Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City (32 page)

As can be seen even from this necessarily inadequate description, the whole complex of the
Ş
ehzade is a triumph, and every one of its component parts has a brilliance and an interest of its own.

Turning back towards the main street we find on the left opposite the türbe garden a very pretty medrese, with a grand sebil at the corner. Built by the Grand Vezir Nev
ş
ehirli Ibrahim Pa
ş
a, son-in-law
(damat)
of Ahmet III, it is dated by its inscription to A.H. 1132 (A.D. 1720) and thus comes just between the end of the classical period and the beginning of the baroque; it has pleasing characteristics of both. At the end of the façade stands a large domed chamber surrounded by an attractive raised portico; the entrance portal is in the centre between them. The chamber to the left served as the library; that to the right was the dershane of the Dar-ül Hadis or School of Tradition, which is what the medrese was. Later the dershane was turned into a mescit, or small mosque, by the addition of a minaret. The far sides of the courtyard are partly lined with porticoes with cells beyond them, but these are irregularly placed after the baroque fashion. The building is in good condition and part of it is now used as a clinic. Outside, at the corner, is an extremely handsome sebil, a favourite with painters and etchers; it was still in use as a fountain up until recent years, but now it is closed. Behind this is a pretty graveyard in which is buried the founder of this fine little külliye. Ibrahim Pa
ş
a served as Grand Vezir under Ahmet III from 1718 till 1730, during the golden years of the Tulip Period. That delightful epoch ended on 20 September 1730, when the Tulip King was deposed and his chief minister, Ibrahim Pa
ş
a, was strangled by the Janissaries.

We now walk back down Dede Efendi Caddesi, passing on our right the medrese of Ibrahim Pa
ş
a and the mektep and imaret of the
Ş
ehzade külliyesi. On our left we see the Vefa Lisesi, built by the architect Kemalettin Bey in the 1920s. In its precincts are two ancient buildings, one of which, the
Ş
ehzade tabhane, we have already described. The other is the library of Damat
Ş
ehit Ali Pa
ş
a, built early in the eighteenth century. The founder, Ali Pa
ş
a, was called Damat (son-in-law) because he married Fatma Sultan, daughter of Ahmet III, and
Ş
ehit (martyr) because he was killed in the battle of Peterwaredin in 1716. Fatma did not grieve long for Ali, for a few weeks after she heard of his death she married Nev
ş
ehirli Ibrahim Pa
ş
a, whose külliye we have just seen down the street. Ali Pa
ş
a’s library is raised on a high substructure and approached by a long flight of steps; it consists of only two rooms, the larger of which is domed. It is not in use at present.

At the next corner we turn left on Kovac
ı
lar Caddesi and immediately on our right we see another ancient Ottoman building. This is the handsome medrese built some time before his death in 1618 by Ekmekçizade Ahmet Pa
ş
a, son of an Edirne baker, who rose to the rank of Defterdar (First Lord of the Treasury) and Vezir, and died one of the richest men in the Empire. Until a few years ago the medrese was a ruin, inhabited by gypsies, but now it has been partially restored. Those who like variations on a theme will be pleased to note some anomalies: the right side of the court is occupied by the usual dershane, next to which, however, is a türbe of the same size, making the courtyard a bit lopsided. Both still preserve remnants of a rather good painted decoration in domes and pendentives, a rich red with deep green meander patterns. Even in its half-restored condition this is an interesting monument and well worth a visit.

PRIMARY SCHOOL OF RECA
İ
MEHMET EFEND
İ

We continue in the same direction along Kovac
ı
lar Caddesi past the next intersection and on our left we see a half-ruined Ottoman building. This is the sibyan mektebi, or primary school, of Recai Mehmet Efendi, First Lord of the Treasury and Keeper of the Seal under Abdül Hamit I. The upper floor is built of alternate courses of brick and stone, but the entire ground floor is sheathed in an elaborately decorated marble casing. In the centre is the projecting curve of the sebil with three fine bronze grilles between the columns; on the left is the ornate entrance portal, while balancing this on the right is a çe
ş
me. A long decorative inscription over the sebil gives the date of foundation as A.H. 1189 (A.D. 1775). Unfortunately, the level of the ground has risen considerably since then and this imposing façade has been somewhat swamped and belittled by it. But in spite of this and the poor condition of the fabric, it remains one of the more elaborate and charming of the small Ottoman primary schools.

