Pope Benedict XVI frees a dove today upon his arrival at Istanbul's Holy Spirit Cathedral during the last day of his four-day visit to Turkey. At right is Mustafa Sarigul, mayor of Istanbul's Sisli district.

ISTANBUL, Turkey — After Pope Benedict XVI infuriated the Islamic world with his remarks on holy war, Vatican officials scrambled to save his planned trip to predominantly Muslim Turkey.

Two months later, there was the German pontiff on Thursday not only visiting Istanbul but praying beside an imam in the city's famous Blue Mosque.

"A single swallow can't bring spring, but many swallows will follow and we will enjoy a spring in this world," a clearly satisfied Mustafa Cagrici, Istanbul's head cleric, told Benedict after praying with him.

It has taken a combination of Vatican diplomacy, negotiations through Catholic bishops in Turkey and Benedict's own carefully nuanced gestures to create the climate to make his visit to Turkey an apparent success.

A member of the pope's entourage, Cardinal Roger Etchagaray, compared the mosque visit to Pope John Paul II's dramatic stop at Israel's Western Wall, where he left a copy of his declaration asking God's forgiveness for sins committed against the Jews.

The pope, who was initially hailed by some for speaking frankly, has held to his positions — condemning violence in the name of religion and demanding freedom of religion. But he's refrained from pointing a finger at Islam.

After Al-Qaida in Iraq, in a message on an Islamic militant Web site Wednesday, called the visit to Turkey part of a "crusader campaign" against Islam, the Vatican shot back that the comments showed the need to fight "violence in the name of God."

"This type of message shows once again the urgency and importance of a common commitment of all forces against violence," Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said.

Benedict repeated in several speeches that Europe's "Christian roots, traditions and values" must be preserved to "contribute to the culture of a future Europe." But in a major gesture to his Turkish hosts and the Islamic community at large, he gave support to Turkey's efforts to meet the standards for admission to the European Union.

This already moved him away from his the position he held as a cardinal, when he questioned whether Turkey had the proper cultural bonds with Europe.