Planetary Stories Project

"To Act Globally, Think Locally – Through Stories"

Black Earth Institute

Place: Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Turkey

Remembering a Magical Morning
By Wendy A. B. Whipple

View Larger Map

September 23, 2005
Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Turkey

Even as a Westerner unaccustomed to the rituals of Islam, after a week you do get used to hearing the calls to prayer five times a day. Mornings and evenings were my favorite times, because it was usually a time when I was paused in my day and could really pay attention to it. It is hauntingly beautiful.

My room at the Terrace Guesthouse faced the Blue Mosque (or the Sultan Ahmed Mosque) so I had a wonderful vantage point to hear the muezzin singing his call to prayer. The only problem was that there was another nearby mosque that also used loudspeakers to broadcast this call, and they weren't always in synch, nor were they singing the same thing. It made for a bit of a jumble, and was a little discordant.

The last morning in Istanbul, before beginning the hectic trip back through Paris and over the Atlantic, something really wonderful happened: The muezzins were enough out of synch that they didn't overlap at all; the song at the Blue Mosque ended before the other unknown mosque began. The morning was also a little hazy, and the rising sun made the light all pearly and soft. My eyes still burn with the sorrow of having to leave so soon, and the beauty of that perfect moment.

Wendy A. B. Whipple is a jack of all trades, sometimes an autism advocate, sometimes an eager traveler, but always an artist in one medium or another. A native of rural Illinois, she lives in suburban Chicago as an uneasy transplant.

Contact her: wendyw@datahero.com