Istanbul Hall of Sacred Relics
By Dr Khalid Siddiqui
Ohio
Topkapi Palace in Istanbul has a good collection of religious relics. When I was there for the first time in 1998, the relics were haphazardly scattered all over in a hall. There were only few exhibit-description labels.
But when I visited the Topkapi Palace in 2019 I found the relics nicely displayed in a hall with proper labels. The hall was crowded and photography was strictly prohibited. I surveyed the layout of the rooms attentively,
and came up with a plan to photograph the relics. So, in 2022 when I visited the hall for the third time, I didn’t even try to use my camcorder. I worked my way patiently to the front through the crowd in each section and then,
hidden from the view of the docents by the crowd, opened my iPhone and took a quick sweeping video of the entire wall.
The video captured every item displayed along the wall. Shooting the still-photographs of each individual item would have taken more time with a high chance of getting caught. I repeated this process in front of every wall.
Later, I edited the video footage and made a still
photograph of every item.
The quality was not the best because of the reflections and glare – the two problems that I face in every museum. My own reflection is evident in some of the photographs.
Jafar Tayyar: Hazrat Jafar Tayyar’s real name was Jafar ibn Abu Talib. During the Battle of Mu’tah he had lost both of his arms before he died. The Prophet was very sad about him. The Angel gave him the news that Jafar will have wings in Heaven. In Arabic طائر means bird, and طیّار means avian or airborne. Thus, Jafar received the nickname of طیّار . His tomb is located in the Al-Mazar mausoleum, near Kerak, Jordan. His vault is enclosed in an ornate lattice structure ( ضریح ) of gold and silver made by the 52nd Da’i al-Mutlaq of Dawoodi Bohra community, Syedna Burhanuddin. I visited the mausoleum in 2009. During the civil unrest in Syria in 2013, several Shi’ite shrines were desecrated, including that of Jafar’s.
