The Seventh Hill - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 328

which is divided by the street itself; on the right are the medrese
and mektep, and on the left the mescit, tekke, türbe, and sebil. An
inscription on the sebil gives the date of construction as A.H. 1044
(A.D. 1634). At that time Bayram Paşa was Kaymakam, or Mayor,
of the city; two years later he became Grand Vezir and soon after
died on Murat IV's expedition against Baghdad. At the corner to
the left is the handsome sebil with five grilled openings; behind it
is the really palatial türbe of the founder, looking rather like a small
mosque. (It is said to have fine and original tiles; unfortunately it is
shut up and inaccessible.) At the far end of the enclosed garden and
graveyard stands the mescit surrounded on two sides by the porticoed
cells of the dervish tekke. The mescit, is a large octagonal building
which served also as the room where the dervishes performed their
music and dance ceremonies. The whole complex is finely built of
ashlar stone in the high classical manner and the very irregularity of
its design makes it singularly attractive.
COMPLEX OF HASEKİ HÜRREM
Turning left at the corner and passing the külliye of Bayram Paşa, we
come immediately to that of Haseki Hürrem, which is contiguous with
it to the west. This külliye was built by Haseki Hürrem, the famous
Roxelana, and is the third largest and most magnificent complex in
the old city, ranking only after those of Fatih and Süleyman. The
mosque and its dependencies were built by Sinan and completed
in 1539, making these the earliest known works by him in the city.
The mosque is disappointing: originally it consisted of a small square
room covered by a dome on stalactited pendentives, preceded by a
rather pretentious porch of five bays which overlapped the building at
both ends. It may perhaps have had a certain elegance of proportion
and detail. But in 1612 a second and identical room was added on
the north, the north wall being removed and its place taken by a
great arch supported on two columns. The mihrab was then moved
to the middle of the new extended east wall so that it stands squeezed
behind one of the columns. The result is distinctly unpleasing.
Not so the other buildings of the külliye which are magnificent: a
medrese, a primary school, a public kitchen and a hospital. Moreover,