Around the Mosque of the Conqueror - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 247

the west end of the north and south sides do not communicate with
the rest of the building in any way but have their own entrances
from the west forecourt; they were used as kitchens and bakehouses
and doubtless depended on the adjacent imaret. This leaves only
ten, or possibly 12, rooms for guests; for in the middle of the south
side a passage leads through a small arched entry to the area where
the kervansaray and imaret stood; an adjacent staircase leads to
a room with a cradle-dome above. Opposite on the north side a
similar area was occupied by lavatories; but here the dome and outer
wall have fallen, and a very botched repair make it difficult to see
what was the original arrangement. It is altogether an extraordinary
building.
THE KERVANSARAY
The great vacant lot to the south, now used as a playing field by the
children of the (modern) Fatih school, was the site of the kervansaray,
to the east, and the imaret, to the west. Two fragments of the latter
- small domed rooms, but ruinous now - remain in the south-west
corner. Evliya says it had 70 domes; this would imply that it was a
third again as big as the tabhane, which has (or had) 46 domes, and
one can believe it. For, when one considers that it had to supply two
meals a day to 1,000 students of the medreses, to the vast corps of
clergy and professors of the foundation, to the patients and staf of
the hospital, to the guests of the tabhane and kervansaray, as well
as to the poor of the district, it is clear that the imaret must have
been enormous. The kervansaray has wholly disappeared, but it too
must have been very big even if one discounts Evliya's statement that
its stables could hold 3,000 horses and mules. This whole area to
the south should be excavated; it is clear that the ground has risen
considerably, presumably with the rubble of the fallen buildings, and
it should be possible to determine at least the extent and plan of
the imaret and kervansaray. Another building of the külliye which
has disappeared is the dar-üş şifa, or hospital. This was placed
symmetrically with the tabhane on the north side of the graveyard;
a street-name still recalls its site and bits of its wall may be seen built
into modern houses.