I just saw the sword that the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him used in battle
incredible
we are at the Topkapi Palace right now The most interesting thing about this palace that
sets it apart from all other palaces in Europe at least is the structure of the whole thing. There's
no huge tall castle in the middle where the king is living. You have to remember that the Ottomans
were nomadic tribes in the past moving around in horses and setting up encampments and tents
and then the way they would set it up is they would have a bunch of low tents. The most important
person, the sultan, would be at the middle of the tent in the middle of all the other tents. This
was done partly for security. That way the sultan would be at the center of the tent or of the
palace and if anyone wanted to get to him they would have to go through all these other tents
or all these other buildings and courtyards in this case. So this place not only was the residence
of the sultan or the king but it was also the administrative center of the whole ottoman
empire, so comparing to the US that would be the equivalent of having the White House and Capitol
Hill in the same place. It was also the art and cultural center as well and now it's been turned
into a museum that we can go around and see but the most important thing for me at least they have
here are relics from the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and other very important prophets' objects
owned by them are still at this palace and this is the only place on earth where you can come and
see these things
so behind me is the Hagia Irene which was a cathedral eastern orthodox Christian
cathedral that was built under the orders of Constantine the Great more than a thousand years
before the Topkapi Palace was built.
So once you're inside the Topkapi Palace there's a
lot of gates you have to go through and one of the important gates is the Gate of salutation and this
was the gate where only the sultan was allowed to enter on horseback. So everyone else except for him
had to get off their horses and walk in. There's a stepping stone outside the gate where all the
horses with the high officials would come and they would step off the next horse would come
I just saw some stuff which has probably more historical significance than
anything I've ever seen. Let me give you a backstory so this makes more sense
Since the start of Islam there had basically been these Islamic Caliphates. From what I understand
there were essentially Islamic governments that were governing over the areas of Mecca and Medina
and the head of this government was termed the Caliph
his job was to defend the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and the caliphates had changed a few
times over the centuries as the balance of power had shifted in the Middle East and north Africa
Until 1517 it was controlled by the Mamluk dynasty so it's called the Mamluk caliphate which was
based in Cairo in Egypt. in 1517 the Ottomans beat the Mamluks in a war, conquered Egypt and took over
the whole area of the Middle east and the Mecca and Medina and that was the start of the ottoman
caliphate. The ottoman sultan whoever that was was also the Islamic Caliph and it was his job
to be the defender of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and the defender of Islam in a sense
and one of the things that happened when this transfer* of caliphates happened in 1517
were these valuable objects which were belongings of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
were passed on to the Ottoman caliphate and they were brought right here
in Topkapi palace and over the years the Ottoman sultans collected more and more belongings
and they were all still in display in Topkapi palace and you can come and see
it and surprisingly not a lot of people actually know about this but there is the staff of Prophet
Moses which he used to part the sea right up on display. There's the sword of David. There's
the turban of Prophet Yusuf or Joseph. There's a dress that belongs to Hazrat Fatima. Then there's the
sword that belonged to prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself. His teeth are on display
in a case but they're there: teeth that he lost in a battle when he was hit by an axe I think
His handwriting you can see over there because a letter of him is preserved. His beard is still
there in a casing you can go see it. The pot that he used to drink water from is still there
it's really hard to find so many things that belong to the people that changed the world
in inconceivable ways if you're talking about ancient times especially and you can see all
their belongings in here in Topkapi palace and it costs what? maybe $12 to get in and see it. It's
really incredible. it's uh.. I'm at a loss of words if you can't tell. It's pretty incredible stuff
so that's it for this little short video but if you want to learn more
about the history of the ottoman empire in Istanbul don't forget to check out my longer
version of the video which should be out a few weeks after this one