Laleli Mosque

The Laleli Mosque ( tr, Laleli Camii, or Tulip Mosque) is an 18th-century Ottoman imperial mosque located in Laleli, Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey.

History

The Laleli Mosque was built by Sultan Mustafa III from 1760–1763, designed in the Ottoman Baroque style by imperial architect Mehmet Tahir Ağa.

The complex was destroyed by a fire in 1783 shortly after its completion and was immediately rebuilt. A fire in 1911 destroyed the madrasah, and subsequent road construction work destroyed many other auxiliary structures to the mosque.

Exterior

The mosque was built on a high terrace over a complex of vaulted shops, whose rents were intended to financially support the mosque complex. Underneath the mosque structure itself is a great hall, supported by eight enormous pillars with a fountain in the center.

The mosque is oriented along a northwest-southeast axis, and has a rectangular courtyard about twice the size of the prayer hall to the northwest. This courtyard has a continuous arcade with eighteen domed bays and an ablution fountain in the center. The mosque itself has a brick and masonry base, with a masonry superstructure and octagonal drum supporting the dome. There are two minarets located at either end of the portico flanking the courtyard entrances.

Interior

The Laleli Mosque is an octagon inscribed within a rectangle, with a gallery on its western end. The walls make use of colorful variegated marbles in red, blue, yellow and browns, further decorated with medallions in opus sectile using also semi-precious onyx and jaspers. The mihrab and minbar are likewise richly decorated with precious marbles. The interior is well lit, with numerous windows in combinations of white and stained glass.

The dome is in diameter and high on an octagonal drum of eight arches, with semi-domes at the corner arches and larger semi-domes joining the arches above the mihrab and the central bay of the narthex.

Complex

Most of the structures of the Laleli Mosque '' kulliye'' have disappeared over the years, but octagonal domed ''türbe'' facing Ordu Street remains, and contains the graves of Mustafa III, his wife Mihrisah Sultan, son Selim III and daughters Hibetullah and Fatma Sultan and Mihrimah Sultan. The interior is decorated with İznik tiles, and a band of calligraphy encircles the upper walls.

The ''waqf'' ( endowment) of the complex also included a number of buildings throughout the city which provided revenues for the upkeep of the mosque and its ''külliye''. Among the notable inclusions were two caravanserais: the nearby Taş Han (formerly known as the Çukurçeşme Han) and the larger Büyük Yeni Han located in the commercial district north of the Grand Bazaar.

The Tayyare Apartments were built in 1922 next to the mosque on the ground of 1911 burnt down Koska Madrasa, which belonged to the mosque's complex. The buildings were redeveloped into a five-star hotel.

Gallery

LaleliMosqueView.jpg, General view
File:Laleli_Camii_13-1-2016.JPG, General view
Istanbul asv2020-02 img07 Laleli Mosque.jpg, Interior view
İstanbul 4988.jpg, Ritual fountain (şadırvan)
Laleli Mosque 1149.jpg, Laleli Mosque stairs to courtyard from the surrounding platform
Laleli Mosque 1151.jpg, Laleli Mosque view to courtyard with ablutions fountain
Laleli Mosque 6598.jpg, Laleli mosque from Ordu Caddesi
Laleli Mosque 6584.jpg, Laleli Mosque tomb Sultan Mustafa III and son Selim III
File:Istanbul_asv2020-02_img06_Laleli_Mosque.jpg, General view

Notes

References

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* Goodwin, Godfrey. 1997 (reprint of 1971). ''A History of Ottoman Architecture''. Thames and Hudson: London, 388-391.

{{Ottoman architecture

Religious buildings and structures completed in 1783
Ottoman mosques in Istanbul
Mosque buildings with domes
Fatih
18th-century mosques
Baroque mosques