Fatih Mosque, Istanbul

Coordinates: 41°1′11″N 28°56′59″E / 41.01972°N 28.94972°E / 41.01972; 28.94972
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Fatih Mosque (disambiguation).

Fatih Mosque
Religion
AffiliationSunni Islam
Location
LocationIstanbul, Turkey
Fatih Mosque, Istanbul is located in Istanbul Fatih
Fatih Mosque, Istanbul
Location in the Fatih district of Istanbul
Geographic coordinates41°1′11″N 28°56′59″E / 41.01972°N 28.94972°E / 41.01972; 28.94972
Architecture
Architect(s)Atik Sinan, Mimar Mehmet Tahir
TypeMosque
Groundbreaking1463
Completed1771 (rebuilt after earthquake)
Specifications
Dome dia. (inner)26 meters (85 ft)
Minaret(s)2
Materialsgranite, marble

The large Fatih Mosque (

Mehmed the Conqueror, known in Turkish as Fatih Sultan Mehmed, who conquered Constantinople
in 1453.

The Sahn-ı Seman Medrese, once an important center for the study of theology, law, medicine, astronomy, physics and mathematics, formed part of the Fatih Mosque. It was founded by the Turkic astronomer Ali Qushji who had been invited by Mehmed to his court in Istanbul.

The mosque complex was completely restored in 2009 and again ten years later. It reopened to worshippers in 2021.

History

The Fatih Mosque complex was a religious and social building of unprecedented size and complexity built in Istanbul between 1463 and 1470 by order of

Christ.[2]

The Fatih Mosque was the first monumental project in the Ottoman imperial architectural tradition.

Greek architect Atik Sinan.[3]

Aerial view of the Fatih Mosque and the surrounding külliye.

The original complex included eight

medreses, a library, a hospital (darüşşifa), a dervish inn (taphane), a caravanserai,[4] a market, a hamam, a primary school (mektep) a public kitchen (imaret) for poor and a collection of 280 shops.[5] Various tombs (türbes) were added at a later date. The original complex covered an almost square area of 325 metres (1,066 feet) extending along the Golden Horn
side of Fevzi Paşa Caddesi.

The first mosque was badly damaged in the

1509 earthquake.[6] After that it was repaired, but was then damaged again by earthquakes in 1557 and 1754 and repaired yet again. It was then completely destroyed by an earthquake on 22 May 1766
when the main dome collapsed and the walls were irreparably damaged.

Commissioned by Sultan Mustafa III, the current mosque (designed on a completely different plan) was built between 1767 and 1771[4] by the architect Mehmet Tahir Ağa.[6]

Architecture

Exterior

Appearance of the Fatih Mosque before the earthquake, painted in 1559.

The first Fatih Mosque had one central dome supported by a single semi-dome of the same diameter on the qibla side and suspended on four arches. its dome was 26 meter in diameter.[1] The second Baroque mosque built after the 1766 earthquake had a square plan. It has one central dome supported by four semi-domes.[1] Only the courtyard, main entrance portal and lower portions of the minarets survive from the original construction.

The Fatih Mosque Dome
The Fatih Mosque Dome Outside

Interior

The present interior of the Fatih Mosque is essentially a copy of earlier designs invented by

İznik tiles used in other mosques such as the Rüstem Pasha Mosque
.

The mihrab survived from the original construction.[1]

Complex

As with other imperial mosques in Istanbul, the Fatih Mosque was designed as a

kulliye
, or complex with adjacent structures to service both religious and cultural needs.

To the north and south of the mosque are the Sahn-ı Seman, eight great medreses, four on each side. These buildings are symmetrical, and each contains 18 cells for four students and a dershane. Annexes behind the medrese itself were lost to road construction. The medreses provided for about a thousand students, making it a large university for its time.

Historical photo taken between 1888 and 1910

The dervish inn, outside the southeast corner of the mosque precincts, has a courtyard supported by 16 different columns of verd antique and granite, probably salvaged from the Church of the Holy Apostles.

Facing the dervish inn is the large Baroque türbe of Sultan Mahmud II's mother, Nakşidil Sultan (1761-1817).

Mehmed II
(d. 1481)

The graveyard beside the mosque contains the tombs (

Gülbahar Hatun. Both were reconstructed after the earthquake. The türbe of the Conqueror has a lavishly decorated interior and is a popular site for official ceremonies. It was customary for new sultans to visit the tomb immediately after being invested with the Sword of Osman at Eyüp Sultan Mosque. Gulbahar's türbe is more simple, with classic lines, and may closely resemble the original. The graveyard also contains the last resting places of many important state officials, including field marshal Gazi Osman Pasha whose tomb was designed by Kemaleddin Bey. The distinguished Ottoman scholar and university professor Halil İnalcık
was buried here in 2016.

On one side of the mosque and connected to it is the domed Carullah Efendi Library which was built in 1724. One of its doors opens onto the street, while the other two open onto the inner courtyard of the mosque. The library is undergoing repairs, and the books are under protection at the Suleymaniye Library.

The caravanserai was repaired in the 1980s and combined with new shops to begin functioning as a workplace. The hospital, market, kitchens and hamam of the original complex have been lost.

  • Fatih Mosque west side
    Fatih Mosque west side
  • Fatih Mosque interior
    Fatih Mosque interior
  • Fatih Mosque ceiling
    Fatih Mosque ceiling
  • Fatih Mosque interior
    Fatih Mosque interior
  • Fatih Mosque Domes
    Fatih Mosque Domes
  • Fatih Mosque decoration
    Fatih Mosque decoration
  • Fatih Sultan Mosque fish eye
    Fatih Sultan Mosque fish eye
  • Fatih Mosque group
    Fatih Mosque group
  • Fatih Mosque courtyard
    Fatih Mosque courtyard
  • Fatih Mosque courtyard
    Fatih Mosque courtyard

Influences

According to the Turkish historian

Islamic Persian medresse architecture and not Byzantine church architecture.[7] This opinion is supported by other Turkish academics that state Ottoman architecture is an extension of "Near Eastern architectural tradition".[7]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, Gábor Ágoston,Bruce Alan Masters, page 216
  2. ISBN 978-1-101-19918-3
    .
  3. ^ Van Millingen, Alexander (1912). Byzantine Churches of Constantinople. London: MacMillan & Co., p. 276.
  4. ^ a b "Fatih Mosque | Istanbul, Turkey Attractions". Lonely Planet. 8 November 2019.
  5. ISBN 978-0-14-024461-8
    .
  6. ^ a b "A 550-year-old monument to a conqueror Fatih Mosque". Hurriyet Daily News. 30 March 2013.
  7. ^ a b David Gebhard, The Problem of Space in the Ottoman Mosque, The Art Bulletin 45, no. 3 (1963): 272.

References

External links

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