Around Beyazit and Sehzadebas - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 186

arrangement which, as we will see, he used with even greater efect
at the Süleymaniye: here the porches have but one storey, while at
the Süleymaniye they have two. This is certainly one of the very
finest exteriors that Sinan ever created; one wonders why he later
abandoned, or at least greatly restrained, these decorative efects.
THE ŞEHZADE TÜRBES
Behind the mosque is the usual walled garden of türbes, but the
türbes themselves are very unusual indeed, for they provide a veritable
historical museum of the two best periods of Turkish tiles, the first
extending from the time of the Conquest up until about 1555, and
the second and greatest from 1555 up till 1620. The türbes in the
precincts of Haghia Sophia are larger and grander, but their tiles,
magnificent as they are, are all much of the same date and style, as
are those of the Süleymaniye. Here, on the other hand, the buildings
are of sufficiently diferent dates to cover the whole span of the great
age of the Iznik kilns, together with a few of those produced at a later
period at Tekfur Saray. Unfortunately, these türbes are not open to
the public, except for that of Destarı Mustafa Paşa.
The first and largest türbe in the centre of the garden is, of course,
that of the Şehzade Mehmet himself. It is octagonal, the faces
separated by slender engaged columns; the stonework is polychrome,
panels of verd antique with inscriptions being inset here and there in
the façades, while the window frames and arches are picked out in
terra-cotta. The dome, which is double, on a fluted circular drum,
is itself fluted. The small entrance porch has a fine pavement of opus
sectile. It is a very handsome building in the decorated style of the
mosque itself.
The inscription in Persian verse over the entrance portal, which
gives the date of the Prince's death, A.H. 950 (A.D. 1543), suggests
that the interior is like the garden of paradise. It is indeed - all apple
green and vivid lemon yellow - for it is sheathed in tiles from the
floor to the cornice of the dome. These are almost the last and by far
the most triumphant flowering of the middle period of Iznik tiles,
done in the cuerda seca technique. Tiles in this technique and in these
colours are extremely rare. They were first manufactured at Iznik in