KILIÇ ALİ PASHA (PAŞA) MOSQUE

KILIÇ ALİ PASHA (PAŞA) MOSQUE

Kılıç Ali Pasha Mosque is a complex that was built by Mimar Sinan in the 16th century in Istanbul, consisting of a mosque, a madrasa (the college of that time), a Turkish bath (hamam), a fountain, a tomb, a kindergarten and a burial ground. According to the two inscriptions on the mosque, it was built in 988 Hijri (1580 AD).

Kılıç Ali Pasha was the Chief Admiral of the Ottoman Empire during Murad the third period. As per the custom, he appeared before the Sultan to get permission. Murat III said that “You are the master of the seas. All seas are yours. You can also build the mosque on the sea.” After this saying, he filled a cove on the Tophane coast and had the mosque built here.

Evliya Çelebi (an Ottoman traveller), while describing Istanbul in the first half of the 17th century, gives information about the architecture, interior decoration and furnishings of the sanctuary, which is a like Sultan's mosque, pointing out that the building resembles Hagia Sophia by saying "There is no other like it in Istanbul". In a photograph taken by Robertson, who illustrated the oldest images of Istanbul, towards 1855, it is seen that the minaret of the mosque was renovated from the middle of the body by erecting a scaffolding, and it is understood that the minaret was destroyed for an unknown reason. On one of the colored glass plaster windows is a signature stating that these were made in 1913 by a master named Tevfik from Bursa.

The place is covered with two semi-domes on the qibla (when Muslims pray, they face to this direction) direction axis, as in Hagia Sophia Mosque. The element that most emphasizes the similarity of the building with Hagia Sophia is a pair of support buttresses on each side. Here, Sinan the Architect interpreted the plan and superstructure of Hagia Sophia, which he studied very well, with a different architectural understanding, more perfect in terms of both aesthetics and statics. In this respect, it can be said that Kılıç Ali Pasha Mosque is not a simple imitation, but an improved, statically safer phase of Hagia Sophia architecture.

Another important story of the mosque is about Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote. Cervantes, a soldier in the Spanish navy, was captured in the Battle of Lepanto and his freedom was restored after working in the construction of this complex. Having lost his left hand in this war, he devoted himself entirely to writing and wrote Don Quixote, the first novel of modern Europe.