Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
group of buildings that make Eyüp illustrious. The first, Kızıl Mescit,
is perhaps hardly worth a visit though it has been reasonably well
restored. Built in 1581 by Kiremitçi Süleyman Çelebi, it is of the
simplest type, a rectangular room of stone and brick with a tiled roof
and a brick minaret. A little farther on, on the opposite side of the
street stands the mosque of Silahi Mehmet Bey, also of the simplest
type but nearly a century older than the other and with a fascinating
minaret. This is hexagonal in shape, built of stone and brick and
without a balcony, but instead a sort of lantern with six windows and
a tall conical cap. There are in the city three or four other minarets
with this lantern arrangement, but this is much the most striking
and pretty.
THE COMPLEX OF ZAL MAHMUT PAŞA
Opposite Silahi is the grandest and most interesting mosque in Eyüp,
that of Zal Mahmut Paşa, a mature but unique work of Sinan. Its
date of construction is unknown; that usually given, 1551, is at least
20 years too early, and a date in the mid 1570s seems most probable.
Zal was a rather unsavoury character: when in 1553 Süleyman had
his son Mustafa put to death, it was Mahmut (who got his forename
Zal from that of a Persian hero famous for his Herculean strength)
who finally overcame the young prince's resistance and strangled him.
Later he married the Princess Şah Sultan, sister of Selim the Sot, as a
reward, it is said, for having smoothed that prince's path to the throne
by the elimination of his brother. In 1580, Zal and his wife died in
a single night.
A fine view of the south façade of the building may be had from
the garden of Silahi Camii which is a little higher. With its four tiers
of windows and its great height and squareness it looks more like a
palace than a mosque. The north façade is even more towering, for
the mosque is built on a slope and supported on vaulted substructures
in which rooms for the lower medrese have been made. The mosque
is constructed of alternate courses of stone and brick. A handsome
porch of five bays gives access to the interior. This is a vast rectangular
room; the massive dome arches spring on the east from supports in
the wall itself, on the west from thick and rather stubby pillars some
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