Sultan Ahmed Mosque

Sultan Ahmed Mosque

Also known as the Blue Mosque The Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii) is also known as the Blue Mosque Built by Sultan Ahmed I in what is today the Sultanahmet quarter of Istanbul, the mosque is part of a complex made up of a madrasa, a school for Quran reciters, a primary school, a mausoleum, an arasta bazaar, shops, a hamam, a hospital, a public kitchen and three water fountains (sebil). It was built between 1609 and 1620 by the architect Sedefkâr Mehmed Agha. Set inside an outer courtyard enclosed by walls, the mosque consists of a prayer hall and a courtyard with an ablution fountain, both nearly square in plan. The main dome over the prayer hall, twenty-two metres across, is surrounded on four sides by half domes, and a small dome over each of the four remaining corners completes a fully centralised plan. The four massive piers that carry the arches of the great dome are fluted to make them look less heavy. The transition to the dome is made by large pendentives. Up to the second row of windows the walls are covered with tiles in which blue predominates. Above that, the upper halves of the walls and piers, the arches, the pendentives, the half domes and the inside of the great dome are decorated with painted ornament, again mostly blue. This is why the mosque is known, especially among Europeans, as the Blue Mosque. Rows of ablution taps line the two side walls of the arcaded courtyard that face the outer courtyard, and the side walls of the mosque, enriched with two-storey arcades, at ground level. Of the minarets, two stand at the outer corners of the inner courtyard and four at the corners of the mosque itself; the first two have two balconies each and the others three.

In the outer courtyard, the Royal Pavilion (Hünkar Kasrı) at the southeast corner of the mosque, reached by a ramp, is the first example of this arrangement. It is now used as the Carpet Museum. A museum of kilims and flat-woven rugs has also been opened in the mosque’s basement.

One of the most famous monuments of the Turkish and Islamic world, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque is visited with admiration by everyone who comes to Istanbul. Another example of classical Turkish art, it is the only mosque originally built with six minarets. It stands among other important, earlier monuments of historic Istanbul. The finest view of the city is from the sea, and the mosque’s silhouette is part of that magnificent view. Famous as the “Blue Mosque”, its real name is the Mosque of Sultan Ahmed I. True to his original trade as a mother-of-pearl inlayer, the architect Mehmed Agha decorated the interior with a jeweller’s care. Built between 1609 and 1616, the mosque stood within a large complex of social and cultural buildings, some of which have not survived.

The main parts were a covered bazaar, a Turkish bath, a public kitchen, a hospital, schools, a caravanserai and the mausoleum of Sultan Ahmed. The mosque’s architect was a pupil of the great master of classical Turkish architecture, Mimar Sinan, and applied on a larger scale a plan his master had tried before. The main entrance of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque faces the Hippodrome, which dates from Roman times. Surrounded by an outer courtyard, the inner courtyard and the prayer hall stand on a high platform. From the gate into the inner courtyard you see the symbolic ablution fountain in the centre and, above the surrounding galleries, the domes rising one above another in superb harmony.

Whichever of the three doors you enter by, you are met by the rich, colourful decoration of paintwork, tiles and stained glass that completes the exterior. The interior is one great whole; the main and side domes rise on four massive columns that carry broad pointed arches. The walls of the galleries that surround the interior on three sides are decorated with more than 20,000 superb İznik tiles. Above them, and inside all the domes, the decoration is painted. Blue was not the dominant colour of the painted decoration; the blue that gave the mosque its name was added in later repairs. In the last restoration, completed in 1990, the dark tones of the interior were returned to their original light colours. As in every mosque, the floors are covered with carpets. Beside the mihrab, opposite the main entrance, stands the marble minbar with superb carving. On the other side is the sultans’ loge, in the form of a balcony. The dome covering the interior, lit by 260 windows, is 23.5 metres across and 43 metres high. The mosque’s market, repaired and rebuilt in recent years, lies to the east. The single-domed mausoleum of Sultan Ahmed and the madrasa building are to the north, on the side of Hagia Sophia. In summer, sound and light shows are held at night in the park here. Together with the many old monuments and museums around it, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque is at the centre of city tours.

The minarets are another example of the classical Turkish style. Spiral stairs lead up to the balconies. Five times a day the call to prayer is made from them; today the call (ezan) is broadcast through loudspeakers. The domes and the tops of the minarets are covered with lead, and the finials at their tips are made of gilded copper. When these roofs need repair, the work is still done with the same skill as in the past. Islam requires every Muslim to pray five times a day. Hearing the call from the minarets, believers perform their ablutions and pray. On Fridays the noon prayer, and the prayers of some other important religious days, are performed together in mosques; the other prayers can be performed anywhere at their proper times. In mosques, imams lead communal prayers, reciting passages from the Quran. During worship men and women pray in separate places: in mosques only men pray in the central space, with women behind them or in the galleries. A feature of classical Turkish mosques is that even on the busiest days most of the congregation can see the mihrab easily.

The tomb of Sultan Ahmed I, his sons and his mother is here.