The Sultan Ahmet Camii: WWJD?

Our hotel in Istanbul was a mere four or five blocks from the Sultan Ahmet Camii (the Mosque of Sultan Ahmet), or as it is is nicknamed, the Blue Mosque, which is famous for its tens of thousands of blue tiles. Several times during our stay in Istanbul, we heard calls to prayer eminating from the mosque, beginning as early as 5 or 6 AM. I remember this clearly as I lie awake on the morning of my first day in Istanbul, adjusting to jet-lag.

We pass the mosque at about 9:30 after a long day touring sites in the Sultanahmet area of Istanbul. To our surprise, the mosque is still open for a little while longer to visitors. We take off our shoes, Jennie puts on a headscarf, and we enter the mosque. Quickly, we are greeted by a very well-dressed man who asks us if this is our first time at the Sultan Ahmet Camii. We respond that it is, and he very "generously" offers to give us a tour of the place for a mere 65 lira (about 45 dollars) to help us appreciate the history of the mosque. I tell him this is more than I can afford, and he suggests I give him a price that would be more reasonable to him. I say 10 lira (about $7.5). He looks vaguely disgusted but compliments me on my intelligence; I retort that I am simply poor. He counters with an offer of 20, and we eventually settle on 15 lira.

He then gives us about a 15 minute tour of the mosque, and at the end tries to usher us to a carpet dealer. Eventually Jennie gives the man a long overdue "Hayır" ("No"), and the guide finally leaves us alone. So where I am initially surprised that I was able to enter the mosque at all as a non-Muslim, I leave surprised and unsettled that I have just had my first haggling experience in Turkey inside a mosque. Should I be unsettled? I don't know, but it occurs to me that the one place where Jesus really flips out in the Bible is when he finds the money-changers operating in the Temple.

After the guide leaves us, we look at the mosque on our own. We are allowed to take photos, but I refrain from using a flash, and unfortunately most of our photos don't come out given how dark the mosque is at 10pm. In the area where only Muslims can go, we see both very reverent practitioners, and casual younger men who are filming handheld videos in jeans. We leave the mosque just as the late evening call to prayer is beginning.