My New Favorite Mosque

Istanbul’s skyline is full of exquisite mosques. Resplendent with grand bluish domes, minarets like exclamation marks, and courtyard complexes full of flowers, they are truly some of the loveliest buildings in this city.

Most tourists who come to Istanbul spend time in just one—Sultanahmet Camii, more commonly known as the Blue Mosque. The Blue Mosque is usually filled with people, but it’s still glorious—an epic introduction to the mosques of Istanbul.

However, the most beautiful mosque in Istanbul is completely unlike it.

It’s not large, or crowded. It’s not even easy to find.

It’s called the Rustem Pasha Mosque, and it’s my absolute favorite mosque in Istanbul.

My first encounter with this hidden beauty was during a mosque-crawl with my visiting friends Carrie and Greg. We’d already seen some gems. We had an address for Rustem Pasha, but instead of leading us to the mosque, we ended up smack-dab in the winding alleys behind the Spice Bazaar.

Apparently the Rustem Pasha mosque is on the second floor of a building in this market—the opposite of the giant Blue Mosque that I can see clearly from the Asian side of the city. No, Rustem Pasha plays hard to get: we got lost in the bazaar while trying to locate it.

The hunt for the hidden mosque was worth it—once we found and climbed the stairs to the courtyard, we realized the outside of the mosque looked like this.

That pretty lady isn’t always there, though.

Those are Iznik tiles, which were produced between the 15^th and 17^th centuries and are famous the world over for their craftsmanship and beauty. No wonder. I hadn’t even entered the mosque yet and I was smitten.

And then we went inside.

Holy moly.

Compared to the Blue Mosque, Rustem Pasha is tiny—but it is completely covered with Iznik tiles. The small space allows the colorful walls to surround you. We sat in awe, just letting the beauty wash over us.

Rustem Pasha was designed by the famed architect Mimar Sinan, but it’s much more humble than some of his more well-known mosques… except for those raucous tiles. They are the stars of the show in this mosque; the colors and the patterns are what elevate this hidden treasure. The Rustem Pasha Mosque is my favorite because it is simply breathtaking.