Following İznik Tiles from Palace to Neighbourhood Mosque

Start the day at the Tiled Kiosk in the garden of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, because to understand the 16th-century peak of İznik tiles you first need to see what came before. According to the ministry's museum page, the kiosk is the oldest building in the museum complex. The tile inscription over the entrance dates it to 1472, when Mehmed the Conqueror had it built in the outer garden of Topkapı Palace.

According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the two-storey stone building has a cross-shaped plan with four iwans opening onto a central hall, continuing a tradition that came from Central Asian Turkish architecture to Anatolia by way of Iran. Look closely at the great arch of the entrance. The facade and interior are clad in turquoise and cobalt tiles in the mosaic technique. The Kufic inscription in white tiles on the arch repeats a phrase expressing trust in the Creator. Inside, the rooms have hexagonal tiles, some with gilded patterns. Keep these surfaces in mind to compare them with the underglaze tiles you will see later.

After a fire in 1737 a columned portico was added in front of the kiosk. The building later became a museum, and today, as part of the Archaeology Museums, it displays the collection of Turkish tiles and ceramics. The İznik pieces in the cases let you study at eye level the kind of tiles that sit high on mosque walls. Take your time with the colours, the gloss of the glaze and the brushwork.

According to the ministry's page the museum is open every day and the Museum Card is valid. Check current hours and tickets on the official website.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı müze sayfası.

A few minutes' walk from the museums brings you to the entrance of Topkapı Palace. On this route, visit the palace not as a whole but in search of its tiles, and spend most of your time in the fourth courtyard, which looks over the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara.

Go first to the Circumcision Room. This small building, put up around 1640 under Sultan İbrahim, was used for the circumcision ceremonies of princes. The five large arched tile panels on its facade date from the 1520s and 1530s; according to Wikipedia they were first made for Süleyman the Magnificent's new kiosk and later placed here. They show curling saz leaves, lotus palmettes, rosettes, birds and the mythical animals known as qilin. Look closely at these blue-and-white surfaces from before the arrival of red; the fineness of the drawing shows where the later colourful period drew from. Earlier blue-and-white panels with geometric patterns frame the entrance, and inside are tiles from the 15th to the 17th centuries.

Right next door, the Baghdad Kiosk was built by Murad IV after his Baghdad campaign of 1638 and completed in 1639. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, pointed-arched iwans open on four sides of an octagonal central space. The coloured stone cladding and the İznik tiles with pomegranate and artichoke-leaf motifs on the exterior are, in the encyclopedia's words, among the last fine examples of classical-period tile art. Inside, look at the gilded fireplace hood and the inscribed tile bands with bird motifs.

Check current opening days, hours and tickets through official channels. Arriving early in the morning, before the fourth courtyard gets crowded, is a good idea.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi (Bağdat Köşkü); Wikipedia (Sünnet Odası).

Leave the palace and walk down the slopes south of Sultanahmet to Kadırga; it takes about twenty minutes. Built by Mimar Sinan for the grand vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha and his wife İsmihan Sultan, daughter of Selim II, the mosque was completed in 1571-72 according to its inscription. The building stands on a steep slope, and Sinan dealt with the gradient through a two-storey courtyard with shops below and madrasa rooms above.

The mosque has a hexagon set within a rectangle. Six supports carry a dome 13 metres across, with four small half-domes in the corners. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam calls it the most flawless application of the six-support system tried since the Üç Şerefeli Mosque in Edirne.

Once inside, your eye goes first to the qibla wall. The surfaces between the wall piers, the pendentives and some window areas are covered in high-quality underglaze İznik tiles. Blue, red and green floral designs combine with panels of white thuluth script on a deep blue ground. Notice that the conical cap of the marble minbar is also sheathed in tiles. Sources state that fragments of stone brought from the Kaaba are set above the main door, the minbar and the mihrab. According to the TDV, scholars regard the harmony between decoration and space here as exceptional in Ottoman architecture.

Come outside prayer times and take off your shoes. Women should cover their hair, and shoulders and knees should be covered. Do not touch the tiles, use no flash and keep quiet. Afterwards, walk to the nearest T1 stop and take the tram west towards the Topkapı stop.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Wikipedia (Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque, Kadırga).

