The Atik Valide Mosque () is a 16th century

Ottoman imperial mosque The list below contains some of the most important mosques in modern-day Turkey that were commissioned by the members of Ottoman imperial family. Some of these major mosques are also known as a selatin mosque, imperial mosque, or sultanic mosque ...

located on a hill above the large and densely populated district of

Üsküdar Üsküdar () is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 35 km2, and its population is 524,452 (2022). It is a large and densely populated district on the Anatolian (Asian) shore of the Bosphorus. It is border ...

, in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. It was built for

Nurbanu Sultan Nurbanu Sultan (; 1525 – 7 December 1583) was Haseki Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and legal wife of Sultan Selim II (reign 1566–1574), as the mother of Sultan Murad III (reign 1574–1583) and the Valide sultan of the Ottoman Empire from ...

, the wife of Sultan

Selim II Selim II (; ; 28 May 1524 – 15 December 1574), also known as Selim the Blond () or Selim the Drunkard (), was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1566 until his death in 1574. He was a son of Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Hurrem Sul ...

and formed part of a large complex that included a madrasa, guest-rooms and a double caravanseray. The mosque was designed by the imperial architect

Mimar Sinan Mimar Sinan (; , ; – 17 July 1588) also known as Koca Mi'mâr Sinân Âğâ, ("Sinan Agha (title), Agha the Grand Architect" or "Grand Sinan") was the chief Ottoman Empire, Ottoman architect, engineer and mathematician for sultans Suleiman ...

. Planning began in 1571 for a small mosque with a single minaret. The mosque was subsequently expanded and was not completed until 1586, three years after Nurbanu's death.

History

The Atik Valide Mosque (name translation: ''Old Queen Mother Mosque'') was one of the most extensive mosque complexes in Istanbul area. The mosque was built for

, the Venetian-born wife of

and the mother of

Murad III Murad III (; ; 4 July 1546 – 16 January 1595) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death in 1595. His rule saw battles with the Habsburg monarchy, Habsburgs and exhausting wars with the Safavid Iran, Safavids. The long-inde ...

. She was the first ''

valide sultan Valide Sultan (, lit. "Sultana mother") was the title held by the mother of a ruling sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans first formally used the title in the 16th century as an epithet of Hafsa Sultan (died 1534), mother of Sultan Suleima ...

'' (queen mother) that exercised effective rule over the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

from the

harem A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...

during the period known as the

Sultanate of Women The Sultanate of Women () was a period when some consorts, mothers, sisters and grandmother of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire exerted extraordinary political influence. This phenomenon took place from roughly 1534 to 1715, beginning in the r ...

. For the Atik Valide mosques construction and maintenance, a foundation was established in 1583. The taxes of the Kurds from

Kilis Kilis is a city in southernmost Turkey, near the Syria–Turkey border, border with Syria, and the administrative centre of Kilis Province and Kilis District. Its population is 112,187 (2022). On 6 February 2023 Kilis was badly affected by the tw ...

and the

Reşwan Reşwan, (; ) also known as Reşiyan, is a Kurdish tribe, native to the western frontier of Kurdistan, mostly populating Adıyaman, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş and Malatya provinces in Turkey and also present in Konya and Ankara provinces, Raqqa in ...

tribe were included in the foundation. The mosque was designed by the imperial architect

and built in three stages. From the ground breaking in 1571 until the completion of the initial version of the mosque in 1574 another imperial architect supervised the work as Sinan was based in

Edirne Edirne (; ), historically known as Orestias, Adrianople, is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the Edirne Province, province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, Edirne was the second c ...

during the construction of the Selimiye Mosque. The second stage lasted from 1577 until 1578 and involved the addition of a second single-galleried minaret and a double portico. These changes were probably made as a result of Nurbanu's enhanced status as following accession of her son

in 1574 she became the queen mother. Nurbanu died in 1583 and the third and final stage of construction took place between 1584 and 1586 after her death. The mosque was expanded laterally with the addition of a pair of small domes on each side of the central dome. The mosque formed part of a large complex that also included a madrasa, a hadith college, a school for Quran recitation, an elementary school, a dervish convent, a hospital and a hospice complex that contained a guest-house and a double caravansaray. A bath-house was also built at this time.

Architecture

The main space is covered by a central dome of diameter supported on six arches arranged in a hexagon with two free-standing columns. The space is expanded by five

exedra An exedra (: exedras or exedrae) is a semicircular architecture, architectural recess or platform, sometimes crowned by a semi-dome, and either set into a building's façade or free-standing. The original Greek word ''ἐξέδρα'' ('a seat ou ...

l semi-domes, one of which contains the ''mihrab''. The arch on the north side is filled with a flat wall which contains the entrance

portal Portal may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), a series of video games developed by Valve ** ''Portal'' (video game), a 2007 video game, the first in the series ** '' Portal 2'', the 2011 sequel ** '' Portal Stori ...

. The interior is surrounded on three sides by galleries. The ''qibla'' wall and the ''mihrab'' recess are decorated with

Iznik tiles Iznik pottery, or Iznik ware, named after the town of İznik in Anatolia where it was made, is a decorated ceramic that was produced from the last quarter of the 15th century until the end of the 17th century. Turkish stylization is a reflection ...

. A pair of matched arched tiled panels on the side walls on either side of the ''mihrab'' depict spring blossoms and flowers. Above the windows under the portico on the north facade are ten rectangular calligraphic lunette panels. Four panels, two panels at each end, were added when the mosque was extended. They quote text from the Quran ''

surah A ''surah'' (; ; ) is an Arabic word meaning 'chapter' in the Quran. There are 114 ''suwar'' in the Quran, each divided into ayah, verses (). The ''suwar'' are of unequal length; the shortest ''surah'' (al-Kawthar) has only three verses, while ...

'' (48:3–4). The six central panel quote text from ''surah'' (39:53). Upper floors were added to the hospice buildings in the 19th century when they were converted into a military hospital and prison.

Gallery

File:Atik Valide Mosque 5832.jpg, Atik Valide Mosque complex from the south, with the exterior of the ''

medrese Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

'' visible File:Atik Valide Mosque 9571.jpg, Atik Valide Mosque entrance side File:Atik Valide Mosque 5818.jpg, Atik Valide Mosque view from a side File:Atik Valide Mosque 0575.jpg, Atik Valide Mosque entrance File:Atik Valide Mosque 9555.jpg, Atik Valide Mosque frish eye view File:Atik Valide Mosque 0571.jpg, Atik Valide Mosque balcony File:Atik Valide Mosque interior 6612.jpg, Atik Valide Mosque general view File:Atik Valide Mosque 9559.jpg, Atik Valide Mosque wide angle File:Atik Valide Mosque interior 6609.jpg, Atik Valide Mosque mihrab zone File:Atik Valide Mosque 6592.jpg, Atik Valide Mosque tiles File:Atik Valide Mosque 6597.jpg, Atik Valide Mosque tiles File:Atik Valide Mosque 6599.jpg, Atik Valide Mosque tiles File:Atik Valide Mosque in winter afternoon Üsküdar Istanbul 2021.jpg Hugh Laurence.jpg, The courtyard (sahn).

References

Sources

* *

External links

Atik Valide Külliyesi
ArchNet.
Photographs of the Atik Valide Mosque by Dick Osseman
* Flickr.com
Photographs of Atik Valide Mosque
{{Mosques in Turkey Mimar Sinan buildings Ottoman mosques in Istanbul Üsküdar Mosques completed in the 1580s Religious buildings and structures completed in 1583