FATIH MASJID
Fatih Masjid, the first walled mosque built by Fatih Sultan Mehmed after his conquest of Istanbul, is witnessing history with its surviving minaret.
The siege of Istanbul, which started on April 6, 1453, by the army under the command of the Ottoman Ruler, Fatih Sultan Mehmed, ended with the conquest of Istanbul on May 29, 1453. During this siege, the first signs of the conquest were the mosques built inside the fortresses. These were places where guards camped with their families and where soldiers gathered to pray.
One of these mosques inside the fortress is Fatih Masjid, which was built by Fatih Sultan Mehmed Han in the courtyard of Yedikule Fortress.
The masjid, located on the left of the road leading to the Golden Gate from the gate of Yedikule Fortress opening to the city, extends parallel to the road. It is a simple building with a rectangular plan, covered with tiles, and carelessly built. On the right side of the building, which is in the type of a neighborhood mosque that expands in width, there is a simple minaret covered with lead, with a cone, and a building adjacent to the mosque wall and a fountain basin. Sources mention that in the courtyard surrounded by this small mosque, there is the house of the Fortress landlord, the buildings of foreign prisoners and the buildings of the guards, and the grave of Deli Hüseyin Pasha, who was executed in 1660.
The masjid, which was built together with the fortress during the reign of Sultan Fatih, was affiliated to the Hagia Sophia Foundation. The building, which survived until 1905, was demolished in the following period. Izzet Kumbaracılar, the director of Topkapi Palace at that time, made an excavation in the fortress, and in 1936 he mentioned this excavation in his publication in 1873 in the Turkish-Russian war, the mosque was first used as a firecracker factory and then as a warehouse of goods. Only a part of the minaret of the masjid could reach today. A school was built next to the masjid by Haci Beşir Agha, the Chief Harem Eunuch.
No trace of Beşir Agha’s school remains present day. Fatih Masjid is stated to be the first masjid built within the city wall.
Although the minaret, which was renovated in the 1940s, and the fountain at the bottom, which was on the verge of extinction, were taken under protection, there is no trace of their former state.
In a photograph found in the manuscript of Piri Reis’s book, it is seen that this masjid is a double-sloping, roofed building.
Istanbul Cultural Historian Semavi Eyice, based on old Istanbul photographs, says the following about the masjid and its surroundings; “The masjid at the end of the road leading to the Old Golden Gate is parallel to the road.” It is a modest building with a rectangular structure, covered with tiles. On the right side of the building, there is a simple minaret with a lead-covered cone and a building adjacent to the masjid wall and a fountain. The roof in question is made of wood and is covered with Marseille tiles. The minaret on the left is also made of brick, and the building is alternately braided.”
Fatih Masjid, which was a witness of the 5th century from its construction until its destruction, still hosts Istanbul with its standing minaret and opens its door to those who appreciate its value. Just try to estimate that the masjid in the middle of Yedikule encountered how many sultans, prisoners, booty, soldiers and legends? Who knows what dreams and timbres deafened the skies of Yedikule, while the sounds of prayer coming from Fatih Masjid on the one hand, and the cries of the souls of the legendary prisoners on the other, were rising?
I imagine a world in the sound of the call to prayer / A world: far beyond the beyond. (Mehmet Demirci)