Get off the T1 tram at the Topkapı stop and go outside the walls. The small complex beside the Topkapı cemetery shows late 16th-century tiles on the scale of a neighbourhood mosque. The mosque was built in 1592. Besides the mosque, the complex has a well, two sebils, a graveyard, a building thought to have been a primary school, and a fountain added by Derviş Mehmed Pasha in 1819. The earliest building is the sebil of 1578.

Little is known about its founder, Takkeci İbrahim Ağa. According to a legend, after a dream he travelled all the way to Baghdad and on his return found gold in the cellar of his house, with which he built the mosque. The tile panel with grapes inside is said to refer to this dream.

The four walls of the prayer hall are tiled from the skirting up to the level below the upper windows. Most of the tiles form eleven rectangular panels framed by borders. Alongside green, blue, navy and white you will see the coral red first used at the Süleymaniye. The tiles resemble those of the Rüstem Pasha, Piyale Pasha and Sokollu mosques in technique and design. Missing tiles from one of two symmetrical panels have been identified in the Gulbenkian collection in Lisbon. Look also at the tiled mihrab, the coloured glass windows, the marble minbar and the original interlocking wooden door. The building was repaired under Mahmud II and thoroughly restored in 2005.

As a small neighbourhood mosque it may not be open at all hours; arriving near prayer times helps, but do not walk around during prayers. Take off your shoes, cover your head and keep quiet.

Source: Wikipedia (Takkeci İbrahim Ağa Külliyesi); Kültür Envanteri.

Take the T1 tram back from Topkapı to Eminönü and walk to the Hasırcılar market in Tahtakale. The Rüstem Pasha Mosque stands on a high terrace in the middle of the market. Built by Mimar Sinan for Rüstem Pasha, Süleyman the Magnificent's son-in-law and grand vizier, it was completed in the early 1560s. The rents from the vaulted shops beneath were meant to cover the costs of the foundation, and narrow stairs in the corners lead up to the courtyard.

According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the mosque is the first example of Sinan's eight-support central dome scheme and holds an important place in the development of his plans. But at this stop the real subject is tiles. According to the encyclopedia, the interior walls and architectural elements are covered in the most advanced İznik tiles of the period in design and technique. English-language sources speak of about 2,300 tiles in some 80 different patterns inside and out.

Start in the portico. The tile panel south of the entrance door, with its interpretation of nature, is according to the TDV among the finest examples of classical tile decoration. Inside, follow how the patterns change from wall to wall; among the rosebuds and lotus palmettes, look for the red that was then new at İznik. After the blue-and-white surfaces of the first stops, it shows how the palette widened.

Being in the middle of the market, the mosque is busy all day. Come outside prayer times, take off your shoes, women should cover their hair, and cover shoulders and knees. Do not touch the tiles and use no flash. Afterwards take a bus or taxi from Eminönü to Kasımpaşa.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Wikipedia (Rüstem Pasha Mosque).

The last stop stands on the north side of the Golden Horn, in Kasımpaşa, in a valley that, according to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, lay outside the settled area until the mid-20th century. The mosque built by the grand admiral Piyale Pasha was completed in 1573; it is also known as the Tersane (Shipyard) Mosque. Wikipedia names Mimar Sinan as the architect, while the TDV names no architect. Of the original complex, with its madrasa, lodge, school, fountain, market and bathhouse, only the mosque and tomb survive.

Unlike Sinan's usual single-dome mosques, the prayer hall is covered by six equal domes about 9 metres across, in two rows of three, and is surrounded by two-storey side galleries. The minaret rises not at a corner but in the middle of the entrance front, on the same axis as the mihrab; it was rebuilt in the mid-19th century.

For the tiles, look first at the mihrab. According to the TDV, it sits within two frames, the hood of its half-octagonal niche is filled with tiled muqarnas, and it is surrounded by İznik tiles with floral compositions. Then raise your eyes to the upper walls. The band of white monumental thuluth on a deep blue ground that runs without a break along the west, south and north walls is the work of Hasan Çelebi, pupil and spiritual son of Ahmed Şemseddin Karahisari. Piyale Pasha and members of his family lie in the octagonal tomb near the mihrab.

Come outside prayer times, take off your shoes, women should cover their hair, and keep quiet. The route ends here, with the script and colour first seen at the Tiled Kiosk now in their mature 16th-century form.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Wikipedia (Piyale Paşa Camii; Piyale Pasha Mosque).