Kara Ahmed Pasha Mosque
The Kara Ahmed Pasha Mosque ( Turkish Kara Ahmet Paşa Camii ), also Gazi Ahmed Pasha Mosque and Topkapı Mosque , is an Ottoman mosque from the 16th century in Istanbul . The plans for the building come from the Ottoman court architect Sinan .
location
The mosque was built in the Topkapı district (not to be confused with Topkapı Palace ) in the northwest of Istanbul's Fatih district . The building is not far from the Byzantine Theodosian city wall of old Constantinople.
history
The mosque was planned on behalf of Kara Ahmed Pasha . The Pasha, who came from Albania, was Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1553 to 1555 . Kara Ahmed Pascha was married to Fatma Sultan, a daughter of Sultan Selim I. He was appointed Grand Vizier under Suleyman I in 1553, but two years later he was still in office by strangulation. According to the government official and historian Celâlzâde Mustafa Çelebi , the execution was ordered because Kara Ahmed Pasha lacked judgment and he was said to have been incompetent as Grand Vizier. There have been signs of corruption and the Grand Vizier has surrounded himself with "fools and troublemakers". The real reason for the execution is more likely to lie in an intrigue between Süleyman's favorite wife Hürrem and her daughter Mihrimah , who Mihrimah's husband and Kara Ahmed Pascha 's predecessor as Grand Vizier Riistem Pascha wanted to restore to his office.
The deed of foundation for the mosque was drawn up on July 21, 1555 around two months before the execution. In addition to the Friday mosque , a medrese with 16 bedrooms and a classroom was to be built, as well as a dervish convent, a hospital and a school. Kara Ahmed Pascha's administrator, Firuz Kethüda, was appointed administrator of the foundation. The foundation was endowed with 3 million Asper . The foundation's assets also included several pieces of land with property, including the palace of the grand vizier with two courtyards, a garden and a swimming pool.
Originally the mosque was supposed to be built near the Edirnekapı Gate. But Princess Mirimah had also secured a building site there, complained against the construction of the second mosque due to the lack of space and the sultan decided in her favor. The construction of the Kara Ahmet Pascha mosque was probably moved to the garden plot of the former residence of Kara Ahmed Pascha. Due to the much smaller property, the plans had to be adapted, the hospital and dervish convent could not be realized here.
The mosque was planned by the Ottoman court architect Sinan around 1555. An inscription in the mosque proves that construction began on March 25, 1565 and the building complex was completed in 1571/72 after the pasha was posthumously rehabilitated after Selim II's accession to the throne . An inscription on the Türbe , the mausoleum, suggests that it was built in 1558/59. Kara Ahmed's wife Fatma Sultan was buried outside the mausoleum in the mosque garden.
The mosque was richly furnished. The palace's dragoman ordered a Murano glass lamp in Venice . Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pascha donated three Korans and three carpets. His steward Hasan gave a rug and a prayer rug. The vizier Lala Mustafa Pascha donated three carpets, his steward a Koran and a carpet. Other friends and allies donated inventory to the mosque. The list of objects included 1,000 pearls, 15 copies of the Koran, 18 rugs and five prayer rugs.
In 1696 the mosque was first renovated by Aydınbegzâde Hasan Agha. After the dome collapsed in an earthquake in 1894, it was renovated two years later with slight changes. In 1946 the old school became a youth home.
architecture
The building complex, consisting of a mosque and medrese, is located within a wall that is broken through by windows on the front. The Türbe and the school are to the west outside these walls. The school was built with brickwork and light-colored ashlar. The Türbe consists only of light-colored stone, is a hexagon on the outside and a decagon on the inside .
Between the mosque and the U-shaped medrese there is a garden with a polygonal Şadirvan in the inner courtyard . In front of the mosque is a portico with five domes, which overlooks the colonnades of the medrese. The pillars of the portico carry muqarnas capitals. While the mosque and colonnades are made of white ashlar, the medrese was built from alternating layers of ashlar and red bricks. In the center is the slightly raised classroom with a dome.
The central dome with tambour rises above a hexagon. Next to the dome are two semi-domes on each side, under which exedrons enlarge the space. The arches that support the main dome are supported by six red granite columns with muqarnas capitals. It is believed that these columns come from the nearby Romanos Church, from which spolia were also found in the building.
Beyond the six windows of the Qibla wall and in the keel arches of the two niches in the north facade sit lunettes made of Cuera Seca tiles. The Kara Ahmet Pasha Mosque is the last mosque to use these tiles.
Web links
- Kara Ahmed Pasa Kulliyesi , Archnet
- Photos of the Kara Ahmet Pasha Mosque , pbase.com
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Gülru Necipoğlu: The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire . Reaction Books, London 2005, ISBN 1-86189-244-6 , pp. 377-384, here p. 377
- ^ A b Gülru Necipoğlu: The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire . Reaction Books, London 2005, p. 378
- ^ A b Gülru Necipoğlu: The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire . Reaction Books, London 2005, p. 380
- ^ Gülru Necipoğlu: The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire . Reaction Books, London 2005, p. 381
- ↑ a b Wolfgang Müller-Wiener : Pictorial dictionary on the topography of Istanbul: Byzantion, Konstantinupolis, Istanbul up to the beginning of the 17th century . Wasmuth, Tübingen 1977, ISBN 3-8030-1022-5 , p. 487
- ^ Gülru Necipoğlu: The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire . Reaction Books, London 2005, p. 383
- ^ Gülru Necipoğlu: The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire . Reaction Books, London 2005, p. 382
Coordinates: 41 ° 1 ′ 16 ″ N , 28 ° 55 ′ 45 ″ E