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Ramazan Mosque Illuminations
"Mahya"

mahya1.jpg (5759 bytes)In Ottoman times the month of Ramazan was a festive time when people fasted and prayed by day, and after breaking their fast at dusk enjoyed the sights and entertainments of Ramazan by night. Religious worship was combined with music, feasting, and performances of the Karagöz shadow play. Torch-lit parties in the tulip gardens and moonlit boat trips up the Bosphorus with songs and music were held when Ramazan fell in spring. Illuminations known as donanma sometimes took place on the Golden Horn or the Bosphorus, but Ramazan in Istanbul was above all symbolised by the mahya illuminations strung from the mosque minarets and lighting up the night sky in beautiful patterns.

Mahya illuminations were created by hundreds of tiny lamps hooked to ropes stretched between two minarets of a mosque in such a way as to write words of religious significance or form pictures. This custom was based on the desire to express thanks to God for joy, abundance and prosperity, to encourage the populace to perform the good deeds appropriate to this holy month, and to instill in children a love of Ramazan.

Before the advent of electricity, preparing mahya was a complex and laborious job requiring considerable skill. By means of boxwood rings, pulleys, hooks, ropes and other equipment the many hundreds of lamps were arranged in different patterns from just after the Ramazan evening meal known as iftar until the end of the teravih prayers, a period of at most two hours. When Ramazan fell in winter, the mahyacı had to put up with bitter cold on the minaret balconies to display his skills, so it was a job only for dedicated enthusiasts. They spent the entire day preparing for that evening’s new display, first sketching the design on squared paper, and then calculating the number of lamps needed, and the positions of each lamp on the different ropes, which were then marked by knots. They rehearsed to check that all would go smoothly on the night, filled the lamps with olive oil, prepared wicks made of pistachio stems or baked reeds wound in cotton wool, and placed the lamps into their round holders.

mahya2.jpg (4719 bytes)As the hour of iftar drew to an end, he would climb up to the minaret balconies, light the lamps and begin to let them out using pulleys until they were all in place and the composition complete. There was fierce rivalry between the mahyacıs of different mosques to produce the most impressive display, and each evening’s new design was a jealously guarded secret. Crowds would begin to gather as the first lamps were drawn into place, and try to guess what the finished result was going to be: I think it’s a paddle steamer!, It must be the wheel of a gun carriage!.

The larger mosques had special rooms where the paraphernalia of the mahya illuminations was kept, and the job of mahyacı was passed down from father to son.

mahya4.jpg (10801 bytes)Although the custom of lighting lamps is common throughout the Islamic world, mahya illuminations are a tradition almost unique to Istanbul, for the simple reason that only mosques which had at least two minarets could be used. Royal mosques with two, four or six minarets are mainly located in Istanbul, although there are some in Edirne, the former Ottoman capital, and mahya illuminations were set up there as well. The oldest Edirne mahyacı whose name is remembered is Hacı Aliş Ağa (d.1668), who was known by the cognomen Mestî. He is said to have had poles erected in the Maritza River across which he prepared illuminations known as askı mahyası (suspended mahya).

Exactly when mahya illuminations began in Istanbul is uncertain, although one story attributes the custom to the reign of Ahmed I (1603-1617). As the story goes, one Hafız Kefevî, calligrapher and müezzin at Fatih Mosque presented an embroidered handkerchief to the sultan at the beginning of Ramazan. Ahmed I liked it so much that he ordered the design to be depicted in lamps hung between the minarets of his own Sultanahmed Mosque. Ahmed Rasim (1864-1932) quotes this story from an old manuscript, Menakıb-ı İslâm, and suggests that the word mahya might be derived from the Persian mahiye (of the moon) or müheyya (prepared, arranged in a row). Old authors record that Istanbul's famous mahyacıs would embroider their new designs on red, green and blue satin and present them to the sultan, who would give his approval for the designs and reward each mahyacı.

Most impressive of all the mahya displays were undoubtedly the moving illuminations of Süleymaniye Mosque. One of these moving pictures consisted of boats and fish moving in front of a bridge, across which a carriage passed. When we remember that 122 lamps were required to represent a sailing ship and 198 a royal barge, these moving illuminations must have required far more.

mahya3.jpg (8954 bytes)On the Night of Power towards the end of Ramazan it was customary to illuminate the minarets from the summit of the cone to the balcony with vertical rows of lamps, a display known as kaftan giydirmek (dressing in a kaftan).

An engraving in the travels of Salamon Schweigger, who visited Istanbul in 1578, depicts a mahya illumination on a rope stretched between the minarets of two mosques. Clearly then this custom predates the reign of Ahmed I. The 17th century Turkish writer Kâtip Çelebi writes that in 1523 Grand Vezir Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Paşa ordered mahya illuminations to be set up on the major mosques in the city.

Abdüllatif Efendi (d.1877) won renown with his depiction of a royal barge between the minarets of Süleymaniye Mosque on the fifteenth night of Ramazan one year. The same mahyacı was also called in for occasions other than Ramazan, and in 1867 wrote the words Long live the sultan on the hillside behind Dolmabahçe Palace when Sultan Abdülaziz returned from his state visit to Europe. In similar fashion he prepared an illumination between ship’s masts in the Bosphorus when Khedive of Egypt İsmail Paşa arrived at his palace in Emirgan.

By tradition the illuminations for the first fifteen days of Ramazan consisted of words, and those of the last fifteen days of pictures. The writing was usually in the sülüs or celi styles of script, and consisted of one, two or three words, the most common being ‘Welcome Celebrated Ramazan", "May God Protect", "Thanks be to God", "Allah", and so on. In 1911 non-religious slogans came into fashion, such as "Hurrah for Liberty", "Assist Orphans" "Do not Forget the Red Crescent", "Remember Aircraft", "Buy Local Goods", "Long Live the National Pact" and "Long Live Independence". The pictures usually included motifs from Istanbul life, such as Kızkulesi (the Maiden's Tower), mosques, pavilions, bridges, caiques, sailing boats, stars and crescents, fountains, birds and roses.

Many late 19th and early 20th century writers on life in Ottoman times have left accounts of mahya illuminations in their own childhoods. For example, Sermet Muhtar Alus recalls how children waited eagerly for the mahya pictures which began on the fifteenth of Ramazan, and the pleasure they took in watching the paddle steamers, caiques, towers, swings, cradles and other designs appear night after night.

 

 
Source:
By Necdet Sakaoğlu
Skylife 01/99
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