As a friend commented, noting my expenses with book purchases in Greece:
Mustafa couldn’t afford the postage to get all the books back home
Yes, my friends do in fact pay attention.
Tzisdarakis Mosque
The Tzisdarakis Mosque, towering over Monastiraki, the Athens flea market district.
The mosque now houses the Greek folk art museum. It was built by Ottoman governor Dizdar Mustafa Ağa in 1759. The story goes that he ground down one of the columns of Olympian Zeus for limestone for it, and that the Ottoman authorities, as fearful of the strange antiquities around them as the townsfolk, dismissed him for impiety shortly afterwards.
Mustafa Aga in any case had a more plausible site to pillage for limestone than the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Emperor Hadrian’s library was just next door to the mosque he was building.
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