He became sultan at thirteen, and died at twenty-seven, soon after finishing his great mosque.
This is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, known as the Blue Mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey.
Sultan Ahmed the First began it in 1609, across from Hagia Sophia. His architect, Sedefkar Mehmed Agha, had trained under the great Sinan. Sedefkar means mother-of-pearl worker, a craft he practised for about twenty years.
More than twenty thousand handmade Iznik tiles line the walls, in more than fifty designs. The Sultan is said to have banned workshops from making tiles for anyone else, so his order could be finished. Their blue gave the mosque its popular name.
The central dome is about twenty-three and a half metres wide and forty-three metres high, held up by four massive pillars. More than two hundred windows let in the light.
Six minarets rise around it. Folklore says the Sultan asked for gold, altin, and the architect heard six, alti. Another tale says six matched the Grand Mosque in Mecca, and that the Sultan answered by having a seventh minaret added there. Neither story is confirmed.
The mosque's own account says only the Sultan could ride into the courtyard, and a chain made him lower his head, a sign of humility.
After the Peace of Zsitvatorok, seen as a blow to Ottoman prestige, Sultan Ahmed I decided to build a large mosque in Istanbul in the hope of soliciting God's favour. He was the first sultan to build an imperial mosque since Selim II (d. 1574), as both Murad III and Mehmed III before him had not constructed their own.
The mosque was built on the southeast side of the old Byzantine Hippodrome, near the Hagia Sophia, which had been converted into a mosque, that acted as a source of inspiration for the Ottoman architects, a site of great symbolic significance that allows it to dominate the city's skyline. The mosque's location was originally occupied by the Hippodrome's bleachers and its imperial box (where the emperor sat when attending events here). During excavations in the early 20th century, some of the ancient seats were discovered in the mosque's courtyard. Given the mosque's location, size, and number of minarets, it is probable that Sultan Ahmed intended to create a monument that rivalled or surpassed the Hagia Sophia.
Prior to construction, this site was occupied by the palaces of several Ottoman viziers, including Sokollu Mehmet Pasha and Güzel Ahmet Pasha, which required a costly expropriation process. This, along with the fact that the empire was under economic stress, aroused the protests of the ulema (Islamic legal scholars), who argued that sultans should only fund the construction of an imperial mosque with spoils of conquest. Ahmed I had won no major victories and thus had to divert funds from the treasury for this expensive project. The ulema went so far as to forbid Muslims from praying at the mosque.
Despite the opposition, the sultan went ahead with the project. Construction started in 1609 and completed in 1617, when the opening ceremony was held, though the year 1616 is mentioned on some of the mosque's inscriptions. Ahmed I died around the same time or very soon afterwards in 1617. Scholar Godfrey Goodwin notes that the last accounting reports on the mosque's construction were signed by Mustafa I, Ahmed I's successor, which suggests that Ahmed I had died before the final completion of the project.
In the end, the mosque's grandeur, its luxurious decoration, and the elaborate public ceremonies that Ahmed I organized to celebrate the project appear to have swayed public opinion and overcome the initial controversy over its construction. It became one of the most popular mosques in the city. The mosque has left a major mark on the city and has given its name to the surrounding neighbourhood, now known as Sultanahmet.
Restorations and recent history
In 1883, much of the mosque interior's painted decoration was replaced by new stenciled paintwork, some of which changed the original colour scheme. A major fire in 1912 damaged or destroyed several of the outlying structures of the mosque complex, which were subsequently restored.
A major restoration of the mosque took place in the 21st century. During preparatory work in 2013, it was discovered that the mosque's northwest minaret had shifted 5 centimetres (2.0 in) over time, constituting a potential threat to its structural stability. Work to reconstruct and repair the minaret was underway in 2015. Comprehensive restoration work on the rest of the mosque began in 2018. The mosque reopened in April 2023.
Pope Benedict XVI visited the mosque on 30 November 2006 during his visit to Turkey, alongside Mustafa Çağrıcı, the Mufti of Istanbul, and Emrullah Hatipoğlu, the Imam of the Blue Mosque. It was the second papal visit in history to a Muslim place of worship.
Architecture and design
Overview
The design of the mosque is based on that of the earlier Şehzade Mosque designed by Mimar Sinan in the early 16th century. The prayer hall occupies an area of 64 by 72 metres (210 by 236 ft) and has a central dome measuring 23.5 metres (77 ft) in diameter. The dome is surrounded by four semi-domes, each of which is flanked by three smaller semi-domes or exedrae. Four smaller domes cover the corners of the prayer hall. On the outside, the mosque has six minarets, ablutions facilities, and a large courtyard preceding the prayer hall.
