Yeni Camii (New Mosque)

The 17th-century Yeni Camii, located on the Golden Horn waterfront in Istanbul, features 66 domes and took 66 years to complete under two Queen Mothers. Construction began in 1597 under Safiye Sultan but was abandoned in 1603 after Sultan Mehmed III died. Turhan Hatice Sultan revived and completed the mosque complex in 1663, adding the nearby Spice Bazaar.

Istanbul · from the walk “Sultans, Spices & Hidden Streets” · audio ~3 min · Generated

Yeni Camii, Eminönü, Fatih, İstanbul

Why did construction of the Yeni Camii in Istanbul take 66 years to complete?

Look at this grand mosque rising before you at the edge of the Golden Horn. The Yeni Jami... the "New" Mosque. But how can a building from the sixteen hundreds still be called "new"? Well, that name is just a hint at one of the most dramatic construction stories in all of Ottoman history.......... It begins in fifteen ninety-seven, when a woman of extraordinary power decided to leave her mark on this city. Safiye Sultan, most likely of Albanian origin from the Dukagjin Highlands, was captured as a young girl and brought into the Ottoman harem. She rose to become the most influential woman in the empire. She maintained a vast intelligence network and even corresponded diplomatically with Queen Elizabeth the First of England. Elizabeth sent her a golden coach, and Safiye rode it through the streets of Istanbul... causing an absolute scandal at court.......... Now, Safiye chose This spot for her grand mosque. Eminönü was the city's foremost commercial center, home to a predominantly Jewish population. Building here was a bold political statement. The Janissaries resented the growing power of the Queen Mother and believed the mosque was an unnecessary expense.......... And then came the engineering nightmare. In August of fifteen ninety-seven, at the foundation ceremony... wherever they dug, water poured out. Workers battled the seepage with pumps and mill wheels. Stone blocks had to be shipped all the way from the island of Rhodes.......... The original architect was Davut Aga, an apprentice of the legendary Mimar Sinan. But Davut died in fifteen ninety-nine and was replaced by Dalgiç Ahmed Çavuş. Then in sixteen oh three... Sultan Mehmed the Third died. Safiye lost her title as Queen Mother overnight. She was sent away to the Old Palace, and the half-built mosque was simply... abandoned.......... For Fifty-Seven years, this skeleton of a building stood here rotting above the waterfront. Then came the Great Fire of sixteen sixty, which started on July twenty-fourth and burned for roughly forty-nine hours, according to the chronicles of Abdi Pasha, destroying entire neighborhoods.......... And here is where fate intervenes! Turhan Hatice Sultan, the mother of Sultan Mehmed the Fourth, was touring the devastated city when she saw the ruins of the unfinished mosque and resolved to complete it. Turhan herself had a remarkable origin. She was rumored to be of Russian birth, captured at age twelve by Crimean Tatars. Now she was one of the most powerful women in Ottoman history, and she poured her resources into finishing what Safiye had started.......... The head architect Mustafa Aga used the original plans, and the mosque was completed in just three years. On February eighth, sixteen sixty-three, it was ceremonially opened for worship. Turhan also ordered the construction of the nearby Spice Bazaar, which became part of the mosque complex.......... Now look up. The exterior boasts sixty-six domes and semi-domes in a pyramidal arrangement. Sixty-six domes... for sixty-six years of construction. A perfect coincidence... or perhaps the architects had a sense of poetry.......... Two women, separated by more than half a century, both former slaves who rose to rule an empire, joined forever in the stones of this mosque. That is the story of the Yeni Jami.

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