Mesih Mehmed Pasha Mosque

About

The Mesih Mehmed Pasha Mosque, in Turkish the Mesih Mehmed Pasa Camii, stands in the historic Fatih district of Istanbul. It was commissioned in 1584 by the eunuch statesman Mesih Mehmed Pasha while he served as third vizier under Sultan Murad III, and was completed in AH 994, the year 1585-86. The foundation inscription on the building and a second on the triple ablution fountain at the perimeter wall both carry that date.

The mosque is traditionally counted among the works of Mimar Sinan, though his involvement remains a question for scholars: Sinan was on pilgrimage to Mecca in 1584, during which time the royal architect Mehmed Subasi acted in his place. Sinan included the mosque in an early draft of his autobiography but omitted it from a later version.

Built on a sloping site, the mosque rests its western flank on a vaulted substructure of shops, the eastern side opening onto a forecourt arcaded on three sides with pillared galleries. The north facade carries a double portico of five arches, and the lead-covered main dome, 12.8 metres across, rises on a drum of twenty-four windows braced by eight turrets, with five half-domes forming the exedras.

At the centre of the forecourt, in place of the customary fountain, lies the grave of Mesih Pasha himself. He had obtained permission to be buried beside his foundation in 1587 and died in 1589, his tomb completing the ensemble of the mosque he had endowed.

History

Mesih Mehmed Pasha, a former governor-general of Egypt who rose to grand vizier under Sultan Murad III, commissioned the mosque in 1584 and lived to see it completed within two years. The building is traditionally counted among the works of the imperial architect Mimar Sinan, though Sinan was on pilgrimage to Mecca during much of its construction and left its supervision to the royal architect Mehmed Subaşı. A stone plaque still set above the entrance records the foundation in Turkish as Mesih Ali Paşa Camii, a variant of the founder's name, with the construction date given as the Hijri year 994, corresponding to 1585 in the Gregorian calendar. Mesih Pasha secured permission to be buried in the forecourt of his own mosque, in place of the customary ablution fountain, and his grave has rested there since his death in 1589.

Significance

The mosque stands among the late foundations of the Sinan era, its dome of nearly thirteen metres carried on a drum of twenty four windows and braced by eight turrets built to answer the demands of a difficult, sloping urban plot. It remains a working Friday mosque in the heart of historic Fatih, still called to prayer over the same ground its founder chose for his own resting place.

Architecture

Ottoman imperial mosque architecture of the Sinan school; single dome plan with a vaulted shop substructure on a sloping site