Şehzade Mosque

The construction of the Şehzade Complex (külliye) was ordered by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent as a memorial to his favorite son Şehzade Mehmed (born 1521) who died in 1543 while returning to Istanbul after a victorious military campaign in Hungary.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|2005|pp=191–192}} Mehmed was the eldest son of Suleiman's only legal wife Hürrem Sultan - although not his eldest son - and before his untimely death he was primed to accept the sultanate following Suleiman's reign. Suleiman is said to have personally mourned the death of Mehmed for forty days at his temporary tomb in Istanbul, the site upon which the imperial architect Mimar Sinan would construct a lavish mausoleum to Mehmed as one part of a larger mosque complex dedicated to the princely heir.

The mausoleum of Mehmed was the first element of the complex to be completed, in 1544.{{Sfn|Kuban|2010|p=273}} The mosque and the rest of the complex were built between 1545 and 1548.{{Sfn|Blair|Bloom|1995|p=218}} The complex was Sinan's first important imperial commission.{{Sfn|Goodwin|1971|p=206}}

The mosque suffered some damage during the June 2016 bombing that occurred on a nearby street. Some of its windows were shattered.{{cite web |title=İstanbul'da bombalı saldırı: 7'si polis 11 ölü, 36 yaralı |url=http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/turkiye/546889/istanbul_da_bombali_saldiri__7_si_polis_11_olu__36_yarali.html |access-date=7 June 2016 |publisher=Cumhuriyet |language=tr}}{{Cite web |last= |date=2016-06-07 |title=İstanbul'daki Patlamada Mimar Sinan'ın Şehzade Camii Zarar Gördü |url=https://arkeofili.com/istanbuldaki-patlamada-mimar-sinanin-sehzade-camii-zarar-gordu/ |access-date=2023-06-10 |website=Arkeofili |language=tr}}

The mosque is entered through a marble-paved colonnaded forecourt with an area equal to that of the mosque itself.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|2005|p=196}} The courtyard is bordered by a portico with five domed bays on each side, with arches in alternating pink and white marble. At the center is an ablution fountain (şadırvan), which was a later donation from Sultan Murat IV.{{Sfn|Sumner-Boyd|Freely|2010|p=185}}

Sinan added domed porticos along the lateral façades of the building (on the northeast and southwest sides) that help to conceal the supporting buttresses of the structure and to give the exterior a greater sense of monumentality.{{Sfn|Blair|Bloom|1995|pp=218-219}}{{Sfn|Goodwin|1971|p=210}}

The twin minarets, attached to the mosque, have two balconies with muqarnas sculpting and interlacing geometric decoration in low relief carved on their shafts. This level of decorative detail on minarets is particular to this mosque and was rarely repeated in later Ottoman mosques.{{Sfn|Sumner-Boyd|Freely|2010|p=185}} While mosques sponsored by other members of the royal family sometimes had two minarets, the Şehzade Mosque is the only non-sultanic mosque designed by Sinan with two minarets that each had two balconies.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|2005|p=121}}

File:ŞehzadeMosqueEntrance.jpg|Main gate to the courtyard

File:ŞehzadeMosqueCourtyard.jpg|The mosque courtyard

File:ŞehzadeMosqueGate.jpg|Entrance to the mosque from the courtyard

File:Shezade mosque 4866.jpg|View of the mosque's northeast side and its external portico

File:Shezade mosque 4857.jpg|View of the mosque's southeast side (behind the mihrab)

File:Sehzade Mosque DSCF3265.jpg|Details of the minarets

File:Sehzade Mosque Gurlitt 1912.jpg, 1912]]

The mosque has a square plan covered by a central dome flanked by four half-domes, with four smaller domes occupying the corners. The central dome is supported by four pillars at its corners. It has a diameter of {{convert|19|m|ft}} and a height of {{convert|37|m|ft}}.{{Sfn|Kuban|2010|p=272}}

