The Fifth and Sixth Hills - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 270

of the arches, the very beautiful tiles of the earliest Iznik period in
the lunettes above the windows - turquoise, deep blue, and yellow
- and the fountain surrounded by tapering cypress trees. The plan
is quite simple: a square room, 24.5 metres on a side, covered by a
shallow dome, 32.5 metres in height under the crown, which rests
directly on the outer walls by means of smooth pendentives. The
dome, like that of Haghia Sophia, but unlike that of most Turkish
mosques, is significantly less than a hemisphere. This gives a very
spacious and grand efect, recalling a little the beautiful shallow dome
of the Roman Pantheon. The room itself is vast and empty, but saved
from dullness by its perfect proportions and by the exquisite colour
of the Iznik tiles in the lunettes. The mosque furniture though sparse
is fine, particularly the mihrab, mimber, and sultan's loge. The border
of the ceiling under the loge is a quite exceptionally beautiful and
rich example of the painted and gilded woodwork of the great age;
notice the deep, rich colours and the varieties of floral and leaf motifs
in the four or five separate borders, like an Oriental rug, only here
picked out in gold. To north and south of the great central room
of the mosque there are annexes consisting of a domed cruciform
passage giving access to four small domed rooms in the corner. These
served, as we have seen elsewhere in the earlier mosques, as tabhanes,
or hospices, for travelling dervishes.
The mosque was finished in 1522 under Süleyman the Magnificent,
but it may have been begun two or three years earlier by Selim
himself, as the Arabic inscription over the entrance portal would
seem to imply. Although the mosque is very often ascribed to Sinan,
even by otherwise reliable authorities, it is certainly not so, for not
only is it too early but it is not listed in the Tezkere. Unfortunately the
identity of the actual architect has not been established.
In the garden behind the mosque is the grand türbe of Selim I,
octagonal and with a dome deeply ribbed on the outside. In the
porch on either side of the door are two beautiful panels of tilework,
presumably from Iznik but unique in colour and design. The interior
has unfortunately lost its original decoration, but it is still impressive
in its solitude, with the huge catafalque of the Sultan standing alone
in the centre of the tomb, covered with embroidered velvet and with