İslambey Mosque

Audio Narration:

Construction Year:

1519 - 1521

Location:

Eyüpsultan, İstanbul

Ordered by:

Kırşehirli Islam Bey (one of the commanders of the Suleiman the Magnificent period)

Architect:

Unknown

- Changes the building has undergone since its construction
  • A fountain was added next to the mosque in 1700.
  • Towards the end of the 19th century, the Badawiyya order was given the sheikhdom by the Egyptian Sheikh Hasanain al-Ahmadi and the mosque then began to serve as the Badawi Asitane.
  • The Badawiyya Lodge became a frequent destination for Egyptian junkers and travelers.
  • In 1980, some of the structures belonging to the lodge (sheikh cells and dedegan rooms) were demolished.
- Prominent features of the mosque
  • The mosque, a typical 16th century square-plan masjid, is built of stacked stone. It has a wooden roof and a lead-coated spire-shaped minaret. The building, which receives light from the upper and lower windows, has a mihrab decorated with stalactite; and the pulpit is made of wood.
  • There are courtyard gates opening onto both streets. There was a wooden mansion and dedegan’s rooms inside the courtyard.
  • The pulpit and base of the minaret on the right side of the mosque are made of cut stone, and the body and upper sections are plastered with cement.
  • In the mosque’s graveyard is the tomb of its founder, İslam Bey. There is no date on the tomb; there is only a small inscription with a Badawi coin placed on the mihrab wall.
  • The last sheikh of the lodge was İsmail Hakkı Kırmızıtaş, who passed away in 1976. His father, Sheikh Hafız İbrahim Efendi, also served as a sheikh here.
  • The original door of the mosque has a marble arch and its inscription has not survived to the present day.