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

Mimar Sinan Mimar Sinan (; , ; – 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 Empire, Ottoman architect, engineer and mathematician for sultans Suleiman ...

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

Beyoğlu Beyoğlu (; ) is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 9 km2, and its population is 225,920 (2022). It is on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey, separated from the o ...

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. It was built for the Kapudan-i Derya (Grand Admiral) Kılıç Ali Pasha who was told to build it beside the sea because he was an admiral. The complex consists of a

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

, a

medrese 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

hamam 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 Islamic culture, culture of the Muslim world and was inherited ...

, a

türbe ''Türbe'' refers to a Muslim mausoleum, tomb or grave often in the Turkish-speaking areas and for the mausolea of Ottoman sultans, nobles and notables. A typical türbe is located in the grounds of a mosque or complex, often endowed by the ...

, and a

fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" ( genitive "fontis"), meaning source or 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. Fountains were o ...

. The Kılıç Ali Pasha Mosque originally stood right beside the

Bosphorus The Bosporus or Bosphorus Strait ( ; , colloquially ) is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul, Turkey. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and forms one of the continental bo ...

, 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 (formerly called Galata) neighbourhood of Istanbul, Turkey on the European shore of the Bosporus strait near its confluence with the Golden Horn right in the heart of ...

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 (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, 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 coo ...

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 () 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 ...

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 (: exedras or exedrae) is a semicircular architecture, architectural recess or platform, sometimes crowned by a semi-dome, and either set into a building's façade or free-standing. The original Greek word ''ἐξέδρα'' ('a seat ou ...

e rather like a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

, 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, Rock (geology), stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, wal ...

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, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

. The mosque has only one

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

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

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 language, Turkish: ''İstanbul Deniz Müzesi'') is a national naval museum, located in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul, Turkey. It was established in 1897 by the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Minister of the Navy ...

/''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 is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts ...

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

thuluth ''Thuluth'' (, ' or , '; , ''Sols''; Turkish: ''Sülüs'', from ' "one-third") is an Arabic script variety of Islamic calligraphy. The straight angular forms of Kufic were replaced in the new script by curved and oblique lines. In ''Thuluth'', ...

calligraphic Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an exp ...

script in

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish (, ; ) was the standardized register of the Turkish language in the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian. It was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. ...

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 consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

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 or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

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

portal Portal may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), a series of video games developed by Valve ** ''Portal'' (video game), a 2007 video game, the first in the series ** '' Portal 2'', the 2011 sequel ** '' Portal Stori ...

leads into the mosque. The graveyard contains the

octagon In geometry, an octagon () 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, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

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

, 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.

Gallery

File:Kilic_Ali_Pasha_Mosque_DSCF5119.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasa Mosque view from Tophane File:Kılıç Ali Pasha Complex.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque from hamam side File:Kılıç_Ali_Pasha_Mosque_Courtyard2.jpg, Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque courtyard and ablutions fountain File:Kılıç_Ali_Pasha_Mosque_Entrance.jpg, Entrance of the Kilic Ali Pasa Mosque 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:Interior_of_Kılıç_Ali_Pasha_Mosque.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 File:KilicAliPasha chronogram.jpg, Kılıç Ali Paşa chronogram

Stories associated with the mosque

After an examination of the complex's foundation documents, the Turkish researcher

Rasih Nuri İleri Rasih Nuri İleri (1920–2014) was a Turkish writer and socialist politician. He was a member of various socialist parties during his lifetime. Early life and education He was born in Geneva on 28 March 1920. His father was Suphi 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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

writer

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

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

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

''. 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 (; ; 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-in-law') as a result of ...

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 Mimar Sinan buildings Ottoman mosques in Istanbul Mosque buildings with domes in Turkey Buildings and structures in Beyoğlu Mosques completed in the 1580s Religious buildings and structures completed in 1587 Mosque buildings with minarets in Turkey Sunni mosques in Turkey