Mehmed Ağa Mosque

Audio Narration

Construction Year:

1585

Location:

Fatih, İstanbul

Ordered by:

Darüssaade Ağası Habeşi Mehmed Ağa

Architect:

Davud Ağa (One of Mimar Sinan's apprentices)

- Changes after its construction
  • According to records from the Ottoman period, it was repaired in 1743.
  • It was restored in 1938 after the proclamation of the Republic.
  • In the 1980s, the narthex was covered with glass.
  • Some of the columns in the narthex of the mosque, which was repaired by the Foundations Administration in 1982, were replaced and the cracked columns were reinforced with iron rings.
  • Its library was transferred to the Sultan Selim Library in 1914, to the Murad Molla Library in 1920, and to the Süleymaniye Library in 1949.
- Featured Features
  • The mihrab has a protruding square plan and the narthex has five units. The harim is covered with a single dome on eight wall piers (feet, supports). In the harim, the piers on the mihrab axis are square-sectioned, the others are piers with muqarnas (stalactite) capitals and cylindrical bodies. The dome is supported by eight weight towers.
  • It has a single minaret with a polygonal sectioned body on a rectangular base and a muqarnas balcony. It can be exited from both the harim and the narthex.
  • The mosque features 16th century İznik and Kütahya tiles and 18th century Tekfur Palace tiles. There are inscribed tile panels and hand-drawn decorations on the walls.
  • The narthex has a pointed arch , six marble columns with muqarnas (stalactites) and five units. It has marble mihrab niches and two small mihrabs.
  • The double bathhouse located in the northwest of the building has a square plan and squinched domed dressing rooms. It has a construction inscription dated 1586.
  • The madrasah of the building According to the foundation charter, it was built as a ten-room darülhadis (a place where hadith was taught); it was damaged in the 1894 earthquake and later disappeared.
  • The mosque and the lodge were designed as a whole. Until the mid-19th century, it changed hands between the Halveti and Bayrami orders, and for a short time it was affiliated with the Qadiriyya and finally with the Sunbulî branch of the Halveti order. It was renovated by Abdulhamid II in 1894.
  • There are two fountains with pointed arches in the classical style at the east and west courtyard gates. One has been restored, the other is in disrepair.