Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha Mosque

When the Ottoman conquered Istanbul in 1453 with the Janissary army under the command of Fatih Sultan Mehmet, many churches were converted into mosques in order to facilitate the worship of the rapidly increasing Muslim population. At this point, Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha Mosque, built on the site of a church, is among the interesting Ottoman works in Istanbul.

Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha Mosque does not have an inscription containing clear information, but it is thought to have been built by the Ottoman grand vizier of the period in 1642. Only one year after the mosque was opened to worship, Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha was executed on the order of the Ottoman sultan of the time.

The mosque, which has undergone restoration works in the centuries that remained faithful to the original, has undergone two different repairs in 1666 and 1771 according to the inscriptions on it. At the same time, if we take a closer look at its architecture, the entrance door of this mosque in Beyoğlu, which we will see that it spreads over an area of ​​220 square meters, is also located high. For this reason, there are shops at the bottom of the mosque, which is entered by stairs. The interior of Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha Mosque, which has a single minaret as well as domes of various sizes, is quite plain.

As we have just mentioned, Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha was a statesman who took important duties in the Ottoman Empire in the first half of the 17th century, including being the grand vizier, but was executed in 1644. The pasha, who grew up in the focus of the Janissary and was quite adept at using an iron bow, received the nickname "kemankeş" because he could throw the arrow very far.