Hi, today I am going to tell you about Kılıç Ali Paşa Mosque
So let us get started.
Kılıc Ali Pasa Mosque was made in 1580, the mosque was requested from Kaptan-ı Derya Kılıç Ali to Mimar Sinan in İstanbul’s Tophane district. In the second book in the mosque, it says that the mosque was started to build in 1850. With the half-domes on both sides of the dome, arches and support walls on the other two sides, the mosque is a small-scale type of the Hagia Sophia. There was a big restoration in 2011, and in 2015 one restored a part and one did another.
There is a rumor that the story of this mosque, which is located in Tophane Square and was built by Mimar Sinan for the Kaptan-ı Derya Kılıç Ali Pasa in 1581.
Buuuuuut! There is more! Did you know that Cervantes worked in the process of the build? What!! Why was Cervantes in Turkey? In 1575, he escaped to Italy from Spain, because he committed a crime. He lost one arm in war between the Ottoman Empire and Italy. He was taken to “North Africa” after being captured in Italy by the Ottoman Empire. After that, he worked in the Kılıç Ali Paşa Mosque’s building process as a worker. (According to Sunay Akın’s book, “Ay Hırsızı” (means Moon Thief)
Notes: My family’s office is in Karaköy, so we usually see the mosque on the way. My dad told me this story above about Cervantes, while we were passing by this mosque. Which he listened from Sunay Akın.
And I found this story out in the book that I told you earlier. But, there are some historians like Emrah Safa Gürkan who say that, they don’t agree to this. BTW, Cervantes was released in 1580. When he came back to Spain, he wrote Don Quixote.
Here are some pictures of the mosque
