Hoca Üveys Mosque

Audio Narration

Construction Year:

16th century

Location:

Fatih, İstanbul

Ordered by:

Hoca Üveys Pasha

Architects:

Unknown

- Changes after its construction
  • It was converted into a mosque by having its minbar placed by Babüssaade (The
    Door of Felicity) Agha, Boşnak (Bosniak) Ahmed Agha.
  •  It was destroyed by fire in 1915.
  •  It was rebuilt by the Hırka-i Şerif Veysel Karani Foundation between 1994 and
    1996.
- Prominent features
  •  The building, which was re-arranged by the Hırka-i Şerif Foundation in 1996 with
    wide eaves, a lead roof and a square plan, was opened for worship with its
    interior walls covered up to half of the congregation area, its mihrab completely
    decorated with Kütahya tiles and bearing the inscription Ayat al-Kursi (Verse of
    the Throne of the Holy Quran), and its ceiling covered with wooden bars in a
    square shape.

  •  The minbar and the preacher’s pulpit are made of wood. The mosque, which has
    a small narthex, has 11 rectangular windows at the bottom and 12 windows at
    the top. The mosque has muezzin’s gallery with wooden railings on the right and
    left of the entrance door, and a wooden upper gallery has been built over the
    narthex.

  •  The lead-topped minaret made of cut stone with a single balcony on the right can
    be accessed from outside and inside the mosque.

  •  In the graveyard next to the mosque is the domed tomb of Osman Agha, the
    Çeşnigar* of Suleiman the Magnificent, and in this tomb he, his wife and
    daughter are buried.

    Çeşnigar was the title of the one who was responsible in checking the Sultan’s meal, if
    it is poisoned.