Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City (42 page)

The plan of the mosque is an interesting variation of the octagon inscribed in a square. Eight partly-engaged columns support the dome arches; in the axes there are four semidomes, while in the diagonals four smaller semidomes serve as squinches instead of pendentives. The eastern semidome covers a projecting apse for the mihrab, while those to north and south also cover projections from the square. The western corners of the cross so formed are filled with small independent chambers; above on three sides are galleries. The whole arrangement is original and masterly; nor are interesting details wanting. In the corners of the east wall are two charming little kürsüs or platforms, access to which is gained by staircases built into the thickness of the wall from the window recesses. In the voussoirs and balustrades of these platforms, in the window frames, and elsewhere throughout the mosque, an interesting conglomerate marble of pale violet and grey is used; and for the columns which support both platforms and galleries there is another conglomerate marble of tawny brown flecked with yellow, gray, black and green. The arches of the galleries, like those of the courtyard, are of the ogive type. As a whole, the mosque is a masterpiece; it is as if the unknown architect, in the extreme old age of Sinan, had decided to play variations on themes invented by Sinan himself and to show that he could do them as well as the Master. In the little graveyard behind the mosque is the small and unpretentious türbe of Ni
ş
anc
ı
Mehmet Pa
ş
a.

Leaving Ni
ş
anc
ı
Mehmet Pa
ş
a Camii and continuing along in the same direction we soon come to a small square called Üç Ba
ş
Meydan
ı
, literally the Square of the Three Heads. The square takes its name from Üç Ba
ş
Camii, the tiny mosque we see to the right of the square. Evliya Çelebi tells us that the mosque received this odd name “because it was built by a barber who shaved three heads for one small piece of money, and, notwithstanding, grew so rich that he was enabled to build this mosque; it is small but particularly sanctified.” A more prosaic explanation is given in the
Hadika
, a comprehensive description of the mosques of Istanbul written in 1780; there we learn that the founder, Nureddin Hamza ben Atallah, came from a village in Anatolia called Üç Ba
ş
. (But then from where did the village get its name?) An inscription over the gate gives the date of foundation as A.H. 940 (A.D. 1532–3). The mosque is of no interest except for its name.

Opposite the mosque there is a ruined medrese, founded in 1575 by a certain Halil Efendi. In the centre of the square is an old çe
ş
me, the beautifully written inscription on which indicates that it was founded by one Mustafa A
ğ
a in 1681. We have lingered over these oddments because the district is picturesque.

Z
İ
NC
İ
RL
İ
KUYU CAM
İ
İ

Continuing on in the same direction as before, we take the next turning on the left and find a little mosque called Zincirli Kuyu Camii. This was built around 1500 by Atik Ali Pa
ş
a, whose larger and better known mosque is next to Constantine’s Column. Zincirli Kuyu is a small rectangular building of brick and stone construction covered by six equal domes in two rows of three supported by two massive rectangular pillars; its original porch of three bays had disappeared but has been poorly reconstructed. The mosque is interesting as being a tiny example of the Ulu Cami type of mosque borrowed from Selçuk architecture and fairly common in the first or Bursa period of Ottoman architecture. The type consists of a square or rectangular space covered by a multiplicity of equal domes supported by pillars or columns; it can be very large and impressive, as in the Ulu Cami of Bursa with its 20 domes. On the small scale of Zincirli Kuyu it is rather heavy and oppressive.

Opposite Zincirli Kuyu is a small baroque türbe dated A.H. 1241 (A.D. 1825). Here is buried the famous calligrapher Hattat Rakk
ı
m, who designed the beautiful inscription on the türbe and sebil of Nak
ş
idil Valide Sultan. The interior of the türbe is decorated with photographs of his work.

Beyond the türbe in the main street is an attractive medrese of the classical period, which has been restored and converted into a children’s clinic. This medrese, also called Zincirli Kuyu, was founded by another Ali Pa
ş
a who was Grand Vezir in the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent. Because of his great girth he was called Semiz Ali, that is Fat Ali, or sometimes Kal
ı
n Ali, Ali the Bear. He was one of the great characters of his time and was known for his wit and conviviality as well as for his honesty, a pleasant contrast to his predecessor Rüstem Pa
ş
a. Ali Pa
ş
a was a Dalmatian by birth and had been educated in the Palace School at the Saray, later becoming in turn A
ğ
a of the Janissaries, Beylerbey of Rumelia, Second Vezir, and finally Grand Vezir. Since he died in office in 1564, the medrese must have been built before that time. It is a work of Sinan but presents no special features except the two symmetrical entrances on either side of the dershane.

CISTERN OF AET
İ
OS

Continuing along the main avenue for about 100 metres we come to one of the three huge ancient open cisterns. Its attribution was for long in doubt, but it has been identified with great probability as that built by a certain Aetios, a Prefect of the city, in about A.D. 421. Large as it is, it is yet the smallest of the open cisterns in the city, measuring 224 by 85 metres; it was probably about 15 metres deep. Like the others, it was already disused in later Byzantine times and was turned into a kitchen garden. It now serves as a sports arena known as the Vefa Stadium.

