Native name: Rustem Pasa Camii
Rustem Pasha Mosque is located in Hasırcılar Çarşısı (Strawmat Weavers Market) in Eminönü . It was built by Grand
Vizier
Damat Rüstem Pasha (husband of Princess Mihrimah , one of the daughters of Suleiman the Magnificent) between 1561 to 1563 . The building is considered the first example of the great Ottoman imperial architect Mimar Sinan , building a mosque with an octagonal plan .
The mosque was built high over a complex of vaulted shops . The rents from these shops were intended to financially support the mosque . Narrow interior flights of steps in the corners lead to a spacious courtyard . There is a double porch with five domed bays , from which projects a deep and low roof supported by a row of columns .
The main area of the mosque has a rectangular plan with a size of 20 x 27 meters . The main location is supported by tromps and covered with dome extends towards the sides with the gathering place and gallery floors . The main dome is supported by four semi-domes in the diagonals of the building . The arches of the dome spring from four octagonal pillars - two on the north , two on the south and from piers projecting from the east and west walls . To
the north and south are galleries supported by pillars and by small marble columns between them . The mosque is famous for its large quantities of exquisite İznik tiles , set in a very wide variety of beautiful floral and geometric designs , which cover not only the façade of the porch but also the mihrab (niche) , minbar (pulpit) , walls , columns and on the façade of the porch outside . These tiles exhibit the use of a red color characteristic of the early Iznik period (1555-1620) when Ottoman tile art reached its peak , while no other mosque in
Istanbul
makes such a lavish use of these tiles .
