Sultan Ahmed Mosque: A Brief History of the Blue Mosque

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is an imperial mosque in Istanbul and an icon of Ottoman architecture. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, this Turkish mosque—which attracts visiting tourists and practicing Muslims alike—features blue tiles on the interior walls, earning the Sultan Ahmed Mosque a colorful nickname: the Blue Mosque.

Architect Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa designed the mosque for Sultan Ahmed I, and construction lasted from 1609 to 1616. The mosque’s külliye (complex) is home to Sultan Ahmed I’s tomb, a hospice, and a madrasah, an Islamic educational institution. The area on which the Blue Mosque is located is known as Sultanahmet Square.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque was built between 1609 and 1616 during the reign of the mosque’s namesake, Ottomon Sultan Ahmed I.

• Ottomis-Safavid War: The mosque was built in the seventeenth century in response to the Ottoman Empire’s loss in the Ottomis-Safavid War (1603–1618). Sultan Ahmed I wanted to reinvigorate the empire with a stunning architectural feat that cemented Ottoman ingenuity and power. The mosque was given a place of honor in the Hippodrome of Constantinople, a public square in Istanbul.
• Treasury funds: The construction was pricey and controversial; such edifices were normally paid for with war bounty, but given his loss in the war, Sultan Ahmed I paid for it using funds from the treasury.
• Imperial mosque: Constructed on the location of Byzantine emperors’ palaces, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque quickly became the principal imperial mosque.
• Tourism: Known in Turkish as the Sultan Ahmet Camii, this mosque operates as a functioning place of worship. World leaders and Muslims from across the globe frequent the mosque. The nearby location of the Grand Bazaar—one of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world within walking distance of the Blue Mosque—also makes this mosque one of Turkey’s most frequented tourist attractions.

The architecture of Ottoman mosques had been evolving for centuries before the construction of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. As such, the Blue Mosque combines two distinct styles: traditional Islamic architecture and also Byzantine architecture.

The Blue Mosque sits next to the Hagia Sophia, another Turkish landmark, and the main mosque of Istanbul until the Sultan Ahmed Mosque was completed. Many elements of the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia—domes and minarets—are echoed in the Blue Mosque, which historians consider the last great mosque of Ottoman architecture’s classical period. In creating the mosque, architect Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa weaved in the teachings of his mentor Sinan: grandeur, scale, and the creation of a palace worthy of Allah.

The architectural details of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque make it one of Turkey’s most beautiful mosques:

1. 1. Blue tiles: The mosque’s interior features about 20,000 hand-painted blue tiles in the Iznik pottery style. These Iznik tiles feature 60 unique tulip patterns. Light pours in through 260 stained glass windows. The mihrab indicates the direction of Mecca.
2. 2. Six minarets: Three sky-high minarets stand in a parallel line to the left of the mosque, and three stand to its right. The Blue Mosque is one of only five mosques in Turkey that boasts six minarets. The minarets rise to 210 feet, and each has either two or three balconies. A prayer caller would ascend the narrow, spiral staircase five times a day to announce prayer time from these balconies.
3. 3. Domes: The Sultan Ahmed Mosque has a central dome surrounded by four other main domes and eight secondary domes. The central dome—standing at 141 feet—has 28 windows, and the semi-domes have 14.

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