From the Galata Bridge to Haghia Sophia - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 19

reconstruction, which was completed in 1663. On 6 November of
that year the New Mosque of the Valide Sultan was consecrated in
a public ceremony presided over by the Sultan and his mother. The
French scholar Grelot, writing when Turhan Hadice was still alive,
tells us that she was one of the “greatest and most brilliant ( spirituelle )
ladies who ever entered the Saray,” and that it was fitting that “she
should leave to posterity a jewel of Ottoman architecture to serve as
an eternal monument to her generous enterprises.”
But time has dimmed the glitter of Safiye's jewel, and its walls
and windows are blackened by the soot from the ferries which berth
nearby. Then, too, Yeni Cami was built after Ottoman architecture
had passed its peak, and it fails to achieve the surpassing beauty of
Sinan's masterpieces of the previous century. Nevertheless, it is still
a fine and impressive structure, and its graceful silhouette is an
adornment to the skyline of Stamboul.
Yeni Cami, like many of the other imperial mosques in Stamboul,
represents a variation on the basic plan of the great church of Haghia
Sophia. Whereas in Haghia Sophia the central dome is flanked by
two semidomes along the longitudinal axis, Yeni Cami is cruciform,
with semidomes along both axes and smaller domes at each of the
four corners. The resultant silhouette is a graceful flowing curve
from dome to semidomes to minor domes, a symmetrical cascade
of clustering spheres. The north and south façades of the building
have two storeys of porticoed galleries which, with the pyramidal
arrangement of the domes, give a light and harmonious efect. The
two minarets each have three şerefes, or balconies, with superb
stalactite carving. In olden times the call to prayer was given by six
müezzins, one to each şerefe, but now they have been replaced by a
single loudspeaker attached to a soulless tape-recorder.
Like all of the other imperial mosques in Stamboul, Yeni Cami
is preceded by a monumental courtyard, or avlu. The courtyard is
bordered by a peristyle of 20 columns, forming a portico which is
covered with 24 small domes. At the centre of the courtyard there
is a charming octagonal şadırvan, or ablution fountain, one of the
finest of its kind in the city. At the şadırvan, which means literally
“free-flowing fountain”, the faithful would ordinarily perform their