Koca Mustafa Pasha Mosque

About Koca Mustafa Pasha Mosque

Koca Mustafa Pasha was an Ottoman statesman. He was grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1511 to 1512. He was Roman (Rum) and probably not a devşirme.

The Koca Mustafa Pasha Mosque, also known as the Sunbul Efendi Mosque, is a former Eastern Orthodox church converted into a mosque by the Ottomans, in the Kocamustafapasa quarter in the south-west of Istanbul's historical peninsula. The site was a monastery of Saint Andrew the Apostle from the early fifth century; Saint Andrew of Crete was buried here in 766 and the church was rededicated to him, and it was rebuilt in the late ninth century and again in the thirteenth. Despite heavy alteration it is one of the few surviving churches in Istanbul whose foundation goes back to the sixth century. The grand vizier Koca Mustafa Pasha converted it into a mosque around 1490 in the reign of Sultan Bayezid II, adding a minaret, a madrasa and a dervish lodge. From the sixteenth century it became the centre of a Khalwati Sufi order under Sheikh Sunbul Efendi, who is buried in the courtyard; his tomb is still a much-loved shrine, and other tombs and shrines fill the courtyard. A popular legend tells of a chain hung from a cypress tree in the courtyard that was swung between quarrelling witnesses and struck the one telling the truth; the cypress stump still stands. The mosque is busy with worshippers today, and its broad courtyard with trees and fountain is one of the quietest corners of Fatih; a visit reveals Byzantine, Ottoman and Sufi layers of history in a single building.

Where:

Istanbul, Türkiye