From the Galata Bridge to Sehzadebasi - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 214

high blind drum, worked in the form of a series of triangles so that
pendentives or squinches are dispensed with. In the dome are some
rather curious arabesque designs, not in the grand manner of the
sixteenth or seventeenth centuries nor yet in the degenerate Italian
taste of the nineteenth; they are unique in the city and quite attractive
both in design and colour. The deep porch has three domes only, the
arches being supported at each end by rectangular piers and in the
centre by a single marble column. The door is not in the middle but
on the right-hand side, so as not to be blocked by the column; this
arrangement, too, was common in the preclassical period, but there
are only a very few such examples in the city. To the south of the main
building is a rectangular annexe with a flat ceiling and two mihrabs;
it is through this annexe that we enter the mosque today. According
to one authority this section is wholly new; possibly, but as far as
form goes, it might well be the dwelling house added by Hayreddin's
daughter-in-law.
The third mosque is found about 150 metres farther on, a short
distance before the Atatürk Bridge. This is called Sağrıcılar Camii, the
mosque of the Leather-Workers, which guild once had its workshops
in this area. The building is of the simplest type, a square room
covered by a dome, the walls of stone. It was restored in 1960 with
only moderate success. But although the mosque is of little interest
architecturally, its historical background is rather fascinating. For
one thing, this is probably the oldest mosque in the city, founded
in 1455 by Yavuz Ersinan, standard-bearer in Fatih's army during
the final siege of Constantinople. This gentleman was an ancestor
of Evliya Çelebi; his family remained in possession of the mosque
for centuries, living in a house just beside it. Evliya was born in this
house in about 1611 and there, 20 years later, he had the dream
which changed his life (and immeasurably enriched our knowledge
of the life of old Stamboul). The founder himself is buried in the
little graveyard beside the mosque. Beside him is buried one of his
comrades-in-arms, Horoz Dede, one of the fabulous folk-saints of
Istanbul. Horoz Dede, or Grandfather Rooster, received his name
during the siege of Constantinople, when he made his rounds each
morning and woke the troops of Fatih's army with his loud rooster