Rustem Pasha Mosque: Understated on the Outside, Opulent Within
Tucked into the market streets near the Spice Bazaar, Rustem Pasha Mosque was built to never upstage the great Süleymaniye Mosque above it. Instead its ambition went into the tiles: Iznik ceramics from their golden age, including a rare, hard-to-glaze red that still stands out inside this quietly spectacular interior.
The Rustem Pasha Mosque (in Turkish: Rüstem Paşa Camii) was completed around 1563. It was designed by Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan and was the first time he employed an octagonal layout.
It’s not the grandest mosque and deliberately makes no attempt to try to upstage the much larger Süleymaniye Mosque that towers on the hill above. Instead, it’s nestled in a bustling market area near the Spice Market in Eminonu. The mosque’s wealthy benefactor, Rüstem Pasha, a son-in-law of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent (1520-1566), focused on details, especially on the interior decorations.
I particularly loved the colored tiles used inside. They were produced during the golden age of Iznik tiling, and they’re quite remarkable. Because red was hard to glaze into a tile at the time, its use here was particularly distinctive.
Photos of Rustem Pasha Mosque
ISTANBUL, Turkey — Worshippers and visitors gather at the tiled entrance porch of the Rustem Pasha Mosque, where cobalt-and-white Iznik panels frame the doorway to the prayer hall. Completed around 1561-1563 by Mimar Sinan for the grand vizier Rustem Pasha and finished under his widow Mihrimah Sultan, the mosque holds the most extensive Iznik tile revetment of any Ottoman building. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will TravelLicense this image at:DirectlyAlamyISTANBUL, Turkey — Weathered Iznik tile panels on the exterior of the Rustem Pasha Mosque display tulips, carnations and rosettes in cobalt blue, turquoise and coral red. Mimar Sinan lined the mosque, completed for Grand Vizier Rustem Pasha around 1561-1563, with more than 80 distinct tile patterns, the densest such program of any Ottoman building. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will TravelLicense this image at:DirectlyAlamyISTANBUL, Turkey — A wide view of the Rustem Pasha Mosque’s prayer hall shows visitors gathered near the mihrab beneath the tiled central dome and its ring of stained-glass windows. Built around 1561-1563 by Mimar Sinan, the octagonal interior rests on eight piers — four free-standing, four engaged in the walls — a baldachin scheme he later perfected at the Selimiye in Edirne. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will TravelLicense this image at:DirectlyAlamyISTANBUL, Turkey — Rows of shoes fill a market stall seen through the iron grillwork of a stairway leading up to the Rustem Pasha Mosque in the Tahtakale quarter. The mosque, designed by Mimar Sinan and completed around 1561-1563, sits on a raised platform above vaulted shops whose rents historically funded its upkeep, a common Ottoman endowment arrangement. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will TravelLicense this image at:DirectlyAlamyISTANBUL, Turkey — A circular Iznik tile medallion of Arabic calligraphy set into an exterior wall of the Rustem Pasha Mosque. Such roundels recur throughout the building’s decorative scheme; pendentive medallions inside name God, Muhammad and the first four caliphs, while porch spandrel roundels can be read from the street. Mimar Sinan completed the mosque roughly 1561-1563 for Grand Vizier Rustem Pasha. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will TravelLicense this image at:DirectlyAlamyISTANBUL, Turkey — Visitors sit cross-legged on the red carpet of the Rustem Pasha Mosque’s prayer hall, listening to a guide beneath the tiled central dome. Designed by Mimar Sinan and completed around 1561-1563 for Grand Vizier Rüstem Pasha, the mosque holds the most extensive Iznik tile revetment of any Ottoman building, with more than eighty distinct patterns covering its walls and piers. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will TravelLicense this image at:DirectlyAlamyISTANBUL, Turkey — Another view along the Rustem Pasha Mosque’s tiled entrance cloister shows a man standing at prayer beside walls sheathed in blue-and-white Iznik ceramic. Completed around 1561-1563 under Mimar Sinan for Grand Vizier Rüstem Pasha, the porch tilework belongs to a decorative program of more than eighty distinct patterns, the densest of any Ottoman mosque. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will TravelLicense this image at:DirectlyAlamyISTANBUL, Turkey — A close-up view of the painted medallion at the apex of the Rustem Pasha Mosque’s dome reveals calligraphy and floral ornament suspended above wires strung for hanging lamps. Painted around the time of the mosque’s construction under Mimar Sinan, the roundel forms part of a decorative program that elsewhere names God, Muhammad, and the first four caliphs in tiled pendentives below. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will TravelLicense this image at:DirectlyAlamyISTANBUL, Turkey — Painted arches and Iznik-tiled walls frame the entrance dome of the Rustem Pasha Mosque, where a gilded calligraphic panel crowns the tiled doorway below. Mimar Sinan completed the structure around 1561-1563 for Rustem Pasha, twice grand vizier under Suleyman I, incorporating more than 80 distinct tile patterns into a single porch alone. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will TravelLicense this image at:DirectlyAlamyISTANBUL, Turkey — Visitors photograph the tile-lined prayer hall of the Rustem Pasha Mosque, where blue-and-white Iznik panels rise floor to ceiling around an octagonal, eight-pier interior. Completed around 1561-1563, this was Mimar Sinan’s first use of the octagonal baldachin plan he later perfected at the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will TravelLicense this image at:DirectlyAlamyISTANBUL, Turkey — Chandeliers hang low beneath the painted and tiled dome of the Rustem Pasha Mosque, its calligraphic medallion ringed by a band of arched windows. Designed by Mimar Sinan and completed around 1561-1563, the dome spans roughly 50 feet (15.2 m) and is described by Istanbul’s heritage inventory as the largest Sinan built for any grand vizier in the capital. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will TravelLicense this image at:DirectlyAlamyISTANBUL, Turkey — The tiled entrance porch of the Rustem Pasha Mosque frames a lone worshipper kneeling on a prayer rug beneath a painted dome and hanging chandelier. Completed around 1561-1563 by Mimar Sinan, this porch tilework forms the most public-facing section of a decorative program using more than eighty distinct Iznik patterns, a style pioneered here for grand-vizierial foundations. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will TravelLicense this image at:DirectlyAlamyISTANBUL, Turkey — A wide-angle view captures the painted dome and tiled arches of the Rustem Pasha Mosque’s prayer hall, where a central sunburst medallion crowns the octagonal ceiling above a ring of hanging lamps. The dome spans roughly 50 feet (15.2 m), among the largest Mimar Sinan built for a grand vizier in the Ottoman capital. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will TravelLicense this image at:DirectlyAlamyISTANBUL, Turkey — A close view of exterior Iznik tilework at the Rustem Pasha Mosque shows the tulip, carnation and saz-leaf motifs that make its ceramic program the most extensive in any Ottoman building. The panels, dating to roughly 1561-1563, combine cobalt blue and turquoise with the raised “sealing-wax” Armenian bole red, a pigment whose exact formula was later lost. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will TravelLicense this image at:DirectlyAlamy
Where is it?
Located in the Hasırcılar neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey
Nearest airport: Istanbul Airport (IST)
Nearest public transport hub: Eminönü Tram Station (T1 Line)
Hasırcılar Cd. Rüstem Paşa Cami No:62, 34116 Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey
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