The biggest are the 16th and 17th century complexes, although mosques built in the 18th and 19th century are equally significant. Fatih Sultan Mehmed constructed two big mosques in the 15th century, right after he conquered Constantinople. But these two original structures were destroyed by earthquakes or fires and were rebuilt at a later date.
OTTOMAN IMPERIAL MOSQUES
Ottoman sultans or other members of the dynasty commissioned these historic monuments. They were usually built as a külliye, a complex of buildings with a mosque in the centre, surrounded with madrasas, kitchens and other buildings for various charitable services for the poor.
The chief imperial architect Mimar Sinan constructed most of the existent complexes in Istanbul. The master architect of the Ottoman Empire for 50 years, he set the pattern for other külliye architects.
Many Ottoman imperial mosques are in other cities in Turkey. Bursa was the first proper capital of the Ottoman Empire and some historically very important religious temples are there. Other Ottoman imperial mosques are in Edirne, Konya, Amasya, Manisa and even in Damascus.

ISKELE MOSQUE
When you cross from the European to the Asian part of Istanbul, the first monumental structure that you see when you arrive to Üsküdar is the Iskele Mosque. Mihrimah Sultan commissioned its construction as the older of two mosques with her name in the city.

The chief imperial architect Mimar Sinan built this mosque in 1548. In fact, it was a complex with a madrasa, a soup kitchen, a primary school and a hospital.
Apparently, Mimar Sinan was in love with Mihrimah Sultan. He asked to marry her, but Mihrimah’s father, Sultan Suleiman, rejected his proposal.

MIHRIMAH SULTAN
As the only daughter of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and Hurrem Sultan, Mihrimah Sultan was the most powerful princess in history of the Ottoman Empire.
Her power came from two sides. She was Suleiman’s beloved daughter and she also had a very powerful mother. She lived at the time when the Ottoman Empire reached its peak and flourished under the Sultan Suleiman’s reign.

Mihrimah married Rustem Pasha when she was 17 years old. Rustem Pasha (Rustem-Paša Opuković) was devşirme, either a Serbian or Croatian slave, who eventually became Suleiman’s Grand Vizier.

She commissioned two imperial mosques in Istanbul, this one in Üsküdar and the other one near the Edirne Gate, by the Theodosian Walls, in the European side of the city.

WHY SHOULD YOU VISIT ISKELE MOSQUE
If you go to Istanbul, make sure that you visit Üsküdar. Use the ferry to cross Bosporus, it’s possibly one of the best means of public transport that you can take anywhere. Views of Istanbul are magical while you are crossing the sea.
In addition to visiting this mosque, you can also see many other historic structures in that part of the city, some of them related to different women that ruled the Ottoman Empire during the Sultanate of Women era.
Iskele in Turkish means pier or dock in English, hence the alternative name of this mosque as it stands next to the ferry terminal that transports people from the Asian to the European side of Istanbul. This really is the Mihrimah Sultan Mosque, but I chose its alternative name for this post to distinguish it from the mosque near Edirne Gate.
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