The mosque's architect, Sedefkar Mehmed Agha from Elbasan who also built the Ballie Mosque there, synthesized the ideas of his master Sinan, aiming for overwhelming size, majesty and splendor. According to the architect's official biographer, the mosque was the culmination of his career. Reflecting the classical Ottoman style of the period, the structure incorporates aspects of Byzantine architecture from the neighboring Hagia Sophia with Islamic architecture. It was the last great mosque of this classical period.
Architectural historian Doğan Kuban characterizes Mehmed Agha's style as having a more "sculptural" approach, with more attention brought on the details of the building and a willingness to break up its elements into smaller parts, whereas Sinan had placed more emphasis on rigorous spatial designs with relatively restrained decoration. Scholar Gülru Necipoğlu states that the mosque demonstrates an emerging trend towards extravagance in the structure and decoration of Ottoman buildings during this time, as evidenced by its size, its profile (including the increased number of minarets), and its lavish use of Iznik tiles. A similar lack of restraint in decoration is also found, for example, in the New Mosque (or Yeni Valide Mosque) that was completed later that same century.
While architectural historians have criticized some details of the mosque's structure and decoration when comparing it to the earlier works of Sinan, the mosque is one of the most impressive and popularly admired monuments of Ottoman architecture.
Layout and main features
The mosque's interior is dominated by its dome and cascading semi-domes. The main dome reaches a height of 43 metres (141 ft). The weight of the dome is supported by four massive cylindrical pillars. The transition between the central dome and the pillars is achieved by four long, smooth pendentives. Smaller pendentives are used for transitions between the semi-domes and their exedrae and between the hall's corner domes and the surrounding structure. The transitions between the smaller exedrae and the supporting walls or arches are covered by muqarnas (stalactite-like sculpting) made of stucco. By employing these elements, Mehmed Agha created a softer progression from the rectangular outer walls to the round central dome. A two-floor gallery, supported on columns, runs along three sides of the prayer hall, except for the southeastern (or qibla) side, where the mihrab is located. Two fountains are incorporated into the two northern pillars of the mosque, similar to the Süleymaniye Mosque's prayer hall. The floors are covered with carpets, which are donated by the faithful and are regularly replaced as they wear out.
More to know
As in most major Ottoman religious foundations, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque is the main element of a larger complex of buildings. Unlike in previous imperial mosque complexes, the other structures of this complex are not arranged in a regular, well-organized plan around the mosque. Because the mosque was built next to the Hippodrome, the site created difficulties for a planned complex and the auxiliary buildings were instead placed in various locations near the mosque or around the Hippodrome. The mosque is surrounded by an outer court or precinct enclosed by a wall.
Mausoleum of Ahmed I
The mausoleum of Ahmed I is located northeast of the mosque, next to the Hippodrome square. It was begun in 1619 after Ahmed's death, and completed by his son, Osman II (r. 1618–1622). Unlike many Ottoman mausoleums, which most typically have an octagonal form, the tomb chamber has a square floor plan covered by a dome, more reminiscent of a small mosque. The dome has a diameter of 15 metres. There is a small rectangular alcove at the back of the chamber whose original purpose is uncertain. The tomb is fronted by a portico with three arches. Inside are the tombs of Sultan Ahmed I and some of his family, including his wife Kösem and four of his sons, Sultan Osman II, Sultan Murad IV (r. 1623–1640), Şehzade Mehmed (d. 1621) and Şehzade Bayezid (d. 1635).
Madrasa
The madrasa of the complex is located just outside the outer wall of the mosque's precinct, to the northeast. It was probably completed towards 1620. The madrasa has a generally classical layout, consisting of a rectangular courtyard surrounded on all four sides by an arcaded and domed portico. Behind each portico is a row of domed rooms that served as student sleeping quarters, with 24 rooms in total. The main features that depart from the design of earlier madrasas are the lack of a monumental entrance portal and the placement of the dershane (a larger domed chamber serving as a classroom), which is attached to a corner of the building rather than placed in the middle of one side. The madrasa is entered via a more discrete doorway on the northwest side, behind the outer garden wall of the nearby mausoleum.
The History, Architecture and later sections are adapted from the Wikipedia article “Blue Mosque, Istanbul”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full article. Text has been shortened.
The article is a short summary based on published sources; where accounts differ, the text says so. Photos come from Wikimedia Commons and are shown under their free licences, with the author credited under each image. If you are an author and want a credit changed or a photo removed, please write to [email protected].
.jpg?width=700)