PANAGH
İ
A URANON CHURCH

If so inclined, one may now pursue, part way down the valley that divides the Fifth from the Sixth Hill, the traces of some very ruined and insignificant Byzantine churches, scarcely worth the trouble of finding except for the fun of the search. We descend the flight of steps at the south-east end of the stadium and continue ahead on Kelebek Soka
ğ
ı
. At the end of the street we turn left on Kurta
ğ
a Çe
ş
me Caddesi, after which we take the third turning on the right on to Dolmu
ş
Kuyu Soka
ğ
ı
. Along this street there were formerly the exigious remains of two Byzantine churches, known locally as Odalar Camii and Kas
ı
m A
ğ
a Mescidi, but these have now virtually disappeared. They have been identified as belonging to the Byzantine Monastery of the Theotokos of Petra, but the identification is highly uncertain.

About 150 metres along this street we see on the left the Greek church of the Panaghia Uranon, Our Lady of the Heavens. This church is Byzantine in foundation, but the structure in its present form is due to a complete rebuilding in 1843. Some architectural fragments of the Byzantine church can be seen built into the walls of the church.

KEFEL
İ
MESC
İ
D
İ

A little farther along we turn right on Draman Caddesi, where almost immediately on our right we come to a Byzantine building converted into a mosque. This is known as Kefeli Camii or sometimes as Kevevi Camii; it is in fairly good condition and is still in use. It is a long narrow building with two rows of windows and a wooden roof; the entrance is now in the middle of the west wall. As in the cases mentioned above, the identification is much in dispute; it may have belonged to the Monastery of the Prodromos in Petra, and it was probably not a church but a refectory, since it has but one apse and is oriented north instead of east. It has been dated variously from the ninth to the twelfth centuries.

BO
Ğ
DAN SARAY

If on leaving Kefeli Camii we turn right and take the first street to the left almost opposite the mosque, and then again the first on the left, we soon come to the ruined crypt of a tiny Byzantine building. It goes by the lordly name of Bo
ğ
dan Saray, or Moldavian Palace, because from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century it served as the private chapel attached to the palace of the Hospodars of Moldovia. It appears to date from the twelfth or thirteenth century and to have been dedicated to St. Nicholas, but it was probably not originally a church, since it is oriented to the north, but a funerary chapel. And indeed three sarcophagi were found in the crypt during some very clandestine (and unpublished) excavations carried out in 1918. At the beginning of the present century it had an upper storey with a dome, but this has now disappeared. All that remains is a tiny barrel-vaulted room, with a pretty little apse at the end.

DRA
Ğ
MAN CAM
İ
İ

We now return to Draman Caddesi and turn left. We will stroll along this avenue, which changes its name several times, for most of the remainder of our tour. The neighbourhood through which we are walking is one of the more picturesque in Istanbul, albeit somewhat broken-down.

About 200 metres beyond Kefeli Camii we see on our right a small mosque on a high terrace reached by a double staircase. This is Dra
ğ
man Camii, which is a minor work of Sinan. Unfortunately it was very badly restored some years ago and has lost any interest it may have had. It was of the rectangular type covered by a wooden roof and preceded by a wooden porch, now (hideously) rebuilt in concrete. Originally it was the centre of a small complex consisting of a medrese and a mektep, both presumably by Sinan. The medrese has perished but the mektep remains, though in ruins: a fine domed building to the north-east of the mosque. Although the mosque itself is disappointing, the high terrace, the mektep and the wild garden and graveyard are attractive.

Inscriptions show the complex was founded in 1541 by Yunus Bey, the famous interpreter
(dra
ğ
man
, or dragoman
)
of Süleyman the Magnificent, of whom Bassano da Zara tells us that he was a Greek from Modon and that he “possessed the Turkish, Greek and Italian languages to perfection.” In collaboration with Alviso Gritti, bastard son of the Doge of Venice, he wrote in the Venetian dialect a brief but very important account of the organization of the Ottoman government. He also seems to have served on at least two occasions as the representative of the Grand Vezir Ibrahim Pa
ş
a to the Venetian Republic.

CHURCH OF THE THEOTOKOS PAMMAKAR
İ
STOS

We now return to the main avenue, which here changes its name to Fethiye Caddesi, and continue on in the same direction for about 200 metres. Then, just before the road bends sharply right, we turn left and almost immediately come to a Byzantine church standing on a terrace overlooking the Golden Horn. This is the church of the Theotokos Pammakaristos, the Joyous Mother of God. Since the church sits in the middle of a large open area, one can walk around it and look at it from all sides, unlike most of the other Byzantine churches in the city. The south and east façades are especially charming with their characteristic ornamental brickwork, the marble cornices beautifully and curiously inscribed, the three little apses of the side chapel, and the multiplicity of domes on high and undulating drums.