Along the Land Walls - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 355

inside the gate of the depot there is a tiny Byzantine building known
by its Turkish name, Manastir Mescidi. Its Byzantine name and its
history are unknown; various identiications have been proposed,
none of them with any conviction or probability. It is of the very
simplest form: a long rectangular chamber ending at the east with
the usual three projecting apses and preceded at the west by a small
narthex with two columns. It is most probably to be dated to the
thirteenth or fourteenth century.
Opposite this on the north side of Millet Caddesi is an equally
insignificant little mosque called Kürekçibaşı Camii, founded by one
Ahmet Bey in the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent. It is rectangular
in form and with a wooden roof. It once had a fine porch of which
only the columns now remain; they are Byzantine with crosses on the
shaft and interesting Byzantine capitals.
We now stroll up the side street, Topkapı Caddesi, past this little
mosque, and at the end of it on the left we find still another but even
older mosque. This is Beyazit Ağa Camii and dates from the age of
Fatih. It is of the same type as Kürekçibaşı Camii, that is, rectangular
with a wooden roof, and appears to be built on top of an ancient
cistern. Like the other buildings we have seen on this little detour,
this is worth only a passing glance.
KARA AHMET PAŞA CAMİİ
Opposite the end of the street on which we have been walking we
come to a great mosque complex which is one of the loveliest and
most masterful of the works of Sinan. It was built in 1554 for Kara
Ahmet Paşa, one of Süleyman's Grand Vezirs. We enter by a gate in
the south wall into a spacious and charming courtyard shaded by
plane trees. The court is formed by the cells of the medrese; to the left
stands the large dershane with pretty shell-shaped pendentives under
the dome; beside it a passage leads to the lavatories. The porch of the
mosque has unusually wide and attractive arches supporting its five
domes. Over the embrasures or niches of the porch are some rather
exceptional tiles, predominantly apple-green and vivid yellow, done
in the old cuerda seca technique. They are the latest recorded examples
of the second period of the Iznik potteries, the only other important