Let us suppose that this is your first visit to the Istanbul. One bright sunny morning you descend the steps outside Haydarpaþa Station to the edge of the sea, whose surface is ruffled by the cool breeze and above which the gulls soar and plunge. On the other side of the Bosphorus the roofs, minarets and domes of the old city are silhouetted against the sky. When the ferry boat has carried you across the Bosphorus you wander through the streets past mosques, medreses, tombs, fountains, churches, synagogues and other historic buildings that reflect the cultural mosaic of this ancient city. While walking remember to look up to see the finials that surmount the domes, conical caps and roofs of many of these buildings. They are not only a finishing architectural touch, but also symbols of religious faith and philosophical values that in different forms are found in many cultures around the world.

Whether these finials are in the form of the Islamic alem, a cross or a weathervane, the aim is to attract the attention to the summit of the building, so giving the impression that it is rising up into the sky rather than sinking downwards with the curves or slanting lines of the roof, and thereby metaphorically exalt the building and thoughts of the observer. In Islamic culture the word alem derives from the Arabic ilm, meaning to know or signify, and as well as architectural finials refers to military and other types of standards as symbols to which people gather. The earliest standards were totemic in character, consisting of figures of gods, Semitic symbols or animals made of copper, bronze, silver or gold attached to the top of poles and carried in processions and battles. The earliest known standards are depicted in Mesopotamian and Egyptian art, and the oldest surviving examples are the Hattian solar discs discovered in royal tombs at Alacahöyük in Turkey.

The standard of the mediaeval Seljuk Turks was a double headed eagle, and the first standard used by the Ottomans was a halberd, whose narrow blade also served as a weapon until the 15th century. Even today finials, often in the form of crescents, are used on flag and standard poles. Finials used at the summit of domes and minarets have to be in proportion to the size of the building, so that those on large mosques may be as much as five or six metres in height. It is interesting that in Ottoman folk paintings and carvings, such as on tomb stones, fountains and dovecotes, finials are depicted disproportionately larger than the buildings to which they belong. This distortion is a reflection of the high ideals they represented.

Architectural finials also served the practical purposes of covering up the unsightly joining point of the sheets of lead that covered domes and conical minaret caps, and protecting the vulnerable join from leaking when it rained or the lead sheets being ripped up in high winds.

Finials dating from the Anatolian Seljuk period that have survived to the present day are all carved from solid blocks of white marble. In the Ottoman period, on the other hand, with the exception of a few ceramic finials found on buildings in and around the city of Tokat, they were always made from bronze, iron, copper or gilded copper. Hollow inside, they consist of separate base, body and crest riveted together. The base is generally hemispherical and either ribbed or fluted, and the body knopped. The crest is the most eye catching part, and may be in the form of horns, a crescent, a horseshoe or a lily. One face is always turned in the direction of Mecca, and in some cases they are engraved with verses from the Koran. Standards used by the mystic orders were usually surmounted by the symbol of the order.

An interesting example of an Ottoman Turkish finial is to be seen on a church in Hungary near to the tomb of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent.

In Ottoman times this finial was placed next to the cross, and after the Ottomans withdrew from Hungary this was allowed to remain until the present day, an example of respect and tolerance for the art and faith of another culture.

* Cihat Soyhan is an art historian.