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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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Şehzadebaşı Mosque

Şehzadebaşı Mosque

Kalenderhane Mahallesi, şehzadebaşı Cd. No:44, 34134 Fatih/Istanbul, Türkiye

RELIGIONS Islam

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELIGIOUS SITE

DESCRIPTION
Şehdaze mosque is located in Şehzadebaşı district in Eminönü in İstanbul. The mosque was designed as a külliye, a complex consisting of a madrasa, an elementary school, a guesthose for the poor and homeless,a stable, a caravansary, a small building in the courtyard of the mosque where an offical determined prayer times and tombs. The mosque was built by the imperial architect Sinan to commemorate Ottoman Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent ‘s  son Şehzade Mehmed  upon his early death. Sinan,the great architect during the reign of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent and when the Ottoman Empire experienced its brighest era, built the mosque in four years from 1544-1548. Sinan the Architect personally said that “he experienced his apprenticeship in Şehzade Mosque, his foremanship in Suleymaniye Mosque and his mastership in Selimiye Mosque”.Şehzade Mosque is the first step of three monuments that made up the three main phases of  Sinan’s  architectural genius. The 18,42 m dome is flanked by 4 half-domes. The courtyard with an ablution fountain at the center has 12 columns, 16 domes and a pair of minarets with two balconies. The mosque has seven tombs.These are Şehzade Mehmet’s tomb, Grand vizier Rüştem Pasha’s tomb, Şehzade Mahmut’s tomb,Sultana Hatice’s tomb, Damat İbrahim Pasha’s tomb and Destari Mustafa Pasha’s tomb.
HISTORICAL RELEVANCE
The construction of the Şehzade Complex (külliye) was ordered by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent as a memorial to his favorite son Şehzade Mehmed (born 1521) who died in 1543 while returning to Istanbul after a victorious military campaign in Hungary.[2]Mehmed was the eldest son of Suleiman's only legal wife Hürrem Sultan - although not his eldest son - and before his untimely death he was primed to accept the sultanate following Suleiman's reign. Suleiman is said to have personally mourned the death of Mehmed for forty days at his temporary tomb in Istanbul, the site upon which the imperial architect Mimar Sinan would construct a lavish mausoleum to Mehmed as one part of a larger mosque complex dedicated to the princely heir. The complex was Sinan's first important imperial commission and ultimately one of his most ambitious architectural works, even though it was designed early in his long career.
INTER-RELIGIOUS RELEVANCE
The mosque visited by many tourists every year.
RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE
It represents the dominant belief of the local folk, and it invites Muslims for pray and worship with Azan .
HOW TO USE WITH THE STUDENTS
Direct visit is allowed, students may go on vocations.
REFERENCE TO THE GUIDELINE

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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.