crusaders. He fought against
a coalition of,
the Christian world at the time from in
the west.
He took many lands in the Balkans
and he wanted to basically
leave the state
or the government to his son
and basically
seclude himself to worship Allah
But then he had to come back to
take power from his young son,
who could not,
at the time, you know, handle pressure. Or
maybe the wazirs were not very pleased with
things the way they were going, and Sultan
Murad had to come back the second time
he took power
and did what he had to do. So
when he died,
he had left a will that Barimi in
a very humble, very simple tomb. When they
go to Bursa, InshaAllah, we will see his
grave and you will see how simple it
is. Allahu Akbar. So this is Sultan Muhammad,
Sultan Muhammad the Great.
I was just asked a question about the
significance of
the turban, the huge
turban
on top of,
the grave,
or sarcophagus,
of the sultan.
Why is it there?
Why such a big turban?
In his real life, if you look at
some of his portraits,
his lifetime portraits, you will see his turban
was very weak. And this question comes up
very often that why did the Ottoman sultans
wear such big turbans?
The point was they would put cloth around
the turban
so that they could be buried in the
same cloth. It was their coffin.
Sorry.
Coffin not in,
as in the box, but the cloth so
that they can be put in this very
cloth. And when they die, they will be
wrapped in this very cloth and put in
the grave. So this was the idea why
the sultans
had such
huge turbans because they had cloth,
wrapped around their heads. So this is a
history we have to tell our children, the
humility of these people.
There was something very special about these people,
why Allah chose them to be here and
do all these great deeds.
If you go beyond sectarianism
and bigotry and prejudice, you will see that
Allah
chose them to serve Islam
in this way. There
is Adhan,
there is Salah, there is Quran being read
in these lands because of the struggles of
these people.
Allah chose them to do this, what they
did. And in other places we lost
land like Al Andalus in Spain because people
got too busy with this this dunya, and
they were too,
comfortable with the the ease and the luxuries
of this world.
But these sultans chose hardship.
They chose he spent
much of his life on the battlefield.
Sultan Suleiman, the magnificent,
one of his great
grandchildren,
who ruled from 15,
20 to 1566,
nearly 46 years. Guess what, brothers and sisters?
Nearly half his life was spent on the
battlefield. Half.
Nearly half his life even as a prince
and even after he became sultan.
After he became sultan, he spent nearly 20
years on the battlefield
fighting on two fronts,
the Europeans
on the western front and the Shia Safavids
on
the eastern front because they would attack him
repeatedly from behind. When he would attack the
Europeans on the western front, the Safavids would
launch an attack behind him, so he would
go and subdue them. So it was a
very difficult situation, very, very tough situation for
him.
But he lived 20 years of his life
fighting these battles,
trying to maintain
this territory for the Muslims. So it's very
important we teach our children this history so
that they can be inspired by the characters,
by their achievements,
and look up to these people.
Inshallah. Constantinople
was technically the city within the walls. The
Theodosian walls. The walls you see going around,
we will see them inshallah when we leave.
You will see the walls with red bricks.
Okay? There are stones and there are lines
of red bricks. These are Theodosian walls. They
were built in the 4th century, but mostly
there are older parts, but mostly in the
4th century,
and, these were impregnable
walls.
There were 2 layers. There's there was an
outer wall and there was an inner wall.
So even if you were to breach the
outer wall, it would be very difficult for
you to,
pass the second wall. But Sultan Mohammed al
Fatih and his army managed to do it
somehow. You know? Location in Constantinople.
Yeah. Absolutely. We we are right now this
is Church of Holy Apostles.
We are on one of the seven peaks
of the city of Constantinople. Right now, where
we're standing right now is one of the
7 peaks. 1 of the when when we
say one of the 7 peaks,
7 hills that overlook the city of Constantinople.
So this is very high plain. Okay? Sultans
who were before him were controlling the land
around.
Yeah. Land around
in Europe, on the European side, and the
Asian side. Okay? So the sultans before sultan
Muhammad al Fatih had pretty much taken
most
of northwestern Anatolia.
The only part left was Constantinople
that divided Asia from Europe. Okay? So the
sultans had taken land around Constantinople
as well, but they couldn't take Constantinople
because it was
impregnable. Right? Many sultans attempted. In fact, Sultan
Bayezid the first,
when Timur
came in
in 1401,
1402,
the battle of Ankara. Right? Timur from Central
Asia was another conqueror who wanted to
be another Genghis Khan. He came conquering land,
and he decided,
to attack the Ottomans. At the time, Sultan
Bayezid Yaldrum,
the thunderbolt,
was besieging Constantinople.
