The mosque, called by the Turks Kuguk-aya-Sofgya (Little St. Sosha), is converted from the ancient church of Searle and Bacchus. It is round, and its dome is placed on eight pillars, between which are two rows of columns of the Tonic Order, made of green agate and buff marble. The Gul-Jami Mosque, near the pier, occupies the site of the Church of St. Anastasia, built by St. Gritor1em Nazlanzin. The Greeks call it Rodon Amerondon (Unfading Rose). which means the same thing as but-Turkish Gul-Jami. There are extensive crypts with vaults. I entered one of them and measured it: it was sixty jags long.
Almost at each of the main mosques in Constantinople there is a school, or school, called a madrasah. They train and support 00 and more students. Professors or teachers are called softas. Each of them has with him one student, who usually takes his place afterward, and until then remains with him as a servant. Here, those entering the ulema, or lawyers, are brought up, and no one can become a spiritual or judicial minister without receiving a diploma in medical education, after a strict exam. These schools, mekteb, are open to all children of poor parents: they teach reading and writing, the Mohammedan law, and the first rules of the Turkish language.
Each of these schools supports several students at the expense of the mosque. Teachers do not require any payment from relatives, and any offering on their part, as a sign of gratitude, depends on their will.
In Konetantinopol5 there are up to 43 public libraries at mosques; but the Seraglio is considered the most interesting and numerous. It was believed that it preserved up to one hundred and twenty manuscripts that belonged to Constantine the Great. Lately, foreigners who have seen the Serail Library deny this; however, I, knowing the Turks well, can easily understand that not everything was shown to the posftili, but more that Abbot Toderini had long ago published a catalog of these manuscripts. From his catalog it is also clear that there is no hope of finding the lost Decades of Titus Livi, the works of Tacitus, and the poems of the poets.
Turkish cemeteries are everywhere in Constantinople. They are located around the city, in the middle of its suburbs, and even near gardens and country houses. The bodies of the dead are taken there directly from their houses, because it is strictly forbidden to bring the dead into mosques and pray for them there. The cemeteries are planted with trees, mostly cypress, and therefore often serve as a place of celebration for city residents. They multiplied and increased to such an extent that they surrounded the city from all sides. This is special. noticeable in Scutari. The main cemeteries are Eyyub and Geyvan-Saray, in which the remains of 26 disciples of the false prophet are buried; then the Jewish and Greek cemeteries, near Irbenykh waters; Turkish, Roman Catholic and Armenian in Perth.
The tomb of Count Boneval, who went from the Avetry generals to the Turkish service, changed the law and was known under the name of Ahmet Pasha, is located in the sky cemetery of the Mevlevi dervishes, in Per. It is no different from other tombs; only fenced off from them by a simple wooden lattice. She would have been forgotten long ago, because Bonewal did not provide any important services to the Turks, and was never held in high esteem by them; Moreover, a deserter from the government and a traitor to the king is despised everywhere; But the Franks and the curiosity of travelers were devoted to them and preserved some of the fame of his tombs.
Each Sultan builds for himself, at some mosque, a grave crypt, or a kind of chapel called a puorbe. Only the mothers of the Sultans have the right to build the same for themselves. The walls of these turbes, inside, are usually decorated with Fargor tiles, on which verses are written in gold letters, mostly in honor of Mohammed. In the middle of the day there is a grave, over which they place a kind of hearse covered with expensive brocades, and in the heads, at the Sultan and princely tombs, they put a muslin turban. The girls are standing on the sides; but candles are never lit in them; For this reason, the lamps attached to the vault burn day and night. Each Turbe has four or six guards living with it, and there are 10 and up to 15 old people who read prayers for the deceased in the morning.