The Çinili Mosque () is a 17th-century Ottoman mosque in the

Üsküdar Üsküdar () is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 35 km2, and its population is 524,452 (2022). It is a large and densely populated district on the Anatolian (Asian) shore of the Bosphorus. It is border ...

district of

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, Turkey. The small mosque is best known for its extensive tile decoration, which earned it its name.

Historical background

The mosque was commissioned by Mahpeyker Kösem and was built in 1640-1 CE (1050 AH). Its '' vakif'' (endowment) included the revenues from the Büyük Valide Han, a large

caravanserai A caravanserai (or caravansary; ) was an inn that provided lodging for travelers, merchants, and Caravan (travellers), caravans. They were present throughout much of the Islamic world. Depending on the region and period, they were called by a ...

(''han'') built in 1651 by the same patron near the Grand Bazaar. The mosque underwent a restoration that was completed in 2018.

Architecture

The mosque has a fairly traditional plan for small Ottoman mosques, consisting of a square hall covered by a dome. The dome has a diameter of approximately . On the outside, it is fronted on three sides by a

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

with a sloped roof. Because of the sloped terrain, the mosque is built on a raised platform. The minaret of the mosque is an addition from the later Ottoman baroque period, as evidenced by the

corbels In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a bearing weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applie ...

of its balcony, which feature carved acanthus leaves. On the inside, the mosque is relatively simple and it is most notable for its extensive

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

decoration, which covers most of the walls and from which it draws its name ("Tiled Mosque"). The tiles are from Kütayha, an important center of Ottoman tile production in this period. They reflect the classical period of Ottoman art and are one of the last important examples of this style, though by this time the rich repertoire of forms and colours known in 16th-century tilework had been reduced to a smaller repertoire with primarily blue, turquoise, and grey colours. In addition to floral motifs – such as

tulips Tulips are spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes in the ''Tulipa'' genus. Their flowers are usually large, showy, and brightly coloured, generally red, orange, pink, yellow, or white. They often have a different coloure ...

peonies The peony or paeony () is any flowering plant in the genus ''Paeonia'', the only genus in the family Paeoniaceae. Peonies are native to Asia, Europe, and Western North America. Scientists differ on the number of species that can be distinguishe ...

, and

hyacinths ''Hyacinthus'' is a genus of bulbous herbs, and spring-blooming perennials. They are fragrant flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae and are commonly called hyacinths (). The genus is native predominantly to the East ...

– the tilework also features an inscription frieze running in a line across three walls on either side of the

mihrab ''Mihrab'' (, ', 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'' wall". ...

. Further inscriptions are included in tiled

lunettes A lunette (French ''lunette'', 'little moon') is a crescent- or half-moon–shaped or semi-circular architectural space or feature, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be ...

above the windows. Tilework also covered some of the mosque's front façade, behind the portico. The

minbar A minbar (; sometimes romanized as ''mimber'') is a pulpit in a mosque where the imam (leader of prayers) stands to deliver sermons (, ''khutbah''). It is also used in other similar contexts, such as in a Hussainiya where the speaker sits and le ...

(pulpit) is made of marble and richly decorated with carvings highlighted in gold, red and green paint, with more tiles covering the conical canopy at the top. File:Çinili Mosque in 1993 317.jpg, Interior of the mosque File:Cinili Mosque (Uskudar) DSCF4376.jpg, View of the dome File:Cinili Mosque (Uskudar) DSCF4383.jpg, View of the tile decoration on the walls File:Cinili Mosque (Uskudar) DSCF4378.jpg, Closer view of the tiled

File:Çinili Mosque in 2006 0598.jpg, Detail on one of the tiles In addition to the mosque, the surrounding complex (''

külliye A külliye () is a complex of buildings associated with Turkish architecture centered on a mosque and managed within a single institution, often based on a waqf (charitable foundation) and composed of a madrasa, a Dar al-Shifa (clinic), kitchens ...

'') includes a fountain (''

shadirvan A shadirvan (, , ) is a type of fountain that is usually built in the courtyard or near the entrance of mosques, caravanserais, khanqahs, and madrasas, with the main purpose of providing water for drinking or ritual ablutions to several peop ...

''), a

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

, a primary school ('' mektep''), and a

hammam A hammam (), also often called a Turkish bath by Westerners, is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited from the model ...

. The fountain and the madrasa were built inside the walled precinct around the mosque. The fountain is covered by a large curved pointed roof. The madrasa is set into the northeast corner of the precinct and has an unusual triangular floor plan imposed by the limited space in this area. Located next to it and behind the ''

qibla The qibla () is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Great Mosque of Mecca, Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the salah. In Islam, the Kaaba is believed to ...

'' wall (southeast wall) of the mosque is a

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

. The primary school, a small domed structure, is located just outside the precinct walls. The hammam is a larger structure located slightly to the southwest. It is a "double" hammam, meaning it has a section for women and a section for men. File:Çinili Mosque main entrance courtyard.jpg, Exterior view of the mosque's walled outer precinct File:Çinili Camii courtyard and fountain.jpg, View inside the mosque's precinct, with the roofed fountain (''

'') visible in the center left File:Çinili Mosque in 2006 0603.jpg, The

of the complex (2006 photo, prior to recent restoration) File:Cinili Mosque hammam DSCF4371.jpg, The

(bathhouse) of the complex, located near the mosque precinct

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cinili Mosque Mosques completed in the 1640s Üsküdar Ottoman mosques in Istanbul Religious buildings and structures completed in 1641