Molla Çelebi Mosque
Changes After Construction:
- The mosque suffered great damage in fires of 1723, 1724, 1823 and 1843. During the reign of Abdulhamid I and after the fire of 1823, the mosque, bath and fountain were rebuilt.
- In 1958, as part of the restoration work carried out by the Directorate General of Foundations, the wooden porch was removed and replaced with marble columns and domes.
- The books in the library inside the mosque were first transferred to the Kılıç Ali Pasha Madrasa and then to the Süleymaniye Library.
Prominent Features:
- The single-domed Harim, planned in a rectangular shape close to a square, has a simple design with a plan on supporting its underside. The central dome in the Harim is supported by six arches and piers, and there is a half-dome mihrab projection in the direction of the qibla.
- Although it was a complex consisting of a mosque, a bathhouse, a primary school and a graveyard when it was built, only the mosque and the graveyard have survived to the present day. The double bathhouse, which was once one of the busiest in Istanbul and dated 1560-1561, had a hot section with a cross-shaped plan, but it was demolished in 1957.
- A passage is made to the graveyard from the opening at the western end. The oldest tombstone, dated 1709, belongs to Sheikh al-Islam Sadreddinzade Sadık Mehmed Effendi. There are nearly twenty tombstones in the graveyard.
