LUCIENNE THYS-SENOCAK

THE YENI VALIDE COMPLEX AT EMINONU

The Yeni Valide Mosque complex in Eminonii, Istan• after the 's death in 1603. The succession of bul, was a major imperial Ottoman architectural pro• (r. 1603-17) to the Ottoman sultanate ject whose construct ion spanned both the sixteenth marked the end of Safiye Sultan's tenure as queen and seventeenth centuries (fig. 1). Built by two pow• mother, or valide sultan; she was moved from the erful dynastic women, the mothers ofMehmed III and to the Old Palace to be replaced by a new valide, Kosem Mehmed IV, and designed by three or possibly four Sultan. When she died the Yeni Valide project was royal architects, the mosque complex was among the abandoned, and what had been built of the mosque's largest built in in the post-classical era. Con• foundations was left untouched for fifty-seven years. struction of the foundations began in 1597 under the The building site, which had been expropriated at auspices of Safiye Sultan (fig. 2), the mother of great cost from a largely non-Muslim community, was Mehmed III (r. 1595-1603), but was abandoned shortly repopulated by minorities involved in the commercial

Fig. l. The Yeni Valide Mosque complex from the Galata Bridge. Photo by Sebah andjoaillier, 1890. (Photo: courtesy German Archaeological Institute, Istanbul) THE YENI VALIDE MOSQUE COMPLEX AT EMINONU 59

Fig. 3. Portrait of Hatice . Attributed to Paul Rycaut, consul in Smyrna, 1660-67. (Photo: from Mufassal Osmanlz tarihi[lstanbul, 1960], 4:2015)

mothers remained in the Topkapi Palace rather than move to the provincial territories of the empire as they had done in earlier times. Until the mid-sixteenth century, the major architectural endeavors of impe• Fig. 2. Portrait of Safiye Sultan, mother of Sultan Mehmed rial women had been realized outside the capital as III. Artist and date unknown. the mothers of potential heirs to the sultanate, ser• ving as the protectors and advisers to their sons, held court with them in the provinces. In the royal house• area adjacent to the customs depots of Eminonu.1 hold of the provinces it was the mother of the prince, Shortly after a conflagration in 1660 devastated the as the eldest member of the court, who took over the section of the city from Unkapam to Eminonu, the role of patron of public construction. As the locus of imperial family once more became interested in the princely residences shifted increasingly to the center Yeni Cami project. The Ottoman chronicler Silahdar of the empire, however, imperial women responded informs us that at the suggestion of the head impe• by building pious works in Istanbul rather than in the rial architect, Mustafa Aga, the mother of Mehmed IV, provinces. 3 Valide Hatice Turban (fig. 3), decided to re-ex• Both valide patronesses of the Yeni Cami complex, propriate the property and resume construction.2 by choosing to build a major public work in the capi• Under her patronage, the mosque was completed in tal of the empire, continued a pattern of patronage 1663 and inaugurated in 1665 along with its depen• by imperial women that had been initiated in the dencies: a royal pavilion (hunkar kasn) , a tomb (tUr• sixteenth century by Suleyman's wife, Haseki Hurrem. be) for herself, a building for water distribution (sebil• By locating her foundation in the political center of hane), a primary school (sibyan mektebi), and a market the empire and announcing her patronage in the (~ar}z). foundation inscription of the Eminonu mosque, Ha• Recent research on patronage by women of the tice Turban linked herself to earlier Ottoman women imperial family in the has shown that patrons who had sponsored pious monuments in the by the later years of Suleyman 's reign the court had Ottoman capital and in a very concrete way took up become more sedentary as Ottoman princes and their the legacy left by her valide predecessor.4