This was one of the dreams of the
Ottoman sultan. They wanted to do it for
Islam. They wanted they this is why they
were called ghazis.
Ghazis.
And only one of the sultans died on
the battlefield,
was killed after the battle. We will talk
more about him when we're in Bursa So
I don't want to give all the history
now because there's a lot to talk about,
a lot to cover in the coming days.
So I just wanted to quickly show you
this brief history of sultan Muhammad al Fatiha.
And remember the name,
the wazir, Shandarli
Halil Pasha. We will see his, grave in
his nick when we get there inshallah. And
he's buried there in a very humble grave,
but he was the 2nd most powerful man
after the Sultan himself. And Sultan had to
kill him,
and we will see why when we get
there in charge. Welcome, everyone.
So this is the Jewish street. Alright? That
the ottomans
after Muhammad al Fatih was must use it.
So what I mean, Jerusalem means sitting. Right?
Sitting. Jerusalem. And Merazim?
And Jerusalem. Jerusalem. Jerusalem. Jerusalem. Jerusalem. Jerusalem.
Jerusalem. Right? So each sultan after Muhammad al
Fatih
had to visit
the Abu al Ansari,
and then should walk all the way to
the top top of palace more than 2
hours.
So that was must. And then they can
be considered as a sultan.
So,
this is the importance of the, you know,
Abu Bakr and Sari.
So they all done. And, you know, like
people were sending just like us
and maybe he was
giving some coins to the people
all the way to the top couple of
palace. And this emirate is the emirate of
Mary Shahvari desultans. She was the mother of
the sarin the third and the wife of
the Mustafa the 3rd. So it's a soup
kitchen.
They are still cooking for more more than
4,000 people every day for free, you know.
Yeah. It's supported by waqf. Yeah. It's a
waqf. It's a foundation.
49%
of the foundation
are actually
ruled by women.
So they didn't spend money to get, you
know, like fancy
clothes or Chanel bags, whatever.
So they spent,
you know, for the sake of public people.
Right? For the sake of Allah. And even
we have a one,
what you say, aya
on the top of the gate.
We have a Yeah. That's So so so
the point what what brother Mohammed is explaining,
every time a sultan was crowned,
he would come here, this very route,
walk to
the the mausoleum of
Abu Ayub Al Ansari
Okay? Pay his respects there, and then walk
back to Topkapi Palace
to be to be throned or enthroned. Okay?
And this is their love for the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Why are they doing
this? They are doing this because this is
the closest thing they have to the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
a Sahabi.
Now the question keeps coming up, is he
actually really buried here? That's not the point.
The point is they have come to believe
already that he's buried here,
Okay?
And
the fact that they believe
this
and they walk here to show their devotion
to a companion of Rasulullah SAWSOLUM to honor
the prophet SAWSOLUM,
it shows you the dedication and the level
of respect and love the Ottoman Sultans had
for Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. We
can disagree with this devotion
yet,
if you think about it, this is the
best they knew at the time and this
is what they practice. So this is the
verse brother Mohammed was talking about. This is
a soup kitchen
which was built by one of the,
mothers of,
sorry, mother of 1 of the sultans. Sultan
Salim the 3rd, his mother, she initiated this.
Okay? So
the calligraphy situation. Even if you know Arabic,
it's not easy to read all the calligraphy
styles. There are 14 types of
a calligraphy.
And this
is, jelly.
Alright. So it's really hard to read it,
but it's it's written on it because I
read it from somewhere else. Yeah. So it's
written
So we feed you for the sake of
Allah.
No reward we wait from you nor thanks.
And you know why this aya received? Does
anybody
know to explain?
So this aya received actually, you know, there
was a boycott for Muslims. Yeah. And Ali
bin Talib and Fatima radhiallahu an, they barely
found a little bit dates to break the
fast. They were fasting
and immediately the door is is knocked and
somebody asked for the sake of Allah something
and they gave it and they kept fasting
till the other day. And the other day,
they barely found a little bit dates to
I mean, to break the fast
but
door is knocked again.
So and Ali,
Karam
gave whatever he has, and this ayah received
to our prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So you can imagine, like, he was not
waiting for anything. So these guys probably know
the situation that's why they put this ayah,
like, we feed you for the sake of
Allah and no reward or no thanks wait
from you. So this this shows you the
love of even the women, the ladies of
the the royal,
the household
who were,
trained in such,
manners
and such,
such moral,
you know, uprightness that they would initiate projects
like this
and feed people,
free of charge. And amazingly, this is still
a wakf, and it still runs to this
day. As brother Mohammed highlighted,
4,000 people nearly come and receive their soup,
daily soup. It's a soup kitchen. So
if you're hungry in Istanbul and you don't
have money in your pocket, this is the
place to come. And you will
you won't be disappointed because the soup here,
what they call shoruba. Right?
