For this assignment I didn’t have time go to museums near where I live. But I have been in the Topkapi Palace Museum April 2011 by myself when I went to visit my family in Turkey. Before I go to my home town I have had time between two flights from Istanbul to Trabzon and I decided to go to Topkapi Palace which I wanted to do something I never got change to do before and it was close distance which I can go there with subway less than fifteen minutes.
It was very exiting experience for me because I was visiting a museum for first time and I knew there are some pieces belongs to our prophet Hz. Mohammed (s. a. v. ) and other prophets before him I wanted to see them always finally I had change to visit them. When I first enter the museum that atmosphere made me a different person than I was I do not know why I felt like I was living in the palace it seemed everything come alive and they were talking to me. Every wall every piece in the museum have had some things to tell about what they were witness in their time.
First place I went in the Topkapi Palace Museum was Privy Room it is the place where they were exhibiting Holly Relics. “This room contains religious objects sent to the Ottoman sultans at various times between Sultan Selim the Grim’s assumption of the caliphate in the 16th century to the end of the 19th century. The caliphate passed from the Abbasids to the Ottomans with Selim’s conquest of Mamluk Egypt in 1517, upon which event the Holy Mantle of the Prophet (Hýrka-i Sa`âdet) was given to Selim by al-Mutawakkil III, the last Abbasid caliph.
The dispatching of holy relics to Istanbul would continue thereafter, particularly during the period of increasing Wahhabi assaults on holy places and objects in the late 18th and the 19th century, when such objects were gradually removed to the Chamber of the Holy Relics for greater protection. Similarly, the holy objects found in Medina were sent to Topkapi Palace for the same reason during the First World War. Among the most important holy relics to be collected in this way between the 16th century and the first half of the 20th century were the Holy Mantle of the Prophet; he hair from the Prophet?s beard; the reliquary in which was kept the Prophet?s tooth, broken during the Battle of Uhud on 19 March 625; and the footprints, letters, bow, and sword of the Prophet.
There are also holy relics attributed to other prophets and to the companions of the Prophet Muhammad: the tray used by Abraham; the staff of Moses; the sword of David; the robe of Joseph; the swords of the Prophet Muhammad?s companions; and the shirt, mantle, praying mat, and chest of Muhammad?s daughter Fatimah. Then I went in to room where Ottoman Sultans portraits are exhibits I have learned vith my visit to museum none of the sultans before Fatih Sultan Mehmet didn’t have their portraits painted. When I have learned that I was a little surprise for it. Since my name is coming from the Fatih Sultan Mehmet conqueror of Istanbul I was happy to see his face with the same eye view that draw his portrait, I felt like I was face to face with him and talking to him. It wasn’t the same when I see their pictures online or in some book, you can feel the power in his eyes when you look at him.
After I finished the visit museum I felt a little different than I was before I remember death and I remember how brave they were in their times prophet Hz. Mohammed (s. a. v. ) and the Ottoman Sultans they have fight over what they believed and they die with that honor. Then I started to ask myself; what is the reason I am living for? What I am doing with my life? What is the purpose of my existence? Ever since that visit I have been trying to find that answer but I still couldn’t find it. I hope one day I would find the answer of my questions.
