Through the Markets and Bazaars - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 167

presently . Its great courtyard must be over 100 metres in length but
very narrow and tall. Unfortunately, it has been divided in the middle
by what appears to be a later construction which much diminishes
its impressive length. Nevertheless, its three storeys of great round-
arched arcades are very picturesque. It was built by Sultan Mustafa III
and is one of the best extant examples of the baroque han.
Just beyond the Büyük Yeni Han is a much smaller one of about
the same date. This is the Küçük Yeni Han, or the Small New Han,
also a construction of Sultan Mustafa III. If you look up at this point
you will see the most curiously-situated mosque in the city, perched
on the roof of the han. This strange little mosque, which bears Sultan
Mustafa's name, has an almost Byzantine-looking dome and a pretty
minaret. It is much frequented by the merchants and workers in the
market district.
BÜYÜK VALİDE HANI
A little farther up Çakmakçılar Yokuşu and on the opposite side,
we come to the entrance to the grandest and most interesting of all
the hans in the city, the Büyük Valide Hanı. This han was built by
the Valide Sultan Kösem, mother of sultans Murat IV and Ibrahim,
shortly before her death in 1651, apparently on the site of an older
palace founded by Cerrah Mehmet Paşa. We enter through a great
gateway into the first courtyard, small and irregularly shaped because
of the alignment of the han relative to the street outside. From there
we pass into the main court, a vast area 55 metres square surrounded
by a double-tiered arcade, the innumerable chambers of which are
now given over to every conceivable form of industry and commerce.
Although the entire han is now in a state of appalling squalor
and dilapidation, it is nonetheless still impressive and extremely
colourful.
A vaulted tunnel leads from a corner of the main court into the
inner court, which because of the lay of the land is set at a lower level
than the rest of the han. This court now houses a weaving-mill. At the
back of this courtyard we see the remains of a Byzantine tower which
is built into the structure of the han. This has traditionally been called
the Tower of Eirene and is thought to date from the middle Byzantine