At a glance
- Era
- The Gunpowder Empires
- Region
- Anatolia
- Review
- Draft Completeness 3/5 · Help complete it
Summary
The beautiful Nişancı Mehmet Pasha mosque on the Fifth Hill is among the finest classical mosques; popularly ascribed to Sinan, it is absent from his Tezkere — it was built for the Lord Privy Seal (Nişancı) Mehmet Pasha between 1584 and 1588 by an unknown architect 1.
Description
From afar the upper structure shows masterly arrangement: the great dome ringed by eight little weight turrets, eight semidomes of two sizes, and the minaret unusually close to the dome base; one enters through an ogive-arched courtyard whose porch carries a tuğra of Mustafa III recording a 1766 restoration after that year's severe earthquake 2. The plan varies the octagon-in-square: eight smaller semidomes serve as squinches, one covering a projecting mihrab apse, with galleries above three sides. Freely reads it as the unknown architect playing variations on Sinan's own themes — leading Kuran to suggest Davut Ağa as designer 3. In the little graveyard is the founder's small unpretentious türbe, its inscription dating his death to A.H. 1001 (1592–3) 4.
For young visitors
A lovely mosque on Istanbul's Fifth Hill that everyone called Sinan's — but his own catalogue doesn't list it, so who built this masterpiece?
Curatorial notes
- Source read: Freely, A History of Ottoman Architecture (2011), pp. 335–337 (Nişancı Mehmet Pasha Camii).
- Record created in this batch.
People and things also explored
Abu Dulaf Mosque, Samarra· Great Mosque of Adana· Ahi Çelebi Mosque, Istanbul· al-Aqmar Mosque, Cairo· al-Attarine Madrasa, Fez· Great Mosque of Samarra· al-Janad Mosque, Ta'izz· al-Mansur Mosque (Kasbah Mosque), Marrakesh
Sources
- John Freely, A History of Ottoman Architecture (2011) , p.335-336
- John Freely, A History of Ottoman Architecture (2011) , p.336
- John Freely, A History of Ottoman Architecture (2011) , p.336-337
- John Freely, A History of Ottoman Architecture (2011) , p.337
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Nişancı Mehmet Pasha Mosque, Istanbul”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/building/nisanci-mehmet-pasha-mosque/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.