File:Shezade mosque 9510.jpg

This design represents the culmination of the previous domed and semi-domed buildings in Ottoman architecture, bringing complete symmetry to the domed designs that earlier Ottoman architects had experimented with.{{Sfn|Kuban|2010|pp=258, 271-272}} An early version of this design, on a smaller scale, had been used before Sinan in the Fatih Pasha Mosque in Diyarbakır, dated to 1520 or 1523.{{Sfn|Goodwin|1971|pp=178, 207}}{{Sfn|Kuban|2010|p=236}}

In addition to the layout's symmetry, Sinan's early innovations are evident in the way he organized the structural supports of the dome. Instead of having the dome rest on thick walls all around it (as was previously common), he concentrated the load-bearing supports into a limited number of buttresses along the outer walls of the mosque and in four pillars inside the mosque itself at the corners of the dome. This allowed for the walls in between the buttresses to be thinner, which in turn allowed for more windows to bring in more light.{{Sfn|Blair|Bloom|1995|pp=218-219}} Sinan also moved the outer walls inward, near the inner edge of the buttresses, so that the buttresses themselves would be less noticeable from the inside (on the outside, he added porticos to conceal them, as mentioned above).{{Sfn|Blair|Bloom|1995|pp=218-219}} The four heavy pillars supporting the dome were a drawback of the design because they distracted from the unity of the space, but Sinan tried to compensate for this by giving them irregular shapes that make them appear less massive.{{Sfn|Sumner-Boyd|Freely|2010|p=185}}

The painted decoration of the interior is not original and was redone in later periods. Some of these later restorations retained much of the composition of the original classical Ottoman designs while updating them to reflect new techniques adopted under European influence, such as shading.{{Sfn|Bağcı|2002|p=755}} New designs were also added, and among the more classical-like motifs are details that clearly date from the Ottoman Baroque period, although these too have since been repainted and are no longer original.{{Sfn|Rüstem|2019|p=268}}{{Cite journal |last=Erçağ |first=Beyhan |date=1991 |title=İstanbul Şehzade Camii Restorasyonu |url=http://acikerisim.fsm.edu.tr/xmlui/handle/11352/899 |journal=Vakıf Haftası Dergisi |volume=8 |pages=213–228}}

File:Shezade mosque 0915.jpg|Interior view

File:Sehzade Mosque DSCF6078.jpg|The main dome

File:Şehzade Mosque mihrab and minbar in 2008 0921.jpg|View of the mihrab (left) and minbar (right)

File:Shezade mosque 9203.jpg|Details above the main entrance

File:Shezade mosque 9205.jpg|Detail of one of the main pillars

Sinan considered the Sehzade Mosque his "apprentice" work and was not satisfied with it.{{Sfn|Blair|Bloom|1995|p=218}}{{Sfn|Goodwin|1971|p=207}}{{Sfn|Kuban|2010|pp=261, 272}} During the rest of his career he did not repeat its layout in any of his other works. He instead experimented with other designs that seemed to aim for a completely unified interior space and for ways to emphasize the visitor's perception of the main dome upon entering a mosque. One of the results of this logic was that any space that did not belong to the central domed space was reduced to a minimum, subordinate role, if not altogether absent.{{Sfn|Kuban|2010|p=261}}

Despite Sinan's opinion, the symmetrical design of the Şehzade Mosque, with its central dome and four semi-domes, proved popular with later architects in the Ottoman Empire. It was repeated in classical Ottoman mosques built after Sinan, such as the Sultan Ahmed I Mosque, the New Mosque at Eminönü, and the 18th-century reconstruction of the Fatih Mosque.{{Sfn|Blair|Bloom|1995|pp=228-230}}{{Sfn|Goodwin|1971|pp=340, 345-346, 358, 394, 408}} It is even found in the 19th-century Mosque of Muhammad Ali in Cairo.{{Sfn|Goodwin|1971|p=408}}{{Cite journal |last=Al-Asad |first=Mohammad |date=1992 |title=The Mosque of Muhammad ʿAli in Cairo |journal=Muqarnas |volume=9 |pages=39–55 |doi=10.2307/1523134 |jstor=1523134}}

The other buildings of the Şehzade Mosque complex include a medrese, a tabhane (guesthouse), a caravanserai, an imaret, a small mektep (primary school), and a cemetery with several mausoleums. The mosque and the cemetery are enclosed by a small wall which forms an outer courtyard that also connects to most other elements of the complex.{{Sfn|Kuban|2010|pp=272-275}}

