Üsküdar and the Princes’ Islands - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 384

approaches Üsküdar by boat because of its picturesqueness and the
whiteness of its stone, just at the water's edge. Built by Sinan for the
Vezir Şemsi Paşa in 1580, the mosque is of the simplest type: a square
room covered by a dome with conches as squinches. Şemsi's türbe
opens into the mosque itself, from which it is divided merely by a
green grille, a most unusual and pretty feature. The well proportioned
medrese forms two sides of the courtyard, while the third side consists
of a wall with grilled windows opening directly onto the quay and the
Bosphorus. The külliye has been beautifully restored in recent years.
RUM MEHMET PAŞA CAMİİ
The walk along this quay to the south is very pleasant and brings
one in a short time to an ancient mosque halfway up a low hill to
the left. This is the mosque of Rum Mehmet Paşa, built in 1471. In
its present state, part of it badly restored, it is not a very attractive
building, but it has some interesting and unusual features. Of all the
early mosques it is the most Byzantine in external appearance: the
high cylindrical drum of the dome; the exterior cornice following the
curve of the round-arched windows; the square dome base broken
by the projection of the great dome arches; and several other features
suggest a strong Byzantine influence, perhaps connected with the fact
that Mehmet Paşa was a Greek who became one of Fatih's vezirs.
Internally the mosque has a central dome with smooth pendentives
and one semidome to the east like Atik Ali Paşa Camii, but here the
side chambers are completely cut of from the central area. Behind
the mosque is Mehmet Paşa's gaunt türbe.
AYAZMA CAMİİ
If one leaves the mosque precinct by the back gate and follows the
winding street outside, keeping firmly to the right, one comes before
long to an imposing baroque mosque known as Ayazma Camii.
Built in 1760-1 by Sultan Mustafa III and dedicated to his mother,
the Valide Sultan Mihrişah Emine, it is one of the more successful
of the baroque mosques, especially on the exterior. A handsome
entrance portal opens onto a courtyard from which a pretty flight of
semicircular steps leads up to the mosque porch; on the left is a large