Sinan Pasha Mosque
This point of interest is available as audio on the tour: Visit Istanbul, from Byzantium to Constantinople, an empire on two continents
That little mosque on your right is the Ottoman Sinan Pasha Mosque. It dates from the 16th century and was built by Mimar Sinan, chief architect who designed over 300 buildings for Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. It may not look like much from the outside, but once inside, you’ll see that its domes are richly decorated with colorful mosaics and illuminated by stained glass windows! Sinan Pasha was a great Ottoman admiral who served in the navy under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. He also happened to be the brother of the Grand Vizier, the sultan’s right-hand man. The buildings around the mosque are the madrasa, that is, the Koranic school. Every mosque has one. The name madrasa comes from the Hebrew word “Midrash”, meaning “to examine, to question in depth”. Pretty fitting for a school, right?
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