Around the Mosque of the Conqueror - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 227

12
Around the Mosque
of the Conqueror
Where one stroll ends another must begin, if we are to see Istanbul in
all its detail. And so we return to the south-west corner of the traffic-
circle at Şehzadebaşı, to begin our next tour of the city. Once there,
we will begin walking westward along the south side of Şehzadebaşı
Caddesi. This will bring us into the district called Fatih, named after
Fatih Camii, the Mosque of the Conqueror, around which we will
be strolling.
THE AMCAZADE COMPLEX
Just to the west of the ruins of the church of St. Polyeuktos, which we
examined on our last tour, we come to the fine complex of Amcazade
Hüseyin Paşa. This is one of the most elaborate and picturesque of
the smaller classical complexes. It was built by Hüseyin Paşa while
he was Grand Vezir (1697-1702) under Mustafa II, and thus comes
at the very end of the classical period. Hüseyin Paşa was a cousin
(amcazade) of Fazıl Ahmet Paşa of the able and distinguished Köprülü
family. he historian von Hammer says of him: “He was the fourth
Köprülü endowed with the highest authority of the Empire and like
his relatives he showed himself capable of supporting its weight...
After his uncle Mehmet Köprülü the Cruel and his cousins Ahmet
the Statist and Mustafa the Virtuous, he well-deserved the surname
of the Wise. Unfortunately he remained too short a time on the stage
where his high qualities had placed him, fully capable as he was of
retarding if not altogether forestalling the decadence of the Empire,
from which he disappeared like a meteor after having given rise to
the highest hopes.”
The complex includes an octagonal dershane or lecture hall, serving
also as a mosque; a medrese, a library, a large primary school over a