Ayas Paşa Tomb
About the Person:
- Ayas Mehmed Paşa was an important Ottoman statesman who was educated in Enderun School. He left the palace as Serdengeçti Ağa, participated in the 1514 Chaldiran Campaign and the 1522 Siege of Rhodes, and served as the governor of Anatolia and Rumelia.
- He served as the grand vizier of Suleiman the Magnificent between 1536 and 1539, and participated in all of the Sultan’s expeditions. He died in the plague epidemic on July 13, 1539.
About the Tomb:
Construction Year: 1539
Ordered by: Mimar Sinan
Architect: Mimar Sinan
Prominent Features:
- It is in the style of an open tomb: It is a simple structure with four pointed arches and a single dome, seated on four marble columns.
- It is made of cut stone and covered with a dome.
- There is a tall marble coffin inside.
- The headstone is in the form of a mihrab, and the footstone is flat; his name and date of death are written on it in Ottoman Turkish.
- Although it is not very striking from an architectural point of view, the possibility that it may be the first work of Mimar Sinan gives the structure importance in terms of art history.
- The tomb has been largely restored and preserved in recent times.