File:Shezade mosque 9195.jpg|Exterior view of the cemetery and its domed mausoleums

File:Sehade madrasa DSCF6204.jpg|Exterior of the madrasa (located on the north side of the complex)

File:Sehade madrasa DSCF6215.jpg|Interior of the madrasa

File:Istanbul Şehzade complex Imaret now Siyasal Vakfı 3805.jpg|Interior courtyard of the imaret (located on the east side of the complex)

File:Istanbul Şehzade complex Imaret now Siyasal Vakfı 3810.jpg|Interior hall in the imaret

There are five mausoleums (türbe) in the funerary garden to the south of the mosque. The earliest and largest is that of Şehzade Mehmed which has a Persian foundation inscription over the entrance with a date of 1543–44.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|2005|p=193}} The mausoleum is an octagonal structure, with a fluted dome, polychrome stonework and a triple-arched portico. The interior walls are covered with multi-coloured cuerda seca tiles and the windows have stained glass.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|2005|p=198}}{{efn|Godfrey Goodwin in his book A History of Ottoman Architecture published in 1971 states that the cuerda seca tiles decorating the mausoleum were made in Iznik.{{sfn|Goodwin|1971|p=211}} From surviving account books the historian Gülru Necipoğlu has shown that the Ottoman court employed a team of tilemakers in Istanbul and it is now generally assumed that all cuerda seca tiles on imperial buildings dating from the first half of the 16th century were manufactured in Istanbul rather than Iznik.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|1990}}{{sfn|Carswell|2006|pp=57–58}}}} An unusual feature is the rectangular wooden throne over Mehmed's sarcophagus which symbolized his status as the heir apparent. Within the mausoleum there are also the tombs of Mehmed's daughter Hümaşah Sultan and his youngest brother Şehzade Cihangir (d. 1553). The identity of the occupant of the fourth sarcophagus is unknown.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|2005|p=200}}

File:Istanbul Şehzade complex Tomb of Şehzade Mehmed exterior in 2015 1362.jpg|Exterior of the Mausoleum of Şehzade Mehmed

File:Sehzade mosque tomb of Sehzade Mehmed DSCF6331.jpg|View of the tombs inside the mausoleum

File:Sehzade mosque tomb of Sehzade Mehmed DSCF6332.jpg|View of the tiled walls and the wooden throne above Mehmed's cenotaph

File:Sehzade mosque tomb of Sehzade Mehmed DSCF6345.jpg|View of the dome

File:Istanbul Şehzade complex Tomb of Şehzade Mehmed interior Cuerda seca tiles in 2015 1380.jpg|Detail of the cuerda seca tiles

To the south of the Şehzade mausoleum is the smaller octagonal türbe of Grand Vizier Rüstem Pasha, which was also designed by Sinan. The inscription gives the year as AH 968 (1560–61). Rüstem Pasha was the husband of Mihrimah, the daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent. Like the Rüstem Pasha Mosque it is decorated with a large number of underglazed Iznik tiles.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|2005|p=327, figs 314-315}}{{sfn|Goodwin|1971|p=252}} By the gate to the complex is the türbe of Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha, son-in-law of Murat III, who died in 1603.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|2005|p=531, Note 56}} The türbe was designed by Dalgıç Ahmed Çavuş, and almost equals that of Şehzade Mehmed in design and use of tiled decoration.{{Sfn|Sumner-Boyd|Freely|2010|p=|pp=188–189}}

File:Istanbul Şehzade complex Tomb of Rüstem Paşa in 2023 3831.jpg|Mausoleum of Rüstem Pasha

File:Tomb of Rustem Pasha DSCF6436.jpg|Interior of Rüstem Pasha's mausoleum

File:Tomb of Ibrahim Pasha DSCF6298.jpg|Mausoleum of Ibrahim Pasha

File:Istanbul Şehzade complex Tomb of Bosnian Ibrahim Pasha in 2023 3844.jpg|Entrance to Ibrahim Pasha's mausoleum

