Around Beyazit and Sehzadebas - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 193

curve of the sebil with three fine bronze grilles between the columns;
on the left is the ornate entrance portal, while balancing this on the
right is a çeşme. A long decorative inscription over the sebil gives the
date of foundation as A.H. 1189 (A.D. 1775). Unfortunately, the
level of the ground has risen considerably since then and this imposing
façade has been somewhat swamped and belittled by it. But in spite of
this and the poor condition of the fabric, it remains one of the more
elaborate and charming of the small Ottoman primary schools.
Returning to the last intersection, we now turn left onto Kâtip
Vefa Caddesi. Immediately on our left we pass the famous Vefa
Bozahanesi, where the stroller might want to stop for a refreshing
glass of boza. (Boza is a drink made from millet, once a great favourite
of the Janissaries.) Notice the silver cup in a glass case on the wall; it is
preserved there because Atatürk once drank from it.
Just beyond the Vefa Bozahanesi is a little mosque called Mimar
Mehmet Ağa Camii. This was built in 1514 by Revani Şuccağ Efendi
who was Sürre Emini , or official escort, of the annual embassy to
Mecca. It is a small square building of brick with a dome; it is of no
great interest, but has a pretty fluted minaret. The mosque was well
restored in 1960, a little too much perhaps.
TÜRBE OF ŞEYH VEFA
A short way down the street we come to Vefa Camii, the small
mosque from which the street and the district took their name.
This is a brand new mosque erected on the site of the original Vefa
Camii, built in the late fifteenth century. All that is left of the original
mosque complex is the türbe of its founder, Şeyh Muslihiddin Vefa,
dated A.H. 896 (A.D. 1491). In years past Şeyh Vefa was one of
the most popular folk-saints in Istanbul, and even today a few old
women occasionally come to pray at his türbe. (Officially there are
no saints in Islam, but Istanbul abounds with the tombs and graves
of holy men canonized only by the reverence accorded them by the
pious poor of the city.) Although Şeyh Vefa was one of the most
renowned scholars of his time (we are told that he was well versed in
all of the 70 sciences of Islam), he decided quite early in life that he
would devote himself entirely to the welfare of the poor. He therefore