Around the Mosque of the Conqueror - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 235

mektep that once stood just outside it; trees and wooden houses have
intruded, but they make a picturesque enclave in this corner. Opposite
is the courtyard of the mosque itself; this, with its monumental
portal, is original. In the lunettes of the six western windows are some
of the most remarkable inscriptions in the city: the first Surah of the
Kuran is written in white marble letters on a ground of verd antique.
The efect is extremely lovely and one wonders why this fascinating
technique of calligraphy should occur - so far as we know - only
here. The calligrapher was Yahya Sofi, and it was his son Ali who
wrote the inscriptions over the main portal of the mosque and also
over the Bab-ı Hümayün at the Saray. The dignified but simple portal
has rather curious engaged columns at the corners. The convex flutes
or ribs of their shafts become interlaced at top and bottom to form
an intertwined serpentine pattern, while the columns end in a sort of
hour-glass shaped capital and base. We shall see this same treatment
again in this külliye, but not elsewhere.
In the centre of this picturesque courtyard stands the şadırvan
with a witch's cap conical roof resting on eight marble columns and
surrounded by tall cypress trees. In essentials it is original even to
the cypresses which are constantly mentioned by travellers, though
doubtless replanted from time to time. The antique marble columns of
the portico have stalactite capitals of fine, bold workmanship. At either
end of the mosque porch are two more exquisite lunette inscriptions,
this time in faience, showing a vivid yellow combined with blue, green
and white in the cuerda seca technique typical of this early period.
Similar panels are to be seen in the mosque of Selim I, the türbe
of the Şehzade Mehmet, and a few other early buildings. The west
façade of the mosque itself belongs for the most part to the baroque
reconstruction, except for the entrance portal. On the exterior it has the
same engaged columns as the gate to the courtyard, and is surmounted
by a stalactite canopy enclosed in a series of projecting frames which
give depth and emphasis. On the sides and over the door are written
in bold calligraphy the historical inscriptions. But the interior side of
the portal is even more remarkable; its canopy is a finely carved scallop
shell supported on a double cornice of stalactites. However, it is sadly
masked by a later baroque balcony built in front of it.