Returning to the last intersection, we now turn left onto Kâtip Vefa Caddesi. Immediately on our left we pass the famous Vefa Bozahanesi, where the stroller might want to stop for a refreshing glass of boza. (Boza is a drink made from millet, once a great favourite of the Janissaries.) Notice the silver cup in a glass case on the wall; it is preserved there because Atatürk once drank from it.

Just beyond the Vefa Bozahanesi is a little mosque called Mimar Mehmet A
ğ
a Camii. This was built in 1514 by Revani
Ş
ucca
ğ
Efendi who was
Sürre Emini
, or official escort, of the annual embassy to Mecca. It is a small square building of brick with a dome; it is of no great interest, but has a pretty fluted minaret. The mosque was well restored in 1960, a little too much perhaps.

A short way down the street we come to Vefa Camii, the small mosque from which the street and the district took their name. This is a brand new mosque erected on the site of the original Vefa Camii, built in the late fifteenth century. All that is left of the original mosque complex is the türbe of its founder,
Ş
eyh Muslihiddin Vefa, dated A.H. 896 (A.D. 1491). In years past
Ş
eyh Vefa was one of the most popular folk-saints in Istanbul, and even today a few old women occasionally come to pray at his türbe. (Officially there are no saints in Islam, but Istanbul abounds with the tombs and graves of holy men canonized only by the reverence accorded them by the pious poor of the city.) Although
Ş
eyh Vefa was one of the most renowned scholars of his time (we are told that he was well versed in all of the 70 sciences of Islam), he decided quite early in life that he would devote himself entirely to the welfare of the poor. He therefore expended his fortune to build a pious foundation which included a mosque, hamam, primary school, imaret and kervansaray, where the poor could be assured of food and shelter for as long as they were in need. All of these benefactions have now disappeared, although the pious poor of modern Stamboul still come to pay their reverence at
Ş
eyh Vefa’s tomb.

LIBRARY OF AT
İ
F EFEND
İ

Just beyond
Ş
eyh Vefa’s türbe, on the same side of the street, we come to the library of Atif Efendi. Of all the Ottoman public libraries in the city this is the most charming and original. Built in 1741–2 and constructed of stone and brick, it is baroque and consists of two parts, a block of houses for the library staff and the library itself. The former faces the street and its upper storey projects
en cremaillère
, that is in five zigzags supported on corbels. Three small doors lead to the lodgings while a large gate in the middle opens into a courtyard or garden, on the other side of which stands the library. This consists of an entrance lobby, a room for book storage, and a large reading-room of astonishing shape. This oblong area, cradle-vaulted like the other rooms, is surrounded at one end by a series of five deep bays arranged like a fan. A triple arcade supported on two columns divides the two parts of the room; on the exterior this fan-like arrangement presents seven faces. Near the entrance to the reading-room the entire
vakfiye
, or deed of foundation, of the establishment is inscribed on a marble plaque. The library of Atif Efendi is altogether a fantastic and delightful building!

K
İ
L
İ
SE CAM
İİ
(CHURCH OF ST. THEODORE)

If we take the street just opposite the library entrance, Tirendaz Soka
ğ
ı
(the Street of the Archer), we come immediately to a little Byzantine church with a prettily fluted brick minaret. Converted into a mosque soon after the Conquest, it is called Kilise Camii, literally Church Mosque, a linguistic amalgamation of Christianity and Islam. It was identified by Gyllius as the Church of St. Theodore, but nothing is known of its history. The inner narthex and the church itself, which is of the four-column type, are to be dated some time between the tenth and twelfth century, when this type was predominant. But the most attractive part of the building is the outer narthex with its façade. Constructed of stone, brick and marble, its elaborate design and decoration proclaim it at once as belonging to the last great flowering of Byzantine architecture in the earlier fourteenth century. In the south dome of the outer narthex there were some fine late mosaics of the type of those at St. Saviour in Chora (Kariye Cami, see Chapter 14), but these have now almost vanished. The narthexes contain some handsome columns, capitals and door-frames which appear to be reused material from an earlier building probably of the sixth century. And if you climb up into the minaret you will see set into the parapet of the
ş
erefe the fine figure in low relief of a peacock, probably taken from a Byzantine fountain that is known to have stood nearby.