The Kılıç Ali Pasha Mosque ( tr, Kılıç Ali Paşa Cami) is a mosque at the heart of a complex designed and built between 1580 and 1587 by

Mimar Sinan Mimar Sinan ( ota, معمار سينان, translit=Mi'mâr Sinân, , ) ( 1488–1490 – 17 July 1588) also known as Koca Mi'mâr Sinân Âğâ, ("Sinan Agha (title), Agha the Grand Architect" or "Grand Sinan") was the chief Ottoman Empir ...

, who at the time was in his 90s. The mosque itself was constructed in 1578-1580. The complex is located in the

Tophane Tophane () is a quarter in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, Turkey, running downhill from Galata to the shore of the Bosphorus where it joins up with Karaköy to the southwest and Fındıklı to the northeast. In the Ottoman era, it was the ...

neighbourhood of the Beyoğlu district of

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, Turkey. It was built for the

Kapudan-i Derya The Kapudan Pasha ( ota, قپودان پاشا, modern Turkish: ), was the Grand Admiral of the navy of the Ottoman Empire. He was also known as the ( ota, قپودان دریا, links=no, modern: , "Captain of the Sea"). Typically, he was based ...

(Grand Admiral)

Kılıç Ali Pasha Occhiali (Giovanni Dionigi Galeni or ''Giovan Dionigi Galeni'', also ''Uluj Ali'', tr, Uluç Ali ''Reis'', later ''Uluç Ali Paşa'' and finally Kılıç Ali Paşa; 1519 – 21 June 1587) was an Italian farmer, then Ottoman privateer and ...

who was told to build it beside the sea because he was an admiral. .The complex consists of a

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

, a

medrese Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...

, a hamam, a

türbe ''Türbe'' is the Turkish word for "tomb". In Istanbul it is often used to refer to the mausolea of the Ottoman sultans and other nobles and notables. The word is derived from the Arabic ''turbah'' (meaning ''"soil/ground/earth"''), which ...

, and a

fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or Spring (hydrology), spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. ...

. The Kılıç Ali Pasha Mosque originally stood right beside the

Bosphorus The Bosporus Strait (; grc, Βόσπορος ; tr, İstanbul Boğazı 'Istanbul strait', colloquially ''Boğaz'') or Bosphorus Strait is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul in northwestern Tu ...

, but since the water in front of it has since been filled in, it is now surrounded by other buildings (in particular it now faces the

Galataport Galataport is a mixed-use development located along of shore in the Karaköy neighbourhood of Istanbul, Turkey on the European shore of the Bosporus strait near its confluence with the Golden Horn right in the heart of the city. It includes the ...

cruise terminal).

Architecture

Mosque

The central

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

of the mosque is in diameter, carried on

pendentive In architecture, a pendentive is a constructional device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or of an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to point ...

s on

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

and two half-domes on the

Qibla The qibla ( ar, قِبْلَة, links=no, lit=direction, translit=qiblah) is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the s ...

axis. Towards the entrance, on two sides, there is a two-storey gallery. The dome is placed at the center with two

exedra An exedra (plural: exedras or exedrae) is a semicircular architectural recess or platform, sometimes crowned by a semi-dome, and either set into a building's façade or free-standing. The original Greek sense (''ἐξέδρα'', a seat out of d ...

e rather like a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

, thus the resemblance to Hagia Sophia. Above the prayer hall are five small domes carried on six marble columns. The

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...

panels placed high up in the prayer hall are inscribed with

ayats Ayats is the trading name of Carrocerías Ayats SA, a Spain-based coachbuilder. The company constructs a range of coach bodies on a variety of chassis, and also manufacture their own integral products. Their products are used throughout Europe ...

(verses) from the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

. The mosque has only one

minaret A minaret (; ar, منارة, translit=manāra, or ar, مِئْذَنة, translit=miʾḏana, links=no; tr, minare; fa, گل‌دسته, translit=goldaste) is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generall ...

with one gallery but there are 247 windows including the twenty-four of the central dome. The

mihrab Mihrab ( ar, محراب, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "qibla w ...

is in a square projecting apse. A 16th-century ship lamp that used to hang from the central dome was removed to the Museum of Ottoman and Turkish Naval History (now the

Istanbul Naval Museum The Istanbul Naval Museum ( Turkish: ''İstanbul Deniz Müzesi'') is a national naval museum, located at Beşiktaş district of Istanbul in Turkey. It was established in 1897 by the Ottoman Minister of Navy Bozcaadalı Hasan Hüsnü Pasha. The ...

