AYAZMA MOSQUE

Şemsipaşa, Üsküdar - Istanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°01'22.0"N 29°00'31.0"E / 41.022778, 29.008611



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It is located in Üsküdar, between Salacak and Şemsipaşa on a hill before Marmara overlooking Kızkulesi. Sultan Mustafa III (1717-1774) had the Ayazma Mosque, which rises between the Salacak and Şemsipaşa districts of Üsküdar, built by the architect, Mehmed Tahir Ağa, in 1761. In addition, the mosque, which features predominately western style architectural aspects, was built in memory of his mother Mihrişah Emine Hatun and his elder brother Şehzade Süleyman.

It is understood from certain sources that the name of the mosque comes from the Ayazma Palace which had once been located on the site. The mosque was named after a water spring that was sacred among the ancient Greeks; this spring is located to the left of the street. The mosque is part of a large complex that consists of a school for children, baths, and a clock room. The mosque used to be in the square of the Ayazma Palace, but the palace is no longer standing.

If one leaves the mosque precinct by the back gate and follows the winding street outside, keeping firmly to the right, one comes before long to an imposing baroque mosque known as Ayazma Camii. It is one of the more successful of the baroque mosques, especially on the exterior. A handsome entrance portal opens onto a courtyard from which a pretty flight of semicircular steps leads up to the mosque porch.

On the left is a large cistern and beyond an elaborate two-storeyed colonnade gives access to the imperial loge. The upper structure is also diversified with little domes and turrets, and many windows give light to the interior. The interior, as generally in baroque mosques, is less successful, though the grey marble gallery along the entrance wall, supported by slender columns, is effective.

The Ayazma Mosque has been renovated several times during its lifetime. A new minaret has been built twice on the site of the demolished minaret. The muvakkitkane (time-keeping room) and the bath, which was built to generate income for the mosque, as well as many stores of the mosque have not reached the present day. According to the archival document, Ayazma Palace, in the place of Ayazma Mosque, was restored in 1740s and allocated to ambassador of Iran.

Birdhouses are built into the walls on each side of the doors. There is a sundial in the corner of the right façade. The pulpit of this mosque is a masterpiece of stonework. Dozens of ostrich eggs were hung on the circular oil lamp above in order to prevent the formation of cobwebs. There is no clear reason as to why the eggs have been removed today. In the courtyard there is a very large pool that was intended to be used in case of fire.

The mosque, which is placed in the middle of a wide field, is located on a hillside overlooking Istanbul. It is said that the architect, Mehmed Tahir Ağa, put 8,750 eggs, 625 okka of honey (an okka is the old Turkish weight measure, equalling 1,285 gr.) and quicksilver worth 1,080 kuruş (a kuruş is one hunderdth of the old Turkish pound) into the mixture he used as cement.

In addition to Western architectural elements, classical designs have added a different complexion to the structure. The main space of the building is built on a rectangular plan and is covered by a dome resting on four elephant legs. The Hünkar Köşk (Royal residence) of the building, built next to the mosque, is situated on the left hand side of the main site. A variety of colourful stones are used to decorate the sermon area, the niche, and the pulpit of the mosque.

Decorations with gold latten are used in the royal residence and are the creation of highly skilled craftsmanship. Furthermore, the pulpit, composed of colourful, engraved marble stones, as well as the niche, made of porphyry stones, are further reflections of the skilled workmanship of the building. The scripts on the portal gate belong to the calligrapher, Seyyid Abdullah, and scripts on the plaster windows belong to calligrapher, Seyyid Mustafa.

The structure is understood to have been dated to 1760 - 1761 from the inscriptions upon the door. According to the expense book, held very carefuly, 506.095 piasters 49 coins were spent for the mosque. The mosque inscription was inscribed with talik calligraphy by Sheikh ul-islam and Calligrapher Veliyüddin Efendi. The tiles on the wall of royal box are Italian.

The altar is made of white porphyry and the carved pulpit is made of colored marble. Calligraphies in the mosque belong to Seyyid Abdullah and calligrapher Seyyid Mustafa. Bird’s nests on the outer walls of the mosque and the sundial on the right wall are noteworthy. The central dome with 20 windows is supported by four elephant feet. The mosque has 86 windows in total.

There is a fountain located on one corner of the wall surrounding the courtyard of the Ayazma Mosque that was built during the same year with the mosque. The inscription written on the fountain belongs to the poet, Zihni.There are graves of several notable individuals of the Ottoman Palace in the mosque’s graveyard. The big marble fountain, in the corner of the wall surrounding the large courtyard, is understood from the inscription of Poet Zihni that it was built along with the mosque in 1761.

When Sultan Mahmud II abolished the Janissaries in 1826, he removed every symbol that could act as a reminder of them, including their tombstones. The only two tombs of Janissaries that have survived until today are in the graveyard of this mosque.

Leaving by the south gate and following the street to the east, one comes to a wider street, Doğancılar Caddesi, with two pretty baroque çeşmes at the intersection; turning right one finds at the end of this street a severely plain türbe built by Sinan for Hacı Mehmet Paşa, who died in 1559. It stands on an octagonal terrace bristling with tombstones and overshadowed by a dying terebinth tree.

