The Yeni Valide Mosque complex in Eminonu, Istanbul (1597-1665)

The Yeni Valide Mosque complex is a major imperial Ottoman architectural project spanning the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Built by two valides, or the mothers of two sultans, and designed by three and possibly four royal architects, the mosque complex is among the largest built in Istanbul during the post-classical era. Comprised of a mosque and several subsidiary structures--a tomb, market complex, royal pavilion, and school--the non symmetrical layout of the mosque and its dependencies has been described as arbitrary and devoid of an organizing agenda. Additionally, the allocation of this waterfront site to the valide sultans has been perceived as reflecting a discrimination against imperial women builders who were denied the choice properties in the capital for their foundations. Using contemporary archival sources, records of Ottoman chroniclers, accounts of European travelers and envoys, and the epigraphic program of the complex, my case study of the Yeni Valide Mosque complex reveals that in the siting of the project, there was a deliberate attempt to islamicize a lucrative commercial quarter of the city. Further, the layout of the various buildings is not arbitrary but relates directly to the location of the royal pavilion. From this private imperial retreat a privileged and controlling gaze affords visual access to the commercial activities of the waterfront marketplace, and the entrances to the various components of the complex. In the epigraphic program chosen for the mosque and the royal pavilion it is clear that the Eminonu building campaign was closely linked to the Ottoman wars with the Venetian and Hapsburgs. The private and public nature of the inscriptions reflects the political intentions of a royal Ottoman woman who exercised an extraordinary amount of power during this period of Ottoman history and announces the legitimacy of this power in her patronage of the Yeni Valide Mosque complex