Burmalı Camii, Istanbul

Burmalı Camii is a small mosque just north of the Şehzade complex on the Third Hill, built about 1550 by the kadı of Egypt, Emin Nurettin Osman Efendi, and restored in the early 1970s ¹. Though of the simplest kind — a square room with a flat wooden ceiling — it has peculiarities all its own ².

Most notable is the brick minaret with spiral ribs from which the mosque takes its name (burmalı = spiral): unique in Istanbul and a late survival of an older tradition found at Amasya, Antalya and elsewhere ². The pitched (not domed) porch rests on four columns with Byzantine Corinthian capitals — reused ancient capitals being very rare in Istanbul; restorer Bayan Cahide Tamer found four matching capitals in the Archaeological Museum to replace the decayed originals ². The entrance portal sits on the right rather than in the middle, for no evident reason ³.

• Source read: Freely, A History of Ottoman Architecture (2011), pp. 256–258 (Burmalı Camii).
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