Pertevniyal Sultan

The Bosphorus cannot find happiness today. It flows red when the sun
turns into fire at sunset, magically tinting the sky deep shades of pink. And
when darkness descends, it becomes grey alternating with silver as the moon
skips from cloud to cloud. And finally black from raindrops that cannot
decide if they should pour or merely drizzle. Pertevniyal Sultana is also
melancholy as she gazes at the flowing waters, standing tall on the red
carpet in the middle of her well-appointed room. She is tall and voluptuous
with creamy arms and well rounded hips, like Aphrodite, like Venus. Her
chestnut-colored hair sways and catches the light, glimmering with flecks of
gold, as she turns her head slowly to show a profile that seems sculpted from
the finest marble. The year is 1871. Pertevniyal, a Causasian beauty of
superior intelligence, is only sixteen, but she has already claimed the
passion of Sultan Mahmud II, and has captured the attention and the devotion
of the court. She, herself, has only one passion: To see the completion of
the mosque and its complex that she had commissioned to be built in
Istanbul’s Aksaray neighbourhood. The Sultana paid 7,538 gold coins just for
the plot of the Mosque’s land and donated 1,055 unique works to its library.
She hired the Italian architect Montani to collaborate with Turkish experts
and build this elegant house of worship, combining elements of Turkish
architecture with Gothic and Indian. They decorated either side of the
courtyard gates with facades of marble columns. On the arches they carved
relief motifs, and created refreshing fountains out front. A delicate and
astonishingly beautiful creation that impresses to this day.