/''Deniz Müzesi'') in 1948. Two chronograms in the mosque both date it to 988 in the Hijri (Islamic) calendar (1580 in the

Julian calendar The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...

). One of the two inscriptions, at the outer entrance of the complex, features a four-verse poem in jali

thuluth ''Thuluth'' ( ar, ثُلُث, ' or ar, خَطُّ الثُّلُثِ, '; fa, ثلث, ''Sols''; Turkish: ''Sülüs'', from ' "one-third") is a script variety of Islamic calligraphy. The straight angular forms of Kufic were replaced in the new s ...

calligraphic Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as ...

script in Ottoman Turkish by the poet Ulvî and written by calligrapher Demircikulu Yusuf:

Mîr-i bahr â’nî Kılıç Paşa Kapudan-ı zemân
Yaptı çün bu camii ola yeri Darüsselâm
Hâtif-i kudsî görüp Ulvî dedi tarihini
Ehl-i imâna ibâdetgâh olsun bu makam

The letters in the final line - 'May this be a house of worship for people of the faith' - add up to the number 988.

Courtyard

The courtyard contains a

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

for ablutions before prayer with eight

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

s and a dome. The outer porch has a sloping roof supported by twelve columns on the west

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

and three at each end, all with rhombus-shaped capitals. In the center a marble

portal Portal often refers to: * Portal (architecture), an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, or the extremities (ends) of a tunnel Portal may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), two video games ...

leads into the mosque. The graveyard contains the

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

of Kılıç Ali Pasha with a dome designed by Mimar Sinan. Its wooden doors are inlaid with

mother-of-pearl Nacre ( , ), also known as mother of pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is ...

Medrese

The

, opposite the southeast corner of the mosque, is almost square. It's possible that it was not designed by Mimar Sinan since it doesn't appear in the official list of his works, the ''Tazkirat-al-Abniya''.

Hamam

To the right of the mosque is the hamam, completed in 1583. The glass doors lead into two separate ''soğukluks'' (cool rooms) on either side of the ''hararet'' (caldarium - hot room) which is hexagonal in plan with open bathing places in four of its six arched recesses, the other two opening on to the soğukluks. The placement of the soğukluks and the plan of the hararet differ from the usual layout used by Sinan in other surviving hamams. Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque and Tophane Fountain

Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque and Tophane Fountain

Gallery

File:Kilic Ali Pasa Mosque from tophane.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasa Mosque view from Tophane File:Kılıç Ali Pasha Complex.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque from hamam side File:Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque 8463.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque courtyard and ablutions fountain File:Kilic Ali Pasa Mosque 0804.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasa Mosque porch File:Kilic Ali Pasa Mosque 5485.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasa Mosque courtyard File:Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque 0803.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque east side File:Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque 8942.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque interior File:Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque 8955.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque looking towards mihrab and minber File:Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque 8958.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque mihrab File:Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque 8959.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque mihrab from side File:Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque 5100.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque window File:Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque 8467.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque calligraphic tiles File:Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque 5097.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque tiles File:Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque 8966.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque tiles

Stories associated with the mosque

After an examination of the complex's foundation documents, the Turkish researcher Rasih Nuri İleri claimed that the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

writer

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...

had been a slave during its construction, like the captive character in his novel ''

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...

''. When Kılıç Ali Pasha decided to endow a mosque toward the end of his life, he applied to the state for a grant of land (all land in the Ottoman Empire belonged to the state). He and the Grand Vizier

Rüstem Pasha Rüstem Pasha (; ota, رستم پاشا; 1505 – 10 July 1561) was an Ottoman statesman who served as Grand Vizier to Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent. Rüstem Pasha is also known as Damat Rüstem Pasha (the epithet '' damat'' meaning 'son ...

disliked each other intensely, so the Vizier is reported to have said: "Since he is the admiral, let him build his mosque on the sea." Undeterred, Kılıç Ali Pasha had rocks brought from all over the region and built the mosque on an artificial island connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway. The mosque is now well inland, since the water was filled in during the construction of a modern port.

References

External links

Interior pictures of Kılıç Ali Pasha Mosque

a map and a short guide for Sinan's works in Istanbul

Outside exterior photos of Kılıç Ali Pasha Mosque

Kılıç Ali Pasha Mosque

Over 50 pictures, mainly of the interior
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilic Ali Pasa 16th-century mosques Mimar Sinan buildings Ottoman mosques in Istanbul Mosque buildings with domes Buildings and structures in Beyoğlu Mosques completed in 1587