Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque, Kadırga

The mosque was designed by Ottoman imperial architect Mimar Sinan for the grand vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha and his wife İsmihan Sultan, a daughter of Selim II and one of the granddaughters of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|2005|pp=331-335}} According to the foundation inscription in Turkish above the north entrance to the courtyard, the building was completed in AH 979 (1571/72 CE). Although İsmihan Sultan and her husband jointly endowed the mosque, only Sokollu Mehmed Pasha is listed on the foundation inscription.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|2005|pp=335-337}}

The mosque is noted for its architecturally challenging location on a steep slope. Sinan resolved this issue by fronting the mosque with a two-storey courtyard. The bottom storey was divided into shops, whose rents were intended to help support the upkeep of the mosque. The upper storey with an open colonnaded courtyard had the spaces between the columns on three sides walled off to form small rooms, each with a small window, fireplace and niche to store bedding, forming the living accommodations for a madrasah. The fourth side of the courtyard is the mosque itself, which is designed as a hexagon inscribed in a rectangle, topped by a dome with four small semi-domes in the corners.{{sfn|Goodwin|2003|pp=272-275}} The dome is {{convert|13|m|ft}} in diameter and {{convert|22.8|m|ft}} high.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|2005|p=340}} The ablution fountain in the courtyard has twelve columns supporting an onion shaped dome.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|2005|p=339}} The single minaret is placed at the northeast corner of the mosque.{{sfn|Goodwin|2003|p=276}}

The interior of the Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque is famous for the İznik tiles, decorated with a wide variety of blue, red and green floral designs, with panels of calligraphy in white thuluth letters on a blue ground.{{sfn|Denny|2004|pp=101-107}} The interior columns make use of polychrome marble. The minbar is made of white marble with a conical cap, sheathed in Iznik tiles. The windows above the mihrab have stained glass. Above the main entrance, framed by a gilded brass bezel, is a fragment of the Kaaba in Mecca; other fragments of this black stone are above the minbar and mihrab.{{sfn|Denny|2004|p=105}} As well as the tilework, parts of the mosque were originally painted. Most of the paintwork has been renovated but some of the original paintwork survives above the vestibule of the north entrance, on the brackets supporting the balcony above the entrance, and under the ceilings of the side galleries.{{sfn|Necipoğlu|2005|p=341, figs 333-34}}

{{Gallery

|title=Views of the mosque

|width=200

|height=300

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|File:Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque Dome Painting -Sep 2010.jpg|Dome View

|File:Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Camii interior.jpg|Interior view

|File:Mehmet Pasha Mosque 11.jpg|Detail

|File:Mehmet Pasha Mosque.jpg

}}

File:Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque 7346.jpg|Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque front

File:Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque 7342.jpg|Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque courtyard

File:Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque 5722.jpg|Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque courtyard

File:Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque 7335.jpg|Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque

File:Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque 5710.jpg|Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque mihrab and minber

File:Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque 5716.jpg|Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque mihrab and minber

File:Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque 5719.jpg|Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque mihrab and minber detail

File:Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque 5715.jpg|Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque calligraphic tiles

File:Istanbul Sokollu Mosque 2002 399.jpg|Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque calligraphic tiles

File:Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque 5253.jpg|Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque Iznik tiles

File:Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque 5706.jpg|Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque Iznik tiles

File:Sokollu Mehmet Pasha mosque 5702.jpg|Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque Iznik tiles

• List of Friday mosques designed by Mimar Sinan

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book | last=Denny | first=Walter B. | year=2004 | title=Iznik: The Artistry of Ottoman Ceramics | publisher= Thames & Hudson | location=London | isbn=978-0-500-51192-3 }}
• {{cite book | last=Goodwin | first=Godfrey | year=2003 | orig-year=1971 | title=A History of Ottoman Architecture | publisher=Thames & Hudson | location=London |isbn=978-0-500-27429-3 }}
• {{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=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 }}
• {{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 }}

{{Commons category|Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque}}

• [https://archnet.org/sites/2787 Sokullu Mehmet Paşa ve Ismihan Sultan Külliyesi (Kadırga)], ArchNet.
• [http://www.3dmekanlar.com/en/sokullu-mosque-2.html 360 degree panoramic view of the mosque interior], 3dmekanlar.
• [http://www.pbase.com/dosseman/sokollumehmet Photographs of the Sokollu Mehmet Mosque by Dick Osseman]

{{Mosques in Turkey}}

{{Ottoman architecture}}

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Category:Religious buildings and structures completed in 1572

Category:Mimar Sinan buildings

Category:Ottoman mosques in Istanbul

Category:1572 establishments in the Ottoman Empire

Category:Fatih

Category:Mosques completed in the 1570s