President Suleyman Demirel of Turkey and the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr Nawaz Sharif, joined thousands of Muslims through out Turkey yesterday in mass funeral prayers for earthquake victims.
The event, held immediately after traditional noon prayers, was reported to be the largest show of mass grief in modern Turkey's 75-year history.
The government crisis centre counted 13,472 dead and 27,164 wounded by yesterday, with Kocaeli still the worst-hit province with 6,994 dead. The religious authorities ruled early on that full Islamic burial rites could be bypassed as the disaster threw up its own set of conditions.
Local imams were given leave to accept unwashed bodies, most badly decomposed after several days beneath rubble and under intense heat. A lack of running water in the disaster zone made cleansing nearly impossible.
In Islamic tradition, the body is carefully washed before being wrapped in a white shroud. But there were few shrouds in sight at hastily dug mass graves last week, replaced instead by plastic body bags.
In Istanbul's Beyazit mosque, pouring rain did not deter hundreds of men from attending the prayers. The mood in both Istanbul and Ankara was sombre, dissipating expectations that the prayers might turn into an Islamist rally.
Meanwhile, the Turkish government has delayed a controversial proposal for an earthquake tax. Government officials said a bill for a one-off "earthquake solidarity tax" would now be debated in October. The proposals were toned down in the face of massive opposition. People from all walks of life said they had stopped making voluntary contributions after hearing of the tax.
In the Netherlands, a national "Help Turkey" television appeal organised by several humanitarian organisations has raised almost 30 million guilders (£10.7 million) for aid to Turkey.