A Mosque-Crawl Through Mimar Sinan’s Masterpieces

Istanbul’s most swoon-worthy architecture tends to be old. Mosque, hamams, fountains, fortresses; these are the things that become iconic.

When I first arrived in Istanbul, I was working with tour guides who wanted to improve their English. We spoke about tourism, history, and architecture. They were able to practice speaking, and I learned all about Istanbul’s historical sites. One name came up repeatedly in our lessons: Mimar Sinan, the legendary architect.

Mimar Sinan wasn’t just an architect; he was THE preeminent architect in Turkey during the sixteenth century. Most of the famous and most beautiful mosques and related buildings in Istanbul were built by Mimar Sinan or his apprentices. His influential works give Istanbul some of its most distinctive shapes.

Visiting mosques in Istanbul is easy, so I had been meaning to do a mosque-crawl for quite a while—in a city with the same three mediocre beers at every bar, a mosque-crawl makes much more sense than a pub-crawl—and I finally had a perfect opportunity when my friends Carrie and Greg came over from Boston to visit. We decided to spend a day hunting for Mimar Sinan’s mosques in chronological order.  Carrie has a friend who is an architecture enthusiast, and he kindly sent us an itinerary. A couple of the mosques were out-of-the-way, but most were within a walkable radius. So, maps in hand and adventure shoes on, we set off from the Eminonu pier to find the Sehzade Mosque—Mimar Sinan’s first in Istanbul. Mimar Sinan considered this mosque very much of his early-era, a first step towards his ultimate masterpiece (the Selimiye Mosque, which is located in Edirne). For us untrained observers, though, Sehzade was incredibly beautiful. And even better, it was almost COMPLETELY empty.

I think I appreciated this more than Carrie and Greg did. At that point, neither of them had experienced the Blue Mosque in Sultanahmet, which is magnificent but usually packed to the brim with tourists. For them, the quiet of Sehzade was nice. For me, it was divine. Some visitors did show up before we left—a group of girls from a religious school attached to the mosque, giggling and snapping photos. Eventually, they asked Carrie to take a picture. She thought they wanted her to take a picture of THEM… but they actually wanted a picture with her! Before long, these teenage girls wearing hijabs and abayas had pulled out their iPads and were chattering away with Carrie about their favorite American music: Rihanna, Flo-Rida, and Justin Bieber. When they left, they kissed her cheeks and asked to stay in touch. It was a lovely reminder that no matter what culture we come from, we’re all not so different—and a teenage girl will probably like Justin Bieber whether they live in Los Angeles or the religious regions of Istanbul. The next mosque on our crawl was Sinan’s most famous in Istanbul, the Suleymaniye Mosque. It’s a grand complex, with sprawling grounds, a large courtyard, and a simple elegance inside. Sinan was particularly proud of this mosque, and he’s buried in a tomb within the complex. Though Suleymaniye had more visitors, it was still sparse compared to the Blue Mosque. Yet this mosque is regarded more highly, and to my untrained eye is as beautiful as the Blue Mosque. Plus, when you’re able to actually feel the space of the building, instead of contending with chattering tourists, it’s easier to appreciate how much thought and intelligence went into the design. After Suleymaniye, we headed over to Rustem Pasha, which is my favorite mosque in Istanbul. Because I’ve written about it before, I won’t go into too much detail except to say YOU SHOULD REALLY GO TO THIS MOSQUE. It’s stunning. Nearby is the New Mosque (which is really not so new anymore), and which is not a Mimar Sinan mosque. (It was constructed by one of his apprentices.) But it’s so close to Rustem Pasha that it seemed silly to skip it, plus I had NEVER been! I walk by it constantly, but never pop in—and since all the mosques are free and you are allowed to enter whenever it’s not prayer time, this is sort of embarrassing for me. What struck me about the New Mosque is that it’s so BLUE. You would think that the Blue Mosque would be the bluest in Istanbul… but the New Mosque has an intricate turquoise carpet on the floor and walls full of blue patterned tiles and is overwhelmingly the bluer of the two . Most of the mosques we’d seen that day had more red detailing (except for Rustem Pasha, which was riotously red AND blue), so the New Mosque felt like a cool, refreshing drink of water—all that blue really does feel calming! The New Mosque was the most crowded one we attended that day—it makes sense, since it’s very centrally located right by the Eminonu pier—but strangely, also the most noticeably run-down, especially on the tiled walls in the courtyard. It was unclear WHY, exactly, but it did make the mosque feel a little bit more authentic—it’s clearly used as a mosque, not just as a tourist destination. Though I learned more facts about Mimar Sinan from my tour guides, reading about him is no substitute for actually seeing his beautiful buildings. So get off the beaten path, step away from the Blue Mosque—there are so many other beautiful buildings to explore.