Sword Of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), Istanbul, Turkey

 

I just saw the sword that the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) 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 stuffso that's it for this little short Post but if you want to learn more about the history of the ottoman empire in  Istanbul don't forget to check out my longer…