Is is the it's the best.
But you will you
you you will notice sorry?
This is her tomb. This is her tomb,
the lady's tomb.
May Allah have mercy on her. May Allah
accept from her her sadaqah, her khairat,
that she did, and it still continues to
this day. We cannot forget these people. These
people
are very important, in our history. This way?
Yeah. So you might have noticed already, brothers
and sisters, that there are so many graves,
unbelievable
amount of graves around this compound.
Why do you think?
Even look up in the hill, there are
graves
there. Look.
There are graves here. There are graves here.
There are graves here. There are graves here.
There are graves on the mountain.
Okay?
You know why?
Look behind me there.
This is where
Abu Ayub al Ansari
his Muslim is. So everyone, all these Ottomans,
they wanted to be close to a Sahabi
of Rasulullah SAWSAW. When they die, they wanna
be in the same vicinity,
in the same area, to be close to
the Sahabi of Rasool Allah SAW Salam out
of their love. Yeah. And by the way,
it's pretty clear before
Muhammad al Fatih actually, you know,
found this place, his teacher Aksham Sethin.
So there was nobody living in here. So
this is the only place, one of the
only places in Istanbul populated only by Muslims.
There are no, you know, like non Muslims
in here, just Muslims.
So, again, to highlight the point whether,
Abu Ayubal Ansari radhiallalan is buried here or
not is a very good question.
Okay? There are opinions
that people claim that he is buried here.
Okay. Others say no. We have no evidence.
We cannot trust a dream. But regardless, people
come and express their devotion and their love
for the prophet by paying respects here, making
dua.
But any of the
noncherry activities here, of course, they are not
the responsibility
of,
people who are taking care of this place.
There are people who,
express their devotion in, different ways. So
when we walk in there, okay,
we make dua for all the people who
are buried around this compound.
Accept them.
And may Allah accept the errors. Sorry. May
Allah forgive the errors and accept the good
deeds.
And at the same time, remember that we
have to follow the Sharia when we are
paying respects
to the deceased,
the ones who have passed away, whether they
are Sahaba or people who came after the
Sahaba,
we pay respects according to Sharia. We do
not break the rules of Sharia. We do
not do anything that is against the sunnah
of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. He has
taught us how to visit
graves
and tombs. He has taught us how to
visit the graves of people who have passed
away. So we stick to that inshallah. We
stick to the principles of Islam and sunnah
And
yes. Okay.
Well Ahmed the first. So before Ahmed the
first built this place Right. Everybody was just,
you know, like, looking Sultan Ahmed the first,
he built this, and you can see the
amazing decoration.
Very Ottoman.
Very distinctive of Ottoman,
artwork.
Very beautiful.
And we're gonna go inside
the mausoleum
from this. Where do we enter from? This
this this is the entrance.
Okay. As I said,
this is an attribution.
We can never be sure whether he is
actually buried here,
But he's definitely close to the walls of
Constantinople,
or he was buried
around
the city of,
or close to the city of Constantinople
because he, well, he came on an expedition,
that was sent to conquer
Constantinople. This is during the period.
This is during the period.
So we're gonna go in. We can take
our shoes inside.
We're gonna put them in the in the
bags.
Oh, we can carry them in the hand.
No? Okay.
It's many Oh, yeah. Yeah. Plastic bag is
better. Yeah. I'm gonna do it for you.
Don't worry.
Give me one more, please. Mhmm. We'll put
Hamza's shoes in there.
Okay. I got it. I got it. I'll
carry it. No problem. No. No. It's alright.
Come.
Now okay. So we enter
from here,
and
the
the alleged the alleged tomb or
the attributed tomb
is in
there.
You can see there's a cover inside.
It is there.
As I mentioned, that we should stick to
the principles of sharia when visiting
tombs and graves.
In this case, we're not sure if,
our is
buried, but
we respect the local custom
and local attribution.
Okay. We'll leave now.
So here,
brothers and sisters, it's very clear
that
a lot of people from Turkey around Turkey,
around the world, they come and visit this,
mausoleum.
And,
I'm sorry.
And it's a source of inspiration for the
local
Turkish Muslims,
and you see a lot of people in
religious,
dresses.
Many religious people in Turkey who are very
religious, they come here
and pay their respects.
Of course, we do not agree with things
that people do
against Sharia or when they are doing
actions.