The Fifth and Sixth Hills - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 267

of church with a narthex and three semicircular apses, evidently of
the eleventh or twelfth century. Until a few years ago it was ruined
and dilapidated, but still showed signs of frescoes under its faded and
blotched whitewash. The original four columns, long since purloined,
have since been replaced with poor columns and awkward capitals,
and the restored brickwork is also wrong.
MEHMET AĞA CAMİİ
Returning to the main avenue, we take the next right and at the end
of the short street we see a small mosque in its walled garden. Though
of modest dimensions, this is a pretty mosque and interesting because
it is one of the relatively few that can be conidently attributed to
the architect Davut Ağa, Sinan's colleague and successor as Chief
Architect to the Sultan. Over one of the gates to the courtyard is
an inscription naming Davut as architect and giving the date
A.H. 993 (A.D. 1585), at which time Sinan was still alive. The
founder Mehmet Ağa was Chief of the Black Eunuchs in the reign
of Murat III.
In plan the mosque is of the simplest: a square room covered by a
dome, with a projecting apse for the mihrab and an entrance porch
with five bays. But unlike most mosques of this simple type, the
dome does not rest directly on the walls but on arches supported
by pillars and columns engaged in the wall; instead of pendentives
there are four semidomes in the diagonals. Thus the efect is of an
inscribed octagon, as in several of Sinan's mosques, but in this case
without the side aisles; it rather resembles Sinan's mosque of Molla
Çelebi at Fındıklı on the Bosphorus (see Chapter 21). The efect is
unusual but not unattractive. The interior is adorned with faience
inscriptions and other tile panels of the best Iznik period; but the
painted decoration is tasteless - fortunately it is growing dim with
damp. Mehmet Ağa's türbe is in the garden to the left; it is a rather
large square building.
Just to the south outside the precincts stands a handsome double
bath, also a benefaction of Mehmet Ağa and presumably built by
Davut Ağa. The general plan is standard: a large square camekân, the
dome of which is supported on squinches in the form of conches;