Blue mosque in Istanbul

 Famous mosque

The Sultanahmet Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii) was built between 1609 and 1617 and is also known as the Blue Mosque because of the blue tiles used to decorate the walls of its interior. The construction was commissioned by Sultan Ahmet I. The idea was to build a monument that would not only rival with the magnificent Hagia Sophia, but also surpass it…

Placating Allah

Sultan Ahmet I wasn’t very successful in regard to warfare, to say the least. So he came up with the idea to build a huge mosque that had to surpass the Hagia Sophia (at that time the most respected mosque) in size and beauty to placate Allah.

He therefore chose to have it built opposite the Hagia Sophia and next to the Hippodrome, on the exact same spot where the Great Palace of the Byzantine emperors was standing, using the existing foundations and vaults.

There was only one drawback to his great plan: it cost a lot of money. Contrary to his predecessors, he had no war booty to fund the project with, so he had to withdraw funds from the treasury. An unpopular decision, and it wasn’t the only hostility his new mosque would elicit.

Construction

The construction of the mosque started in August 1609. The architect in charge was Sedefkar Mehmet Ağa, a student of the great architect Sinan. The detailed workbook of the construction consists of 8 volumes and still lies in the Topkapi Palace library.

Contrary to the date (1616) written on the mosque’s gate, the inauguration of Istanbul’s last imperial mosque took place in 1617 in the presence of Sultan Ahmet I. However, the building wasn’t completely finished by then, since the last accounts were signed by Sultan Ahmet’s successor Mustafa I.

The Sultanahmet Mosque combines the best of two architectural styles. It is a mixture of traditional Islamic architecture with Byzantine elements, taken from the adjacent Hagia Sophia.