File:Tomb of Ibrahim Pasha DSCF6507.jpg|Interior of Ibrahim Pasha's mausoleum

It was said that the "green column" standing at the edge of the cemetery wall of Sehzade complex facing Şehzade Mosque and the street was erected at the location deemed to be the center of Istanbul.{{Cite web |date=4 August 2021 |title=İstanbul'un Ortası |url=https://kulturenvanteri.com/yer/?p=8407 |access-date=16 January 2023 |website=Kültür Envanteri}}{{Cite web |date=1 February 2022 |title=Şehzade Mosque and Complex |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=85077 |access-date=16 January 2023 |website=Historical Marker Database}}

{{noteslist}}

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{Cite book |last=Bağcı |first=Serpil |title=Ottoman Civilization |publisher=Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture |year=2002 |isbn=9751730732 |editor-last=Inalcık |editor-first=Halil |volume=2 |location=Ankara |pages=737-759 |language=en |chapter=Painted Decoration in Ottoman Architecture |editor-last2=Renda |editor-first2=Günsel}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Blair |first1=Sheila S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-mhIgewDtNkC&pg=PP3 |title=The Art and Architecture of Islam 1250-1800 |last2=Bloom |first2=Jonathan M. |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1995 |isbn=9780300064650 |location= |pages=}}
• {{cite book |last=Carswell |first=John |year=2006 |orig-year=1998 |title=Iznik Pottery |publisher=British Museum Press |place=London |isbn=978-0-7141-2441-4}}
• {{Cite book |last=Goodwin |first=Godfrey |year=1971 |author-link=Godfrey Goodwin (scholar) |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofottoman0000good |title=A History of Ottoman Architecture |publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=London |isbn=978-0-500-51192-3}}
• {{Cite book |last=Kuban |first=Doğan |title=Ottoman Architecture |publisher=Antique Collectors' Club |year=2010 |isbn=9781851496044 |location= |pages= |translator-last=Mill |translator-first=Adair}}
• {{cite journal |last=Necipoğlu |first=Gülru |author-link=Gülru Necipoğlu |year=1990 |title=From International Timurid to Ottoman: a change of taste in sixteenth-century ceramic tiles |journal=Muqarnas |volume=7 |pages=136–170 |doi=10.2307/1523126 |url=http://archnet.org/sites/2024/publications/3340 |jstor=1523126}}
• {{cite book |last=Necipoğlu |first=Gülru |year=2005 |title=The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire |publisher=Reaktion Books |place=London |isbn=978-1-86189-253-9}}
• {{Cite book |last=Rüstem |first=Ünver |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O_p0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PR1 |title=Ottoman Baroque: The Architectural Refashioning of Eighteenth-Century Istanbul |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2019 |isbn=9780691181875}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Sumner-Boyd |first1=Hilary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2G6KDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA185 |title=Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City |last2=Freely |first2=John |publisher=Tauris Parke Paperbacks |year=2010 |isbn=9780857730053 |edition=Revised |location= |pages=183–191 |language=en}}

{{refend}}

{{refbegin}}

• Aptullah Kuran: Sinan: The grand old master of Ottoman architecture, Ada Press Publishers, 1987. {{ISBN|0-941469-00-X}} {{in lang|en}}
• {{cite book |last=Faroqhi |first=Suraiyah |year=2005 |title=Subjects of the Sultan: Culture and Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire |publisher=I B Tauris |isbn=1-85043-760-2 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last=Rogers |first=J.M. |year=2007 |title=Sinan: Makers of Islamic Civilization |publisher=I B Tauris |isbn=978-1-84511-096-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/sinan0000roge |ref=none}}

{{refend}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://archnet.org/sites/2018 Şehzade Külliyesi], Archnet.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927214005/http://www.archmuseum.org/biyografi.asp?id=10013 Turkish Museum of Architecture]
• [http://www.pbase.com/dosseman/sehzade Photographs of the mosque by Dick Osseman]

{{Mosques in Turkey}}

{{Ottoman architecture}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sehzade Mosque}}

Category:Ottoman mosques in Istanbul

Category:Religious buildings and structures completed in 1548

Category:Mimar Sinan buildings

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Category:1548 establishments in the Ottoman Empire

Category:Mosques completed in the 1540s

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