It is one of the mosques under influence of European artistic style. It was commissioned by Sultan Mustafa his mother Mihrişah Emine Sultan. One can take the stairs to go up to the mosque from a three-gate courtyard. The minaret has single balcony. Central dome which has 20 windows is situated on four elephant legs. The floor is paved with marble. It has a total of 86 windows.

The mosque is part of a large complex that consists of a school for children, baths, and a clock room. There is a very beautiful fountain in the left corner. The mosque used to be in the square of the Ayazma Palace, but the palace is no longer standing. Birdhouses are built into the walls on each side of the doors. There is a sundial in the corner of the right façade. The pulpit of this mosque is a masterpiece of stonework.

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ŞEMSİ AHMED PASHA COMPLEX

Şemsipaşa, Üsküdar - Istanbul - Turkey 

GPS : 41°01'33.0"N 29°00'41.0"E / 41.025833, 29.011389



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This mosque was designed by Mimar Sinan at the request of Şemsi Paşa, the vizier of Ottoman Sultan Süleyman (1520-1566) the Magnificient in 1580. Renowned as "the little gem" of Sinan, it is also called the Kuşkonmaz Camii, the mosque on which birds do not land (birds do not land there because of the wind off the Bosphorus). It is said that on the top of the dome, instead of the usual symbol (tombak alem) there used to be a golden inkstand and pen. The inside is covered with Ottoman glazed tiles and ornaments. There is an epitaph, written by Levni.

The chamber is crowned by a mirror vault at the height of the prayer hall drum. It has three casement windows facing the Bosphorus and nine upper windows on three walls, adorned with coloured glass. Surrounding the Mosque is a larger complex, situated on the coast of Üsküdar, also built by court architect Sinan near the Şemsi Pasha Palace and, according to the inscription over the mosque portal, construction was completed in 1580. In 1940, an extensive restoration project was undertaken by the General Directorate of Religious Endowments, supervised by architect Süreyya Yücel.

This is the only complex in Istanbul that still enjoys the cool effect of the waves by the seaside. The mosque, which fronts one of the most curvilinear edges of the Bosphorous. It is now difficult to visualize how the original interior space of the mosque was, due to some later changes and additions, such as an added attendant's room and a women's section. Overall, the mosque and the gardens are well kept. A walled cemetery occupies the eastern precinct, behind the mosque's qibla wall.

The complex stands on a roughly rectangular site aligned east-west with the Bosphorus shoreline. The square, single domed mosque abuts the coast at an angle, with the adjoining tomb of the donor projecting towards the waterfront. Its precinct is enclosed by an L-shaped madrasa to the west and south, and a seawall with grill-windows to the north, giving the impression that one is in a picture gallery looking at framed Bosphorus seascapes.

The complex has two gates, one facing the land and the other facing the sea; the land gate opens to a private walled cemetery which occupies the eastern precinct, behind the mosque's qibla wall, which has become a burial site for generations of Şemsi Pasha. A gate along the seawall opens into the precinct courtyard, which is shared by the mosque and the madrasa. A secondary gate along the cemetery wall to the east also leads to this courtyard via a narrow passage.

The mosque portico, which envelops the prayer hall to the northwest and southwest, is faced across the courtyard with the madrasa arcade, at a smaller scale. Both the portico and arcade are covered by shed roofs and have pointed arches carried on columns with diamond-cut capitals. The mosque portico was rebuilt during the 1940 restoration. A single minaret with a single balcony rises above it, adjoining the southwest corner of the prayer hall.

Entered through a marble portal on its northwest wall, the prayer hall is surmounted by a single dome, which measures about eight meters in diameter. The transition to the dome is achieved with four squinches over an octagonal drum pierced with four arched windows. The prayer hall has nine casement windows - two on each wall with an additional window on the southeast wall.

Each casement is topped by an arched window with a different colored glass composition, and a circular window is placed above the mihrab. The simple marble mihrab has a muqarnas hood. Muqarnas carvings were also used to highlight the springing of the squinch arches. The wooden minbar is a modern replacement.

Tomb
The tomb chamber, which measures about four meters by four and a half meters, is attached to the prayer hall. It is entered from the outside from northwest, but opens into the prayer hall with a grilled archway. The chamber is crowned by a mirror vault at the height of the prayer hall drum. It has three casement windows facing the Bosporus and nine upper windows on three walls, adorned with colored glass. Decoration is limited to the stalactite carvings of the portal and painted floral and geometrical motifs on the mirror vault. Although its portal inscription was lost, inscriptive plaques over the archway in the prayer hall were preserved. The tomb, like the mosque, is made of cut stone.

Madrasa
The L-shaped madrasa has twelve domed cells and a large classroom, all fronted by an arcade whose shed roof is carried by nineteen columns. Cells are placed all in a row except at the northern end, where a single cell encloses the arcade before the seawall. The classroom, which is seven meters square, occupies the center of the western wing of and projects beyond the madrasa wall. It is surmounted by a dome carried on squinches and raised on an octagonal drum.

There are six windows on three of the classroom's walls, leaving the western wall for a furnace and two shelving niches. Each madrasa cell has two windows, a furnace and one or two shelving niches. The arcade was enlarged following the restoration and the madrasa was refurnished to house a library in 1953 with the classroom use as the reading room. An additional room with privy cells is attached at the end of the southern wing.

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