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The Sultan, the ağas and pages would come here to pray. The mosque is aligned in a diagonal line in the courtyard, in order to make the minbar face towards Mecca. In 1928 the books of the Enderûn Library amongst other works were moved here as the Palace Library (Sarayı Kütüphanesi), housing a collection of about 13,500 Turkish, Arabic, Persian and Greek books and manuscripts, collected by the Ottomans. Located next to the mosque to the northeast is the Imperial Portraits Collection.
Dormitory of the Royal Pages
The Dormitory of the Royal Pages (Hasoda Koğuşu) houses the Imperial Portraits Collection (Padişah Portreleri Sergi Salonu) is located in the , which were part of the Sultan's chambers. The painted portraits depict all the Ottoman sultans and some rare photographs of the later ones, the latter being kept in glass cases. The room is air-conditioned and the temperature regulated and monitored to protect the paintings. Since the sultans rarely showed themselves in public and in order to respect Islamic sensitivities surrounding the artistic depictions of humans, the earlier portraits of them are actually only an idealisation, they do not reflect the reality. Only starting with the rule of the moderniser Sultan Mahmud II and his modern reforms were realistic portraits of the rulers made. An interesting feature is a large painted family tree of the Ottoman rulers.
The domed chamber is supported by pillars, some of which are of Byzantine origin since a cross is clearly visible engraved on one of them. As of 2007, taking any photographs in this hall is strictly forbidden. Permission for research purposes has to be granted before by the authorities. Located next to the collection in the north is the Chamber of the Sacred Relics. |
